ON ENCOURAGING DEFIANCE

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I have been asked to join other members of the Harvard Faculty in offering support "as we individually can" to "those Harvard students who decide to refuse cooperation with Selective Service because they consider the war in Vietnam unjust and immoral." I can say, without qualification, that I despise the war and hate to see anyone going off to fight in it. At the same time, beyond the means suggested in Conrad Lyn's well-known book, the consequences of refusal to comply with the draft are jail or exile.

It is possible for me, though medically deferred, to try to force prosecution individually, as did Dr. Spock and Rev. Coffin, or to leave the country. Unless and until I decide to take either of these courses, I feel I should not in the slightest encourage a student to face them. The decision to accept the alternatives to induction is a private and lonely one. The individual may have to spend five years of his life in prison or leave the country permanently. He may find little comfort in the thought that a large number of Harvard's Faculty believe he made a noble choice. I should prefer that no student be faced with this decision; events have dictated otherwise. I hope no one will offer encouragement towards defiance who will not then voluntarily insist upon the same consequences for himself. Harold C. Gotoff   Instructor in the Classics