Hoffmann, Hughes Debate

Disputing the ability of American initiatives for disarmament to evoke Soviet reciprocation, Stanley H. Hoffmann, associate professor of Government, said last night that deterrence has proven "less risky" than alternative cold war policies, and has given the West time to advance its cause within the last decade. He listed as gains the emergence of new nations "not against us," and the development of the Atlantic Community.

Earlier, to a divided but demonstrative audience of 400 at M.I.T., Professor H. Stuart Hughes, independent candidate for the U.S. Senate, and Arthur L. Waskow of the Peace Research Institute, had estimated that the dangers of a self-perpetuating arms build-up were far graver than those which independent action for disarmament would entail.

Waskow said that the "mix" of counter-force theory (aimed at destroying Soviet bases) and deterrence, presently entertained by U.S. strategists, might have led to nuclear war over the Berlin crisis.

Trying to establish the reciprocal nature of every cold war move, Waskow cited the Soviet Sputnik as an, event that forced the U.S. to divert funds and energy from strictly military research to space projects. He suggested that a billion dollars worth of American aid to India would guarantee a mirror-response because the Russians are already committed to competing for influence there.

Both Waskow and Col. William R. Kintner of the Foreign Policy Research Institute thought that American military strategy should establish conditions in which some form of political "victory" would be possible. Hughes took issue with this. "Not winning but ending the cold war should be the first goal," he said.

"We in American," the candidate emphasized, "do not have a monopoly on the values of freedom." Kintner looked skeptical at this, and Hughes went on to say that the neutral nations already had a respect for democratic principles, and that years from now, the Soviet Union might develop its own form of democracy.

Hoffmann thought Hughes too anxious to "leap into the millennium," and Waskow too anxious to believe in "the seesaw metaphor." Figuring that the Soviet Union should be expected to act in its military self-interest. Hoffmann urged the continuation of America's deterrent posture and placed his faith in the self-restraint of strategists on both sides.