Amnesty issue part of [
the problem of peace
By DAVID E. ANDERSON
WASHINGTON (UPI) — In the aftermath of the
U.S. disengagement from Indochina, Americans
anil be watching with interest to see if President
ffRtyn stands by his campaign pledge to “never”
grant amnesty to the tens of thousands of young
men who refused service in the war.
The emotional issue of amnesty is certain to
again be debated in Congress and throughout
America as the United States completes the task of
ending its Indochina involvement, withdrawing its
remaining servicemen from the soil of South
Vietnam and receiving its prisoners of war.
There now are an estimated 500 draft resisters
in federal jails and perhaps as many as 70,000 other
men living abroad in self-imposed exile because
they refused to accept service in the war.
( Analysis
In the heat of last fall’s campaign, the President
took a hard line on the issue.
“Don’t worry about that amnesty — never,”
Nixon told an Ohio family whose son had been killed
in Vietnam. It was one of the dramatic moments of
the campaign which saw Nixon bury in a landslide
his Democratic opponent, Sen. George McGovern,
who advocated an amnesty once the war was over
and U.S. prisoners were returned.
Nixon also said during the campaign:
“It is time to draw the line on this issue once and
for all. There will be no amnesty for draft dodgers
and deserters after the war.”
The President’s campaign statements con
trasted with a remark he made in a television in
terview in January, 1972. He said at that time that
he would be “very liberal with regard to amnesty.” !
Nixon’s campaign stand obviously was a
papular one. There are many who think it just plain
wrong that any kind of forgiveness be granted those
who violated the law and refused to fight for their
country.
Perhaps the most emotional argument against
amnesty is that it is unfair to those who fought and
died in Vietnam — and to these who spent some of
the best years of their lives in prison camps.
But those on the other side of the issue will
make a fight of it. Antiwar groups have pledged
themselves to work for amnesty.
Sen. Robert Taft Jr., R-Ohio, is one member of
Congress who has taken a middle ground on the
question.
Last year he introduced legislation which would
grant amnesty “under certain conditions” to
persons who failed or refused to register for the
draft or refused induction into the armed forces. §
Taft at the time he offered his bill cited
American casualties in the Indochina war and said,
“we should not grant amnesty to draft resisters
without requiring them to undertake service to their
country.” I
Taft, a supporter of Nixon, suggested that
young men currently imprisoned or in exile should
be released or allowed to return if they agreed to i
serve the United States—either in the military or in :j
a form of alternate service—for three years.
“We must decide whether it is more in our in- $
terest to have them spend their time in jail and in \
bitter exile or to offer them a practical course of j
amnesty,” Taft said. 3
It is a decision that apparently will have to be j
made in the coming months. But it also is a decision i
in which the President would have to play a role, 3
and he remains on record with his statement of 3
“never.” j
A difference in priorities
Nixon budget opposed
WASHINGTON (UPI) — President Nixon
Monday proposed a $268.7 billion budget and at least
a two-year moratorium on tax increases, and
challenged Congress to stay within those limits or
take full blame for inflation and higher taxation.
Some Democratic lawmakers immediately
attacked the President’s fiscal priorities, claiming
they would sacrifice the well-being of “the common
man” to big business and the military-industrial
complex. Most Republicans hailed it as the tight
purse-tending the nation needs.
House Speaker Carl Albert, D-Okla., contending
that the President would end the “humanitarian
government” dating back to New Deal days, said in
a statement: “It is a big-business budget that leaves |
the common man out.’’
“The President proposes nothing less than the \
systematic dismantling and destruction of the great
social programs and' the great precedents of j
humanitarian government inaugurated by Franklin
Roosevelt and advanced and enlarged by every
Democratic president since,” said Albert.
Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott told
reporters: “If Congress busts the budget, it will
invite vetoes, and if the vetoes are overridden, it
will invite impoundments.”
Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield said
he agreed with the President that the government
should keep a tight lid on its spending, “but I think
there will be a difference of opinion as far as
priorities are concerned.”
UPI Roundup
I Agnew arrives in Guam
i
AGANA, Guam— Vice-President Spiro Agnew arrived in
Guam Monday en route to South Vietnam and other
Southeast Asian countries for post-war discussions with then
leaders and a possible role in greeting returning U.S.
prisoners of war. Agnew’s next stop was Saigon. Agnew
issued no statements and did not meet newsmen on his
arrival on Guam, which officials described as a rest stop. His
mission is to take him to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand,
Laos, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. The first official
meeting is expected to start Tuesday with South Vietnamese
President Nguyen Van Thieu.
And the peace goes on
SAIGON — Despite a cease-fire agreement, the Vietnam
war raged on today with Saigon reporting 426 separate
battles and at least 371 battlefield deaths during the first 22
hours of a technical peace. The number of clashes, Saigon
said, was higher than at any time during the war itself. No
American casualties were reported among the dead or
wounded. The United States still has 27,000 servicemen in
South Vietnam!, but under the terms of the peace treaty
signed Saturday in Paris, they will leave within 60 days.
i B-52s bombJLaos, Cambodia
WASHINGTON—American warplanes — including
— bombed both Cambodia and Laos Sunday and mnHmiwi
the bombing in Laos Monday, the Defense Department said.
The raids were flown against Communist positions, but
Pentagon sources said North Vietnamese units were not
among the targets. A spokesman said all of the raids in
Cambodia halted before 7 p m EST Sunday — the start of a
unilateral end to offensive military operations by govern
ment forces ordered by President Lon Nol. It was the first
time since the Vietnam cease-fire went into effect Saturday
night that U.S. officials had acknowledged B5% were con
tinuing to bomb other parts of Indochina.
Abortion decision draws support
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, criticized from
many of the nation’s pulpits Sunday for its recent abortion
ruling, Monday picked up the support of a leader of American
Reform Judaism. Rabbi Balfour Brickner, director of the
Union of American Hebrew Congregations’ Commission on
Interfaith Activities, hailed the Court’s decision, which said
an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy was a
matter of concern solely between a woman and her doctor, as
“wise and courageous.’’ “At a time when many in this
country are deeply troubled by the threat to civil rights and
individual liberties which they see emanating from other
branches of government, this decision should do much to
restore the people’s faith in the ability of the democratic
process to preserve those rights and liberties,’’ Brickner
said. At least one Roman Catholic organization, the Society
for a Christian Commonwealth, has called for active op
position to the Supreme Court ruling and on Sunday, the
controversial ruling was the subject for sermons in many
Roman Catholic churches.
In Watergate trial
Prosecution presents final arguments
WASHINGTON UPI— In its final
argument to the jury, the prosecution in
the Watergate bugging trial charged
Monday that two former officials of
President Nixon’s re-election campaign
diverted thousands of dollars in campaign
funds to their own use.
After an hour-long argument by
prosecutor Earl Silbert, U.S. District
Judge John Sirica recessed the trial until
Tuesday morning when the defense will
present its closing argument. The jury is
expected to receive the case Tuesday
afternoon.
Silbert, in his emotional summation,
said evidence had overwhelmingly proved
the guilt of G. Gordon Liddy and James
McCord.
Pointing at McCord, a former CIA and
FBI agent, Silbert said:
“A former CIA agent. Isn’t it sad? A
former FBI agent. Isn’t it sad?”
“...He and Liddy were off on an en
terprise of their own, diverting that
campaign money to their own uses.”
Silbert did not elaborate on his charge
that the two men diverted the money for
personal use, but lie apparently referred to
testimony last week by tellers from a bank
in suburban Maryland that McCord on
three separate occasions last spring made
deposits of $10,000 in $100 bills.
Hugh Sloan, Jr., former treasurer of the
Nixon campaign committee, testified last
Tuesday that he gave Liddy $199,000, but
did not know for what purpose. Sloan also
testified that he destroyed the detailed
records of the specific cash disbursements
made to Liddy in amounts ranging up to
$83,000.
He said McCord was in “such sad
shape” financially that he willingly par
ticipated in the political espionage plot
directed at high-level Democrats.
Although Liddy was directed by cam
paign officials to gather political in
telligence, Silbert said, “He wasn’t content
to do what he was supposed to do — he had
to divert it it, he had to turn it.”
As for McCord, Silbert said, “He knew
what he was doing. He knew everything he
was doing with his experience in security
at the CIA.
Liddy and McCord are charged with
conspiracy, burglary, bugging and
wiretapping in connection with the break
in at Democratic National Headquarters
in the Watergate Hotel-apartment com
plex June 17.
At the time, McCord was security chief
for the Nixon campaign and Liddy was a
consultant to Nixon’s campaign finance
committee.
Silbert said the original intent to collect
political intelligence “began to veer off
toward the illegal” in May last year when
the conspirators began plotting to bug
Democratic Headquarters and George
McGovern’s campaign offices. Through it
all, Silbert said, Liddy was the ring leader
— using an alias, giving orders, and
paying bills.
“Since when does a lawyer — a general
counsel for a major campaign committee
have to run around the country to
California and Miami and in his own city
using an alias if he’s involved in
legitimate, lawful and valid activity?”
Silbert said.
Winding up McCord’s case, attorney
Gerald Alch took only 10 minutes to
present four witnesses. Peter Maroulis,
Liddy’s attorney, took somewhat longer in
presenting seven witnesses.
Judge Sirica has yet to pass sentence of
the five who pleaded guilty to the charges:
E. Howard Hunt, Jr., a former White
House staff member, and Bernard Barker,
Eugenio Martinez, Frank Strugis and
Virgilio Gonzalez, all of Miami.
The attorneys for Liddy and McCord
made their brief presentations after the
prosecution had presented the last of its 51
witnesses since the trial opened Jan. 8 in
an effort to prove the two men joined with
the other five in a conspiracy to spy mi
the Democratic high command.
Maroulis suggested that Liddy was
being forced to shoulder the guilt while
higher officials in President Nixon’s
campaign go free.
Maroulis told the jurors Liddy had no
“guilty knowledge ” of the break-in.
Maroulis stressed that the prosecution
had carefully sketched a “chain of com
mand” in the Nixon campaign in which
four top officials—Jeb Magruder, Herbert
Porter, Robert Odle, Jr., and Hugh Solan
Jr. — authorized and paid for Liddy’s
espionage but said they knew nothing
about the Watergate affair. “I will bring
forth facts that will show there was a line
of innocence in this chain of command,”
Maroulis said.