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.