4 OPINION Page 4 Wednesday, October 26, 1983 The Michigan Daily 4 The third view on Europe's ByE. P. Thompson Second in a series When commentators explain the current "Euromissle crisis," it is often suggested that it is a crisis between two antagonists - NATO (or the United States) on one hand, and the Warsaw Treaty Organization (or the Soviet Union) on the other hand, and that it is all about the balance of intermediate nuclear forces. On the one side there are Soviet SS-20s and that is why NATO must deploy Pershing II and cruise missles on West European territory in reply. In fact, there have always been three parties Euromissle Debate I public relations handouts. For example, it is of- ten said that the Soviet Union with over 330 triple-headed SS-20s is threatening West Europe with over 1,000 warheads, matched against nothing on NATO's side. Both the British publics have been solemnly assured of this NATO "nothing" by persons as highly- placed as my own Prime Minister (Mrs. That- cher) and your own President. BUT THIS IS just a cold war propaganda game. Both sides are always presenting the figures in the best light to support their own measures of modernization and weapons build- up. The real story is different. Back in the early 1960s, the U.S., withdrew the ground-launched missiles, Thor and Jupiter, from Britain and Turkey, as part of a deliberate NATO re-basing policy. NATO had decided to rely instead on air-laun- ched and sea-launched (carrier fleet and sub- marine) missiles, which -were thought to be more effective, more mobile, and less. vulnerable. But if you look at a map of Europe, you see a huge land mass on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Hence the Soviet Union, which had no great ocean to fall back upon, continued to rely on ground-launched missiles (SS-4s and SS-5s, now being replaced by the modernized SS-20s). Hence all this counting-game depends on what categories are counted and what is held under the hand and hidden from the counting. In this case, what is hidden in the European theater is all the tactical stuff and all the air- craft-launched stuff (on both sides), the U.S. Poseidons allocated to NATO Command, the British Polaris submarine-launched missiles (soon to be upgraded to Trident II D-5s), the whole French armory (ground-, air-, and sea- launched) which is also targeted on the Soviet block, and the multitude of U.S. air and sea- launched cruise missiles (including the Iowa task-force to be based on Staten Island, New York) which are on their way. ALL THIS CAN be added up and balanced in different ways, but there is no way in which the balance can come out at 1,000 to nothing. In any case it is disputable whether the Pershing II and ground launched cruise missiles are properly described as intermediate or as Euromissiles at all. The Pershing II, in par- ticular, will be based in West Germany and can strike very swiftly - in six or eight minutes - deep into Soviet territory, perhaps as far as Moscow. But the SS-20, nasty as it is, cannot strike back across the Atlantic. In this way, in Soviet perception, the balance will be badly tipped against them. They see these weapons as forward-based U.S. strategic missiles, to be owned and operated by U.S. personnel on Ger- man, Dutch, British, or Italian territory, which present (in the case of Pershing II) a credible first-strike capability. I said that there were three parties to this argument, not two. Despite the results of recent elections, most opinions show that more than half of the populations of Britian, West Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Italy are aginst NATO's new missiles. This opposition is expressed by very vigorous peace movements in all West European nations, with some sup- port in the East European nations also. These are not (apart from a few fringe groups) pro-Soviet movements. Nor are they (as they are sometimes described) anti- American, although there is growing resen- tment, among both West and East Europeans, at playing pig-in-the-middle to the two super- powers, and at being left without any rights of decision over matters which may settle their fate. WHAT WE HAVE decided, in the West European peace movement, is that enough is enough. We are not even interested in balance. These is sufficient nuclear weaponry placed now in Europe to blow up our continent twenty times over, and we don't much care if one side can do it twelve times and the other side eight iissiles Soviet Union - which brings into Europe one single Cruise or Pershing II missile. And if they bring them, then if it is possible by non-violent methods, we will make these bases inoperable. WE ARE AWARE that this fall Britain and West Germany, in particular, will become deeply divided nations. We are also aware that fringe groups "angries" or even planted provocateurs may try to stir up episodes ofy violence. We are taking our own measures to self-police our own demonstration, and we rely on the good sense of the American public not to be panicked by sensational accounts of marginal episodes but to keep in steady view the common aims of movements for peace on both sides of the Atlantic. The only numbers-game that would interest us would be a Dutch auction, downward. Yes, we would like all the SS-20s to go, and why not throw in (on our side) the U.S. Poseidons and the British Polaris to sweeten the Soviet op- tion? Meanwhile, we are demanding a freeze now, on every new deployment on both sides, while the talking continues. And this talking should not be above our heads, by the two giants. European nations (West and East) should be brought into the talks; then non-aligned nations (and the United Nations itself) as arbiters. If we could do this, then we can already see further objectives. 1) All nuclear weapons (in- cluding British and French) out of Europe, from eastern Atlantic waters to the Urals; 2) mutual deep reductions in conventional forces; 3) guarantees by the Soviet Union of the human rights clauses of the Helsinki Agreement, so as to prepare the way for a mending or melding of the two antagonistic blocs in Europe. Thompson, a British social historian, has taken a leading part in the British and European disarmament campaigns. He is the author of Protest and Survive and Beyond the Cold War. I'. .I I to this debate, not two, for the European peace movement has a perception and an agenda which is not the same as that of either bloc or superpower. Since both sets of missiles are designed for fighting a European war, there is nothing intermediate about them to Europeans. Europe is where they happen to live and would prefer to go on living. BUT LET US look at the balance arguments first. No one in Britian or West Europe loves -Soviet SS-20s; they are pointed at us, and they are fearful weapons. Our peace movements have repeatedly called on the Soviet leaders to start reducing their numbers, unilaterally. Nevertheless a large part of the European public can do elementary arithmetic, and it knows that United States and NATO leaders -have continually falsified the balance in their times. We have decided that the time has come when we can make concessions to the growth of nuclear militarism no longer. For three years, on your side of the Atlantic and on ours, there have been conferences and church meetings and marches and agonizing over the fate of the earth. Well are we serious or not? Someplace at some time some persons have got to decide that they will lay aside all else, not only to say no-but to be no. We have been forced to the view that the place is Europe and the time is now and the persons will have to be us. 'Europe is the place where, at' last, the nuclear arms race might be stopped. We mean to refuse any act of NATO - and any deal over our heads between the United States and the &ir CIbt i:an 3 a i Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Stewart 4r Vol. XCIV-No. 43 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the bofy's Editorial Board 1 j1 CB I I y DIM I Faltering suDDort TATISTICS DESCRIBING THE level of state support for public colleges over 10 years were published this week, and the state of Michigan diol not do so hot. Since the 1973-74 academic year, the stiate has increased its higher education budget by a meager 91 percent. That may sound like a hefty increase, but when adjusted for inflation it turns out to be a 15 percent loss of buying power for the state's universities. That record earned the state the infamous honor of saving the most money in its education budget. In other words, it means Michigan finished dead last among all fifty states in higher education growth in the last decade. Every other state in the nation has outstripped Michigan in its ability and willingness to support higher education. If the trend continues, it will spell doom for a fine college system - especially if that system can find no politically feasible way to become smaller. Certainly, one could argue that: Michigan's colleges started that ten- year period better off than those in most states, and that the others are merely catching up. Michigan surely does not have the worst colleges in the nation. In fact, it still has some of the best. But one fact remains: Something will have to give if the trend continues. With less and less money, universities simply cannot simultaneously retain quality, size, diversity, and service to citizens. Already at this university several programs have been eliminated or severely cut. Tuition has skyrocketed and started to damage the diversity of the student body. The state cannot hope to retain a high quality educational system much longer, if every other state continues to support higher education more than Michigan does. We understand that there are other state services that need funds, but the returns on a renewed investment in the state's colleges are worth the sacrifice. l ,t '~1 J~ rI i I I 'ii t4 c Tw- A W I t4"J ,,;/ LETTERS TO THE DAILY: - Sleepy students photo incredible . . . To the Daily: I found the photograph of students studying "diligently" at the Graduate Library ("Sleepy hollow," Daily, October 18) more disturbing than entertaining. At first I laughed when I saw that every student pictured appeared to be sleeping. On second reflection, however, I came to doubt that the scene was authentic. I suspected that r _ t BIRD5 t { S fill bC { nnovNTAN } "I I the photographer set up the' photograph. If my suspicion is warranted, then the photographer cast the Daily's credibility into serious question. How many other photographs - or articles for that matter - are similarly fabricated? Was this photograph set up? If the answer is yes, then there is cause for alarm for both the Daily staff and the readership. A newspaper's credibility is a fragile as it is precious. - Scott Dales October 18 Editor's note: Yes, The pic- ture was set up. We thought it was obvious, but apparently y we were wrong. We hope you' enjoyed it anyway. 4 Accidents will happen To the Daily: The deployment of Cruise and Pershing II missiles in Western Europe scheduled to begin in December marks a new phase of the arms race. The changes that these weapons systems make bring us considerably closer to a nuclear war. These two missiles are fast, hard to detect, and very accurate (within 60 feet of target). These three charac- teristics make these weapons systems ideal for first strike at- tack against the Soviets. A first strike is not believed possible now because enough Soviet (or American) missiles would escape launch pads to act as deterrent. be a substantial incentive to shoot first. In addition the Soviets have promised that when Cruise and Pershing Its are deployed they will go to a computer launch on warning system in which the human element is eliminated from the process of launching a retaliatory strike. In light of the number of computer errors that our own defense computers make it is only a matter of time before a nuclear war starts by accident. - Erica Freedman Mike O'Neill David Mikleshun October 20 QT M~t I' A'W TVJEY Nope, just humorous . . . To the Daily: I am responding to the picture that appeared on page 1 of the Daily on Tuesday, October 18. I am a graduate student in library science and fully appreciate the humor in the photograph which depicted students "sleeping" in the Reference Room of the Graduate Library. Not only was it humorous, but all too realistic. Have you ever been in the library, .at closing? The photograph did me a favor by reminding me of the human- ness and humor in even the most academic endeavors. I congratulate the photographer and all the par- ticipants. - Susan K. Kruger October 21 4 'L-Of :li .A . ,., lKG : !!.ti7 . ' _ '"1 ii i 1..r IM mooLrn lmflA7+1 ,mA