Wednesday, June 16, 1971 THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Congressmen 'shocked
by N. Y .imes series
WASHINGTON fP -- Senate Mansfield said "They're just go- The Times excerpts from the
Majority Leader Mike Mansfield ing to build it up create that highly classified Vietnam war
Page Seven
e
Y
said yesterday the Senate defi-
nitely will hold hearings on a sec-
ret Pentagon study of past U.S.
policy in the Vietnam war.
The Montana Democrat spoke
after a federal judge in New
York ordered The New York
Times to halt, at least until 1
p.m. Saturday, its publication of
a series of articles on the highly
classified report.
Mansfield told reporters the
court's final decision must stand
but "regardless of what the de-
cision of the court is, hearings
will be held."
Mansfield said he was shocked
at the disclosure of details with-
held from Congress and the
American public and said "I am
delighted it is being published"
by The New York Times.
Commenting on the Nixon ad-
ministration's announcement that
it would seek a court order to
halt publication of the material,
much more interest."
Mansfield made clear that any
hearings he might hold would go
to the substance of the disclos-
ures rather than to how the
Times obtained the material.
"I would like to see the whole
story laid out," he said. "I
think the Congress and the peo-
ple are entitled to all the ele-
ments pertaining to this tra-
gedy."
Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.)
said publication of the docu-
ments, while embarrassing to the
nation's military and political
leaders, will not endanger na-
tional security, as Atty. Gen.
John Mitchell had said Monday
they would.
Former President Johnson, for-
mer Secretary of State Dean
Rusk and former Secretary of
Defense Robert S. McNanara
all declined comment on the
Times disclosures.
study made by the Defense De-
partment were inserted yester-
day in the widely circulated Con-
gressional Record by Sen. George
McGovern (D-S.D.) and Reps.
Paul McCloskey Jr. (R-Calif.)
and Michael Harrington kD-
Mass.)
Secretary of State Rogers
commented with dismay at the
"great dteal of difficulty with
foreign governments" he said
disclosure of the documents
would cause. "If governments
cannot deal with us with any de-
gree of confidentiality, it's a very
serious matter."
Sen. Hubert Humphray (D-
Minn.) stated yesterday that he
had no knowledge of the secret
Pentagon study while he was vice
president under former President
Johnson. "The government must
have secret documents, but I
believe matters relating to what
I call political decisions ought
not to be secret. I believe in
freedom of information and the
right to know," he said,
Humphrey said the "real trag-
edy in my mind" is the doubt
cast on the credibility of the gov-
ernment.
.THE GROOVE
CLEANER PREENER
HI-F BUYS
Ann Arbor-East Lansing
618 S. Main 769-4700
"Ouality Sound Through
Ounlity Equipment"
WINNER OF 2 ACADEMY AWARDS!
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR-JOHN MILLS
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
"****! A MASTERPIECE! A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE!"
WandaHale, New YorkDalyNews
David Lean's Film of
DaugLiter
ROBERTMWCHtUM-TfZRHOMA-CHTOHERJONES P"
JOHN MILS -LEO McKERN ad SARAH lMES
DIAL 5-6290
ENDS SHOWS AT
THURSDAY C IG 8:45
NEXT: "SUMMER OF 42"
Join the Daily Business Staff
Judge orders stop to
Times Vietnam series
{Continued from Page 1)
with the history of the rela-
tionship between the security of
the government and a free press
that a more thorough briefing
than the parties had had an op-
portunity to do is required."
Gurfein said he granted the
order "because in my opinion
any temporary harm that may
result from not publishing dur-
ing the pendancy of the appli-
cation for a preliminary in-
junction is far outweighed by
the irreparable harm that could
be done to the interests of the
United States government if it
should ultimately prevail."
During the court hearing, the
newspaper accused the govern-
ment of an obvious effort at
"classic censorship" and reject-
ed Gurfein's suggestion that it
0 voluntarily suspend publication
pending further court hearing.
Asst. U.S. Atty. Michael Hess,
Failure of
who filed the suit, said t h e
three installments already pub-
lished have "seriously interfered
with the conduct of our foreign
relations."
Hess claimed that withhold-
ing publication would not hurt
the Times, but that each day
the articles appeared the na-
tion's foreign relations receiv-
ed "serious injury."
The Justice Department said
it would file the suit after the
newspaper said it "must re-
spectfully decline" a govern-
ment request to halt publication
of the series voluntarily. T h e
Times said it thought the ar-
ticles were "in the interest of
the people of this country."
The Justice Department nam-
ed Times president and pub-
lisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger,
and 21 other reporters, editors
and officers of the newspaper,
as defendants.
i s
air strikdes
COMAPLAINT?
... missing out
on some of the
DAILIES because
of delivery
mistakes?
r prompted more troops
(Continued from Page 1)
because of the concommitant
high risk of inviting Chinese in-
tervention."
The Administration recognized
within a month, the study con-
tinued, that the bombing would
not work quickly enough, so the
crucial decision was made to
put the two Marine battalions
already in South Vietnam on the
offensive. The 8500 Marines
landed at Da Nang on March 8
-bringing the total U.S. force
in South Vietnam to 27,000. The
mission of the Marines had
been changed from static de-
fense of the Da Nang airfield to
offensive activities.
The President again desired to
keep this shift of mission im-
perceptible to the public, the
Times said.
The study says that after
Johnson met with Maxwell Tay-
lor, then U.S. ambassador to
Saigon, and other officials on
March 31, the President re-
sponded to press inquiries con-
cerning dramatic new develop-
ments by saying: "I know of no
far-reaching strategy that is
being suggested or promul-
gated:"
"But the President was being
less than candid," it continued.
In early June, the study con-
tinued, Gen. William Westmore-
land, the American commander
in Saigon, requested nearly
200,000 more troops to hold off
defeat long enough to make pos-
sible a further build-up of
American troops.
"Swiftly, and in an atmos-
phere of crisis," the study said,
"President Johnson gave his ap-
proval to Gen. Westmoreland's
request a little more than a
month later, in mid-July." And
once again, the study adds,
Johnson concealed his decision.
Within the Johnson adminis-
tration there were disagree-
ments whether to comply with
Westmoreland's request. Under-
secretary of State George Ball
was critical of the request since
there was "absolutely no assur-
ance that the U.S. could, with
the provision of more ground
forces, achieve its political ob-
jectives in Vietnam," the study
said.
The study also said that two
of the President's major moves
involving the bombing campaign
in the spring of 1965 were de-
signed, among other aims, to
quiet critics and obtain public
support for the air war by strik-
ing a position of compromise.
But in fact, the Times reported,
the moves masked publicly un-
stated conditions for peace that
"were not 'compromise' terms,
but more akin to a cease and
desist' order that, from the
-D.R.V. VC point of view was
tantamount to a demand for
their surrender." "D.R.V." de-
notes the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam; "VC" the Viet
Cong.
These actions include John-
son's offer in April to "nego-
tiate without posing any pre-
See WAR, Page 10
OR...
disagree with a bill
we sent you for THE DAILY?
WE'D LIKE TO TRY & STRAIGHT-
EN OUT THAT PROBLEM, BUT WE
CAN'T IF YOU DON'T LET US
KNOW ABOUT IT.
Monday thru Friday, 8 AM. to 12:00 noon
CI RCULATION 7
DET764-0558
DEPA RTM ENT