THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
80th Year, No. 61
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Monday, Dec. 15, 1969
UDK News Roundup
RENTON, Wash.-The Boeing Co. blames a crew miscalculation for the first in-flight accident involving the new 362-passenger 747 superjet.
The plane touched down short of the Renton Airport Saturday, knocking loose one set of landing gear, part of a wing flap and the right outside engine cowling.
By United Press International
'Super jet' hits short
No one was injured when the plane skidded 2,500 feet down the runway in a shower of sparks.
SAIGON—The U.S. Command officially announced today the completion of President Nixon's "Phase Two" withdrawal of 35,000 more men from Vietnam and said another 11,500 had left without fanfare.
Headquarters gave no explanation for the departure of the additional 11,500 Americans, who were expected to become part of the "Phase Three" pullout to be announced by the President tonight.
'Phase Two' complete
Media criticized again
BALTIMORE—Dr. Milton Eisenhower today criticized the news media for giving more attention to the conflicts dividing the American people than to providing information needed by citizens to overcome the nation's problems.
Eisenhower, chairman of the national Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, cited Vietnam, inflation, crime and the debate over national, state and local priorities as "problems of great complexity and magnitude."
"My one criticism of the mass news media," Eisenhower said in an interview with United Press International, "is that for a long, long time it has given greater news value to conflict than it has to the fundamental knowledge that the people need in order to make wise, democratic decisions."
1.
Carols spread holiday spirit
The carrill chimed, Christmas carols rang forth from Hoch Auditorium's outdoor balcony and, inside, the candles were solemnly lit. And the KU School of Fine Arts presented the 45th annual Christmas Vespers program with tableaux designed by the Department of Design.
The University Choirs, Symphony Orchestra and Brass Ensemble, from the floor, stage and balcony of Hoch, presented time-hallowed Christmas carols, a selection from Handel's "Messiah" and other offerings, and the audience accompanied them to several carols.
Marshall McLuhan made an effect in a tableau of flashing blocks of color and slides of Christmas and Madonna and Child paintings from various eras.
Photo by Ron Bishop
'Joy to the world!'
Nixon speaks tonight, troop cutbacks likely
WASHINGTON (UPI)—President Nixon will give the nation an updated report on the Vietnam situation Monday night in a special address that is expected to include announcement of further U.S. troop withdrawals.
Presidential Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler, who revealed the President's plans Sunday at the White House, said the speech would be limited to about five minutes and be broadcast live at 6 p.m. EST over most if not all radio and television networks.
Nixon promised during his news conference last Monday to announce an additional troop cutback around Christmas. On Tuesday he told a group of congressmen he would announce the reduction in a report similar to the one he gave the nation on Nov. 3.
"The President will make a brief report to the American people on recent developments regarding the Vietnam situation," Ziegler told reporters at the White House. "The report will be an update of the President's Nov. 3 address."
Nixon appealed then to the "silent majority" of Americans for support of his policy of gradual withdrawal from the war.
It was believed the President may order up to 40,000 more American troops home—bringing the total to more than 100,000 this year—the timetable recommended by former Defense Secretary Clark M. Clifford. Nixon announced a 25,000-man reduction in June and another 35,000-man cutback in September.
U. S. military authorities in Saigon report there are now 474,000
American troops in South Vietnam.
Nixon plans to pull almost all U.S. troops from South Vietnam by the end of 1971, leaving fewer than 40,000 soldiers there as advisers, Time magazine said Sunday.
Nixon recently told a Republican senator who was one of the most persistent critics of former President Lyndon B. Johnson's war policies that he wants to virtually eliminate American involvement in Vietnam by 1972, Time said.
The President's intelligence sources say the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong have had their fill of heavy fighting and will use Nixon's withdrawal plan to "save face" by claiming they drove the Americans out of South Vietnam,
(Continued to page 12)
Doubts remain despite draft lottery
By MONROE DODD
Kansan Staff Writer
Reports from Selective Service headquarters in Kansas and other states indicate that men with high draft lottery numbers may not be as safe as they had believed after the December 1 drawing.
There are several reasons for this, some of which spring from the psychological effect of those original estimates on the men concerned.
The Department of Defense has said that it will need 550,000 new servicemen in 1970. 300,000 of these were expected to volunteer; the remaining 250,000 would have had to be drafted. It was thought that the 300,000 volunteers would have come equally from all number holders in the lottery.
But, men with so-called "hot" numbers (001 to 122) have apparently rushed to enlist, while "cool"-numbered men have felt safer than before the lottery and held back.
Local boards, which fill their quotas with both volunteers and draftees, may now have the same percentage of volunteers as originally projected.
yet those volunteers would hold predominantly lower numbers.
With fewer men with lower numbers available for the draft, the boards must reach higher to meet their quotas.
The National Guard and Reserves have drawn many men who hold low lottery numbers. However, local boards are not given credit for nonactive armed forces enlistments, so they must go deeper into their I-A pools—and higher in the lottery numbers.
Those who were I-A before the draft lottery, and willing to take their chances on the "oldest first" system, are in many cases now applying for deferments. Once again, the available pool of low-numbered men becomes smaller.
Court rulings which declare some I-A reclassifications invalid are opening new deferment loopholes.
The distribution of lottery numbers differs from board to board. One local board in western Kansas has a registrant born on September 14 (No.001) and several others whose birthdates put
them below 010. But the adjacent board's first eligible man was born on the 117th date drawn.
Thus, there can be no nationwide or even statewide determination of exactly how high in lottery numbers calls will go. The actual reckoning must be at the local level.
Economic circumstances of the draftable men within each board's jurisdiction can prove radically different. In urban area boards, there is a larger proportion of unemployed men than in farm counties. The unemployed will be more likely to enlist, thus reducing the number of men that must be drafted in their area.
Also, draft calls past January 1970 have not been announced by the Defense Department. Should there be a reduction in national manpower needs, fewer men would be susceptible to the draft.
The draft lottery accomplished its primary purpose, to reduce the "period of uncertainty" from seven years to one, and yet it seems to give little better indication than before whether or not a man will be called during that year.