12A - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 23, 1996 NATION/WORLD Navy scandals result in re-evaluation of academy Los Angeles Times ANNAPOLIS, Md. -April is a time of excitement here. The spring sun has brightened the gray-brown buildings on the U.S. Naval. News Analysis Academy campus, and the midship- men are eagerly getting ready for commissioning ceremonies next month. As it has for 150 years, the school is prepar- ing to send an- other crop of na- val officers - some of them future admirals - into the fleet. But this past weekend, the mood was somber and unsettled. On orders from the top brass, the middies are in the middle of a weeklong "stand-down" - restricted to the campus and relieved of all duties, except to ponder how to end a spate of humiliating scandals that have tarnished the institution's prestige. "It's an SOS call of sorts," one Navy insider explained. The academy may not be foundering, but it certainly is in troubled waters. Over the past 3 1/2 years, it has suffered a series of embarrassing incidents, rang- ing from a cheating episode involving 133 midshipmen to a string of sexual assaults and drug busts, the latter sug- gestingno small acquaintance with LSD. In the past three weeks, one midship- man was arrested for alleged sexual as- sault on four female students, and a sec- ond was charged with molesting a tod- dler; two seniors were accused of break- ing and entering and another was indicted (along with four former middies) on charges of running a car-theft ring. The incidents have fueled a debate, not only about the academy and how it is run, but over whether the troubles now reflect a wider sickness that has permeated much of the Navy'stop lead- ership as well. "It's very difficult to teach ethics in an environment when ... you see the top leaders in your service engage in doublespeak, when you know that what they're saying is not the truth," said James Webb, the former Navy secretary and a Naval Academy graduate, citing the Tailhook debacle as only one ex- ample. "The problemS with the academy du"fbuff6 is partly a prob- lem with the Navy etics in d writ large," he said. envronm Painfully, the latest barrage of you Se incidents comes just as the academy's own rescue effort - 8f VI 6 led by Superinten- dent Charles UO nb Larson, the four-_ star admiral whoF was called in af- Former terthe 1992cheat- ing scandal to help get the badly bat- tered institution back on course - is beginning to take hold. Under a mandate to restore the institution's once iron-clad ethical stan- dards, Larson has appointed a "charac- ter-development officer" and instituted a spate of new programs, from manda- tory ethics classes and group seminars to anew leadership curriculum designed to imbue midshipmen with a height- ened sense of morality and-integrity. He also has tightened academy disci- pline, revoking some student privileges - particularly for younger midship- men - that critics had regarded as too permissive. Weekend leave time has been reduced. Sophomores no longer may drive cars or wear civilian clothes. And all midshipmen are required to return to the academy early on Sunday evenings so they gether. 'Dry b teach an rent when ethe tops I your rigage in Oak" can eat dinner to- Further, en- forcement of the academy's long- time honor system has been returned to the student honor boards, whose expulsion recommendations for cheating had sometimes in re- cent years been overruled by the superintendent. Even some of the academy's se- verest critics praise Larson's efforts. Richard Armitage, a former assistant I AP PHOTO Earth Day around the world Members of an environmentalist group wear clusters of wasted cans as they attend a rally observing the 26th annual Earth Day in Seoul, Korea, yesterday. Sinio-Russian ties blosso0M ina - James Webb Navy secretary secretary ofdefense who headedablue- ribbon commission that issued a nega- tive report about the school's previous administration, says the admiral "has done a pretty good job." But the changes appear to be short of the mark or slow in taking hold. Indeed, the parade oftransgressions has been so stunning this spring that Larson and his top aides have had to spend much of their time defending the institution. mniage of convenience tiU G-ETF FIE BE$TF Dissatisfaction with U.S. brings powers closer together Los Angeles Times BEIJING - Earlier this month, 20 eminent Kremlinologists - steeped in years of intrigue between China and the former Soviet Union - assembled se- cretly here in the Chinese capital to ponder and discuss the upcoming Rus- sian presidential election. According to some of the scholars who attended the meeting at the Chi- nese Academy of Social Sciences April 8, about half the group favored the chances of Communist Party candi- date Gennady Zyuganov to defeat in- cumbent free-marketeer Boris Yeltsin in the Russian vote. The other half favored Yeltsin, who begins a three- day, high-profile visit to China tomor- row. But while the scholars' political prog- nostications differed, the consensus on the importance of Russia's election for China was far more revealing. No mat- ter who wins the June 16 presidential vote, the scholars concluded, China's basic interests will not be affected greatly. "In principle, whoever wins won't matter much for Sino-Russian rela- tions," said Pan Deli, an expert who participated in the closed-door meeting at China's leading think tank. The "What-me-worry?" consensus reflects the atmosphere ofpolitical prag- matism that now characterizes Sino- Russian relations. Not since the Com- munist solidarity era of the 1950s have the two giant neighbors been less openly suspicious of the other. And even in the halcyon 1950s, when the two worker states were cooperat- ing on a broad range of industrial projects and the Chinese Communists called their Soviet counterparts "older brother," the friendship may have been more cosmetic than it is today. Soviet leader Josef Stalin made no attempt to mask his dislike for Mao Tse-tung. Mao, in turn, despised Nikita 66 99 D-EAL ON YOUR BOO-K$ Don't gamble when you sell your books! £ -x~ Here's a great reason to check out on-line: Classified line ads will Beginning with the Spring/Summer editions. Look for them beginning May 8th on the World Wide Web: http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/ Khrushchev. Moreover, today China and Russia are increasingly motivated by another common interest - their growing dis- affection with U.S. international lead- ership. "It's the Americans who are bring- ing them closer," a European diplo- mat here said. "The Russians feel shunted aside by the U.S. The C1g nese feel persecuted, particularly o' human rights, and need partners. For both of them it is useful to denton- strate to the outside world that they can get along." Most diplomats here doubt that the marriage of convenience will result in a true love fest, with China and Russia ganging up against the United States in the broader geopolitical arena. Serious problems continue. particularly in Russia's sparsely pop- lated Far East, where an estimated 200,000 illegal Chinese immigrants have spooked the local population into a panic about being swamped by a tide of people from neighboring Manchuria. "It's overstepping to say that the Chinese are playing the Russian card against the U.S.," another Western dip- lomat here said. "In both countri there is still a healthy degree of m' trust." But Western military experts will be watching closely what kind of arms contracts Yeltsin and Chinese Presi- dent Jiang Zemin announce after their fourth summit in four years. To boost his presidential campaign, Yeltsin needs to go back home with some fat con- tracts. The Chinese are expected to announce the purchase of another batch of vanced SU-27 fighteraircraftworthmot than $2.5 billion and conclude an agree- ment that would allow the Chines to assemble their own aircraft underRs- sian license. Other rumoredmilitarysales involve missile frigates and Kilo-lass attack submarines. Bilateral trade, which last year reached $5.5 billion, is more important to the Russians than the Chinese. China is Russia's second-largest trading p4 ner, behind Germany. China does more trade with eight other countries, in- cluding the tiny city-state of Singapore. But the numbers could change radi- cally after next week's visit. Th two countries are likely to unveil ahugeipe- line project to transport natural gas from Siberia to the Yellow Sea. And thekus- sians lust after a bigger piece of the Three Gorges DamprojectontheYangtze River China's biggest undertaking since construction of the Great Wall. In historic terms, the high point of Yeltsin's visit is likely to come next Thursday in Shanghai when Yeltsin, Jiang and the leaders of three northern borderstates-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - sign a far-reaching border demarcation treaty that in prin- ciple solves many of the outstanding issues along the long northern frontier. Color Printing Color Printing Color Printing Color Printing Ai "HOMESICK" RETRO NIGHT The original post-punk/new wave music night Late seventies/early eighties dance music with 89X's Cristina and DJ. Tom Doors 9 P.M. 18+ ,. The best in current modem rock dance music with DJ.'s Tom and Mike Scroggs Doors 9 P.M. 18+ All Beers: Bottled, Draft, Microbrews, Imports only $1.50 all night FLASHBACK to a scene from the past filled with the best dance music from the seventies and eighties with D.J.s Tom and Mike Scroggs Doors 9 P.M. 21+ , . e flkB 1 ( ~MichiganIw Union SATURDAY NITE FEVER DISCO PARTY The biggest Dance night in town. 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