Wh Afrian aily Edited and mandged by students at the University of Michigan Editorials printed in The Michigan Doily express the individual opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprints. WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 1972 News Phone: 764-0552 f, "Now, here's my Vietnam plan ... Vietnam logie T)RESIDENT NIXON'S decision to mine and blockade the ports of North Vietnam was a calculated and desperate move to stave off impending South Vietnamese collapse and avoid the consequences of years of stupidity and tragic malice. The blockade comes as no real surprise. It is one more in a series of escalations to salvage "democracy." defend our allies, fulfill our "commitments," free our POW's. and protect "our boys." There is, in fact, little evidence that the blockade and mining in the North will have any effect at all on the continuing advance of communist forces in the South. THE PRIMARY rationale offered by the President Tues- day night to justify this newest move is the pro- tection of the remaining 60,000 American troops in the South. And they cannot leave until they guarantee the quick release of American prisoners. Our soldiers, moreover, cannot depart just yet, and leave the fighting to the ARVN, because that would mean "turning 17 million South Vietnamese over to Com- munist tyranny and terror," the President declared. This bit of logic, which discounts the alleged success of Vietnamization, is the very pap which has in the past and may in the future be used to require the bloody and expensive presence of U.S. military men and force in Southeast Asia. "WHAT IS ON the line in Vietnam," the President said recently, "is not just peace for Vietnam, but peace in the Mideast, peace in Europe . . . possibly for a long time in the future." The President is right. Peace is at stake, though we've been killing for peace for a "long time" already. The carnage must not contipue - even, as the chief executive put it, out of "respect for the office of the President." We don't respect this one, regardless of his office. -THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUMMER STAFF NIGHT EDTOR: ROSE SUE BERSTEIN EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR ARTHUR LERNtR PHOTO TECHNICIAN: DENNY GAINER Who can beat Nixon? By LINDSAY CHANEY jF THIS year's Democratic primary campaign will be remembered for anything. it will be remembered as the year when the party bosses lost their grip on the rank and file members. The party pros - the county chairmen and state leaders - have always favored candi- dates whose stances were squarely in the mid- dle of everything. The pros did not especially want a man who was in favor of doing anything. Rather, they looked for a man who would alienate as few voters as possible. They viewed the electorate as composed primarily of status quo centrists with small left and right fringes on each side. So it wasn't surprising when the Democratic leaders rallied around Edmund Muskie, the avuncular ill-defined blob from Maine. MUSKIE AND THE party pros said he was the only man who could attract a broad enough coalition of voters to defeat Richard Nixon. Few claimed he would do anything to help the country - his main asset was his alleged ability to "bring us all together." But if Muskie appealed to a broad cross-sec- tion of the voting public, it didn't show in the primaries. His hoped-for landslide in New Hamp- shire which could have knocked George Mc- Govern out of the race did not materialize. Muskie followed his uninspiring New Hamp- shire showing with a fourth-plice finish in Flor- ida. In the critical April 4 Wisconsin race, he also finished fourth. He finally called it quits after a double-barreled defeat in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. POLITICAL ANALYSTS now believe that the party professionals were mistaken in assuming approximately of equal strength, with the left and right united in their distrust of the establish- nient center. This view is borne out by the successes of George McGovern and George Wallace w a o might be categorized as the left and right ends of the Democratic Party. Both men have been mavericks of sorts - lacking regular party sup- port. And both men appeal to the anti-establish- ment sentiments in the electorate. The quesion now facing political progsosticat- ors is: What kind of man can win the nomina- tion? And more specifically, what kind of man can beat Richard Nixon in November? WITIl MUSKIE out of the race, the "center" has been filled by Hubert Humphrey, the effer- vescent warrior from Minnesota. A few political regulars are predicting that the November race will come down to Nixon-Humphrey again. How- ever, others are not so sure. Humphrey's liabilities seem to outweigh any assets he might have. His positions on various issues seem to vacillate, depending on his audience. Furthermore, you can't beat a tried and tested old shoe with just an old shoe. There is no way George Wallace will be nominated, although his convention delegates are likely to play a key role in picking the nominee. THE MAN who has the best chance to beat Nixon in the fall is George McGovern. Mc- Govern is a fresh face on the national political scene. His programs for income redistribution and full employment are sweeping enough to at- tract left-wing radicals and pragmatic enough to attract blue-collar workers. Furthermore, his appearance of scrupulous honesty appeals to persons who are tired of the lies and deceptions of the Nixon administration. that the electorate is composed predominantly--- of centrists, with left and right fringes. The pre- Lindsay Chancy, '73, is an Editorial Page Editor sent view is that the left, center, and rtght are of The Daily. The 'trashing' tactic By BOB BLACK ON THE LAST day of class last term, some of the marchers against the new air war revived a political tactic which had fallen into undeserv- ed neglect - trashing. Ini breakingewindows and inflict- ing other superficial damage on North Hall, the University-sub- sidized ROTC building, they did some $3,000 - 5,000 damage. Many who were present op- posed the trashing, and outside media opinion was wholly un- favorable. Under the circum- stances there was little oppor- tunity for the campus commun- ity to debate the question. But there is a case to be made for trashing. as a conscious, consid- ered political tactic. Here and now, though not for all times in all places, trashing is appro- priate. The special term "trashing" refers to a special kind of direct action. It should not be con- fused with mindless personal vandalism, on one hand, or with quasi-revolutionary violence on the other. By trashing I mean the conscious destruction of public or corporate property to dramatize and to protest major moral offenses by its owners. It definitely excludes v i o 1 e n c e against persons. It is not civil disobedience, and trashing as such is not suitably tied to an immediate policy objective. By definition, trashing is a political act directed against large and impersonal organiza- tions. And appropriately so, be- cause only an institution - a government or corporation or university - is equally capable of committing a crime against humanity and resisting imme- diate control by people outside it. TRASHING MAKES sense only when two standards apply: the institution cannot be deflected from its policy in the short run (because it is large, bureaucratic and interconnected with others like it); and -it can be influenced in the long run (by elections or laws or usnopular unrest), If the first standard does not apply, trashing is unnecessary: if the second does sot, trashing is useless. But if we are somewhere in between - and that is where the anti-war movement has al- ways been -- there is a moral Summer Staff ROBERT BARKIN JAN BENEDETTI .. ROSE SUE BERSTEIN ROBERT CONROW. LINDA DREEREN DENNY GAINER .., ANDY GOLDING MERYL GORDON HARRY HIRSCH .. TAMMY JACOBS.... SERR Y KASTLE. KAREN LAAKO ELLIOT LEGOW ARTHUR LERNER. DIANE LEVICKt DAVID MARGOLICK SHEILA MARTIN .... JIM O'BRIEN NANCY ROSENBAUM PAUL TRAVIS .... JIM WALLACE... ROBERT wARGO .... DEJORAH WHITING CAROL WIECst M -RCTA ZOSLAW .. A.Associate Sports Editor ....Night Editor . .... ..... Co-Editor sBooks Editor . .. .Night Editor .... Photography Editor Business Manager Assistant Night Editor Display Manager . .. ..Night Editsr Cirulatio Manager Classified Manager - 0c..... Sports Editor .... '. Co-Editor Assistant Night Editoe ... .... Photographer General Business Assistant ......science Editor Assistant Nght Editor .Night Editor ,.......Photographer ........ Photographer Circulation Assistant General sBusiies Assistant I~ Assistaistr N ii L dRos responsibility to act in whatever fashion is likely to effect an ul- timate change in foreign policy. In resuming the bombing, the government surely anticipated and discounted any expression of student opposition up to and including marches - they know what to expect by now. The movement has never ob- tained particular policy revers- als by matching them with one- on one tradeoffs ("Remove half PEOPLE OPPOSE the war to- day, by and large not because of its monstrous immorality but because of its domestic conse- quences - in terms of inflation, the draft, and vast unrest, vio- lence, hostility and polarization fostered by tactics like trashing. Because the laws are not com- msensurate with the outrage with which Americans view trashing - the deliberate, im- pudent and usually unpunished massive violation of the rights of property - it outrages ordi- nary people. Now that the costs of the war are being concen- trated on the Vietnamese peo- ple, it is all the more urgent to raise the one social cost which cannot be Vietnamized. -Daily-David Margolick In short, we should trash not in spite, but because, it polarizes Americans, encourages repres- sion and arouses feeling against us. Polarization at a time when the range of opinion- is forced to the left means that more and more people are joining the group that seriously opposes the war and will not tolerate any politician who disagrees.. That we are- "alienating" people who oppose these tactics is true - and a good thing too, because alienation is contagious. IT IS no accident that'anti- war and anti-youth sentiment have risen together, nor that Wallace and McGovern some- times tap the same class-based protest. Better to hate the young in futility than to slaughter Asians with indifference. Thus trashing, which injures no person and costs us a few eents each, can be a small price to pay in altering attitudes and ultimately saving lives. It should not be dismissed out of hand. Boh Black7,7, is a twcnsber of the LSA Stdent Gorern- ent