Professors Call for Cessation Of Chilean 'Reign of Terror'

Over 20 Harvard faculty members have appealed to the Nixon Administration and the United Nations to "exert the strongest pressure" on the new military government of Chile "to stop its reign of terror and to restore fundamental human rights."

The appeal was made in a statement sent to Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger '50; Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations; representatives of the two Houses of Congress; and two national newspapers by the Committee on Latin American Studies at Harvard.

The statement was also signed by 20 professors and administrators from six other east coast colleges.

The faculty members alleged that "arbitrary mass arrests, summary executions and all the other horrors of modern despotism are now the order of the day" in Chile.

The signatories said they were "appalled" by the trials of 5000 political prisoners and the contemplated deportation of political refugees to countries "where they face torture and death."

John Womack Jr. '59, professor of History and chairman of the Committee on Latin American Studies, said yesterday that the purpose of the appeal is to delay and limit official American and worldwide support for the forces in power in Chile.

"If the United States government insists on recognizing the regime, we at least want it to press the Chilean military into making some sort of a deal for the freedom of political prisoners." Womack said.

In addition to Kissinger and Waldheim, the statement was sent to Senator J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Speaker of the House of Representatives Carl B. Albert (D-Okla.), The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Womack expressed doubt that the signees would receive a response from any of the recipients except Kissinger.

"We hope that the list of names might just impress him," Womack said.

Harvard signatories include Oscar Handlin, Pforzheimer University Professor and director of the Warren Center in American History; Stanley H. Hoffman, professor of Government; James C. Thomson Jr., curator of the Nieman Fellowships; Martin H. Peretz, Master of South House; Michael L. Walzer, professor of Government; David Riesman '31, Ford Professor of Social Sciences; and Seymour Martin Lipset, professor of Government and Social Relations.

The statement was also signed by Jerome Wiesner, president of MIT, and John P. Lewis, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs at Princeton University.