The Michigan Daily.
Edited and managed by Students at the
University oat/Michigan
Tuesday, May 13, 1975
News Phone: 764-0552
Cuban policy untenable
WHILE THE PRECEPTS of detente have been diligently
applier to American relations toward the People's
Republic of China and the Soviet Union, the U. S. stance
toward its Cuban neighbors has remained at an icy
standstill.
The protracted strain can be largely attributed to
an unfounded yet- intense domestic dislike of Fidcl
Castro, the relative position of Cuba to the continental
U.S., and the more than 15 years of unfriendly relations
with Castro's island.
Cuba is strategically located only 90 miles off the
Florida coast. Cuba's position as a door step to America
was tested with frightening results during the 1962
Cuban missile crisis..
The nearness of the Cuba and its historical willing-
ness to narticipate in anti-American maneuvers has giv-
en impetus to bitter grudges and cynical domestic dis-
trust taward the island by fearful Americans with de-
tailed memories.
THE ANTAGONISTIC past actions of Cuba's more dis-
tant Asiatic and Soviet ideological neighbors have
been temporarily forgotten in the interests of world
peace: loeically. the same relaxed and open hand of
diplomacy extended to Russia and China should be ex-
tended to Cuba.
To achieve neaceful coexistence of Western and com-
munist countriez a consistent policy is essential. To con-
tinue to maintai" hostile relations with Cuba undermines
American diplomatic efforts in other communist nations
and threatens the very peace the United States is pro-
fessing to construct.
America's longest war:
Militarists taking AIM
By CHERYL McCALL
T'VHE MILITARY moved out.
The Phantom Jet and three,
helicopters were flown back to
their bases. The 82nd Airborne
and Sixth Army -units collected
their gear - 120 sniper rifles,
100 protective vests, 20 gren-
ade launchers, 16 armored per-
sonnel carriers and what re-
mained of the 400,000 rounds of
M-16 ammunition after 65 days
of shooting into the tiny Indian
village of Wounded Knee, South
Dakota - and went away.
Colonels Volney Warner and
Jack Potter, commanders of the
clandestine operation, o n c e
again donner their uniforms after
two months in civilian clothes.
It was May 8, 1973, last day
of the 71-day siege of Wound-
ed Knee.
But the operation had ended
in, anti-climax. The American
Indian Movement (AIM) lead-
ers had sliped through the mili-
tary lines the previous night to
avoid surrender and possible
death.
The remaining occupants
quietly submitted their arms and
names to waiting FBI agents.
With two people dead, many
ill and hungry, it seemed as
though the worst was over.
TO RICHARD Nixon, Alexan-
der Haig, Fred Buzhardt, Rich-
ard Kleindienst and Gen. Creigh-
ton Abrams _- named in a $19
million civil rights suit brought
by Indians - the action was a
major victory. Under their di-
rect orders, the military h a d
been illegally stationed on the
Pine Ridge Reservation in civil-
ian disguise - a disguise so
effective, dozens of reporters
on the scene were unaware of
its presence.
The secrecy had been vital.
Federal law forbids military in-
tervention in a civilian disor-
der without a Congressional pro-
clamation.
Nixon was in the final hours
of hiscpresidency when these
facts came to light through
Army records and she testimony
of Colonels Warner and Potter
during the trial of AIM leaders
Dennis Banks and Russell
Means. Judge Fred Niciol was
scathing in his criticism of the
federal government as he dis-
missed the charges last Septem-
ber. The government, he said,
had used illegal wiretaps, paid
witnesses and FBI informers,
submitted altered evidence, lied
tinder oath and used the mili-
tary in civilian disguise.
WH711?TNsastomr og
they had no informers.
According to Indian as well as
government sources, the F B I
assigned 23 "Native American
agents" to infiltrate AIM in
South Dakota after the siege of
Wounded Knee. So far, only
Durham, who appears Indian,
has been discovered in his dual
role.
The Schafers worked with the
AIM defense fund in R a p i d
City, diverting money and re-
porting on activities there.
AIM faces m o r e serious
threats than this. In the after-
math of Wounded Knee, nearly
200 AIM members have boen
arrested. At least a dozen un-
-solved muirders, knifings, shoot-
ings, suspicious accidents acr d
suicides have claimed the lives
of AIM members. A number of
AIM women have been raped.
And AIM members say one of
their leaders, Pedro Bissaoette,
was assassinated by two Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIA) p)!'ce-
men on the Pine Ridge Reserva-
tion.
CONSIDERING the size of the
group (AIM has several hund-
red hard-core members on the
reservation, though thousands
more identify with it), this
string of mishaps seems more
than a coincidence.
Roger Finzel, a defense at-
torney for AIM members, said
the arests, beatings and murd-
ers began after 94 per ce-lt of
all Indian defendants in cases
arising from Wounded Knee
were acquitted in trials.
Finzel also charged that the
See GOVERNMENT, Page 5
WHEN FBI informers Doug~
las Durham and Mr. and Mrs.
flurry E. Schafer, III recently
Cheryl McCall, a member confessed they had infiltrated
of Writers West, an investi- the ranks of AIM two years
gative journalists group, ago - just after Wounded Knee
spent three months re- _Judge Nichol asserted the
searching conditions on the -Jug
Pine Ridge ndi ervation. FBI had "deliberately misled"
Copyright, PNS. 1975. him by having agents swear
Melting iet
By WAYNE JOHNSON have nothing to fear from these
simple people.
ONE OF THE ironies of the Neither will the Vietnanese
Vietnam war was the way take their places an the welfare
many Americans despised the lines like the other minorities
Indochinese people, both t h e who have arrived before them.
communists and the lackeys in- Your president will think of
der Thieu. This view was fos- something.
tered by the G.I.s who spent Some citizens fear tnat second
time in 'nam, and who learn- generation Vietnamese m a y
ed to believe a -,)ak was a someday blame the United Stat-
gook, any way you sliced them. es for losing their country and
Naturally, educated pe:sple like perhaps slit our throats w it h
ourselves are shockd ,by such long curved blades that they
blatant racism. We see absolute- will invariably carr... Ha' We
ly no humor in the sick jokes didn't lose South Vietnaat. It's
making the rounds these days. still there, big as life! Besides,
(For example: Stern American: during the rainy seastn, tutr-
"I thought you said there wauld ists from all over the world will
be a bloodbath if the coamuni- flock to the "Land of T e n
ists won." Grinning S. \iet- Million Tiny Lakes.' And our
namese: "Me lie!") 150,000 refugees wen't hate us
Yet, we believe most of the ""less they think we don't want
country is snickering away at them around, so watch yout
these victims of aggression/ attitudes, friends.
iamese into U.S. pot
siH i-X11.4 liii 5 OU NAL
RA7k # rjm
7Vrf 44f
I% ci
liberated neoples with little or
no justification. Wv can't the
Americans learn to like our
long-term allies noe that thos-,
ands of them will b melting
themselves into our pr? W h y
do some of us dwell' on the ne-
gative aspects such as the like-
lihood of malaria making a nos-
talgic comeback to or shares?
Those with uincon'rall ale pre-
jtdices should either gve these
peonle the resnect they deserve
or just remain at* home and
watch Lou Gordon and keep
their opinions to themselves.
A LOT of selfish Americans
are worried about the effects
a large influx of Vietnamese
might have on our overcrowded
labor pool. How ridiculius it is
to even think about such things.
Unless your job i, tending wat-
er buffalo or planting rice, you
AMERICA COULD tearn a I-t
from the rich Vietnamese heri-
tage if we would only oien tp
sir minds instead of our
mouths. For instance. we have
it on good authority that some
of the gold smiggled into the
U.S. is wrapped in littie paper
- cylinders that can Oe burned
with dramatic meadl results.
Remember - even smaller,
Asiatic-appearing people might
have something to offer us be-
sides their blood an tee groand.
Let's take whatever it is and
try really hard not to show our
natural superiority. In fact,
why not adopt a family right
now? It would be a nice ges-
ture.
Wayne Johnson is a regu-
lar contributor to the Elitor-
ial Page.
-d
"When I said 'save Vietnam for democracy, 'I didn't
mean thI democracy!'