Candidates Are Doves On War Issue

There appeared to be no hawks at last night's debate on U.S. foreign policy, just doves and super-doves. Second Congressional District candidates Weston E. Vivian, Demoerat; Ralph W. Muncy, Socialist Labor; Bertram Garskoff, New Politics, and Jncumbent Marvin Esch, Republican, met at First Presbyterian Church to discuss questions submitted earlier by the sponsoring Ann Arbor Interiaith Council for Peace. About 175 persons attended. Regarding the bombing of North Vietnam, Vivian called for, first, "slow and delibérate withdrawal from exposed positions," and then cessation. -Esch referred to a proposal that he and several colleagues submittedin congress f o r 'gradual, reciprocal de-escalation" ia which bombing would be stopped along parallels, and neither side would appear defeated. "The Administration inust be more flexible and stop demanding concessions that'll cause the Vietnamese to lose face," he said. Both Esch and Vivian said they approve a cutback of appropriations, Esch by five per cent and Vivian by $10 million, but hold that it is not fair io the men in Vietnam now to drprive them of weapons and military supplies. Both said t.'iey fiad appropriation bilis "a very unsatisfying way of determining policy." Garskoff contended "the only right we have in Vietnam is to negotiate our withdrawal and to make reparations." He described the purposes of "strategie bombing" as defined by the Air Forcé Manual. "In industrial cities the military is iustructed to search out factories, political structures. But in underdeveloped countries, the book specified bombing social services, such as the schools and hospitals. That is what we have been doing in Vietnam." The candidate for New Politics, a party making its flrst appearance on the Michigan ballot this year, briefly summarized the Vietnamese' fight for independence against the French. "Their v i c t o r y , acknowledged by the Geneva conference, established o n e country. North and South nam are creations of the United States," Garskoff said. "The North Vietnamese are not 'aggressors' within their own boundaries. We are." Muncy, for 38 years a member of the Socialist Labor Party here, devoted his entire speaking time to the premise that "democracy is gone from America and a minority has come into despotic control- through means I can't describe or prove in the minutes alloted- and possesses the wealth of the government. "All wars are fought in the interest of the capitalist," he said. After outlining at some length the principáis of his party, he applied them to the issues of the evening, concluding, "Socialism would end the need for the draft, get rid of military tures throughout the world, and oblitérate poverty." Asked for alternatives to the present selective service program, Esch said he favored a I focus on the 19-year-old age group over "eight years of uncertainty." He also said he feels legal aid should be provided for those appealing their draft cali. Garskoff said he I feels the draft could be ended I and the army cut to "the I tion of skilied technicians I ed for national defense. The I majority of the military now I goes as cannon fodder to I port our adventuristic foreign I policy," he said. Vivían I gested creating an alternative I avenue of service within the I peace-keeping forces of I