The Michigan Daily,
Edited and managed by Students at the
University af Michigan
Thursday, May 8, 1975
News Phone: 764-0552
Vietnam lesson unlearned
THE WAR IN Indochina may be stilled for the moment,
but there is no guarantee that it won't re-erupt in
another place, at another time, unless the United States
chooses to undertake exhaustive reassessment of its for-
eign policy with relation to the world's developing na-
tions.
There are profound lessons learned and yet to be
learned from the American experience in Indochina
which, incredibly enough, have been lost on this and past
administrations. The memory of thousands of American
lives lost and disrupted and the systematic destruction
of the Vietnamese culture and, populace is painfully
fresh, for most Americans. Yet the Ford braintrust con-
tinues to babble on about dominoes and defense, oblivious
to the total failure of the Nixon Doctrine to which they
doggedly adhere.
Those who had placed their hopes in the impact of
popular sentirtent on foreign policy were dealt a severe
blow by a Ford comment of two days ago. Asked whether
he would support a congressional inquiry into the causes
and lessons of Vietnam, the President categoricaly _re-
jected the proposal, choosing instead to praise the five
presidents and six congresses who endorsed the war for
"what they have done for freedom."
WHAT ADDS TRAVESTY to the spector of terror im-
plicit in the Ford mentality is that those regimes
whose "freedom" he's pledged :to preserve -- notably the
Philippines and South Korea - are by and large among
the most repressive and undemocratic in the world.
Marcos' Philippines has been in astate of martial law
for over three years, and Park Chung-hee's South Korea
has recently undertaken a campaign to purge his na-
tion's largest independent newspaper, one of the few
remaining vestiges of free speech in that country.
If the-Ford administration has things its way, un-
told billions of dollars will be indefinitely comitted to
propping up the Parks and Marcoses of the world at the
expense of the millions of people here and abroad for
whom bare subsistence is a day to day challenge.
THE WAR IN Vietnam has ended, but the attitudes that
fostered it still thrive among our readership. As long
as the politics of power and manipulation are allowed to
reign unimpeded, another Vietnam is all but inevitable.
Kent Sepilogue
"Across the country students began or con- -the hawks and rednecks - extolled the Na-
tinued protests against the war in Viet Nam tional Guard for giving the kids exactly what
and added the deaths at Kent State as a rea- they deserved."
son for their activities. Conservative elements
By GORDON ATCHESON
A YOUNG woman wearing
patched jeans, sandals, and
a white scarf around her neck
kneels on the pavement. He r
arms are outstretched - t h e
hands and fingers claw for
something that isn't there. Her
face is a mask of terror, hor-
ror, and shock.°
Just in front of her lies a
body in an ever-expanding pool
of thick, red blood. In the back-
ground, people scatter in the
early afternoon sun.
Mention Kent State to most
people and that is the, image
they conjure up. That now
classic photograph of the wo-
man and the murdered student
captured the sense of what hap-
pened during that shocking in-
cident five years ago.
To many, the details are
vague. But to others they re-
main crystal clear, bathed in
tears of frustration and outrage
and sorrow.
During an anti-war demon-
stration on the grassy K e n t
State campus, a unit of the Ohio
National Guard opened fire on
the protestors, killing four and
injuring nine. Almost as they
lay dying, the nation recoiled.
ACROSS THE country stu-
dents began or continued pro-
tests against the war in Viet
Nam and added the deaths at
Kent State as a reason for their
activities. Conservative elements
- the hawks and red necks
- extolled the National Guard
for giving the kids exactly what
they deserved.
Just what happened that day
has never been satisfactorily
sorted out. May 4, 1970 will,
however, stand as on3 of the
bleakest days of this century,
a day that will be remembered
as the culmination of an era,
the climax of the age of pro-
test among the youth, particu-
larly college students.
In retrospect, scholarly ob-
servers contend that, with the
volley from-the Guardsmen's
guns, the "movement" d i e d
just as the four Kent S t ate
students did.
To be sure, activism took a
,downturn. After Kent State,
there seemed to be a mere
sprinkling of protest, a few un-
coordinated, isolated incidents
but nothing of magnitude save,
perhaps, the outcry over the
mining of Haiphong Harbor. ^
YET TO SAY that the anti-
war demonstrations of the late
sixties had little isfluence is far
from accurate. Those protests
and the people who participated
in them directly contributed to
the fall of Saigon last week.
The connection of the two
events may be distant with re-
gard to time but is very close
as to cause and effect. The de-
monstrations hightened the pub-
lic's awareness about the war.
They focused John . and Jane
Doe's attention on the fighting
and bloodshed taking place in
Indochina.
A majority of people w e r e
swayed by what they saw. They
wanted the United States cut
and out in a hurry. As the pres-
sure increased, Lyndon John-
son chose not to seek another
term as president. The protest-
ors had toppled the nation's
leader.
Johnson's successor, Richard
Nixon, eventually withdrew
American forces from Vietnam,
but only after he tried to prop
up the corrupt government with
secret and illegal bombing raids,
support for political terrorism,
and a continual stream of mili-
tary supplies. Finally he could
no longer ignore the public's an-
ger and will.
WITHOUT American support,
Thieu and his armies were
fighting a lost cause. Slowly, al-
most imperceptibly, his regime
crumbled, like sand trickling
out of an hour glass. And finally
its time had come, the war was
over.
Ironically, it happened nearly
five years to the day after
the Kent State tragedy. All the
chanting, picketing, and busted
heads of the sixties we'e n o t
wasted. The War in Indochina
has ended and peace may be
truly at hand.
Letters: Curb nuclear growth
To The Daily:
AN ISSUE of growing concern
in the nation is that of nuclear
power. I think it should be the
concern of everyone because it
is and will be affecting their
lives.
I am concerned with the ef-
fects of emissions of radioactive
materials on the- environment
and, people living in it. As t h e
number of nuclear power plants
increase the numbers of emis-
lions vill increase.
What are emissions? The AEC
defines it in two ways. There
are emissions that count a n d
emissions that don't count. An,
emission that doesn't count is
tritium. Tritum has a half life
of 10.5 years, it remains toxic
in the environment for 30-years.
Yet, Dr. T. Rizki at the Univer-
sity of Michigan has studies the
effects of tritium and found that
it can attach itself to the DNA
molecule and can cause genetic
damage. Tritium is released
routinely from light water re-
actors in a water effluent or as
a gas.
THEN THERE are emissions
that the AEC does count. There
are classed either as "safe" or
unsafe. There is, in fact, no
way to have "safe" radioactive
emission. Fission products can
concentrate within the body. Ra-
diation can cause cancer, leu-
kemia, and genetic damag4.
There have been many acci-
dental leaks of radioactivity,
from many plants. One . u c h
leak occurred at Palisades in
August '73. Many times the
AEC's recommended release
rates were emitted into Lakei
Michigan. This happened over a
period of nine days. After the
leak the AEC reported that
there were no casudldes. Of
course not, but who will know
how many increased cancers
will develop in the area 'and.
how many birth defects and ill-
nesses will be endured by future
generations of this area because
of these leaks.
It has been said that there
are always people against a new
change. People were against the
automobile and airplane when
they came out. But when deal-
ing with nuclear power you are
not talking about ordinary acci-
dents. The Atonuc Energy Com-
mission itself estimated that in
the-eventof a major accident
in a large nuclear power plant
there is "the possibility, in addi-
tion to 3,400 fatalities, of up to
43,000 injuries and, property
damage of up to seven billion
dollars extending over an area
as large as the state of Cali-
fornia. All this from a single
accident at a nuclear p o w e r
plant." The margin of error is
small. I question if nuclear
power is worth the risk.
-Vicki Denman