Caldicott Urges Disarmanent

After listening to praise for their academic achievements and enjoying poetry and Bach, members of the Harvard and Radcliffe Phi Beta Kappa chapters yesterday heard a dire warning of impending nuclear disaster at their annual Literary Exercises.

More than 750 students, parents, and alumni sat motionless in the silence of Sanders Theater as Helen M. Caldicott, an instructor in pediatrics at Children's Hospital and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, described the horrors of nuclear war and the "psychic numbing" politicians and military leaders rely on to portray nuclear armament as necessary and moral.

"Pentagon Jargon"

Caldicott lashed out at "Pentagon jargon" that frames human life in terms of how many times the Soviet Union and the United States could annihilate each other's populations with existing arsenals.

When we consider people as inanimate objects. "we can talk about killing tens of millions of them, and it doesn't feel bad at all, and in so doing, we've lost our humanity," she said.

Discussing the almost inconceivable results of a full-scale nuclear attack on Boston to emphasize her warning. Caldicott told her hushed audience that all people within a six-mile radius of the city would be immediately vaporized, as concrete and steel structures burned and a deadly storm of fire and wind raged over as much as a 15,000-square mile region.

Even those who survive the initial blast would probably die of radiation poisoning, contagious disease or starvation, and the few who might emerge weeks later from underground shelters would find the world a totally different place, she said.

"Sanders Theater will be gone. Harvard will be gone....The art, the literature, the poetry--everything will be gone." Caldicott added.

Heart of Darkness

The well-known spokesman for the medical profession's growing anti-militarism movement charged her listeners and her fellow doctors with the responsibility of accepting "our own dark side," and exposing it to other Americans.

Disarmament will be "the greatest challenge the human race has ever had," but the Soviet Union and the United States must work together to save "a planet that may alrady be terminally ill." Caldicott said, receiving a long standing ovation as she concluded.

Before Caldicott spoke, the Phi Beta Kappa members heard Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stanley Kunitz '26 read his unfinished work. "The Wellfleet Whale," and listened to choral music performed by the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum.

New Awards

David Riesman, '31, Ford Professor of Social Sciences. Emeritus and president of the Harvard Phi Beta Kapa chapter, also presented the society's first teaching awards to Deborah Hughes Hallett, senior preceptor in Mathematics, and Leonard K. Nash, professor of Chemistry.

The two winners, who received small cash prizes and citations for their success as instructors, were chosen by a committee of Faculty members and students. Members of the Phi Beta Kappa chapters had made over 20 nominations for the award, which will be given annually, earlier this year.

Education

Before yesterday's ceremonies, the Harvard and Radcliffe chapters elected a combined total of 119 new members, all of them seniors.