Brown and White Vol. 86 no. 45

              lehigh university brown and white ol 9t no 15 mmttl bethlehem pa friday april 4 1975 rusk examines kennedy years by jo fineman dean rusk former united states secretary of state impressionistically examined u.s foreign policy during kennedy's presidential administration in the opening lecture of the ninth annual blaustein lectures in international relations on tuesday night he also made numerous personal observations about kennedy himself rusk spoke on topics such as the berlin crisis of 1961-62 the cuban missile crisis and the bay of pigs incident in an effort to clarify misunderstandings arising from the past he also spoke on topics relevant to present problems such as american commitment to south vietnam kennedy expressed great concern about the situation in laos when he came to office rusk said he noted that president eisenhower had advised kennedy to put american forces in laos the more we looked at the situation the more we did not like the idea of involvement there he added the people of laos seemed to us a gentle people who had no interest in killing each other and so we concluded the thing to do was to get everybody out and let the laotians manage their affairs any way they wanted rusk said the united states at the 1961-62 laotian conference "... made concessions and accepted a coalition government and the neutralization of laos however he added the north vietnamese did not take their troops out as required by the agreement and would not let a coalition government operate in those areas that were communist rusk said these north vietnamese actions previewed the events of 1973 kennedy read the failure of the laotian agreement as a test of the real objectives of the north vietnamese rusk said he asked what would president kennedy have done later and then answered ' the truth is no one can possibly know if he had decided in 1963 to take the troops out he would have done it then and not waited until 1965 rusk said refuting the notion that kennedy planned to withdraw u.s personnel after the presidential election of 1964 rusk expressed despair over the fact that we weren't able to bring that struggle in southeast asia to an end during the johnson administration i'm gloomy about the future he said admitting profound sadness over the plight of civilian refugees in south vietnam and about the possibility that we ourselves might withhold food and ammunition in this desperate situation in lieu of a bloodbath we must find our way back to a unity of effort rusk said in support of granting of asylum to sub stantial numbers of south vietnamese tracing foreign policy to the beginning of the kennedy years rusk referred to the bay of pigs as a tragic mistake and cited the lack of frank and candid communication from the cabinet in washington and leadership of the brigade itself as reasons for that mistake we did not confront president kennedy with the crucial questions he should have had before him he said rusk said the message of the cuban missile crisis was that we mortals had better find a way to avoid the arrival of these crises as they are dangerous he referred to russia's molding of an empty pasture into a missile base within 10 days as a brilliant technological job for tunately the fact that we never saw a warhead on a missile gave us time to get these missiles out by peaceful rather than by military means he added president kennedy brooded a great deal whether it would have to be his fate to push the nuclear button rusk said kennedy was anxious to see if we couldn't find some direction in which to move in order to reduce the range of problems that would lead to nuclear conflict and he took great satisfaction in the nuclear arms treaty of 1963 he ad ded in the midst of all these crises kennedy never abondoned the points he made in his inaugural address rusk said so far as i've been able to determine jfk wrote those words himself and they had deep meaning for him rusk said rebutting critics who called the address inaugural rhetoric he was skeptical probing ready to open up new questions ideas approaches seeking answers men could find for problems men themselves had created rusk said of kennedy one thing 1 will never forget about president kennedy his readiness to build on hope and confidence said rusk if he had lived in the time of watergate he would have found a way to show that 99 plus per cent of the men and women in government are honest decent people trying to do a good job he added i think the man who wrote profiles in courage the man who believed liberty is at the heart of every man has some words and experiences which we might remember today rusk said shortage of 50 spaces seen for residence halls by peter ii al jser the university is expecting a shortage of approximately 50 spaces in residence halls next semester according to james tiefenbruhn assistant director of residence halls the problem tiefenbrunn explained is due to an unexpectedly high retention rate rr for residence hall rooms according to r peter shurtleff director of residence halls there will be as many as or more students left on the waiting list for rooms as last year apparently there is just less of an attraction to off campus housing he added one contributing factor is the newly constructed rh-11 dormitory tiefenbrunn noted this had been intended to alleviate some of the expected shortage he said instead due to the high appeal of the apartments in rh-11 he explained that it has actually increased the demand for residence halls accommodation earlier this year residence halls added 60 spaces in off-campus bishopthorpe and 88 in rh-11 tiefenbrunn said adding that even the 24 spaces expected to be ready in rh-11 next semester will not satisfy the need tiefenbrunn issued residence hall figures to the brown and white which reflect the increased rr in terms of freshman males the rr has increased by approximately 21 per cent meaning that 57 additional freshmen wish to remain in residence hall ac commodations next year according to the figures in contrast freshman women's requests for rooms have increased only slightly he said although residence halls officials have only a three-year history on women at the university he explained their rr has been relatively constant at 93.6 per cent this year he said their requests are up to 96.4 per cent a increase of 2.8 per cent tiefenbrunn explained that a large part of the problem originates from upperclass women whose rr has increased by 43 per cent he explained that by past experience residence halls officials would expect 145 applicants from this group who have already submitted 207 for next semester the figures add up to a 66.8 per cent increase in the overall university rr for residence hall accommodation on april 1 students who received rooms were required to sign a rental contract and make a 100 deposit tiefenbrunn stated wednesday that as of the april 1 deadline 50 men and 25 women seymour hersh rh-ll designed with student input in mind by effie combias this is the first in a series on rh-11 and rh-12 as the 1970's approached the university realized a need for increased on-campus housing planned increases in enrollment and the arrival of women students necessitated construction of new living units to meet the demand in 1971 the university completed a comples of coeducational dormitories known as centennial 11 three buildings were constructed each to house 42 men and 42 women also in 1971 the university undertook what turned out to be a costly and complex venture — the planning and construction of residence hall 11 rh-11 apartment housing for undergraduate students it became a four-year project after making a careful study of university needs which included much student and faculty input according to peter shurtleff assistant dean of residence the university decided to seek a design that provided an alternate life style we wanted to get something that would beaw photo by murphy dean rusk pulitzer prize winner to speak at convocation seymour hersh pulitzer prize-winning new york times reporter will speak on the press government and credibility at this year's forum con vocation to be held tuesday april 8 hersh won the pulitzer prize for un covering and reporting the my lai massacre in viet nam he was also * responsible for breaking the story of cia investigations of citizens other stories hersh has reported on include secretary of state henry kissinger wiretapping his own aides the pentagon pilfering kissinger's documents the bombing of cambodia during the nixon administration and cia involvement in chilean president salvador allende's overthrow besides the pulitzer prize hersh has won two george polk awards as well as the sigma delta chi distinguished service award the worth bingham prize the scripps-howard public service award and a collection of lesser awards a native of chicago hersh began his journalistic career after graduating from the university of chicago as a police reporter for the chicago city news bureau he then worked for upi in south see press page 4 see residence page 7 see rh-11 page 8