4
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual
opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1972 News Phone: 764-0552
VielnamizatiOn: A flop
LITTLE HAS been said about Vietnamization recently.
Even before President Nixon went abroad, his an-
nounced solution to the Vietnam mess had been shown
-this time so just about everybody acknowledges it-to
be a flop.
Field reports leave it unsaid, but outside a few cities
and off the main highways, government by 'the Saigon
regime is all but nonexistent.
U.S. and South Vietnamese troops used to pull off
major "sweens" netting thousands of "enemy" soldiers
and agents. Now the ARVN forces rarely venture off the
main roads and are immobile, moving for the most part
by airlift.
Government communiques on the "besieged" city of
An Loc only hint at the vast area of land where the
only vestige of Saigon's authority is the rubble that once
was a city.
The relief column that started up Highway 13 for An
Loc weeks ago is stalled, relying on constant air strikes
to maintain its static position.
In Khontum, air power drives the insurgents out by
day, but by morning they are invariably back, despite the
ARVN garrison. Tanks and artillery regularly knock
down the "North Vietnamese protective cover" - the
city's buildings - while South Vietnamese commanders
dutifully c9unt the bodies after the bomber runs outside
the town.
SLOWLY, THE United States has unwittingly and awk-
wardly adopted the tactic proposed years ago by re-
tired Gen. James Gavin that the United States retreat
into armed enclaves and withdraw-hoping that the
ARVN forces could stand up to the Viet Cong.
Saigon's army has not successfully engaged its bat-
tlefield opponent without massive air support and Nguyen
Thieu's government has established no wide base of sup-
port. This, expected or not, has led President Nixon to
depend on the gigantic torrent of bombs to prop up a pair
of presid'ents - one over there and one over here.
ARTHUR LERNER
Co-Editor
NIGHT EDITOR: LINDA DREEBEN
Summer Staff
BOB ANDREWS... . . . ..Associate Sports Editor
ROBERT BARKIN .. .. . ................... ........... Night Editor
JAN BENEDETTI . .. . ........ . ................ Night Editor
ROSE SUE BERSTEIN ... ............................. .. Co-Editor
DANIEL BaRUS........ ........ ............ ... sports Night Editor
ROBERT CONROW. . ...........s..Boos Edits
LINDA DREEBEN . ........... ....... .. .... Night Editor
DENNY GAINER. . . ............ .............. Photography Editor
ANDY GOLDING ................. Booines Manager
MERYL ORDON.. ....... Assistant Night Editor
HARRY HIRSCH ... ........ .. Display Manager
SHERRY KASTLE ............ .........Circulation Manager
KAREN LAAKKO. . ...... . ............... Classified Manager
ELLIOT LEGOW ...........................Sprto Editor
ARTHUR LERNER.. .... ... ..Co-Editor
DIANE LEVICK . . ......................... Assistant Night Editor
DAVID MARGOLICK ..... . . ... .. . ... . . Photographer
SHEILA MARTIN. . ....... .... . General Business Asistant
JIM O'BRIEN ..........:...................Science Editor
CHRIS PARKS ...................... ........ ........ Night Editor
NANCY ROSENBAUM.. .... Assistant Night Editor
PAUL RUSKIN ..... .................... Assistant Night Editor
ROLFE TESSEM ..............................Photographer
PAUL TRAVIS .... . ............... . . . Night Editor
GARY VILLANI ...... ....... ........... ..........Photographer
JIM WALLACE. . .... .....Photographer
DEBORAH WHITING ....... Cirulation Assistant
CAROL WIECK ..............General Buiness Aoistant
(iii{i
WASHINGTON - Trying to
predict who, where and when a
man will attempt to kill a presi-
dent is an impossible job. The
Secret Service has tackled it by
setting up a computerized file of
potential assassins. The trouble is,
they have gotten a little carried
away.
The agency's files contain t h e
names of scores of potential pres-
idential killers, whom most people
always thought were harmless.
Take, for example, former base-
ball great Jackie Robinson. Five
days after President Nixon took
office, Robinson joined a small
group of blacks who stopped by a
White House gate and asked to
see the President.
The Alabama fireball was his own
chief fund raiser. He would work
his audience into an evangelical
fervor then send Wallace g i r 1s
with buckets to collect donations.
He has already raised an estimat-
ed million dollars at his rallies.
this year. In 1968, he raised sev-
eral million dollars. No account-
ing vas ever made and insiders
have told us that aides dipped
freely into the campaign chest and
stuffed five- and ten-dollar bills
into their own pockets.
- MENTAL REHEARSAL -
President Nixon carefully me-
morized what he intended to say
to Soviet leader Leonid B r e z-
hnev.
White House aides tell us that
the President mentally rehearsed
over and over again the points
he expected to make. Nixon also
keyed himself psychologically for
the confrontation in Moscow. He
disciplined himself mentally and
psysically much as a fighter might
train for a. championship bout.
He carefully arranged to spend
two days in Austria to adjust him-
self to European time before go-
ing on to Moscow. He chose Aus-
tria because there would be no
big problems to detract him from
his main mission. A preliminary
stop in England, France or West
Germany would have been too de-
manding.
While Nixon was preparing for
the summit meeting, Brezhnev was
beating down bitter opposition in-
side the Kremlin against a Rus-
sian-American detente.
The opposition was led by De-
fense Minister Andrei Grechko,
who had the powerful backing of
the military-industrial faction.
Brezhnev put his personal pres-
tige on the line in order to over-
come the opposition.
As an object lesson to his op-
ponents, he also quietly demoted
one of his most outspoken oppon-
ents, Pyotry Shelest. Intelligence
reports suggest that Grechko was
too powerful to be deposed, but
has been restrained after seling
Shelest get the axe.
- GEORGE WANTS TED -
Senators Hubert Humphrey and
George McGovern, the two lead-
ing contenders for the Demccratic'
presidential nomination, have been
talking privately about their vice
presidential choices.
Humphrey has told intimates
that, if he wins the nomination,
he would like McGovern as his
running mate. But McGovern pri-
vately has ruled out all the piresi-
dential candidates as running
mates. His first choice would be
Senator Ted Kennedy. McGovern
is ready, if nominated, to make an
impassioned appeal to Kennedy
to join him on the ticket.
If Kennedy refuses, McGovern
has mentioned Florida's Governor
Reuben Askew, Illinois Senator
Adlai Stevenson and Idano's Sena-
tor Frank Church. The only pres-
idential contender that McGovern
has shown any interest in as a
running mate is Indiana's Senator
Birch Bayh.
Meanwhile, McGovern is quiet-
ly preparing to divorce his presi-
dential campaign, if he should win
the Democratic nomination, from
the old guard Democratic National
Committee.
McGovern has already quietly in-
corporated his McGovern F o r
President organization. His stain
purpose is to avoid the kind of
law suits that were filed individ-
ually against Eugene McCarthy
and the late Robert Kenaedy's es-
tate to collect 1968 campaign debts.
McGovern can avoid personal re-
sponsibility for campaign obliga-
tions by forming a corporatien.
- INTELLIGENCE NOTES -
O A secret intelligence analysis
has encouraged President Nixon
to believe he might, just possibly,
get Soviet cooperation to arrange
a Vietnamese settlement. Brezh-
nev warned Henry Kissinger in
April that the Soviet Uunion would
not interfere with its North Viet-
namese ally. However, the new
intelligence analysis points o u t
that North Vietnam cannot con-
tinue the war without a n e w
round of Soviet equipment. This
would amount to such a huge in-
vestment for the Kremlin that the
analysis hopefully suggests that
the Soviets might be willing to
intervene in Hanoi for a mean-
ingful peace.
* Fighting has now broken out
inside Chilean President Salvadore
Allende's Marxist government. The
radicals are impatient over Al-
lende's failure to communize Chile.
This has already , caused violent
eruptions between the radicals
and moderates.
Jackie Robinson:
Threat to Pres.?
It's doubtful that Jackie Rob-
inson knew it, but the Secret Serv-
ice was taking notes. Wrote Spec-
ial Agent Thomas Sebriver: "The
reason they wanted to see t h e
President was that they wanted
more jobs for the black people
and also wanted the President to
define black capitalism."
It sounds like a fairly mild form
of protest. But the Secret Service
went ahead and established a com-
puterized file on Robinson. He is
now officially recognized as a
threat to the President of the Unit-
ed States*
FEAR FOR WALLACE -
George Wallace's aides have
complained privately that they
fear for the Governor's safety at
Holy Cross hospital.
They believe someone may try
to finish off Wallace by poisoning
his food or sabotaging his medi-
cal services. Nor are they re-
jieved by President Nixon's offer
to let Wallace 'use the presiden-
tial suite at Walter Reed Hospi-
tal. The aides have complained
.that the Walter Reed Hospital
.Staff is infiltrated with "liber-
als" who might try to do Wallace
in
, Meanwhile, other Wallace aides
seem chiefly concerned about how
to keep the money rolling in with-
out Wallace.
Ted: McGov's VP?
9 President Nixon has taken a
moderate position in Moscow on
the Soviet presence in Egypt. The
President indicated to aides that
he regarded the Soviet presence
as a moderating influence upon
the Egyptians who might otherwise
try to inflame the Arab-Israeli
war.
(Copyright, 1972, by United Feature
Syndicate, Inc.)
Letters to The Daily
c
T l . 's
krx
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FM TRI u e Xn2 aU " e , "-
LpS 'tip
Mirror, mirror .
Holding hands
To The Daily:
AN EXCELLENT piece of air
pollution legislation, House Bill
4260, passed State House after a
long fight and passed on to the
Senate Committee on Health, Soc-
ial Services and Retirement, chair-
ed by Sen. Alvin DeGrow (R-
Pigeon).
The bill provides for many prac-
tical and vitally important me-
chanisms of surveillance, monitor-
ing, fee collecting, standard set-
ting and others - dramatic, per-
haps, but crucial if the inhabi-
tants of our state, particularly
heavily industrialized southern
Michigan, are to finally enjoy
clean air.
After closed, secret hearings
where the committee listened to
testimony from industrial groups,
chambers of commerce, manufac-
turing associations and other such
bodies representing the "public
health and welfare" of this state,
the bill faded from sight, only to
be replaced by Senate Bill 1278 -
a laughing ghost of what 4260 had
been.
Since there have been no cries
of outrage from the Senate floor
regarding the fate of the provis-
ions of 4260, it appears that t he
members of the upper house would
rather hold the hand of the in-
dustrial-utilities lobby in their
"crisis" than look out for t h e
health and safety of the people
of Michigan. If any hands are to
be held, it should be those of their
slowly strangling constituents back
home.
Perhaps those of us left breath-
ing will remember their touching
concerns around election time.
-David Paxton, Grad.
May 19
Loners
To The Daily:
GOV. WALLACE has been shot
and we have the media telling us
that the suspect is a loner. And
we are told later that all the
American assassins were loners.
Let us accept that something
makes them loners. Being a loner
is not a crime, but this society
makes life difficult for a man who
does not belong to the herd.
This society cannot handle any-
body who is too much of an in-
dividual. Even comparatively elite
subcultures have their own ways
of domesticating people.
The West has not out much
faith in odd numbers. And the
East, especially India, has in-
dulged too much in one odd num-
ber, one. And history has shown
us the problems resulting from
both systems of thought.
-Vishwanath PR