Katz Should Check History

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The Crimson's provocative Opinion piece by Kenneth A. Katz on restoring the draft is a commendable opening argument. Arguably, this and like communities have in late years shown remarkable concern for elitist self-protection. Much of Harvard has also shown a disingenuous capacity for contradiction and ignoring its own history.

Katz might have noted, for example, that the citizens who chased ROTC off campus now complain that Blacks and the poor are unduly represented in the military. (The poor part of this claim is somewhat specious according to current statistics on Army enlistments.) Despite draft deferments in the Korean War, the elitist colleges, including Harvard alumni and this writer, were well represented in the officer corps. Katz might examine what influence--heavy casualties aside--the military service of elitist college alumni had on the ultimate disillusionment with the Korean conflict that beset decision makers in Washington, the press, the academies and other enclaves of power.

Katz's thesis might be enhanced by some institutional memory. A prominent academic who was a former president not only of Harvard but of The Crimson, James Bryant Conant '14, was a leading advocate of Universal Military Training prior to and during Korea. He objected to student deferments urged by many academics, politicians and college students. In his memoirs, Conant characterized deferments as "undemocratic...and would establish a privileged class." Since not every able-bodied young person was ever needed, Conant supported a random lottery "in the interests of fairness."

The Crimson or Katz would do well to explore Harvard's earlier debate on equity in military, or alternative civilian, service and its possible effect on assuring a responsible and responsive national security policy. Bayley F. Masen '51