Science Symposium Cautions Gathering About Implications Of Arms Race, CBW

"ABM is called a safeguard, but it doesn't guard and it isn't safe-and it is useless and expensive," Joseph S. Clark '23, former Senator from Pennsylvania, said at a symposium last night at Sander's Theatre.

The two-day symposium focuses on the "crisis that the arms race has created and was designed to alert the citizenry of the developments on the horizon in the arms field and what it can mean to them," Leo Grodzins, professor of Physics at M. I. T., said in a press conference yesterday afternoon.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)-a Boston area group involved with the misuse of science-sponsored the conference to kick-off the Boston segment of the national March 4 movement.

Representative Richard McCarthy (D-N. Y.), leader of the Congressional fight against Chemical-Biological Warfare (CBW) and Dr. Jerome Wiesner, Provost of M. I. T. appeared with Clark and Grodzins before a disappointing crowd of 350.

The conference comes one year after a meeting on March 4, 1969 that began a drive against ABM, CBW, and other controversial programs in modern technology.

This year's conference is oriented toward the ratification of a Geneva Protocol that specifically bans the use of defoliants in warfare. The program also aims for success in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) that begins April 16 with the Russians.

McCarthy, who is responsible for the current probe into American handling of CBW, dealt specifically with gases and defoliants used in Vietnam in his talk. He gave evidence to show that herbicides, 245T in particular, have disastrous effects on childbirth.

McCarthy emphasized that he "would not vote for ratification of the Geneva Protocol if it allowed what was going on in Vietnam." "That would be condoning our practices," he added.

Wiesner, the former science advisor to President Kennedy, said, "In spite of all the talk by the Department of Defense, ABM is not practical. You could throw away three-fourths of our strategic capabilities and still be able to make Russia a wasteland. There are so many things wrong with ABM that everyone says something different. All 20 reasons are true," he added.

Clark suggested a four-step program to help mend the U. S. foreign policy:

cut back the military budget to no more than $50 billion dollars-some $20 billion less than the present budget.

press hard for arms agreements with the USSR.

set up an adequate international peace force under U. N. control of at least 40,000 men, with a proper budget.

revise the U. N. to increase its power and effectiveness.

Tomorrow's session will feature talks by General E. L. Burns, Ret., of the Canadian Army and former Commander of the U. N. Emergency Force, and L F. Stone, publisher of I. F. Stone's BiWeekly.