THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
80th Year, No. 75
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1970
UDK News Roundup
By United Press International
Pentagon misuses funds
WASHINGTON—Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., said today the Pentagon has "usurped," "absorbed" or "heisted" $10 billion in savings that should have resulted from defense spending cuts.
"The Pentagon has heisted $10 billion of the peace dividend," he said. "The long-suffering taxpayers have been robbed of $10 billion in tax relief or improved domestic services or a combination of the two."
"He said the $10 billion in savings were eaten up by new weapons systems."
TUNIS—Secretary of State William P. Rogers drew the first anti-American demonstrations of his African tour before opening talks today with Tunisian leaders in his reappraisal of U.S. policy toward the continent.
Visit draws protests
Rogers arrived Monday night from Rabat, Morocco, shortly after more than 100 students tried to march on the U.S. embassy in Tunis. About 2,000 others gathered downtown shouting "Nixon Assassin!" Police dispersed them.
WASHINGTON—Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., says he may release secret transcripts showing an "exceedingly disturbing" escalation of U.S. involvement in the civil war in Laos.
U.S. extends war to Laos
Gore charged on his own authority that "we are engaging now in a civil war in Laos and we have chosen sides just as we did earlier in Vietnam."
And despite a pledge by President Nixon to reduce U.S. involvement overseas, Gore said, the United States had "increased our involvement and our presence in Laos and the government refuses publicly to admit it."
Photo by Ron Bishop
More office space for extension division arrives
Mobile buildings to be used for University office space were maneuvered into an empty lot north of the union Monday.
The KU extension buildings arrived in half sections. Similar buildings set between Summerfield Hall and New Haworth Hall.
Rights bill near finish
The Student Senate Student Rights, Privileges and Responsibilities committee will finish drafting a student bill of rights this week.
The bill, if accepted by the senate, would affect the rights of all University of Kansas Students.
Chris Morgan, Emporia third year law student and chairman of the committee, announced that the student bill of rights will be printed in its entirety in the Wednesday edition of the Kansan.
Entitled the "Code for Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct at the University of
Kansas," the document essentially is a bill of rights written to protect the student's rights in certain areas.
These include classroom expression; freedom of protest; campus expression; student privacy, which involves the confidentiality of student records and proscribed conduct which includes (1) offenses against persons, (2) offenses against property, and (3) offenses against the orderly processes of the University.
"The committee has been working hard on the document off and on since fall," Morgan
said, "and we have tried to narrowly define these rights as much as possible. We don't guarantee the bill will solve all problems but I think it's fair and I can't see any reason why anyone wouldn't accept it."
"I sincerely hope that every student will at least read the bill of rights and become aware of how it could affect them," he said.
Morgan said he plans to hold a public hearing for Friday, with time and place to be announced. All students may then voice their opinions.
The bill will go to the Student Senate for approval Feb. 25.
General denies influence
FT. BENNING, Ga. (UPI)—The general who made the final decision to charge Lt. William L. Calley with 102 murders insisted Monday he was not influenced from above. His own superior wouldn't even talk to him about the case.
Maj. Gen. Orwin C. Talbott, commander of Ft. Benning, his deputy, Brig. Gen. Oscar E. Davis, and Col. Robert M. Lathrop, the staff judge advocate at the base, all denied there was any outside influence on them to bring Calley to trial.
All three testified at a pretrial hearing for the 26-year-old officer, accused of slaying 102 Vietnamese civilians in a sweep of the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. The
hearing was recessed until Tuesday.
Calley's attorneys claim he cannot get a fair trial in a military court because of improper influence on local officers, stemming from the White House through the Pentagon.
But the base's top brass insisted that not only was there no such influence, but every effort was made to shield them from influence.
Talbott, who made the final decision to bring charges against Calley, said he read the transcript of the investigation conducted at Ft. Benning "from cover to cover more than once" and determined that "the alleged case against him was so serious it could only be determined by a court of law."
Lt. Col. Reid W. Kennedy, the trial judge, asked Talbott if he had been influenced "by any outside source."
"None whatever," Talbott said.
Talbott said he read only the base investigation transcript before ordering charges filed. He said Army legal authorities advised him not to read a massive Inspector General's report on the case or look at any photographs, because they might prove "prejudicial" to his decision.
He said the only message from higher authority he ever received from Calley was a cable from "some higher headquarters" last year pointing out that Calley was due to be released from the Army on Sept. 6 and couldn't be held
beyond that unless there was a formal investigation.
The investigation was ordered on Sept. 5, by Calley's brigade commander.
Davis, who was acting commander of Benning for less than three weeks last fall before Talbott took over, said "absolutely not" when asked about higher influence.
"In fact, I was avoiding influence like the plague. I don't think anybody wanted to touch it."
Lathrop, the staff judge
So great was the zeal to protect him from undue influence, he said, "There was an obvious attempt to withhold information from me by people at the base, because I might be the man who had to make the charge."
advocate, was asked by the Army prosecutor, Capt. Aubrey M. Daniel, if he acted on orders from "any high authority in Washington."
"I did not," Lathrop said. He said he began working on the case last August and sought legal assistance from the Pentagon. He said he got a call from Col. William Chilcoat of the judge advocate general's office in Washington who said "do nothing until you hear from us."
On Sept. 4, Lathrop said, Chilcoat called him and "we got the green light, as we call it, stating in effect, okay, Ft. Benning, the case is yours to do with as you wish."
Military law requires that decisions to court-martial a
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