Walzer Urges Increased Role For United States in Mideast

Michael L. Walzer, professor of Government, said yesterday that if war in the Middle East is to be avoided, the "United States has to acknowledge its role as guarantor of peace and realize its role has to be large."

Walzer, who recently returned from a study-tour in Israel, addressed a group of about 50 people at a convention of the Massachusetts chapter of the Americans for Democratic Action.

American involvement in the Middle East will depend on overcoming liberal opposition to intervention, Walzer said.

"Many Vietnam protesters did not learn the right lessons from the Vietnam war," he said. "The question now is not one of engaging in war but involving ourselves in a policy of peace."

Both the United States and the Soviet Uunion must maintain military presence in the Middle East to preserve peace, and the United States must publicly accept and defend that role, Walzer said.

He told the group that Israeli leaders are willing to give back territories they now occupy in return for "a credible guarantee of their borders and a credible guarantee of demilitarization."

The United States could make any guarantees credible by "maintaining Israeli military potential" and "insisting on real Arab reciprocity," Walzer said.

"Only the United States can insist on and win concessions from the Arab states," Walzer added, but he acknowledged that American involvement would have "obvious political problems."

"Such a policy would be bound to generate crises," Walzer said, "into which the United States would seem to be dragged by its client Israel."

Long-Term Presence

Walzer said that the United States would have to keep up "some sort of long-term military presence," in the area to "supplement" a Soviet force.

Walzer said that the nature of this "presence" would depend on the Soviet Union's involvement in the area.

Stephen D. Krasner, assistant professor of Government, also spoke on the Middle East issue to the convention.

Krasner told the group that economic problems in the Middle East "can be solved only by politics and not by technical means."

He said that the U.S. government should attempt to limit the options open to Arab nations when investing their Western currencies.