Word: hoffmann
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...Administration's present policy in Vietnam raises--to be polite--certain questions," Stanley H. Hoffmann, professor of Government, commented last night at the East House Forum...
Debating the issue of Vietnam with Daniel Ellsberg '52, Special Assistant in the Department of Defense, Hoffmann began his attack by agreeing with ten points of Administration policy, a tactic which Ellsberg admitted was "very disarming...
...Hoffmann is something of an impostor; he is certainly not a typical critic of the government position," Ellsberg said. He added that there seemed to be very few points of disagreement, since Hoffmann had "conceded a number of points which usually form the body of the debate...
...While Hoffmann agreed that the consequences in Vietnam might be disastrous, he asked Ellsberg to "produce some evidence that the present policy offers a chance of preventing a Vietcong victory." Although Ellsberg never answered the challenge directly, he did say that U.S. action offered a "chance of improving the prospects for negotiation...
...Hoffmann's introduction is modest. Aron is not only a columnist; he is the best of the West's myriad political commentators. Reading him, one cannot help feeling he has achieved the optimum mix of compassion and realism. The Great Debate is an example of neutral analysis in the service of compassion. Aron analyzes the nuclear apocalypse before which much of Harvard shudders as millenial Christians before the imminent Judgment, and he deals with it in a calm, utterly convincing...