Lodge Terms Harvard 'Decisive' In Theodore Roosevelt's Career

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. '24, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., told a Sanders Theater audience last night that "Harvard was decisive for the the future career of Theodore Roosevelt."

His address, entitled "Theodore Roosevelt and America's World Responsibility," was made at the centennial celebration of the former President's birthday.

It was at Harvard, stated Lodge, that Roosevelt gave up the idea of naturalism as a career, and where his "interest in people and a sense of public service turned him to political life."

Lodge said that Roosevelt achieved the "ideal of a well-rounded man, the goal of all university training."

He cited the "Rough Rider's" belief that America's foreign policy "must rest on strength," and that "force should be at the back of righteousness."

Although, Lodge noted, Roosevelt saw "no conflict between righteousness and physical power," he was "neither a reckless warmonger, nor an overbearing imperialist."

The Ambassador hailed the granting of independence to Cuba by Roosevelt as "part of the American tradition" of foreign policy. It was, he said, in line with the recent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Lebanon, and in contrast to the actions of the Russians, "who enter a country and stick there."

Elting E. Morison '32, professor of Industrial History at M.I.T., the other speaker at the celebration, declared that Roosevelt also "used power to define issues and to educate the public." Morison stressed the importance of the "influence of a man who knew, not so much how to rule, as how to release his spirit."