Defense Recruiter Arrives Too Early, Misses a Protest

A recruiter from the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) averted a planned demonstration by antiwar science students yesterday by conducting interviews at the Engineering Sciences Building a day ahead of schedule.

The recruiter spoke to nine students at Harvard after finishing interviews with MIT students earlier than he had expected, a secretary in the Department of Engineering and Applied Physics said yesterday.

The recruiter declined to answer questions from The Crimson, saying that he had to catch a plane. Officials at IDA's headquarters in Arlington, Va., said they did not know why the date of his visit had been changed.

Target of Student Protests

IDA has been a frequent target of student protests because of its role in planning the Indochina war. The institute's JASON summer project did the early planning for what became the Army's "integrated battlefield control system"--the electronic battlefield of sensors, anti-personnel bombs, mines and laser-guided "smart" bombs on which American planners increasingly relied as the war went on.