Harrington, Reischauer Decry Further Vietnam Involvement

Congressman Michael J. Harrington (DMass.) told a Harvard Law School Forum panel discussion audience last night that the United States should not treat Vietnam as any more than an internationally-recognized area in supplying aid in the future.

Harrington was a member of the House Armed Services Committee and is now on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

University Professor Edwin O. Reischauer--also a panelist expert on South East Asia and Japan in particular, agreed with Harrington in saying the United States has no vital interests in Vietnam.

The other two panelists, Professor I. Milton Sacks of Brandeis and Professor Ithiel deSola Pool of MIT, emphasized the importance of Vietnam as a potential South East Asian economic power and supported aid to the area. Sacks and Pool have both spoken and written on South East Asia extensively.

Tenuous Peace

Harrington said it would be worthwhile, however, "to insure a tenuous peace in Vietnam by giving financial help to the two countries to rebuild."

Though Congress may hold off at present, Harrington said, it will eventually submit to Nixon's desire to aid Vietnam.

Reischauer avoided the issue of financial aid by saying that "the United States should not give aid as long as aggression exists, and I do not think it will cease." Hanoi will probably win out eventually, he said, and Laos and Cambodia will also end up under Vietnamese control.

Sacks and Pool said they disagreed with this view in foreseeing an eventual equilibrium between North and South Vietnam. "The spigot of arms is being turned off by the major powers," Sacks said, "I think the two governments will prefer ballots to bullets without this aid."