THE Michigan Daily Edited and managed by Students at the University of Michigan Saturday, May 11, 1974 News Phone: 764-0552 upport or IXon s ouster a good omen THE FIRST GLIMMERINGS of my political awareness were glimmered during the 1968 presidential cam- paign. It was then, at the ripe old age of twelve, that I learned about Nixon's political history: about his red- baiting, about his dirty political tricks against Jerry Voorhis and Helen Gahagan Douglas. My reaction was, "He doesn't play fair." That he managed to snare the Presidency, and what he did with it, made me hate him. And when he won a second term after Viet Nam and Cambodia, my estimation of the American voter plunged to below ground level, McGovern's shortcomings notwith- standing. His shortcomings seemed microscopic compared with Nixon's. Now big name Senators and Representatives are re- commending that the President be impeached or resign. They don't do things like that unless they are confident that the folks back home won't decide to elect someone else to Congress next term in outrage. So if we can trust the judgement of members of Congress where their political lives are at stake, the- American people have begun to believe that Nixon may well be a crook. That Watergate has precipitated this belief indicates that the political dirty tricks are the most disturbing to most people. New revelations about Southeast Asia have had minimal impact. JAD THE NIXON VOTERS forgotten the man's pre- vious political misdeeds. did they not consider them misdeeds, or did thes think that he couldn't commit any more? Probably a n-mhination of the three. Were the Amerienn voters stunid in electing Nixon? More important than their past behavior is their present and future behavior. It is certainly good for American government that a substantial number of constituents support Nixon's ouster. I solemnly swear that these edited transcripts tell the truth, the whole truth and nothingbu the truth . .. as I choose to tel i.' Congessonalheaings or 3p f/ , i \ $ U ~ GORDON ATCHESON JEFF DAY CHERYT PILATE JUDY RUSKIN JEFF SORENSEN BARBARA CORNELL JANET HARSHMAN ANDREA LILLY .. ST 'HEN tERSH DAVID wITTING 'um ser S/a f PEIIECCA wARN Editor MARNIE HEY] ,kIItorial Direct String ,Stagy Arts Editor MARC FELDIMA MARKS AN(R A Business-,malla- -STEPHEN HERSH f . vER N or Night Editor .Night Editor Night Editor Night Editor .As't. Night Editor Ass't. Night Editor Ass't. Night Editor Ass't. Night Editor Ass't. Night Editor 4N NTE er ,. C ARE COGSDTIi Contributing Sport lEOtijEi IASTINx . S .... Executive Sport JOHN KAHLER .. Associate Sport ROCEP ROSSITER.. Maaiging Sport JOAN ADES .. ..Circulation KAREN LOPELAND Display EMILY ITiRN . . .... . Offi KATHY KELlER ..Off CASSiE ST 'CLAIR . ..CAssified TOM (;OTTLIETR . Phot( KAREN KASS-AUSKI.Phot THE JUNE S -Asrv I AS OR THE (EXPLETIVE DELETED)CHINESE, VE'RE GMNA SHOW THOSE (CHARACTERIZA'fON DELETED) WHERE TO GET OFF! ts Editor ts Editor ts Editor is Editor Manager Manager ice Ass't. 'rr As't. Manager tographer tographer By RICHARD FINEBERG A NEW, SAFER" nerve gas, which theUnit- ed States Army proposes to deploy around the world, has triggered major congressional hearings on U.S. chemical warfare programs and policies. Rep. Clmeent J. Zablocki, (D-Wisc.), who chairs the House National Security Policy and Scien- tific Developments subcommittee,^ says hearings set for May 1-14 will examine international agree- ments and current U.S. policies on chemical and biological warfare, as well as the need to retain a retaliatory chemical warfare cap- ability, including the newly developed binary nerve gas, In another expression of congressional con- cern, the House Armed Services Committee re- cently cut by approximately half the Pentagon's request for $6 million in development funds for the binary gas. UNLIKE PRESENTLY deployed chemical weapons, the binary gas consists of two separate non-lethal components which mix to form a lethal nerve gas only after the projectile has been launched toward its target. The Army believes the new gas will be safer to produce, ship and store - an important selling point, it light of a string of embarassing and poten- tially dangerous nerve gas accidents in the last decade. Testing of chemical weapons has been a headache for the Army since .1968, when an aerial nerve gas experiment at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah killed more than 4,000 sheep scattered across the desert south of Salt Lake City. The following year, Congress suspend- ed all open-air nerve gas tests not specifically approved by the Secretary of Defense and cleared with public health officials and local authorities. The Pentagon has not announced field-test plans for binary weapons, and informed sources be- lieve this reluctance reflects concern over the public outcry that would greet the resumption of open-air testing. Some observers believe the Pentagon may be considering deployment of the new nerve gas without the customary field trials, to avoid such a controversy. According to the Pentagon, converting t h e Army's 82" and 155 mm. artillery shells to bin- ary use, and destroying current stocks, will cost an initial $400 million. Other bina'ry weapons are slated to follow. SINCE 1969, WHEN President Nixon dis- avowed first strike use of lethal chemical wea- pons, the United States has spent $129.6 million on chemical warfare research. The nation cur- rently maintains a worldwide stockpile of nerve gas weapons as a deterrent-in-kind against a po- tential Soviet nerve gas attack, but some arms specialists question the need for this arsenal, Dr. Fred C. Ikle, director of the government's Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, believes that the threat of a U.S. nuclear response should be sufficient to dissuade the Soviet Union from launching a nerve gas attack. Ikle also feels that U.S. introduction of binary nerve gas weapons may complicate negotiations at the United Na- tions Conference of the Committee on Disarma- ment, which has been working on a chemical warfare ban since 1972. MILITARY ADOCATES of nerve gas as a deterrent maintain that chemicals reduce the' likelihood of all-out nuclear war by providing a less drastic alternative to conventional w a.r- fare. But arms experts like Dr. Herbert Scoville, Jr., a former high-ranking Defense Department and C.I.A. official, suggest the opposite may be frue: by interjecting chemical weapons be- tween conventional and nuclear war, says Sco- ville, "you are putting an intefmediate step in the escalation of warfare to weapons of mass destruction." Nerve gas, he suggests, may serve as a stepping stone, rather than' an alternative, to thermonuclear weapons. British chemist Julian Perry Robinson fears that recent U.S. developments in chemical war- fare technology will make nerve gas easier to use and that the reduced expense and hazard of binary technology might tempt smaller na- tions to acquire binaries as a "poor man's nuke", thus leading to a new proliferation of chemical -weapons. THE ZABLOCKI hearings will focus on a re- soluntion introduced in the House by Congress- man Wayne Owens (D-Utah) calling for a total re-evaluation of U.S. chemical warfare policies. The resolution, which has gathered some fifty co-sponsors, also calls for the Senate to con- sider #immediate ratification of the 1925 Geneva Prptocol, an international agreement which bans first use in combat of "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and all analogous . . . devices." President Nixon promised to submit the Pro- tocol to the Senate for ratification in November, 1969. When he finally did so eight months later, he added a controversial rider excluding riot- control gases and herbicides. In -March, 1971, after hearings on the Protocol, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman J. W. Fulbright asked the President to consider "whether the need to hold open the option to use tear gas and herbicides is indeed so great that it outweighs the long-term advantages to the United States of strengthening exising barriers agains chemical warfare". THE WHITE HOUSE has never responded to Fulbright's query and the United States re- mains the lone major power that has not acceded to the 1925 agreement. Richard Fineberg taught political science of the University of Alaska until 1971, when he resigned to devote his efforts to research and writing. Copywright, Pacific News Service, 1974.