Student Rebuttal

Miss Rogers is at present a Research Assistant in the Harvard Translation Project.

The article by Anatole Valiuzhenich which appeared in Ogonek concerning the U.S.-U.S.S.R. cultural exchange strikes me as accurate in some respects, but definitely below the belt in intent. As a group we were often disorganized and politically naive, especially the evening at Moscow University described in the article.

We had hoped that our varying points of view would shine as brilliant examples of American freedom (of speech) but we discovered that our freedom (of disagreement) appeared to the Russians as anarchic lack of discipline. The fact that we did not always make fools of ourselves, and that we asked the Russians a number of embarrassing questions does not appear in the Ogonek article, due to the fact that it does not support the Soviet line that Americans are invariably helpless before the Soviet concept of truth.

In addition to the very real naivete with which we as a delegation approached many situations, it is important to remember that on a number of occasions during his visit to the United States the author of the Ogonek article had been rather hard pressed to answer the questions put to him. His experiences with the American press and at Harvard were, on his own admission, especially unpleasant in this regard--a fact which could not be admitted in Ogonek, but which could be avenged through the satirical use of Harvard as a symbol of the rich capitalist class which oppresses the common worker and "peasant" in the United States.

I feel sure that the members of our group would all be quite happy to echo Mr. Valiuzhenich in our hopes for future exchanges. However, until such time as the Iron Curtain has withered away and good intentions are more reliable than at present, the best that we can hope is that we will continue the exchange with our eyes open and our idealism armed with the wisdom of past experience.