HPC MEMBERS ON ROTC

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

As seven of fifteen student members of the Harvard Policy Committee (including several participants in the drafting of the Committee's report on ROTC), we agree entirely with the HPC recommendation to withdraw credit from ROTC courses (CRIMSON, November 19). We recognize further the validity of the HPC's decision to base this report on questions of educational policy. With the rest of the Committee we agree that it is important to have available to the Harvard community a discussion of ROTC not based on political ideology.

As individuals concerned about the deeper relations of the university to society, however, we also have political objections to the presence on campus of ROTC. In any circumstance, the presence of an avowedly militaristic organization is prima facie an affront to the university. Given the current theory and practice of American foreign policy, it seems likely that one primary use of American military officers will be to prosecute more Vietnams and Dominican Republics. In this light, the militarism of the ROTC is particularly noxious. Furthermore, the ROTC, by furnishing preferential rank to college graduates, intensifies an undemocratic situation which already confronts this university.

For these reasons, we urge both the acceptance of the HPC resolution and a continuing discussion of the larger political and moral issues, as presented, for example, by SDS. Timothy Gould '68-4   Kay Tolbert '69   Lynne Gerson '69   Joe Blatt '70   Michael D. Robinson '71   Jay S. Epstein '69   Stephen J. Rapp '70