A Morbid Mistake

Upon my return from a trip to South Africa, I learned that The Crimson, in a story on Harvard's divestment policy (November 18, 1991), had featured a photo ostensibly of myself.

Alas, the distinguished gentleman in the picture is not Robert Paul Wolff '54, as the caption claims, but in all likelihood that far more noted, now unhappily deceased gentleman Professor Robert Lee Wolff, formerly of the Harvard History Department.

Professor Wolff and I have been confused in the pages of The Crimson for some forty years now, and Professor Wolff has on at least two occasions (in 1951-52 and again in 1960-61) felt called upon to protest strongly, in the letters column of The Crimson, that he is not me.

Since he is no longer able to do so, I feel an obligation in his name to point out, perhaps for the last time, that Professor Robert Lee Wolff was not an is not Robert Paul Wolff, and that during his lifetime, as he himself stated in your pages, he did not agree with my opinions on Cuba, disarmament nor, I imagine, divestment.

Permit me to take the opportunity to report that the struggle for democracy continues in South Africa, that the outcome is by no means assured, and that precisely at this moment, the democratic forces there need as much support as they can muster from friends abroad in order to assure that the outcome of the forth-coming negotiations will not be merely a cosmetic adjustment that leaves the Nationalist Party in a position to veto genuine reform.

President Rudenstine could strike an immensely valuable blow for freedom in South Africa by announcing, even at this late date, that Harvard will forthwith divest itself of all holdings in companies doing business in South Africa, and will not reinvest until a genuinely democratic government has been installed. Robert Paul Wolff   Professor of Philosophy   University of Massachusetts   Former Executive Director of HRAAA