West Point on the Defensive

...Meanwhile, the harshest penalty is still meted out to everyone found guilty of transgressing the code- regardless of circumstances-raising certain questions...

...During a lengthy conversation about the episode that many of the accused insist involved "hundreds" from all classes, it becomes clear he is dedicated above all to reinstilling due respect for ancient verities...

...The solution, in short, will be "education" and enforcement??with no change in substance...

...The notion may be revived next year...

...Personal integrity isn't going to be based on the fear of being expelled," said a cadet caught in that predicament...

...Talking to faculty members and cadets, accused and accusers, one gets the impression that the scandal may ultimately lead to a reaffirmation, not revision, of the system...

...Yet in recent weeks 160 members of the third-year class have been asked to resign...

...Military Academy today develops leaders to meet the Army's needs tomorrow...

...People at the Academy were in high school at the time Vietnam was unpopular,'' Colonel Rhyne notes...

...If so many cadets were expelled, what would be the ramifications...

...To end this confusion, Rhyne has drawn up a memo concerning the honor committee-the cadets who initially hear accused violators argue their cases-that is being distributed at orientation sessions...

...Should the Academy, for instance, expel the top-ranking cadet who lets a struggling friend "get hold" of his exam paper and copy his answers...

...and Benjamin A. Gilman (R.-N.Y...

...It is as if the national press, turning out a barrage of expose-style reports and cover stories, has seized on the wrong place...

...Barring outside intervention??legislation to investigate the honor system was also introduced last month by Representatives Thomas J. Downey (D.-N.Y...

...A "fact sheet" distributed by an affable young captain in the administration building explains the philosophy and the goals of the institution...

...People use 'unauthorized references' for a lot of things...

...A sound statement of principles we must have," he observes at the beginning of the interview...

...And the honor committee system is unfair...

...In this institution there's no room for cheating," said a cadet entering his third year...

...As ideals have blurred, "perhaps we have created an environment where one's devotion to his duty and his concept of honor are two separate and distinct things-which certainly is not true...

...Though this claim may sound like mere propaganda to some, it is taken seriously by the men responsible for insuring the continuity of a long gray line studded with names that, according to the handout, are "woven into the very fabric of our country's history...

...There are "two phases," he notes...

...A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate anyone who does," runs the maxim governing conduct at the Academy since its founding in 1802, and Colonel Rhyne accepts this code with unswerving faith...

...The total vote, however, fell short of the two-thirds majority required by the honor committee for passage...

...The logic of ousting those who are convicted of cheating on one test is better challenged, though, by the contention that widespread cribbing has probably occurred regularly at the Academy over the years...

...While this assessment is admittedly highly subjective, it parallels a staff report issued last month by the House Armed Services Committee-whose chairman, Melvin Price (D.-Ill...

...For it has erupted at a time when the country, floundering in post-Vietnam doubt, is absorbed with self-criticism, and perhaps a majority of the Academy's 4,400 cadets have been caught up in this mood...

...That we have to have a code and a system??and we would abide by it...

...I think it's time we get this thing settled once and for all.' Already, then, the current "cleansing," as some officers call it, has "purified" the outlook of many who might otherwise have been more sympathetic to code violators...

...Colonel Rhyne and his colleagues are likely to prevail in the latest battle of West Point...

...Donald Kirk is the New York correspondent for the Chicago Tribune...

...They cannot help but have been somewhat affected by that...

...has called for a "special blue-ribbon panel" to investigate all three service academies...

...And it was strongly confirmed by a meeting with Colonel Hal Rhyne, a 1953 West Point graduate who is so convinced of the importance of the Academy's own inquest that he gave up the chance for a coveted brigade command to serve a year as special assistant to the commandant of cadets for honor matters...

...and that some of the most righteous defenders of the system are fully aware of this...

...There was one attempt at reform last winter when 54 per cent of cadets voted in favor of "discretion"-giving a warning to those found guilty of violating the honor system, rather than automatically expelling them...

...Every time a unit in Vietnam was wiped out it was because a guy told a lie in his report," he added, repeating an argument he has heard often from his instructors...

...It is tempting to caricature Colonel Rhyne...

...processing the cases on hand now" and "determining why this kind of thing would happen and what we need to do...

...It is especially significant, therefore, that Colonel Rhyne and his colleagues apparently prefer a return to the uncomplicated blind obedience and patriotism that has been the subject of much criticism in recent years...

...The inquiry appears to have become a vehicle for inspiring a wavering corps with new feelings of righteousness...

...Military Academy quandrangle...

...The first phase will of course continue to get the headlines, but the second obviously is bound to have a more permanent effect on the Army...

...Firm-voiced and paternalistic, he might well be a corporate executive or the pastor of an upper-middle-class Protestant congregation...

...Nevertheless, cadets not implicated in the scandal defend the system almost as strongly as senior officers...

...Let there be no mistake: The aim of the internal review panel investigating cheating last March on the Electrical Engineering 304 Home Study Project is not to correct possible flaws in the system, but rather to discover why the honor code did not work in one particular instance-and how to make certain it will be effective in the future...

...For the less than gifted student, copying has become a natural thing to do...

...Intent in its purpose of producing career officers for the Regular Army since its inception," it begins, "the U.S...

...I think a purge would reinforce West Point's commitment to the honor code,' remarked another cadet, chatting about the present scandal beneath the larger-than-life-sized canvases in Grant Hall of such graduates as Generals Douglas Mac-Arthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower...

...you have to prove you are innocent rather than they prove you are guilty...

...The Academy ought to air its own dirty laundry instead of engaging in the old political soft-shoe," said one of the accused...

...The demands on our time are such that we're all competing...

...REAFFIRMING TRADITION West Point on the Defensive BY DONALD KIRK West Point Such phrases as "cheating scandal" and "doubts about the system" seem strangely out of place on the great stone ramparts overlooking the Hudson here, or inside the barracks surrounding the paved U.S...

...At the Academy "honor" is as much a part of the training program as battlefield maneuvers or parade-ground drills, and Rhyne has approached the problem confronting him from that perspective...

...And officers who are fervent believers in the Academy's ideals now speak about campaigning to preserve them...

...He seems pleasant, thoughtful and dedicated to justice...

...It declares: "The committee is dedicated to seek continuing improvements that will strengthen both support of the code and administration of the honor system...

...To assist this effort the committee has completed a revision of a pamphlet, 'The Honor Code and System,' which for the first time will be published for distribution in a form written specifically for the Corps of Cadets...

...These are leaders who are dedicated to the Academy's motto: Duty, Honor, Country...

...I see no necessity to change it...