Clay Says War Trials Discredited Top Nazis

War crime trials of the top Nazis completely discredited Hitler's leaders before the German people by revealing that the Nazi's heads were out for their own personal gain, General Lucius D. Clay said last night. He gave his second Godkin Lecture in New Lecture Hall before an audience of 700.

The trials of the military and of the industrialists, on the other hand, left grave doubts of their guilt in the minds of many, Clay added, since the Allies had difficulty in proving their cases.

The general reviewed in the talk the administration of Germany from April, 1947, until today; in tonight's concluding lecture Clay will outline his views on the future problems in Germany.

Clay stressed last night the calculated risk of war America took by staying in Berlin in the face of the Soviet blockade in 1948-49.

The Berlin blockade would have been a success, if the Germans had not cooperated with the West, Clay said, adding that this cooperation showed a new respect for freedom among those who formerly accepted the Nazis.

Major Object

The West, Clay emphasized, desired as its major objective the closest integration of a united Germany into an association of European countries. "The restoration of Europe as a sound economic power would decide the issue of Communism vs. Democracy."

American forces in Germany, he said, were the best influences for democracy there, although he "would not defend our troop's actions in the period immediately after the fall of Germany." These men in 1945, he explained, were fresh from facing the German on the battlefield.

Clay paid tribute to Carl J. Friedrich, professor of Government, for his "most inspiring part in the development of the West German Constitution."