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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 1970)
ViVPrtV.*W.-.V.V.V ■ - * ■ .■ ..'■ . 7- : • '.v ' ;.y,. • . - ; ■ ::: : •: : : • • • • •. ..••• Che Battalion Cooler, cloudy, windy Wednesday — Partly cloudy to cloudy. Winds 10-15 mph. Low 44 degrees, high 67 degrees. Thursday — Cloudy to partly cloudy. Winds light and variable. Low 41 degrees, high 69 degrees. Kyle Field — Partly cloudy, easterly winds 10-15 mph. 67 de grees. Vol. 66 No. 34 College Station, Texas Wednesday, October 28, 1970 845-2226 Great Issues audience signs petitions to Hanoi By PAM TROBOY Battalion Staff Writer Almost 200 people responded Tuesday night to a plea for a show of concern for American prisoners of war in Vietnam. An overflow Great Issues crowd signed petitions to be sent to Hanoi, picked up literature on former students being held pris oner and took home letters to be forwarded to North Vietnamese negotiators in Paris. A&M students also will man a booth Saturday in the Memorial Student Center to give football fans an opportunity to sign the petitions. Speaking to his first campus crowd, Air Force Maj. Gen. Fred N. Thompson, a prisoner of the North Vietnamese for five months, said when people “back home in places like College Sta tion and Bryan” show concern for POWs and MIAs (missing in action), North Vietnam “worries.” ‘‘Vietnam wonders if the Presi dent speaks for our people when he stands up and says: ‘Release the prisoners!’,” Thompson said. "Petitions and letters may con vince them that the President does speak for the people on this issue.” He said there is ample evidence that Vietnam will respond to pres sure from the United States. “In February and August of 1968, Hanoi released short-term prisoners who were not sick or wounded — those that looked good,” he said. “They did this to convince the world that they take good care of their prisoners. In May of 1969, the U. S. made pub lic the first reports of how badly the prisoners are treated. “We announced that they kept the sick and wounded without proper medical treatment,” he said. “In August they released three guys who had been prison ers for more than two years and who had been sick or wounded.” Thompson said only 257 letters had been received from prisoners before the United States accused Vietnam of mistreating our men, but since that time more than 2,000 letters have been received in less than a year. “Maybe a letter doesn’t seem like much,” he said, “but try telling that to a family that has had its first word in five years that a son or husband is alive. A letter can mean an awful lot.” Thompson called for the Viet namese to release all sick and wounded prisoners “immediately,” to publish a complete list of all prisoners, to agree to an impartial inspection of prison camps by a neutral power and to eventually release all prisoners. A veteran of 263 combat mis sions, Thompson was shot down March 20, 1968, 65 miles north of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in North Vietnam and captured as soon as he touched the ground. He was released Aug. 1, 1968. He said he was stripped, tied and thrown in a trench after his capture and moved to Hanoi (about 200 miles way) in 10 stages, traveling by night and stopping in native villages by day where the populace took out their hostility toward Americans on him. “Anything you can think of, they did,” he said. “If anything the women and children were even worse than the men. They threw rocks, hit me, kicked me and spit on me, but only up to a point. My captors evidently had been ordered to get me to Hanoi in one piece, which wasn’t easy at times. We had to leave one village pretty fast because things got out of hand.” When he arrived in Hanoi, he said he was taken to “Heart- (See Great Issues, page 5) Shot down in North Vietnam ‘Scary as hell’ prisoner says By HAYDEN WHITSETT Battalion News Editor “I got hit by small arms fire when I was in a 10-degree dive at about 100 feet. When I start ed to pull out the controls jammed. I was in too much of a dive to eject so I stayed in the plane.” Maj. Fred N. Thompson of the Air Force leaned back on the pillow behind him and lit a cigar ette. He was speaking of how he became a prisoner of w a r in North Vietnam. “I guess I was doing 450 mph Problems with the law? call rights commission By SUE DAVIS Battalion Staff Writer An organization to aid students in trouble with the law exists on the A&M campus. By calling a member of this organization, stu dents may receive information and help in solving their legal problems. The Legal Rights Commission (IRC), set up under the Life Committee of the Student Senate last year, is growing in size and in the scope of its operations, said Chairman David Reynolds. Originally almost a one-man com mission headed by David Zoellner last year, the LRC now has six members. “Dave (Zoellner) had an almost impossible task last year,” Rey nolds said, “with no precedents or well-defined policy to guide the commission’s actions.” The LRC was conceived in Oc tober, 1969, and set up the follow ing December by the Student Sen ate. Approximately 100 calls were received last year, with 20 cases important enough to be written up for the files, Reynolds said. Eight or ten calls have been received this year, Reynolds stat ed, and the LRC has taken four or five cases to their conclusion, including three on-campus disci plinary cases. ‘‘There are even more Aggies on campus who have never been helped,” he added. So far only men have called the commission. Students in trouble may call any members of the LRC at any time, Reynolds said, whose phone number is 856-2692. Vice-chairman on the LRC are Don Mauro, 846-5278, in charge of the traffic division; Bill Sherle, 845-2108, in charge of on-campus disciplinary division; and Paul Turner, 845-5048, in charge of the misdemeanor division. “These students are very com petent and dedicated individuals who were recruited for their spe cific specialties,” Reynolds com mented. Other members of the LRC are Joe Kornegay, 845-1870, and Mal colm Hofstetter, 845-4349. Although the LRC was orig inally set up to secure students’ civil and legal rights, Reynolds said, it dealt mainly with students who “simply needed some advice on misdemeanor or traffic cases.” The LRC cannot dispense legal advice without a license to prac tice law, he went on. However, they can advise students of pre cedents in similiar cases and pro vide them with procedural infor mation. “In fact, with the help of local lawyers, we may even have some limited substantive expertise,” Reynolds said. “In on-campus disciplinary matters, we are much less re stricted,” he added. “We plan to develop a subcommittee dealing exclusively with giving advice to students facing expulsion or other disciplinary sanctions and even defending them, if necessary, be fore the Dean or the Disciplinary Appeals Panel.” when I hit the tops of the trees. All I could see was branches whipping past the canopy. For some reason or another, I guess the plane, a FIDO fighter, was traveling flat enough, it actually rose up and started climbing. “I headed for a ridge up in front of me, knowing that if I made it over the ridge I could be rescued. Just as that idea ran through my head the plane start ed to roll so I figured I better eject. I was about 100 to 200 feet above the ground then. “I got down to the ground and a little brown kid came running up to me and pointed a rifle at my chest. I just smiled at him. “The day I was shot down I had just pinned on my major’s leaves and I had only ten days to go before my tour was over.” Lean built and beginning to grey, Thompson is one of nine men to be released by North Vietnam since the war’s begin ning. There are over 1,500 men listed as prisoners or missing in action—15 of them are Aggies. “It was scary as hell till I got to Hanoi, then just scary,” Thompson said, laughing. He said when he was captured he was publicly displayed for the 10 days it took him to make the 200-mile trip to Hanoi. “When they displayed me, they encouraged the people to fight and to take out any animosity they had on me,” he said. “I saw a lot of hatred in their eyes. They threw rocks and sticks, and spit on me. They would have killed me if they could have.” Once, he said, the crowd was raised to such a high pitch of excitement that they did try to kill him. When the guai-ds caring (See ‘Scary,’ page 5) Vietnam topic at extra forum A student may appeal only sus pension or dismission, he said. The LRC will advise him and help set up his defense. Membership on the commission is open to anyone who is interest ed in the law, who is even vaguely familiar with the law, or who has a desire to help students, Reynolds said. Anyone interested should contact Reynolds. Town Hall hosts Mauriat orchestra Reynolds believes it is time to expand the LRC’s activities. “I see us working principally in three areas: misdemeanor of fenses, traffic offenses, and on- campus disciplinary matters,” he said. Game tickets still available Pickup deadline for student tickets to the Texas A&M-Arkan- sas game Saturday afternoon has been extended to Friday, Athle tic Business Manager Wally Groff said Tuesday. Groff said two sections of stu dent seating still are available. “I would encourage the student body to support the Aggie team in its quest for that still elusive victory,” Student Body President Kent Caperton said. “The team and Coach Gene Stallings deserve our continued support. “It is in the tradition of this student body to support the team through bad times as well as good,” Caperton added. Musical architect Paul Mauriat and his orchestra will build their distinctive musical mood in G. Rollie White Coliseum Friday in a football weekend Town Hall- Rotary guest performance. Arranger of the phenomenally successful “Love Is Blue,” Mau riat and his imaginative treat ment of “now” music is expected to pack G. Rollie’s 8,000 seats for the 8 p.m. show. An extensive program will fea ture music of Burt Bacharach (“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”), Bob Dylan, the Mar- Keys, Paul McCartney, Simon and Garfunkel (“Bridge Over Troubled Water”) and Michel LeGrand (“Windmills of Your Mind” and “Oh Happy Day.” “Gone Is Love,” title piece from Paul Mauriat’s latest LP album, also is listed. Town Hall and Rotary Series season pass holders and students with activity cards, have assured seats. Rotary season general ad mission tickets may be exchanged for available reserve seats, Town Hall chairman Bill Leftwich said. Single admission reserve and general admission tickets are al so on sale at the Memorial Stu dent Center Student Program Office. Mauriat, who formed his first orchestra when he was 17, sets the stage with 30 instrumental ists, three singers and a specially constructed 12 - channel sound system. Breaking from the traditional platform set-up as with his music, Mauriat creates four lev els on the stage. Farthest from the audience (creating a back drop of sound) are the violins. On descending levels are the per cussion and trumpets; in front of these the voices, two guitars and the trombones; and on stage level the piano, harpsichord, Martenot Musical Waves, drums and saxophones. “The Paul Mauriat Orchestra is the one to watch for innova tions in modern sound,” a critic said. Graduated from Marseilles Conservatory at age 14 with first prizes in piano and solfeggio, Mauriat aimed for a classical music career. He encountered jazz, was struck by the idiom’s new rhyth mic forms and turned his musi cal sights on combining his clas sical training with the improvi- zational freedom of jazz. Mau riat’s music eventually took on another quality—one most timely for the 1960s and ’70s—the mel odic clarity found in all folk music. By FRAN HAUGEN Battalion Managing Editor The soapbox forum, sponsored by the Student Senate and Great Issues Committee, will hold a special forum Thursday night at 5 to discuss the war, Student Sen ate President Kent Caperton said. This will be in addition to the regularly scheduled forum Thurs day from 11 a. m. to 1 p. m. Both forums will be at the re viewing stand on the drill field. Caperton said topics other than the war could be discussed, but that the forum was being called to discuss the war because of an expressed desire by members of the Campus Committee of Con cern. The CCOC has been denied per mission by the administration to hold an antiwar rally Thursday at 5 p. m. on the drill field, Mike van Bavel, publicity chairman for CCOC said Tuesday. Van Bavel said members of the CCOC took a resolution to the Senate requesting guarantee of constitutional freedoms. The exec utive committee of the senate said that such a measure had already been passed and any further ac tion on this would be redundant, he said. The Senate then suggested the CCOC write a letter to Dean of Students James P. Hannigan re questing a rally, and this was done, Van Bavel said. Van Bavel said the group noti fied Monday by Hannigan no rally could be held that was not sponsored by a recognized, on- campus group. The CCOC then went to Acting President A. R. Luedecke who Tuesday morning reiterated Hannigan’s decision, van Bavel said. The junior electrical engineer ing major said CCOC members will be present at the forum to discuss the war and “the adminis tration.” Van Bavel said that three or four individuals would resubmit the request for a rally to Hanni gan today without sponsorship by the CCOC. “The CCOC wouldn’t be in volved at all,” he said, the people who make the request might be on the CCOC by coincidence. The administration won’t be able to use the reason that the CCOC is sponsoring the rally because the CCOC won’t be sponsoring this one.” Hannigan said that CCOC mem bers Sandy Broder and Charles Liner had come to his office around Sept. 24 and had wanted to know if they could hold a rally as “two separate students.” He told them that the soapbox forum was set up for “this type of activity” and they could ar range with the Senate for a dis cussion of the war and advertise through the Senate, he said. “They went to the Senate,” he said, “and somewhere along the line they took off their masks and said they were from the CCOC. This was the last I heard about it until five or six days ago when I received a letter from Broder- CCOC coordinator, stating that there would be a rally. He didn’t ask, just stated. I notified them that they had no permission— that it would not be appropriate.” Hannigan said that if individ uals were allowed to hold rallys on there own, there would be 14,000 conflicting events at the same time. “I din’t see any more reason for the CCOC as an unrecognized off-campus group to hold a rally than for the Klu Klux Klan to march across the parade field, or the Bryan Chamber of Commerce to meet in the Memorial Student Center,” he said. “It’s no new thing for an off- campus group to use campus facil ities,” van Bavel said. “The ‘pig growers association’ or something like that uses the MSC rooms all the time.” He said if the CCOC sponsored a rally, it would not mean that non-CCOC members couldn’t speak. “We’re just trying to make sure A&M has free speech at all times and not just two hours a week at the soapbox forum,” he said. Maj. Fred N. Thompson (Photo by Hayden Whitsett) Abortion woman’s decision: Packwood By HAYDEN WHITSETT Battalion News Editor “We have no more right as a government to compel pregnancy than to compel abortion,” Sen. Robert Packwood, (R-Ore.), who has authored Senate legislation to remove all restriction against abortion and to limit the number of children claimed as tax deduc- toihs to two, said Tuesday noon. It’s the woman’s decision, not yours nor mine and least of all, the government’s,” the 37-year- old .senator said at the Political Forum presentation. Speaking of population, he said “there is no large town in this country that is a habitable place to live.” I’ve spoken in every large city in this country and visited a lot more. There ai - e none suitable for living.” Packwood based his opinions on what he calls the “Packwood pop ulation postulate.” The postulate, he said, is “the quality of life is inversely proportional to the number of people times the square of the area in which they live.” “I would like to think there is more to this life than just mini mum standards of how many peo ple we can feed, shelter, and clean up after,” Packwood told a standing room only crowd. The senator suggested four possible steps to answer the Unit ed States’ growing population problem. “We should have massive fam ily planning, legalized abortion, voluntary sterilization, and, probably the most effective, a limit of two on the number of tax deductions for children,” he said. The last “would not prohibit having children, but would allow tax deductions for only two. It would not be retroactive, or ap plicable to children already con ceived. Neither would it apply to adoptions or to multiple births,” he added. “There is no guarantee any or all will work to stabilize popula tion growth,” Packwood said. “But unless we do something, it will keep growing.” A major problem, according to Packwood, is the use of two words, “they” and “can’t.” “The citizens say “they,” re ferring to the politicians, and never think that they can work for population control. The politi cians say “can’t” to say “I won’t” or “I don’t want to.” “I’m damn tired of politicians who find the public pulse and stay within it,” he said. “Politicians should lead, stick their necks out, not stay within bounds and work for reelection.” After his 30 minute speech, Packwood fielded questions on a variety of topics. On executive branch assistance for his legislation: “Military hos pitals have changed their position on abortion and stated they are not bound by state aboi’tion laws.” On legalized abortion effects elsewhere: “Romania made abor tions legal and the birth rate went into a decline. They got worried, made it illegal and the rate start ed to climb.” U. S. immigration: “A decision will be needed. Under present laws, the country allows in 17 million each 20 years, counting children.” Oregon voter support: “It’s a single-issue issue with them, meaning I could get defeated over this one thing. It’s only happened twice beore, on fluoridation of drinking water and gun control.” Other countries adopting birth control: “We can’t be hypocritical. Hopefully by setting an example we can gain followers.” Congressional support of his bill: “Only (Charles H.) Chuck Percy (R-UL). Even the bach elors don’t support it.” Urban mass transit solution: “I know it’s not the automobile. I’m willing to try the subway, or monorail. There’s probably no sure-fire answer.” Other environmental legisla tion: “I’m particularly interested in land use, for parks, preserves, etc. We must get hold of it while we can. I personally don’t want to see happen to the West what has happened in the East. Applications for day permits for spring due before Nov. 12 Students now living in resi dence halls who wish to apply for day student permits for the spring semester must do so by Nov. 12, Housing Manager Allan M. Madeley announced Tuesday. Madeley said applications re ceived in the Housing Office by Nov. 12 will be acted on in time for preregistration. Those after Nov. 12, he said, will not be acted on until after the preregisti-ation period, and students making late applications will be assessed resi dence hall fees. Civilian students should file ap plications with the Housing of fice, Madeley said, and corps stu dents should contact J. Malon Southerland in room 105 of the Military Science Building. Students already living off campus will not need to file a new application for the spring, Madeley said. He noted all single, male un dergraduate students are required to live on campus unless living with families. Exceptions to the policy, he said, are made only under “most unusual” circum stances. University National Bank “On the side of Texas A&M.” —Adv.