THE Summer Daily Siimmr r dilionsof TH111E; M1ICIflGAN DAILY Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Tuesday, June 5, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552 Postpone U.S., SoV&v ieJt s um i THE UPCOMING summit between President Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev, scheduled for this month, is of ut- most importance for the improvement of future rela- tions between the U. S. and Russia. Yet, with the spec-E tre of Watergate hanging over the President, such a summit now seems untimely, and even at this late date, should be postponed. The nature of the U.S-Russian talks, dealing with such topics as further arms control and trade agreements, makes it necessary that the President is able to com- ."'.....'mand a high level of re- spect and support. Nixon currently has neither. In- b.deed, Nixon's powers have been considerably weaken- ed as a result of Watergatei revelations and heresay. This loss of power threat-4 ens to continue until the President can be ade- quately proven free of guilt in the Watergate conspir- acy, and present investiga- 6tions by the Senate and the J u s t i c e Department may very well take weeks or months to do so. LEONID BREZHNEV: In the meantime, Nixon Advantage over Nixon operates as a "lame duck" of sorts; his strength drained in both domestic and foreign affairs. In Con- gress, the tide has turned against the President and both houses are now willing to move against many of his questionable actions, such as the bombing of Cam- bodia. It was only last week that Nixon met with French President Pompidou in a summit which proved frus- trating to Nixon, as he left with no gains to speak of. Nixon, in looking ahead to the U.S. - Soviet sum- mit, is probably quite eager to be able to show some posi- tive results from his talks with Brezhnev, and he may even be tempted by a hardlined Brezhnev to pay a high- er price for gains which he needs so badly for his image. While the cold war has more-or-less ended, the United States and Russia still remain adversaries in many parts of the world. At a summit of this sort, the stakes are too high to play politics. WE THEREFORE urge that the June summit be post- poned, and rescheduled at a later date, in an at- mosphere more conducive to bargaining, for 'both sides. Nixon viewed as a tragic figure; Where is the support and pity? By JAMES WECHSLER BY MANY conventional literary standards, Richard Nixon should now be widely viewed as an authentically tragic figure. His fall from eminence occurred in the immediate aftermath of his great- st political triumph. His loneli- ness is underlined by the maneuv- ers of many former associates to salvage themselves; even those who still seem to be protecting him have begun to invite rumors of self- ierving deals. Beyond the immed- iate members of his family, it is hard to identify many companions to whom he can confidently turn for counsel and comfort. Some of his most audible detract- s rs can be found on the political right, where hedhad long found comfortable refuge if not intense fraternal warmth. Such journals as "Human Events" have made it plain that they are chiefly concern- ed about rescuing Spiro A g n e w from the stains of the spreading scandal. Agnew himself, while re- citing the rituals of fidelity, is pav- ing the way for future expression of shock and incredulity if his cau- tiously phrased statements of faith are confounded by total collapse Df the President's already shaken position. Meanwhile other Republican spokesmen are increasingly de- manding that the current inquiries get to the essence of the matter - Ithe President's role. Their com- ments, like Agnew's, are usually ac- companied by pious avowals of ex- pectation that he will be excul- pated. buththey too carefully em- phasize that the President's re- election campaign was run by this palace guard rather than by the true Republican organization. John Connally has remained submerged since he ralliedto the battered ship of state: he may be already eyeing the life-boats. THESE ARE circumstances in which one might anticipate a cer- tain wave of sympathy for the soli- tarv man whose troubles mount each hoir. Surely he should be evoking the gentler instincts of those traditionally drawn to under- dogs. But one detects no surge of such sentiment. Obviously Mr. Nixon retains some diehard fans in both the bleachers and some of the more expensive seats, and his des- perate resort to the "national se- curity" slogan may prove effective for a while in holding back mass defection. Rarely, however, does one read or hear a genuine lamentation about his personal decline. Perhaps worst of all, as William Buckley's National Review h as pointed out, are the signs that al- most anything he says in self-de- fense or counterattack will evoke "snickers" in a large sector of the American audience. Even if there were to be no further revela- tions - which is wholly implaus- ible - how can he revert to the law-and-order rhetoric and the af- firmation of simple moral virtues after what has already been dis- closed? How can any speechwriter compose a serious address for him that will not seem crowded w it h mirthful double meanings? AS ONE recites his infirmities, the question persists: why is there no truly tragic sense about h is predicament? Admittedly there were those whose distaste for him long ago reached such ir- rational dimensions that they were incapable of even acknowledging his steps toward detente with Pe- king. But there were many others - as thet1972 election showed - prepared to concede that he might win a secure place in history and dim, if not banish, the memory of earlier political venalities. Their ranks are thinned now, and dwindling daily, and the eyes of the disaffected are dry. Perhaps part of the reason is a feeling of being "had" by a man who, it turned out, had neither grown nor mellowed with success, and whose character suffers from graver flaws than the common imperfec- tions. For at least some, however, the deeper explanation may be a re- action to his coldly demonstrated absence of magnamity toward those in distress - especially when their adversity could be exploited for his own political advantage. The crudest example during the 1972 campaign and afterward was his brutal, repetitive assault on those he shrilly branded "desert- ers and cowards" - under which he included every man who had conscientiously resisted the Viet- nam war. Now, as the WatergatehSeven and the masterminds above them face a time of reckoning from which the President himself may not be im- RICHARD NIXON: Finding little to smile about. mone, he hasdiscovered a new merit in transgressions allegedly based on dedication to principle. But on his lips the words are late and hollow. POSSIBLY THE ultimate reason for his failure to inspire the com- passion for which Henry Kissinger has belatedly pleaded may be the unfinished nature of the drama. Even as so many portents suggests his final entrapment, he has al- ready shown his resolve to fight back with the most primitive wea- pons of patrioteering and slander; every tactic of desperation is im- aginable as long as he remains in office. That may be why, to so many, he will be an object of pity and even elicit manifestations of sorrow only when he no longer has access to power. James Wechsler is the editorial director for the New York Post. Copyright 1973, New York Post Corporation. I Letters to Financial aid criteria To The Daily: THE DEPARTMENT of Educa- tion has long held that a family has the main responsibility for the education of its children. They thus contend that financial aid for a student must be contingent on the respeotive parent's income. Even while the age of majority was twenty-one, those same regulations applied to those that were consid- ered adults. Now, more than ever, since the lowering of the age of majority to eighteen, this criteria should be reconsidered and abol- ished. The Daily The current definition of student need has made it almost impossi- ble for students from families with annual incomes of $10,000 or more to obtain anything but a fraction of what is available. This is not to undermine the necessity of finan- cial aid for those who do come from poor families, but instead to emphasize that parents are no longer legally responsible for their college children nor financing their education; thus the criteria to mea- sure a student's financial need should be changed. --Dale Patterson June 1 II)ThuSTR~fEE T ASK s 5UAYS, i E12 _ o N,/ "ASK BA'SK YOWe FAWh " IN.AS!'s T '9ALOP BSMFC alt?3 . 011-tU'? I I ASK HE ASS, IOTHhR. TH&6V' AY MU 6FIRST PRAC6 ?