GAS IN VIETNAM

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The telescoping of my remarks in Saturday's CRIMSON regarding incapacitating gas left the image of what I had said unrecognizable. Quite apart from the distress that I share in the failure to recognize the moral and psychological impact of this needless local action, I had wished to emphasize the unfortunate strategic consequence. This is that by such use the tacitly accepted barrier against one more type of warfare had been removed. Practically all nations can produce or procure a great variety of chemical and biological warfare agents ranging from those which produce incapacitation through those that maim to those that kill. By opening up one end of this spectrum we have invited escalation in a new dimension of warfare. Yet it is a dimension which by its diversity and ease of spread we cannot hope to match with deterrence. Thus our ability to restrain violence throughout the world will be diminished. Paul Doty   Professor of Chemistry