A Federal Case II; 25; Senator Muskie meets some of his constituency on the left

In order to keep his position another year and a half until the nominating convention he has to strike some sort of balance that appeals to a majority of Democrats over a long period of time. That means he has to stay toward the logical middle of his party in the midst of this delicate balancing act he must perform in public. He has to consider the fringes of his party its right and left and right now the liberal end of the party is bothering him. It is an informal coalition of students a large number will be voting in 1972 for the first time as 18 year olds and intellectuals their professors for the most part. This group like Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern and maybe musky. But it depends. This is a federal case. From Washington D.C. the National Educational radio network brings you an examination of current issues facing our nation and its capital city. Here is an E.R. I am correspondent.

I am still Sandor mosque he is an honest man. In fact he's so honest he's not very political sometimes he admits himself to being testy on occasion. But right now the senator has a major problem. The national polls and even Senator McGovern consider musky the front runner among Democratic presidential candidates. It's true Muskie did not speak out early on Vietnam but some people are willing to consider him even though depending on what he would do at this point in Southeast Asia they know he has changed from a hawk to a dove. In fact musky delivers a little essay that is both very charming and geared to appeal to this liberal wing of his party. I think I ought to say something about the question of consistency. Now the question of consistency is difficult to anyone in public life for two reasons. If one never changes one's mind. One is regarded as an intelligent being stopped. If one changes one line then one is criticized for being

inconsistent. Winston Churchill was once criticized along these lines and his answer was this. He said I have. Made thousands of meals. During my life time out of the words IP. And on the whole I found it a healthy diet. I suppose that. Those of us who. Change our minds even. In some degree. On questions. Like to think that we're being consistent. That it's circumstances that che the new knowledge. The new understanding a new condition. One of the key tests concerning why the liberals will support musky occurred after the allied intervention in Laos this winter there was no immediate march on Washington no rioting no mass protests. Professor James

Thompson in the Far Eastern Affairs Department at Harvard University and formally a member of the National Security Council on the Lyndon Johnson explained to me on the telephone how he and a small group of other faculty and students at Harvard and Yale devised a national teach in the work product of a kind of like the bare bottom about Intel but the government harbored and allowed him again the developer never brought him in and there was the bear. Had a boner in the argument and we diverted with everything we had and I'm going to go with me and put it right. Violent and you know but I don't know that THE BORG community in foreign affairs. That's why we're going to have to go. Want to have a delay. We went in and read her book back but we're still out here that we will do that but we need them

again with everything in our power what brought them the right to make our help. And the problem is that if we have I have the problem with the American right. In the. Camera with me with the aiding and abetting the worst when they can begin to hold them in your home like we do have an intimate knowledge of the new generation of where we black and white and when. I'm going to buy it. From. You hope I'm going to educate these people and I don't think they need and what are you giving them in the you are making a million on the matter in the world every day and every night I mean you are going to go we go back to where one of our the meaning of the word carried the two students. Other members of the liberal coalition give their assessments of the national mood. Julie or Gregory Craig a law student at Yale and then Stephen hanging in a senior at Harvard.

They say very similar things very different very different. The. Cambodia invasion produced a real rage and indignation. Her to pay the debt. With an outpouring of feeling that it resulted in a lot of. The kind of activity. This one is had a very different kind of impact I think in which there's been no less intense the feeling but it's been much more you know directed to the kind of bitterness and. Hatred and antagonism. That the invasion of Laos produced and I don't think in any less degree than Cambodia has been sort of repressed and forced underground into some way in a very dangerous way because it lacks that kind of concern and anger is expressed them with level explode in a very very violent fashion. The future here most people are I think have been. Sort of. Persuaded the apathetic because.

The possibility of affecting the after after Cambodia people who work during the summer found. Power to really impractical and many of them have given up. That's not a good account of my minority very active minority who have been persuaded to join a lunatic fringe. But the attempt in the future is to bring people who are now apathetic in the past to have worked for peace back into the people and convince them that we're finally going to get out if they work. Senator Muskie had a long standing speaking engagement at the University of Pennsylvania when his office heard about the teaching they called up the university and requested that the senator's speech be advertised and officially announced as part of the national teaching activities. Accordingly Senator Muskie said he would address himself to the subject of Southeast Asia and the Laos intervention. His aides announced that the senator's speech

would be a definitive statement on the subject. Muskie and company were well aware of the importance of this speech in clarifying the senator's Dov position and in attracting the liberal and youthful wings of the party. Twenty six percent of the students by the way according to a recent Harris poll have said they would not vote for any established candidate in either of the major parties. On February 23rd in Philadelphia Edmund Muskie an aim to bow out of the liberals before it was too late. He started out well I'm deeply concerned that after this administration has assured us. It was winding down. It has taken military action across the face of Indochina. I believe it is wrong. To unleash. South Vietnamese forces. Across the border of us. And to support them. As I believed it was wrong. To lead them across the border of

Cambodia. The longer we lend our presence. To this expanding conflict. The longer this conflict will endure. The president has had more than two years. To implement. His so-called plan. To end the war. But all that he has revealed. Is a program. Maintaining a substantial American military presence in Indochina Vietnamization. Perpetuates the illusion. Of an ultimate military victory. It is the continuation of a war. Which must come to an end. So far so good. Senator Muskie sounds like he is warming up to throw a few good liberal punches a little rhetoric the kids can dig and their more radical elders can approve. At the very least he seems to have caught something of the mood that the organizers of this national teach in referred to these sponsors were very

explicit however about what the senator had to say to satisfy them. Here's what Stephen hangin hoped I hope that the national patriot then and this is the one that Harvard and Yale tonight are just initiating the whole set of nationwide are going to force other candidates to really put the bill on the record for an immediate withdrawal of all American troops from Southeast Asia and then end the policy of OK you'll be bombing would simply attempt to win the war by less dramatic mean then anything short of that I think would make would make money or anyone else an impossible candidate. Gregory Craig at Yale I think before that you can be considered as a. Presidential candidate that is acceptable to those people who have been working for so long. To end the war he's got to make an unequivocal statement that he would. If elected he would immediately withdraw all American troops combat air support.

And. End the kind of air cover that results in indiscriminate slaughter of people throughout Indochina. The. Addition of American bombers sort of. Crumbling into three or four different countries and you know China dropping. Dropping dropping bombs indiscriminately in these countries is really horrible and withdrawing American troops really isn't enough and we're. Cutting back American activities so totally that the war was the factor had to be negotiated. Until he does that he will not get our support. I think that's really quite clear that's got to be made explicitly to hear that until Senator Muskie makes his position. 100 percent clear on the war. He will get the support of the people who are. Trying to change policy. Thompson was somewhat less dogmatic. The telephone connection grew worse in the middle of his discussion however I think he I think he has. Go on the record but McGovern I don't like you prior to my break when

the government had to go back to the morning and bread and butter may have been on the brink having total withdrawal maybe in the early primary both Krugman to come going to the company. My view would be very favorable. You know I'm going to be and I'll agree the expectations then of these liberal student faculty organizers were very high to call for an immediate withdrawal of all troops and the third for at the very least a withdrawal according to a firmly fixed timetable. The question was Will musky measure up. We know he recognized what this particular coalition in the country wanted from him. Certainly his staff did that's why they arranged this speech for him. How did musky do. Here's the meat of that speech that he gave at the University of Pennsylvania. We cannot substitute I will. And our

political system. For the. We cannot write. The social contract. For another people. But we may be able. To reach agreement. On those issues which concern us smokers. Provided. We make clear our intention. To withdraw all our troops from Vietnam. By a fix. And definite date. Many Americans believe. That events are taken all. The things have gotten out of hand. That nothing they can do. Would change the policies. Of this administration. But I believe you can make a difference.

Even before. 1972. You can exert responsible public pressure. Upon the executive branch. For an American commit. To complete withdraw. Before. 1972. You can support initiatives. Such as that taken by the Democratic caucus today. In the column. To establish an Indo China policy which makes sense before. 1972 and that is why introduce. A sense of the Senate resolution last May. As Marianne has described. That is why I co-sponsored the McGovern Hatfield amendment in the last Congress. Why I have agreed to co-sponsor it in this column. And to support its establishment of a deadline. Of December 30 first 970

why. It should be clear to all of us by now. That for too many years. We have pursued the wrong policy. In the wrong place. In the wrong way. The price of that policy. Has been a terrible cost. In American lives and resources. Price has been a terrible cost. And the suffering of the peoples of Indochina. Would help to destroy their countries. Their town. And their village. Indeed the very fabric of their lives. And if we now have any commitment in Indochina it must be this. We must help the people of this region to rebuild their countries. And to heal the wounds of war. We must show in

Indochina. If it is not too late. That we understand. What foreign policy is all about. But wisdom and judgment and restraint. Are all about. What compassion and moral obligation. Are all about. Isn't it clear. What we must do. After so many young Americans. Have felt compelled to demonstrate. Against their own government. After so many Americans of every description. Have come to doubt. What their government say. And to doubt. That their government will listen. After so much division. Disillusionment throughout this land. Isn't it clear.

Of course it's clear. It's clear that the only light. End of the tunnel. Would be the one we strike ourselves. We must withdraw. All our troops. From Vietnam. We must do so. By the end of this year. We must be willing to end. What I'm saying is. That we must be willing. All of us. To say you know. Edmund Muskie was well received at this university partly because he began by sending back one of the many paper airplanes the students had been hurling toward the speakers platform

while waiting for him. And partly because he did go some of the distance his liberal watchers hoped for Muskie did reiterate a call for withdrawal of troops from Southeast Asia according to a fixed timetable and he condemned the Laos invention. Still the rhetoric of a McCarthy or McGovern wasn't there and more important there was nothing new in the senator's speech as he said himself. He has fixed time table idea is the same one that he mentioned last spring. He received only two spontaneous clapping as you heard them both. That's not considered a lot for major foreign policy speech. More important was the reaction of the organizers of the teach in. And the students who listened to him. Here is Harvard student Stephen hanging. Reaction. I don't think so. The from the money point of view right now is very much of a virtue. You pulled into the inland maybe because it looks like a more straight forward and we are not equivalent the policy of a withdrawal of

American troops with the possibility of continuing the war by other means by using American air power by furnishing the Vietnamese Laotians then the Cambodians we are fighting their own wars pursuing American war objectives. I would I would hope that their monkey comes out with a clear statement indicating that he understands why the war with Iran why it must be stopped and essentially says that the United States is only taking in Asia under his administration would be to bring peace to the area to prevent genocide in the wake of the American withdrawal but not the continue to pursue the war. I think we will commemorate American casualties. I don't want to be and I am going to make that more clear I couldn't support a candidate whether that reaction is fair or not fair to Senator Muskie speech is not as important as hanging perception that answer that he just gave probably reflects the reaction of most of the organizers of the teach in mosque to middle of the

road for them. They fear that his statements on withdraw from SE Asia are not strong enough to actually get us out. Muskie was his During the question and answer period on three occasions. One time was when he explained that he was in favor of reducing defense spending but then he added not because I think we don't need a defense establishment in the kind of world in which we live I think we do. He was hissed even though this was the rest of what he had to say on that subject. Let me state what my view is reflected in my votes. In the Senate. My speech is over two years. I have voted for reductions in defense expenditures in the. First session of the last Congress. I joined efforts in the Senate and in the house. Resulted in a reduction. In the president's. Military spending a

5.6 billion dollars. I voted for those reductions. And for others that. Were not approved by a majority of the Congress. So that record is a reflection of my general philosophy in his area. Secondly. How you spend the savings. The assumption which may not be attended intended by your question. Is that in these savings. We. Can find enough money to do the other things that we need to do. That may or may not be. A valid. Assumption. But I'd like to point out that in this year's budget. Notwithstanding the reduction in Vietnam spending which the administration claims it does not very clearly document so that we have a precise measure of it.

The president's military budget. Projected military budget is increased over last year. So that is a constant battle and will be for some time to come. To hold military spending down let alone to reduce. But I think we must constantly. Fight that out. But I think our tendency is bant. To over Bob. Talk over insure to use another figure speech against the risks which national defense is supposed to protect us against. I think secondly that. In order to exaggerate the strength. We need to make meaningful. Progress. In the salt toffs. I think that both sides have dragged their feet too much. I've made proposals from time to time in the last year and a half in an attempt to be constructive in suggesting initiatives in this field. I

took up this subject with. Mr Chrissie Hynde in my talks with him in Paris urging his consideration of the broadest possible kind of agreement on salt. In my whole thrust of the foreign policy field is to try to reduce the tensions which generate. Defense spending and an escalation in the arms race. This then is my general philosophy. Now what do we need to spend money for here domestically. Well the list is as long as my both on. Housing jobs education the support of public services at all levels of government. The relief of the property tax burden. The supplementation of the tax resources of state and local government. You could make your list you don't need me to run through the litany. But we need to find more resources to apply to these tasks.

Part of them can come from a more rational. Defense Policy. Finally what we need to do. Is to. Revitalize our economy. In order to produce the additional tax resources that we need he gave a long answer but he did not move this student faculty audience another time he got his due was predictably enough on the marijuana issue. He didn't favor legalization right now he said because it was I'm not sure at this time. What the effects of marijuana. Secondly I have believe that the penalties were too stiff. To possess it and I voted. In the Senate and I guess that's the concrete evidence I can give you for a reduction and. Then somebody brought up the abortion issue and musky made his audience laugh. And then the history at the end.

I mean I say first of all that I have no immediate personal problem. Thank you. Which may color my attitude. I think that the honest answer with a direct answer is that. I'm deeply troubled. Because of. My whole background in training and in this question. I am a Roman Catholic as you know. More than that I had a view of the sanctity of life. And the importance of preserving it. Which I regard as rather fundamental. I have less much much less difficulty in not. On the question of the so-called therapeutic abortion. I have very real difficulties about unlimited. Abortion

That's my present position. It's a question I think I've tried to study. As thoroughly as any question that. Is in the public domain at the present time but that's where I stand at the present. I can end this program as I began it. Senator Edmund Muskie is clearly an honest man. He cannot couch his statements and rhetoric which might please the liberal student community. He doesn't hold a popular liberal view on marijuana legalization or abortion reform. He does not call for the troops to come home immediately. And he even felt obligated in spite of who his audience was to bring up the necessity of a defense system. So he is honest because his answers to those questions aren't what the liberal student and faculty population wanted to hear. His statement on the Southeast Asian situation may have please some but it was a statement to the right of McGovern and McCarthy and indeed his constituency is primarily in the center of the Democratic Party. If as it now appears

Edmund Muskie does become the 1972 Democratic nominee for the presidency there is little hope on the basis of this kind of speech in his answers to the questions that musky will have wide support initially among the university population of the country. He did demonstrate that he could be honest even when it wasn't politically wise. And he has many is capable of changing his position on an issue. The Vietnam War. So maybe if it comes down to a race between Richard Nixon and adman musky this predominantly liberal academic community which is pretty wary at the moment just might come around and it might be enough to put a mosque in the White House. This is an Zille reporting in Philadelphia for the national educational radio network. You've been listening to a federal case weekly examination of a national issue from the perspective of our nation's capital. A federal case is produced with farms provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This is the national

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