Saturday, August 2, 1975
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Poae Thre
Helsinki agreement: Nothing
but high sounding promises?
By WILLIAM RYAN
An Associated Press News Analysis
The glittering supersummit at Helsinki has
adopted a high sounding declaration, but there
is likely to be a vast chasm between East and
West when it comes to interpreting the meaning
of the words, or to matching deeds to promises..
Leonid Brezhnev, the So v i e t evangelist of
European security, has placed the West on notice
that the U.S.S.R. will interpret the document as
it pleases.
EUROPEAN SECURITY as the Kremlin inter-
prets the concept has been a Soviet goal for 20
i !
Deputy testifies in
Little murder tril
RALEIGH, N.C. (UPI)-A deputy sheriff testi-
fied yesterday in the Joan Little murder trial
that he does not know what happened to seven
pieces of evidence found in the cell where the
body of jailer Clarence Alligood was discovered.
Willis Peachey nervously admitted under cross
examination he has no idea where a mattress,
a blanket, a sheet, a pair of glasses, a pack of
cigarettes and two bloody wads of tissue paper
are now.
"YOU DID NOT preserve these items," chief
defense attorney Jerry Paul asked.
"I did not," said Peachey.
Black activist Angela Davis watched from the
back row as Paul interrogated Peachey, the
Beaufort Conty Sheriff's Department's chief in-
vestigator of the killing.
LITTLE, a 21-year-old black construction work-
er, is accused of murdering the 62-year-old white
jailer with an icepick last Aug. 27. She claims
he tried to rape her, but the prosecution main-
tains she lured him into her cell and then killed
him to escape.
Two doctors testified earlier this week that
evidence of recent sexual activity was found on
Alligood's body.
Peachey, visibily disturbed by Paul's cross-
examination, glared at the attorney occasionally,
and at times his voice almost broke as he an-
swered questions on the witness stand.
"THE BEAUFORT County Sheriff's Depart-
ment has no organization, no methodology for in-
vestigating a crime?" Pasl asked.
"On that morning, there was none," Peachey
said.
"There was just mass confusion," Paul said.
"Is that right?"
"NO SIR," said Peachey. "I would not say
mass confusion. I would say some confusion."
Peachey also acknowledged lie grasped the ice-
pick by the handle when it was handed to him by
policeman Danny Respass, who removed it from
Alligood's hand.
"It's so obvious, I think, that the prosecution
is trying to build this case on flimpsy evidence,"
she said. "It's so clear there's no facts."
"We feel this is one of the most important
events unfolding in this nation today," said
Davis. "If Joan Little is set free, it will be an
enormous victory."
years, and Moscow's plans have never envisioned
opening up the Soviet orbit to Western influences
or relaxing the iron control of Communist parties.
In his Helsinki speech, Brezhnev indicated no
change in that attitude. He reserved to Moscow
the right to define what is meant, for example,
by the promise "to encourage cooperation in the
field of information," or the promise to respect
each nation's right "freely to choose and develop
its political, economic and cultural system."
Western leaders at Helsinki had to be acutely
aware of some sinister background developments,
events in progress right now that could pose tests
of Soviet sincerity.
PRESIDENT FORD dropped a warning that
"peace is not a piece of paper" and that the
principles enunciated in the declaration were
"not cliches or empty phrases."
Prime Minister Harold Wilson of Britain noted
tartly that "we have not come here to build
Potemkin villages," a sry reference to the old
Russian custom of shielding the Tsar from reality
by building pretty false fronts.
However, the Soviet Communist party is still
ruled rigidly by the dogma of Lenin, who held
that treaties were "made to be broken."
THE HELSINKI declaration isn't even a treaty
and isn't binding, but the West had been hopeful
of persuading Brezhnev to agree to freer ex-
change of people and information in return for
his hungry quest for some sort of "document."
Brezhnev, though, noted that "information
media can serve the purpose of peace and con-
fidence or . . . spread throughout the world dis.-
cord between countries and peoples." He added:
"We would like to hope that the result of the
conference will serve as a correct guideline for
cooperation in these areas."
EVIDENTLY, Moscow intends to bar what it
regards as "poison of discord" and to define just
what are "correct guidelines." Thus, the Western
idea of exchange is unlikely to get far.
Brezhnev also said all people should be able to
choose their own systems, but again he wields
his own yardstick. In his view, any nation ruled
by communism is happy waith its condition, even
though it has required Soviet arms to keep it
that way.
Even at Helsinki, Brezhnev gave voice to the
obligatory line that has accompanied the Kremlin
view of peaceful coexistence from the beginning.
So he told the 34 other chiefs he was happy that
whatever compromise was made came about
"without obliterating differences in ideology and
social system." All along, Moscow has warned
against truce in the ideological war.
MOST OF ALL, Brezhnev seemed happy that
the conference, in his view, was a "summing sip
of the political outcome" of World War II.
Other Communist chiefs at the summit seemed
euphoric about this. A goal had been accom-
plished. There would be a document, however
in conclusive and lacking in treaty force, that
would say specifically that European borders are
now inviolable. That, said the East German Com-
munist chief, "is the decisive point."
To the Communists, it means no serious chal-
lenge to their rule is in sight in a foreseeable
future in the orbit. To Moscow it means retention
of all the territory seized in and after World
War II: the three Baltic republics and parts of
Germany, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Finland.
A MANACLED JAMES VINSON, arrested on Thursday for
killing a doctor and wounding two other employes at the
Ypsilanti Ford Parts plant, leaves the Fourteenth District
court yesterday after his arraignment.
Ford plant gun man
charged with murder
By TIM SCHICK
YPSILANTI-An auto worker was arraigned yesterday son
charges of murder and assault in connection with Thursdays fatal
shooting of a Ford plant physician and the wounding of two
others.
James Vinson, 27, was charged with first degree murder in
the killing of Dr. Robert Walting and two counts of assault with
intent to commit murder in the shooting of Alton Emerine and
Roland Seed.
DISTRICT Court Judge Kenneth Bronson denied bail and
remanded Vinson to the Washtenaw County Jail pending the out-
come of a preliminary examination set for next week.
Vinson remained silent during the arraignment as police
guarded all exits in the court room. No plea will be entered
until after the preliminary examination scheduled for August 7.
Following the arraignment county prosecutor Lynwood Noah
released details of yesterdays shooting.
See YPSI, Page 9
Esch lkely to make bid for Senate seat
By ROB MEACHUM
U.S. Representative Marvin Esch (R-Ann
Arbor) says he is confident that he will be
a candidate in 1976 for the United States
Senate, but he refuses to make the official
announcement "prior to the first of the
year."
Esch, a 47-year-old moderate Republican,
conceeds that he is "definitely considering
it," but is holding off on the announcement
because of federal regulations granting
equal broadcast time to opponents of an-
nounced candidates.
IF HE DECIDES to make the bid, and
all indications suggest that he will, he will
run for the seat presently held by Philip
Hart, a Democrat, who will retire at the
end of his term. Esch will have served five
terms in the House.
In last November's election, Esch crushed
his Democratic opponent John Reuther by
some 10,000 votes. It was after this elec-
tion that Esch won considerable stature
among state GOP members, giving his
possible candidacy a tremendous shot in
the arm.
"I have formed an initiating committee,"
he said, "and am beginning to raise funds."
The initiating committee, he says, is in
charge of raising funds and seeking out
contacts and support throughout the state,
but is not the campaign committee he will
form later this year.
PRESENTLY, Esch's only official Repub-
lican opposition is Deane Baker, a Univer-
sity Regent with little recognition outside
of Ann Arbor. He is generally considered,
at best, a long shot for the GOP bid. Early
last month, Baker said that he spent nearly
$12,000 since January "examining the pos-
sibility" of a candidacy.
Other possible Republican opposition to
Esch appears to be Representative Philip
Ruppe of Houghton in the Upper Peninsula,
and Governor William Milliken; however
Esch has said that the latter will probably
not seek the nomination.
Likely Democratic opposition in the gen-
eral election appears to be state Attorney
General Frank Kelley, Secretary of State
Richard Austin and U.S. Representatives
Donald Riegle and William Ford.
BUT ESCH says that he isn't concerned
about his opposition because if he was
"they'd be, in a sense, running the cam-
paign."
That campaign will be geared towards a
"government more open to the people.
They're very concerned about the degree
federal government intrudes on their in-
dividual lives," he said.
See ESCH, Page 10