March 8, 1952

Some 150 students from West Point, Fordham, Columbia and Vassar attended a conference on “Breaking Chains in Asia,” sponsored by the Vassar Political Association. Addressing the closing session, German-American economist Martin W. Wilmington from Pace College, declaring that “the United States has a vital stake in the economic development of Southeast Asia,” said that America “must take an active leading role in the fight against poverty” in the region “as its most effective measure against communism.” Citing commitments in “other theatres” that prevented the country’s marshaling “adequate military power in the area to check Soviet military expansion,” Wilmington said that “technical assistance and capital aid are essential.”

In his summary of the conference’s discussions, I Milton Sacks, political science researcher at Yale, said he thought “the only possibility to save the Indo-Chinese situation is to create an independent national force.”

The New York Times