May 1970

President Richard M. Nixon
The White House

Mr. President:

   As dedicated members of America's great academic community,
we address you here with one voice:

   We recognize the burden of responsibility and decision which
history has made yours in this time of crisis.

   We wish to add our voice to the urgent warnings of the young
whom we have helped to educate.

   We agree with the stand of many that the health of this nation
depends on a swift disengagement from war in Southeast Asia,
although the violent tactics used by some to express this are repugnant
to us.

   We have been increasingly troubled as more and more young
people, including many of the most promising representatives of our
educationat system, have turned away from that system to the streets,
to jail, and to exile in opposition to the war.

   We share the difficulties of many young people in justifying the

apparent inconsistencies in recent official statements and actions
concerning U. S. plans and expectations in Southeast Asia. We also
share their profound uneasiness over military actions taken without
wide acceptance within government circles, including especially the
Congress --actions which have further aggravated the already severe
and unhealthy political division within our Country.

   We ask simply and urgently that you rise to the heroism that
these times demand and take swift and decisive steps to restore a
unity of vision and purpose --not in the exercise of power, but behind
this nation's historic and best values.  We believe this necessitates a
rapid termination of U. S. participation in the Southeast Asian war.

Luis W. Alvarez              Felix Bloch
Berkeley, Calif.             Palo Alto, Calif.

John Bardeen                 Konrad Bloch
Urbana, Ill.              Cambridge, Mass.

George W. Beadle'
Chicago, Ill.

Melvin Calvin
Berkeley, Calif.


President Richard M. Nixon

-2 -

May 1970

Owen Chamberlain
Berkeley, Calif.

Andre Cournand
  New York, N. Y.

Max Delbrdck
Pasadena, Calif.

Richard P. Feynman
Pasadena, Calif.

Donald A. Glaser
Berkeley, Calif.

H. K. Hartline
New York, N. Y.

Alfred D. Hershey
Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y.

Robert Hofstadter
Palo Alto, Calif.

Robert W. Halley
La Jolla, Calif.

Charles Huggins
Chicago, Ill.

Edward C. Kendall
Princeton, N. J.

H. Gobind Khorana
Madison, Wise.

Joshua Lederberg
Palo Alto, Calif.

T. D. Lee
New York, N. Y.

Fritz Lipmann
New York, N. Y.

S. E. Luria
Cambridge, Mass,

Edwin M. MC Millan
Berkeley, Calif.

R. S. Mulliken
Chicago, 111.

Marshall W. Nirenberg
Bethesda, Md.

Linus Pauling
Palo Alto, Calif.

Edward M. Purcell
Cambridge, Mass.

Dickinson W. Richards
New York, N. Y.

Frederick C. Robbins
Cleveland, Ohio

Emilio Segr&
Berkeley, Calif.

Wendell M. Stanley
Berkeley, Calif.

Albert Szent -Gy8rgyi
Woods Hole, Mass.

Edward L. Tatum
New York, N. Y.

Max Theiler
New Haven, Conn.

Charles H. Townes
Berkeley, Calif.

Harold C. Urey
San Diego, Calif.

Selman A. Waksman
New Brunswick, N. J.

George Wald
Cambridge, Mass.

Chen N. Yang
Stony Brook, N. Y.

Nobel Laureates