Seven Harvard University Professors Score Imposed Middle East Peace Plan

Seven Harvard University professors said in a letter published in the New York Times today that the aim of United States policy in the Middle East should be “to continue patiently and firmly trying to persuade the two sides to come to terms with each other in the world of practical reality, rather than to attempt by ourselves, or jointly with the USSR, to impose a detailed plan from outside.”

The writers, all senior professors in various faculties at Harvard, said they were “distressed by the shift in United States policy on the Middle East, as revealed in the recent public statements by Secretary of State William P. Rogers.” They agreed with Mr. Rogers that American interests demanded a stable peace in the area. “But his detailed proposals in advance of negotiations between the parties concerned, and in the face of an unyielding Soviet position that demands complete Israeli withdrawal without a peace settlement, can only encourage Soviet and Arab intransigence,” they said.

The letter was signed by Profs. Frank M. Cross; Merle Fainsod; Talcott Parsons; Charles P. Price; George H. Williams; Abram Bergson and Gerald Caplan. They contended that the Arabs viewed Mr. Rogers’ policy shifts “as the beginnings of surrender to their bellicosity” and neither they nor their Soviet allies have responded with any conciliatory gestures. “It seems that Rogers’ new initiative was, at least in part, a reaction to the anticipation of a united Arab front against us at the Rabat conference, and to an overestimation of the adverse consequences of such an eventuality,” the letter said. It observed that the policies enunciated by the Secretary of State “wins us hardly any friends among either the Arabs or Israelis and can only postpone the peace we seek.”