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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 21, 1970)
I_I Vol. LXXI UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1970 No. 158 Morse attacks Indochina war By JOHN LANIER Of the Emerald “The President of the United States has to be told by the Con gress and the American people . . . that the time has come to stop escalating that war into Cambo dia, into Laos, into Thailand, and into Burma, and to bring those troops home now, right now!” That view of the current situa tion revolving around the war in Southeast Asia was expressed Wednesday evening by former Oregon Sen. Wayne Morse, who spoke to an overflow crowd of more than 1,200 persons in the EMU Ballroom. The veteran of 24 years in the Senate also called on President Nixon to “start an orderly with drawal of those forces immedi ately,” and to submit the matter of Vietnam and other Asian na tions in which the U.S. is involv ed to the United Nations. That body, the legal authority on international law, should have “complete jurisdiction over the settlement of the peace in that area of the world,” Morse said. One of the earliest critics of President Lyndon Johnson’s war policies in Vietnam, the former senator concentrated a large part of his talk upon an analysis of the “Constitutional crisis that confronts the nation." Morse explained this crisis in terms of whether or not Congress will have the “political courage” to reassert its control over fiscal appropriations and reassert its sole right to declare war. These powers, he said, have been continually “usurped” by the executive branch of the govern ment in the person of the presi dent as far as the situation in Southeast Asia is concerned. cords of 1962 which we signed.” The 1962 Geneva agreement guaranteed the neutrality of Cam badia against foreign invasion. Morse also warned that the U.S. is involved in a “major war,” both in the air and on land, in Cambodia’s neighbor, Laos. “The fact is that we are fight ing a war there,” he said, “and we are escalating it every day.” And finally, he told the audi ence to “keep your eyes on Bur ma,” where Morse said he fears a repetition of U.S. actions in other Southeast Asian lands. Oregon's former senior senator was one of only two members of the Senate who in 1964 voted against the Gulf of Tonkin resolu tion, the act which supposedly gave President Johnson power to send troops into Vietnam. In discussing the resolution Wednesday evening, Morse ac - cused the Johnson administration of “knowingly and deliberately” lying to the Senate and the American people about the facts surrounding the Tonkin Gulf in cident. He explained that the bill was “steamrolled” through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which he was a member and through the full Senate, under the leadership of Arkansas Sen. J. W. Fulbright. The only witnesses the senators were allowed to question about the matter, he said, were “the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, the joint chiefs of Staff and the CIA.” And the result, he said, was a "complete cover-up” in which the Senate has deliberately given false information in order to gain a quick approval of the resolu tion.” And this, he concluded, repre sents a grave threat to the dem ocratic nature of this country, al ready threatened by growing poli tical “repression” at home and a disastrous “defense economy” highlighted by huge military ex penditures. Morse called on Congress to tell the President: “Mr. Nixon, you either get those troops out of Vietnam or there isn't going to be any more money.” He lauded efforts by Senate lib erals to put through resolutions cutting off expenditures for the war, resolutions which he said are “long overdue” and will “give the military plenty of time to get the troops out.” “We have to make clear to this man in the White House,” Morse declared, “that we are not going to play part to any further escala tion of this war.” Referring to the recent Ameri can invasion of Cambodia, the one-time dean of the University’s Law School stated: “In Cambo dia we are in open violation of the Geneva Accords of 1954, to which we committed ourselves . . . and in violation of the Ac He added that he and others suspected the falsity of the facts at that time, that many express ed that concern, but that "to prove it was another matter.” "It was the U.S. that was the aggressor in the Tonkin Gulf,” Morse said, indicating that later research and investigations prov ed this beyond a shadow of a doubt. The U.S.S. Maddox, the de stroyer which was supposedly at tacked by the North Vietna mese leading to the resolution, was actually an American spy ship which violated several times the declared territorial waters of North Vietnam, he said. Under international law, he continued, the North Vietnamese therefore had every right to at tack the ship, which Morse con tended was actually a “decoy” in an intricate U.S. plot. And it was only after this inci dent and the rapid troop with drawals that followed that North Vietnam "recognized that she was at war with the United States" and began sending troops into South Vietnam, an act which legally “they had every right to do.” Photo by Bou Poelmann THIS MAVERICK, like many other cars Wednesday, faced a barricaded 13th Avenue between Kincaid and University Streets. Blocked since Tuesday night for a two week trial period through action by the Eugene City Council, the street will remain closed through Tuesday, June 2. Faculty votes to lower English comp requirements By PEARL BARREN Of the Emerald Working through a lengthy agenda, the Univer sity faculty Wednesday approved several motions including one to lower English composition require ments. Also passed were two motions concerning meet ing procedures, one authorizing the president to call the faculty into "executive session” and an other to allow the ASUO Senate president to speak at the meetings. The faculty disclosed, but took no action on a motion proposing a “disruption” clause addition to the Student Conduct Code and also a motion to change group requirements. Wednesday’s meeting was called to enable the faculty to finish up business they did not take care of at the regular monthly faculty meeting held last week. About 200 faculty members and a gallery of 75 students attended the meeting which appeared “back to normal” attendance-wise in comparison with the last two faculty meetings which drew much larger crowds of students and professors. The student audience, also unlike recent meet ings, was relatively quiet throughout except for one moment just as the meeting began. About four students dressed in white jackets and carrying chemical-filled flasks, entered the room asking with little response from faculty, “Nerve gas kills —what are you going to do about it?” The English composition motion, presented by English department head Roland Bartel, reduces the required number of term hours of writing from nine to six, effective summer term. The action will eliminate Wr 222, the course on techniques of writing research papers, as a re quired class for students. To complete their comp work students will take Wr 121, a course in fun damental writing skills, during their freshman year, and in their junior year will complete Wr 323, a course in writing closely coordinated with their major field. The “executive session” motion approval enables the president to call such a session at his discre tion, without first seeking the approval of the gen eral faculty. After debating an amendment to bar the press from such sessions, the faculty approved the orig inal motion which states that unless specifically barred by the President’s action, representatives of the press and the ASUO shall be admitted. ASUO President Ron Eachus, however, told the faculty "it seems to me inconsistent with the democratic process to even go into executive ses sion.” He added that “if you call an executive ses sion and expect us (the students) to leave in the middle of a meeting, then you’re underestimating us.” The decision to recognize the ASUO Senate presi dent means three students are now officially allow ed to speak at the faculty meetings. Also author ized to speak are the ASUO president and any student representative he selects. The motion, with amendments, approved by the faculty in effect will require the faculty president to call on the senate president to make a re port to the body on any issue being discussed by the faculty which the student senate has acted up on. The senate president can also be recognize 1 at any other point during faculty debate to ex press his views relevant to the issue. The faculty voted to refer back to the faculty senate the proposed disruption clause addition to the Student Conduct Code and amendments to it. The decision came after much debate over the wording of the proposed changes. Speech Prof. Bower Aly proposed that the sen ate go over the proposal again “in view of the gravity and misunderstanding of the motion.” “We must have some clear definition of tres pass under the Student Conduct Code,” he said, but added that he thought the proposed changes needed to be worked on to present a “new lan guage” which more people could agree upon. The proposed disruption clause addition was for mulated by the Student Conduct Committee The proposal would make the disruptive activities cov ered in the clause violations of the code punish able by disciplinary probation. The clause would make the following a sanction able violation: “Participation in disruptive activ ity. Disruptive activities are those which are in tended to block access to University buildings or rooms; interrupt or prevent any activity or oper ation of the University or interfere with any per son’s right of free speech or assembly; or vio late the confidentiality of records of the University and its members.” The Faculty Senate recommended an amend ment to the clause which adds that disruptive ac tivities include “failure to comply when directed, by a person with authority to do so, to leave a University building, room or other facility; or to cease the use of loudspeakers, amplifiers, or other forms of noise.” Several faculty members objected to the amend ment because they said, it would make it possible for a two fold charge to be made against students, with out charge for the offense itself and another for failure to obey an order. Biology Prof. John Menninger objected to the amendment saying, “the order may be legitimately given by the right person and in the right form, but it may be irrelevant to what’s happening.” Faculty members also questioned who would be considered “a person with authority.” Student representative Don Chalmers, a mem ber of the Conduct Committee, said the faculty senate amendment was “redundant” because provis ions for the acts it included are covered in other parts of the code. The faculty briefly discussed a motion from the ad hoc committee on undergraduate education, to change group requirements. Essentially, the motion maintains the requirement that students take cour ses in each of the three liberal arts group areas. However, it is designed to provide more options by eliminating sequence requirements and only setting a specific number of term hours to be completed in each area. The faculty took no action on the matter, but adjourned after University President Robert Clark broke a tie vote on whether or not to continue the meeting.
