Kissinger Speaks at Alumni Conference

CHICAGO-Henry Kissinger '50 knew he mustn't let his fellow alumni down. For, as even the most informed in the audience would have acknowledged, they had come not to have their opinions changed or confirmed, but to see a Presidential assistant perform.

And so Henry Alfred Kissinger, former professor of Government and special assistant to the President of the United States for national security affairs, told the Associated Harvard Alumni a joke.

"When I was in Cambridge," he began to drawl, "nothing angered us more than when the national security policymakers came and said to us, 'Our policy is the best possible policy, all alternatives have been considered, and you wouldn't be so unfriendly if only you knew what we know.' "

"Well," he continued slowly, deliberately, moving in for the clincher, "I'm here to tell you today that our policy is the best possible policy, that all alternatives have been considered, and if you knew what we know you wouldn't be asking all these questions."

Laughter all around.

Henry Kissinger isn't the only Harvard alumnus who is no longer in Cambridge. Some 400 alumni and their wives-most of them from the Chicago area-gathered at the Sheraton-Blackstone Hotel in Chicago last Friday for a day-long meeting of the Associated Harvard Alumni, the national alumni organization.

And even if the conference taught them as much about what Harvard is like today as Kissinger's 20-minute "off-the-record" luncheon address taught them about foreign policy, there was a distinct, serious effort to shed the old-school-tie and partying atmosphere that has often characterized such affairs.

At morning and afternoon panels, the alumni heard several senior Harvard officials tell them that the period of disruptive protest seemed to be on the wane, and that the University was now preoccupied with such issues as educational reform, merger, relations with the community, and an imminent financial squeeze. The two panel sessions were taped and then broadcast over Chicago radio during the weekend.

Particular stress was laid on the budgetary problems that Harvard and American universities in general face. At the morning panel, Francis H. Burr '35, Senior Fellow of the Corporation, said that deficit spending and continued shortage of funds would increasingly threaten the status of private universities in the next 20 years.

Farewell

Most alumni roundly applauded President Pusey when he addressed the AHA for the last time as Harvard's President and concluded by saying that "Harvard is still worth every conceivable effort you can make."

"There has been a falling off in understanding of and awareness that the real function of the University-and I'm not talking about teaching and research, though these too are important-but beneath that and before that is learning and scholarship. I think if we can rehabilitate that idea we will begin to work out our problems," Pusey said.

Much of the alumni conversation centered on Pusey's recently-chosen successor, Derek C. Bok. The comments generally ranged from "I know who his father and grandfather is, but that doesn't tell me anything about him," to "I don't know! I've never met him. On the face of it, he sounds pretty good."

The AHA nominally encompasses Radcliffe as well as Harvard, but only a few alumnae attended the meeting. "It's very difficult for me to operate in this bastion of male chauvinism," one woman commented.

The focus of attention, though, was Kissinger, who was whisked into the Sheraton-Blackstone early in the morning by a cluster of Secret Servicemen. Many alumni wondered how the AHA had persuaded so prominent a figure to appear at the meeting.

"It was simple," said Christopher G. Janus '36, one of the meeting's organizers. "Six months ago, I picked up the telephone, called the White House, said I wanted to speak to Henry Kissinger, asked him if he'd come to talk and he said okay."

The Doctor Is In

After meeting privately with Chicago newspaper publishers, Kissinger appeared at lunch to speak. The 500 persons in the room heard a statement written by Herb Klein, White House press secretary, which said that "Dr. Kissinger's remarks are not to be quoted, are not to be attributed to Dr. Kissinger, because Dr. Kissinger never appears in public." More laughter.

Kissinger was introduced by AHA president Roswell Perkins and by Robert F. Spindell '27, a Chicago banker. "Who would have dared hope in May that the Administration would be able to diffuse the Vietnam war as an issue by the November election?" Spindell said. "The fact is that within four or five months the American people recognized the necessity of the Cambodian invasion to the success of the Vietnamization program."

"It is commonly acknowledged in Washington that two men were responsible for the important decision concerning Cambodia: President Nixon and his special assistant for national security affairs, Henry Kissinger," Spindell added.

One of the alumni commented later, "I don't suppose Kissinger was overly grateful for that introduction."

After speaking and answering a number of questions, Kissinger received a standing ovation. He strolled leisurely to an exit and was then rushed away by Secret Servicemen.