Service Schools Refuse to Allow Vietnam Surveys

The Army, the Navy, and the Merchant Marines have refused to participate in "Choice '68"--a nationwide poll of college students on Vietnam and the Presidency.

Time magazine, the poll's sponsor, has received letters from officials at all three service academies rejecting Time's invitation to participate, Robert Harris, executive director of "Choice '68", said in a telephone interview yesterday.

The Air Force and the Coast Guard, also invited to participate, have not responded yet, he said.

Harris said that about 1500 colleges--including Harvard--and more than 2,000,000 students will take part in the poll, which will be held April 24. The service academies' presidents are the only ones who have refused to let their campuses take part in the poll, he added.

"Their three letters of rejection were strikingly similar," Harris said. "Each one thanked us for our invitation, but said that because of the 'full and demanding schedule' of their cadets, they would not be able to participate," he said.

"Their absence won't lessen the poll's accuracy," Harris explained because the military academies represent only one-tenth of one per cent of the nation's students. "But we wish they could have had a chance to express their opinions," he said.

Presidential choices listed on the ballot range form George C. Wallace to Fred Halstead, the Socialist Worker candidate." "There has been a lot of thunder on both the left and the right," Harris said, "but this will be the first time that students have been able to speak with a single voice."