Anti-Draft Group Seeks to Mobilize Harvard Around Resistance Issue

The Boston Draft Resistance Group held the first meeting last night in a campaign to mobilize Harvard on the issue of refusing military service as a protest against the Vietnam war.

Approximately 60 persons attended, after the group's canvassers covered parts of Quincy and Leverett Houses and some Yard dormitories.

At the meeting, one of the group's leaders announced that it might provide "draft resistance specialists" to the Vietnam Summer organization--"which," he said, "hopes to make draft resistance one of its major projects."

Stanley H. Hoffman, professor of Government, told the meeting he opposed the war not because of its objectives, but because of the immorality and ineffectiveness of the methods the United States uses.

"There is nothing dishonorable in itself in trying to shore up a non-Communist part of Asia," Hoffman said.

Undermining Trust

But the way in which the war is being fought, he continued, is undermining Americans' trust in their government, warping elected officials' sense of duty, and costing the U.S. "the sympathy and respect of a large number of people in the world."

Hoffmann said the war could not be blamed on a military-industrial complex ("This is a myth.") or on "the wickedness and stupidity of one's leaders." The structure of decision-making in the U.S. government, he said, would drive any leader to much the same course of action.

The draft resistance group has also issued a statement opposing conscription for the Vietnam war. "Our position," the statement reads, "is that the War in Vietnam must be ended immediately, and that no American should be drafted while the war continues."