The NROTC Oath

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Though the temptation to a passionate rebuttal of Mr. Church's slanderous allegations is strong, we shall let his scholarly analysis of the NROTC Loyalty Certificate, and the protest against it, fall of its own weight.

First of all, in his analysis of the Certificate itself, Church has addressed himself of a straw man. We suggest that he re-read the Certificate with particular reference to section 2, paragraph (e), 3, 5, & 6, and section 1, paragraphs (b) and (c). Further, Church goes beyond his own assertion of the Government's right to protect itself in his implication that there is nothing intrinsically wrong in reporting to the government the opinions and activities of persons not connected with the government or the armed forces. We infer, rather, that he suggests that the University be "capably" surveyed by a detachment of FBI men rather than by a few part-time middles untrained in the techniques of wire-tapping and infiltration.

Secondly, Church's allegation that YPH took the initiative in opposing the Loyalty Certificate in order to discredit the armed forces and to promote their infiltration by "communists," and that the many other groups, including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, who subsequently joined the protest, are dupes of a red conspiracy to sell atomic secrets to the U.S.S.R. is a shocking falsehood. YPH opposed and opposes the NROTC certicate and the loyalty program of which it is a part because we believe that this program goes beyond any justifiable measures of national security in such a fashion as to constitute of itself a positive threat to the civil liberties of all of us. We oppose the application of the loyalty investigation to Harvard not because we wish to colonize Cambridge for Stalin, but because its application for the Harvard NROTC abregates the freedom of thought and inquiry of every teacher and student in the University--even that of Mr. Church, if he will open his eyes ... Lowell P. Beveridge, Jr.'52, Chairman   John M. Balley, Jr. '52, Treasurer   Young Progressives of Harvard