Vietnam Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh Will Lecture On Self-Determination

The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, dir- of the School of Social Studies at the Buddhist University of Saigon, will speak at Dunster House at 7:45 p.m. today on Determination in Vietnam."

Nhat Hanh is director of the Youth Social Service Program which is sending young volunteers into the villages of South Vietnam in an effort to advance social reconstruction. He is also editor of a leading Buddhist weekly periodical.

Until 1963 Nhat Hanh taught Oriental Religions at Columbia University. He studied at both Princeton and Columbia. With the Buddhist uprising against the Diem government, he was called back to Vietnam by Thich Tri Quang, and has stayed there until his present trip to the U.S.

In a statement given to the Press in New York City, May 16, Nhat Hanh said that he is not an official spokesman for the Vietnamese Buddhists, but rather he came here to communicate the agony of the "voiceless masses." Nhat Hanh continued, saying that at first his people only knew Americans as a generous people who had given a great deal of his country, but now the experts have been replaced by soldiers; "we do not think that these are the true Americans," he said.

"I am told that everyone hopes that I will give you the solution to our war. I am very sorry but I can not do so. My people have many different ideas about this. There is only agreement on one thing...that the war must be ended now, that the suffering has already been too much," Nhat Hanh concluded. "I hope I have offended no one," he added.