Z e t gan th2
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
SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1972 News Phone: 764 0552
Digging at the war
OPPOSITION TO America's war effort in Indochina has
taken many forms in Ann Arbor, In the past seven
years, the local antiwar movement has held sit-ins,
marched through the streets, occupied buildings, walked
in candlelight processions, shut down the campus, block-
ed intersections, and demanded that the city of Ann
Arbor and the University of Michigan pull themselves
out of the war effort.
And now the movement digs holes.
The holes supposedly resemble the craters made by
American bombs in Indochina. And in some small ways,
there probably is a similarity: in both places, a gaping,
unexplainable hole in the ground is as incongruous and
unbelievable as the war itself. Big round holes don't
belong in front lawns or Diags or villages or rice paddies
any more than young men belong in uniforms, or col-
leges belong in classified weapons research.
BUT THE similarity between the craters in Ann Arbor
and the craters in Vietnam ends there. No festive
"crater digs" have been held in Indochina, and real
craters are not welcomed by crowds of happy people
and live rock music. The Ann Arbor craters have not
brought with them the smell of burning flesh or the
sounds made by human beings during a bombardment.
The people of Indochina have lived with bombard-
ments for nearly 30 years. They would no doubt laugh
bitterly if they knew American young people were at-
temating to stop the bombardments by using time and
energy to dig symbolic craters.
'THE RATNBOW POPLE say the local craters are in-
tended to give neonle "a real sense of the terror and
destruction by U.S. bombs suffered every day by the
people of Indochina." But few peoale will get a "real
sense" of the war when they see the big hole on Hill
Street. Few, if any, will be moved to vote for McGovern,
or write to their representatives, or picket the White
House and Dow Chemical, or refuse to pay their tele-
phone tax.
- Is digging a hole really the best way we can think
of to stop the war?
Busting sod is a lot easier than busting an attitude.
No front lawn ever asked for an explanation of the im-
morality of bombing or the insidiousness of anti-per-
sonnel weapons.
In fact, the people who direct America's war effort
or profit from it probably delight in seeing us dig holes.
For them, it's better for protesters to undermine the
topsoil than the technocracy.
THE ACT OF digging holes may not be an entirely use-
less one. For a few, it will no doubt keep the horror
of Vietnam a little closer to home.
But to say "we've tried everything else" lets the
government off much too easily. We have not exhausted
the possibilities. We have not reached a point where all
we can do is dig a hdle.
As long as the war goes on, we've got to find a
louder, stronger way of channelling our energies into
saying "stop"
-DAN BIDDLE
"jiiid';
WASHINGTON --Last fall, Anr
Force General John LaVelle or-
dered bombing raids of Nor.th
Vietnam against the expressed
orders of President Nixon. These
illegal air strikes not.-only cost
General LaVelle his job, but they
may well have delayed a peace-
ful settlement of the Vietnam
war.
What hasn't been reported is
that Air Force pilots have flown
many more unauthorized bomb-
ing raids than the 28 LaVelle has
acknowledged. This word comes
from a secret report orepared by
Air Force General Louis Wilson,
the same man who investigat-
ed LaVelle. Here are the facts:
The President ordered o a rl
pilots not to fire unless f i r e d
upon. Many pilots stayed within
the letter of the order, b u t
still managed to hit the targets
they wished. The trick was to
lure the enemy into firing first.
To do this, the pilots employed
a variety of schemes. One might
be called bait and bite. U. S.
reconnaissance planes were sent
over North Vietnam targets as
bait. Not far behind came the
fighter-bombers. If the enemy
nibbled at the bait, the fighter-
bombers 'swept in for the kill.
Even without bait, planes made
fake bombing runs, sweepint low
over enemy targets. This usually
would provoke the C'smmunist
gunners. Then the pl-anas made a
second run - this time w it h
guns blazing.
Technically, the pilots were au-
thorized to return the fire. But,
morally, they were violating the
President's orders.
-MIL LIB-
one of the last bastions, still
holding out against. Women's Llb,
is the military. At.the Tactical
Air Command, the brass h a t s
have gone so far as to put it
in writing.
At the taxpayers' expense, the
brass recently published 15.000
copies of a little booklet called
"Customs and Courtesies for the
Air Force Wife."
This reminds the military wile.
for example, that her position is
"created by her husband's rank."
It tells her how to dress for
morning, afternoon and evening
affairs. It cautions the ladies to
"take their cue from.the gentle-
men" when attending formal af-
fairs. When going through re-
ceiving lines, adds the booklet,
"the man precedes his wife."
The Air Force wife is also told
when to wear gloves, how to
shake hands, where to sit at a
dinner table, and how to con-
verse. She is reminded to avoid
"any discussion of service life
which may be construed as com-
plaining."
"When shopping with the fait-
ily " asks the booklet, "is it
periissible for an officer to lap
his wife carry packages or it,
fants?" The answer: "An of-
ficer in uniform is expected to
avoid situations in which it is
necessary to carry bulky nack-
ages or small children. However,
these days . . . compromise with
tradition must be made. It is
therefore acceptable for an of-
ficer to assist his wife with pack-
ages and/or children as long as
he keeps his 'saluting arm' free."
The booklet seems to acknow-
ledge that wives have their place
in the Air Force. It's somewhere
below that of airman first-class.
-SINKING SUMMIT-
The Central Intelligence Agen-
cy has now learned that Presi-
dent Nixon came close to missing
his historic trip to Moscow. Sov-
iet Party Chief Leonid B r e z-
hnev did some fast shuffling to
keep the Nixon visit from being
cancelled. A secret CIA report
reveals that Brezhnev got h i s
leading opponents out of town
shortly before a crucial debate
inside the Kremlin over the
summit meeting.
had arranged in advance for to
to be sent to Paris, another to
Warsaw, still another to Stock-
holm.
Defense Minister Andrei Grech-
ko, perhaps the most poweiful
opponent in the Kremlin, was in
Cairo when he heard of the meet-
ing. Grechko rushed back to
Moscow just in time for the
meeting. But he found himself
in the minority.
The skillful Brezhnev had won
the round and President Nixon
was spared a rebuff.
-TWIST AND PULL-
President Nixon continues to
twist and pull at the knobs of
the great American war ma-
chine in Indochina trying to find
the right combination to bring
this endless war to a halt.
He has pulled nearly 5C0,000
troops out of Vietnam. At the
same time, he has quietly in-
creased our air power in Indo-
china to an all-time high.
Meanwhile, the enemy contin-
ues to replenish itself. Battered,
bombed, now even mined, t he
enemy always seems able to
find the necesary resources to
continue the conflict. Secret in-
telligence reports reveal that
7,000 new North Vietnamese re-
cruits will move South next
month for combat in Vietnam
and Cambodia.
Intelligence sources also con-
firm that 100,000 new enemy
soldiers have entered the war
since January to replace the
dead and wounded of the last
six months.
-GEORGE-OR ELSE!-
If George McGovern is den-
ied the Democratic nomination
in Miami next month, the young
radicals are threatening to make
Chicago four years ago look like
a Sunday school service.
The veteran radical, Abby
Hoffman, founder of the Yippies,
told us on the telephone about
his Miami convention battle
plans. Hoffman says he hopes to
assemble an army of 300,000 pro-
testers outside the Miami con-
vention hall. They will go into
full cry, he says, if the party
regulars deny McGovern the
nomination.
Already, thousands of young
militants have streamed in"o the
city, but so far there have been
no major incidents. Miami's big-
gest headache, in fact, involves
not politics but logistics. The
city can't decide where to put
the dissidents.
Meanwhile, Miami Beach po-
lice chief Rocky Pomerantz has
prepared a private list of 15
things he should do to maintain
law and order. The last is: Pray
for a huriicane.
1972 United Feature Syndicate,
Inc.
Leonid Brezhnev: Comrade
for the re-election of t h e
president
Brezhnev was under fire froi
a number of Kremlin leaders to
cancel the Nixon invitation. The
Kremlin's hard-liners had become
incensed over the U.S. mining
of Haiphong harbor and the
stepped-up bombing of N o r t h
Vietnam. By mid-May, a major
political storm was brewing.
The secret report reveals that
Brezhnev scattered the storm
clouds at a decisive meeting of
Kremlin leaders. This took place
on May 19 - just eight days be-
fore Nixon's scheduled arrival in
Moscow.
' Noticeably absent were fouir
Kremlin hard-liners. Brezhnev
Letters to The Daily
To The Daily:
MR. JAY HACK wrote an arti-
cle (Daily, June 17) which, while
distinguished throughout for i t s
monumental supply of errors and
inaccuracies, was in particular in-
correct on several matters con-
cerned/ with me and my research.
I would like to set the record
straight.
1. Mr Hack is correct in say-
ing that I am doing research on
decision making.
2. Mr. Hack is totally incorrect
in saying that this research is
concerned with or based on per-
sonality patterns of world leaders.
3. Mr. Hack is totally incorrect
in saying that this research is
based on any variety of informa-
tion provided to me by the CIA
or any other intelligence agency.
4 Mr. Hack is totally incorrect
in saying that this research is sup-
ported by funds furnished directly
or indirectly from the CIA or any
other intelligence agency.
At no time has any research of
mine been supported directly oi'
indirectly, by any intelligence
agency. I have, on occasion, con-
sulted as a private individual with
intelligence agencies, but am not
doing so at present.
Actually, I have four sponsors for
my research on decision process-
es. One is the Advanced Research
Projects Agency of the Depart-
ment of Defense, one is the Office
of Naval Research, one is the Na-
ticnal Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism and one is t h e
Wood Kalb Foundation, a small
private foundation that sponsored
some experiments I conducted in
Las Vegas. The two DOD agen-
cies are supporting a research pro-
gram that originally began under
DOD sponsorship in 1951, and has
continued, with a variety of spon-
sors, including the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration
and the National Institute of Mea-
tal Health, ever since that time.
All of this information, and a
great deal more concerned with
the technical content of the re-
search programs that I am con-
ducting, Mr. Hack could have eb
tained by the simple expedient of
asking me. He chose not to do so.
I presume that he prefers wild-
ly inaccurate but sexy assertiens
to the less sensational truths, even
when these truths can be obtain-
ed at the cost of a phone call. I
doubt that Mr. Hack has any signi-
ficant future in journalism given
his lack of interest in the journal-
istic responsibility of discovering
the facts; I wonder at the editor-
ial judgment that permits such an
irresponsible and baseless story to
be printed.
-Ward Edwards
Professor of Psychology
Head, Engineering Psychology
Iboratory
"Smile! You're on Candid Camera!"
Today's staff .. .
News: Dan Biddle, Alan Lenhoff, Diane Levick
Editorial Page: Carla Rapoport
Photo Technician: David Margolick