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Vol. LXXXII, No. 40-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Thursody, July 13, 1972 Ten Cents Eight Pages
C v tures it all;
Choice narrowing on
VP
Sen.gets1728 votes
for first ballot win
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (N - George McGovern won the
Democratic presidential nomination last night climaxing
an incredible campaign that carried him from the back row
of the Senate to the pinnacle of party power.
And the Democratic National Convention, his from the
opening gavel, erupted into bedlam.
The roll call ended with the McGovern vote of 1,728.35.
Jackson had 525. Wallace had 381.7. Rep. Shirley Chisholm
had 147.5. These were the figures before delegations began
the traditional switches of votes after the outcome was
-Associated Press
CALIFORNIA'S DEMOCRATIC leaders cluser around their standard on the convention floor and
cheer the Illinois vote that gave Sen. George McGovern the party's presidential nomination.
NIXON BLASTED:
enocida flooding in
N. Vietnam predicted
assured.
After 119 delegate votes from
Illinois assured his nomination.
McGovern telephoned Kennedy
in Hyannis Port, Mass., to offer
the vice presidency.
Richard Dougherty, a McGov-
ern spokesman, said Kennedy
declined "for very real per-
sonal reasons." Dougherty said
the two men talked for about 15
minutes.
Earlier in the day, Florida
Gov. Reubin Askew also notified
McGovern that he would not al-
low his name to be placed in
nomination for vice president.
Ironically, -the delegate vote
needed to put McGovern over the
1,509 needed to clinch the party
nomination was the highly dis-
puted Illinois delegation, one
time possession of Mayor Rich-
ard Daley.
However, no sooner than Mc-
Govern was assured of the nomi-
nation, the unity moves began.
H u b e r t Humphrey telephoned
McGovern within mintues after
the nomination was settled.
Shirley Chisholm told the con-
vention she would work across
the nation for the McGovern
ticket.
Most surprisingly, at the time
the Illinois delegation vote was
announced, Clyde ,Choate, one of
the few remaining members of
Mayor Daley's contingent, said
the Illinois Democratic party
would be "instrumental in work-
ing for the Democratic nominee."
Rep. Wilbur Mills (D-Ark)
took himself out of the race
for the presidential nomina-
tion before the roll call, but
remained in contention for the
number two spot, saying "I'm
not seeking the job but you
never rule out anything."
And so the only question left
for the Democratic convention
was the selection of a No. 2
man to run with McGovern. The
delegates were sure to ratify
whomever McGovern chooses at
the closing session Thursday
night.
Platform-
pased by
Democrats
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. tIP) -
The Democratic party has given
Sen. George McGovern a plat-
form. liberal enough to embrace
most of the nation's deprived
minorities and too liberal to suit
many businessmen. .
The final version, adopted at
dawn yesterday by the national
convention, promises immediate
withdrawal from Vietnam, fed-
eral income payments to replace
the welfare system and support
of school busing.
McGovern also had vetoed all
the other minority planks which
were rejected, including those
to legalize abortion, remove dis-
crimination against homosexuals,
provide a federally guaranteed
annual income of $6,500 for each
family of four, and roll back
rents - as well as Wallace
planks to preserve capital pun-
ishment and allow prayer in pub-
lic schools.
But as if to confirm the stock
market's visible anxiety o v e r
the South Dakota's populist's
emergence as the Democratic
nominee, it also calls for:
-Antiinflation controls over
profits, dididents, interest, earn-
ings and executive salaries as
well as wages and prices;
-A graduated corporate in-
come tax to steepen the rates
of big businesses;
-Stronger antimonopoly laws
to "break up large conglomer-
ates found to violate the anti-
trust laws," and:
-Action to "deconcentrate
shared monopolies such as auto,
steel and tire industries which
See DEMOCRATS, Page 8
By DAN BIDDLE
A leading Far East specialist
warns that the next step in the
U.S. air war will be the "geno-
cidal bombing" of flood dikes in
North Vietnam.
Speaking in Detroit recently,
41-year old Eqbal Ahmed warn-
ed that the Nixon administra-
tion will embark on a "quiet
policy of snb ilation" by trigger-
ing massive flooding of the Red
River on North Vietnam's dense-
ly po ulated coastal plain in
the next two months.
Ahmed, formerly a defendant
in the "Harrisburg Seven con-
spiracy trial, stated, in a later
interview that such flooding
would cause "anywhere from
half a million to a million deaths
and create up to 6 million re-
fugees."
Ahmed described President Ni-
xon's statement at the June
29 press conference which den-
ied reports that dikes had been
bombed in the Hanoi area as "a
clear falsehood" in view of an
eyewitness report the next day
from Agence France Presse re-
porter Jean Thoraval.
Thoraval's account, published
July 1 in the London T i m e s,
described a demolished dike at
the town of Phu Ly, some 40
miles south of Hanoi. Thoraval
said three days of U.S. bombing
runs had destroyed all the dam's
sluice gates, creating the dang-
er of "major flooding in the ten
districts of the Nam Ha pro-
vince," which is directly below
Hanoi.
Ahmed, who is a fellow at the
Adlai Stevenson Institute of In-
ternational Affairs, said tacti-
cal bombing of the dikes would
be "the next logical escalation'
of the air war. Referring to
foreign correspondent Anthony
Lewis' article in the July 3 is-
sue of The New York T i m e s.
Ahmed claimed that the only
other "escalation option" open
to President Nixon would be the
use of tactical nuclear weapons.
He agreed with Lewis' con-
clusion that strategic bombing
to trigger floods would give the
President an opportunity to bring
about massive destruction of
North Vietnam while pointing to
natural flooding and "mistakes"
as the cause rather than making
a major policy decision.
Both Lewis and Ahmed blast-
ed a State Department explana-
tion that accidental bombing of
the dikes "could not be ruled
out' and might occur due to at-
tacks from anti-aircraft guns at
or near the dikes, or when U.S.
fighter-bombers engaged in aer-
ial combat released their bombs
to gain speed.
"What we are seeing," con-
tinued Ahmed, "is a systematic
softening of the entire dike sys-
tem in the Red River Delta of
North Vietnam through a series
of so-called accidents and mis-
takes. These accidents are lead-
ing up to the monsoon season of
July and August.
"At that point, all it will take
will be a single bombing acci-
dent to trigger flooding all over
the delta plain and hence an un-
believable amount of death and
destruction."
Ahmed dismissed a State De-
partment prediction of h e a v y
flooding in North Vietnam (ee
to naturally weakened dikes as
"absolutely untrue."
"These dikes have been up for
seven centuries," he explained.
"The only previous disaster was
due to the French bombing in
1953 and 54. If there is a new
flooding disaster in July and Au-
gust, it, too, will be triggerud by
bombs."
Is MCOveru
weakening?
See sisry, Page :t