Debate Between SDS and CFIA Centers on Activities of the DAS

In a long awaited display of virtuoso rhetoric SDS confronted CFIA director Joseph S. Nye and DAS director Gustav F. Papanek in a two hour-long debate before 500 people in Lowell Lecture Hall.

SDS members Ira Helfand '72, Marsha Livingston '71, Richard Miller '70, and Michael Macey accused the CFIA of "being responsible for the oppression and death of millions of people all over the world," and vowed to shut down the CFIA.

The format of the debate, which was sponsored, moderated and broadcast by WHRB, included 15-minute presentations by both sides followed by a series of ten-minute rebuttals.

Nyc in his opening presentation said "the University needs a place where there may be unpopular ideas and I would base my defense of the CFIA along those lines."

Paving The Way

Helfand began the SDS attack, saying, "The CFIA helps develop the military strength of reactionary governments to contain popular uprisings, and paves the way for foreign investment," He charged, "Massacres of entire Vietnamese villages can be traced not to Lieutenant Calley but to CFIA research."

Much of the debate centered around the work of the DAS in Indonesia and Pakistan.

SDS accused the DAS of misusing funds in Pakistan in order to build roads to aid foreign capitalist investment, instead of working on flood control. In debating the effectiveness of the DAS-sponsored public works program in Pakistan, Papanek and Helfand presented conflicting sets of figures, Papanek's showing a rise in Pakistani wages between 1958 and 1960, and Helfand's showing a decline.

Just before the debate went off the air Papanek's patience with Helfand wore thin. "He's been calling me a liar innumerable times and it's a cheap thing to do," Papanek said.

Figure Fun

After the debate went off the air Helfand said, "I apologize to Papanek, he was quoting a different set of figures, but his figures only cover a small segment of the population."

Papanek said after the debate, "There was no real winner. I think we did ac-complish something in that it is useful to get the different viewpoints out in a reasonable and organized way."

Judy Baker of SDS said, "We should have made the point more sharply but I think SDS clearly won the debate. They couldn't answer any of the facts we presented."

SDS will begin House meetings today in Currier, Winthrop, and Eliot at 6 p.m. to make plans for a campaign to shut down the CFIA.