New York, March 28—The lofty gentlemen who have lately appeared in Los Angeles to testify for the defendant Daniel Ellsberg are above all witnesses to the ambiguous legal nature of the Vietnam war. McGeorge Bundy, formerly a historian at Harvard, gave it as his opinion that the enemy could not have got useful information from the volumes released by Ellsberg. Mr. Schlesinger said much the same thing, and volunteered some obiter dicta to the press, on the usual theme.
Professor Schlesinger is principal keeper of the line that John F. Kennedy would never have made a commitment in Vietnam such as LBJ did, a line that is trading sluggishly, mostly under the counter. Asked whether there was anything to the rumor that he, Schlesinger, had penned the famous phrase in Kennedy’s Inaugural Address: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty,” Arthur just grinned sheepishly, and said that it didn’t matter how many state secrets Dan Ellsberg let out, Schlesinger wasn’t going to betray any.
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