Assent from Academe

Until now, most of the statements from the academic community about the war in Viet Nam have come from those on the protesting left. Last week 14 distinguished scholars, all experts on international affairs, issued a 6,700-word statement examining not only the U.S. involvement in Viet Nam but also the future of all Asia. They concluded that a Communist victory in Viet Nam would lead to a greater war later.

The man behind the move, University of California Political Scientist Robert A. Scalapino, has worried that too many of the dissenters' caricatured criticisms were debasing discussion of the war, and that noisy campus demonstrations were convincing the nation and world of unanimous dissent by U.S. intellectuals. Scalapino conveyed his feelings to 13 colleagues, including Columbia's A. Doak Barnett, Harvard's Oscar Handlin and Edwin Reischauer, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Under the sponsorship of the Freedom House Public Affairs Institute, a non-partisan educational organization, they got together for three days in October at Tuxedo, N.Y., and began debating and putting down their thoughts.

Buying Time. The professors deplored "the recent rise of isolationist sentiment in the U.S.," and the fact that "many Americans find Asia remote and marginal to their interests." As for what the nation's position should be, "The ability to develop and defend policies attuned to limited objectives--including a policy of limited war--has become the vital test of the U.S. today. Our opponents count upon our impatience, our impetuousness, our immaturity. They must be proven wrong.

"Let us cease defining and defending American foreign policies in grossly oversimplified terms. Let us also desist from the excessive spirit of mea culpa which permeates certain quarters of American society." Since World War II, they said, the U.S. has performed remarkably well in international affairs.

The U.S. presence in Asia has been necessary to counterbalance Chinese power and prevent a major Asian war. "The task of simultaneously restraining China and incorporating China peacefully into the international community will not be easy, but it is one of the greatest challenges facing us in the years ahead." Beyond China, Southeast Asia "comprises ten separate states and nearly 250 million people. This region may well hold the key to whether a political equilibrium for Asia as a whole can be achieved, a question which in turn affects the future of the entire world."

During the past five years, conditions in Southeast Asia have justified "cautious optimism," with most nations--notably Indonesia--displaying a capacity for pragmatic politics.

"The decision of the U.S. to main tain a presence in this region has been of crucial importance. Every political leader within the area now recognizes that without that presence, the political fate of the region as a whole would have been drastically different. The U.S. has bought time for some 200 million people to develop, without their ceaselessly being confronted with combined external-internal Communist threats."

Far Out. Thus the stakes in Viet Nam go far beyond that nation itself: "To accept a Communist victory in Viet Nam would serve as a major encouragement to those forces in the world opposing peaceful coexistence, to those elements committed to the thesis that violence is the best means of effecting change. It would gravely jeopardize the possibilities of a political equilibrium in Asia, seriously damage our credibility, deeply affect the morale--and the policies--of our Asian allies and the neutrals."

The scholars recommended continued prosecution of the war, though without escalation and possibly with experimental de-escalations to win broader support for it at home. As they noted, "the outcome is being decided on the streets and in the homes of America as much as in the jungles of Viet Nam. Both the Government and its critics should begin to face up to these facts."

The committee's statement is being mailed to 3,600 of the nation's academicians for endorsement. "The ac ademic community and the students in particular have gone pretty far out on one side of this," said Reischauer. "But we've got to have a sensible Asian policy. We're saying that America does have a role in Asia, and let's not blow our tops and do something foolish."

*Others: Leo Cherne, Research Institute of America; Harry D. Gideonse, New School for Social Research; William W. Lockwood, Princeton; Richard L. Park, University of Michigan; Guy J. Pauker, Rand Corp.; Lucian Pye, M.I.T.; I. Milton Sacks, Brandeis University; Paul Seabury, University of California; Fred von der Mehden, University of Wisconsin; and Robert E. Ward, University of Michigan.

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