Thursday, May 22, 1975

THE MICHIGAN. DAILY

Page Five

Thursday, May 22, 1975 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five

Laotian youths seize
U.S. AID office

Mayaguez figures revised

(Continued from Page 1)
"modify, reduce or eliminate"
economic assistance to Laos. It
has asked the Laotian govern-
ment for a clear-cut statement
of its views on the American
aid program-which totals $32.5
million this year-but has re-
ceived no reply.
The students slipped quietly
into the big fenced AID com-
pound in Vientiane about 1:30
a.m. yesterday when two Ma-
rine guards were the only
Americans inside. The Marines
were not molested.
The youths remained in con-
trol of the compound as the day
passed, and there were uncon-
firmed reports that they looted
the commissary. Police patrols
sat on the roadside outside the
fence but took no action against
the youths.
THE STUDENTS handed
newsmen a manifesto in which
they said they were local em-
ployes of AID who oppose "im-
perialist Americans plans to
destroy peace."
It called the right-wing fac-
tion in Laos, which now is vir-
tually powerless, "toadies, trait-
ors and American puppets" and
accused the Central Intelligence
Agency of still trying to destroy
peace.
"All Americans should be
driven out of Laos," the mani-
festo said.
MEANWHILE in Saigon, there
are strange sights and sounds
for those who knew the South
Vietnamese capital before the
Communists took it over.
Soviet-built MIG jets that once
engaged U.S. warplanes over
North Vietnam fly in formation
over Saigon in victory celebra-
tions.
A blue-gray helicopter of Air
America, the airline financed
by the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency, whirls overhead. Left
behind by the Americans who
departed in haste, it now bears
the yellow star of the North
Vietnamese air force.
At Tan Son Nhut air base the
Pentagon East, headquarters of
the U.S. Military Assistance
C m m a n d Vietnam (MACV)
and later the U.S. Defense
Attache's Office, lies in ruins.
THE AMERICANS apparently
destroyed it with thermite gre-
nades, TNT and gasoline during
their hasty pullout to keep docu-
ments and equipment from fall-
ing into Communist-led hands.
Ho Chi Minh's picture hangs
from the presidential palace
from which President Nguyen
Van Thieu fled last month.
Maxim's, the city's biggest
night club, is now a police pre-
cinct station.
BUT SOME things haven't
changed.
The Indian money changer is
still doing business under the
guise of a bookstore. The Fuji
steam bath is still going full
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blast.
The Continental Shelf, the
Continental Hotel terrace where
prostitutes and pimps cater to
foreigners, is back in full swing
after being cleaned up briefly
by the previous government.
The Viet Cong and North Viet-
namese seem to ignore the
nightly show.
Playboy, Qui and other maga-
zines are still on the news-
stands. Every once in a while
you catch a North Vietnamese
or Viet Cong soldier sneaking a
look at the centerfold or carry-
ing one of the magazines under
a sheaf of official papers.
AND COCA COLA is still an
institution. It was served hot
the other day at Tan Son Nhut
when the North Vietnamese and
insurgents bade farewell to the
Hungarian and Polish delega-
tions to the International Com-
mission of Control and Super-
vision.

(Continued from Pae 1)
13.
However, one well - placed
Pentagon source conceded there
was concern in official circles
over the casualties sustained by
the United States in the effort
to free the Mayaguez. The Pen-
tagon's latest official count is
15 killed, 50 wounded and 3
missing.
Under a formula commonly
used by U. S. forces in Viet-
nam to evaluate combat losses,
the casualties were heavy -
more than 20 per cent of the
attack force involved.
"SOME PEOPLE are
shook up by these casualties,
that's certain," said the source.
But he added it should be noted
that most of those killed were
aboard one helicopter that was
shot down by Cambodian gun-
ners in the initial stages of the
assault on Koh Tang, an island
in the Gulf of Thailand.
"Take away those losses and
the over-all casualties wouldn't
seem so bad," said the official.

At the White House, mean-
while, Press Secretary Ron Nes-,
sen said the Mayaguez opera-
tion was being reviewed to "see
if anything needs to be im-
proved," but that President
Ford "has no second thoughts
about what he did" in ordering
a Marine assault and air strikes
to free the ship.
HE SAID Ford "is saddened
by the loss of life" but "likens
the risk to that, for instance,
that policemen run:'
He said Ford had hoped for
no casualties but added that "it
is the belief here . . the Cam-
bodians freed the crew of the
Mayaguez because of the use
of force."
Pentagon spokesmen acknowl-
edged that in the early stages
of the Mayaguez incident,
plans were made to use the Air
Force policemen in the opera-
tion because they were the on-
ly combat-trained American
troops in the immediate area.
The security police normally
are assigned to guard air bases

and other installations.
T H E helicopter crashed
shortly after taking off from
Nakhom Phanom air base, one
of three from which Air Force
security policemen were being
ordered to Utapao.
The plan to use the Air
Force men was never carried
out because the United States
was able to fly a complement
of Marines from Okinawa to
Utapao, from where they made
the assault.
Sen. Edward Brooke (R-
Mass.) said there remained
some unanswered questions
about Ford's use of force, par-
ticularly whether the United
States took "punitive" action
against the Cambodians in ad-
dition to tactical moves to free
the ship.
"Some of the statements indi-
cate that there may have been
some bombing after the crew
was released. That would dis-
turb me greatly," Brooke said
on the CBS radio program Cap-
itol Cloakroom.
If oncoming drivers continue
to flash their brights at you
when you have only your low-
beam headlights on, then your
lights needs adjustment. They
should aim down and slightly to
the right.

Student could become Regent
(Continued from Page 3) spring on the Positive Action Politically, Massey described
nd aides to Governor Milliken SGC ticket, said if appointed herself as "a moderate liberal,"
bout her chances for the ap. she would be "a student Re- adding, "I am and always con-
ointment, gent, and not a student's Re- sidered myself a Republican."
"o*1

a
ai
P{

MASSEY said yesterday she
had been encouraged to seek
the Regent's seat by certain
members of SGC, who she
would not name.
Massey, who ran and lost this

gent.
"I would not be there as an
advocate for all the students,"
said Massey. She said she
would rather be considered just
another Regent who happened
to be a student.

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