Calling the Congo crisis "one part one part Alice in Wonderland, part Heart of Darkness," David '55 last night discussed and interpretation of the Congo story. Halberstam, a Times correspondent, recently won the New Newspaper Guild Front-Page Award for his Congo reporting.

You could almost understand the story better if you thought of it as some eerie power hanging over said. "The Congo is a cruel that cuts to the core of any man's any man's failing," he continued, showing how it had also exposed the U.N. in its most vulnerable spots.

"Most Dangerous Army on Earth"

U.N. forces in the Congo recruited for "notably non-warlike" face what Halberstam called "the most dangerous army on earth": 20, 30, or 40 thousand Congolese soldiers--nobody knows how many--who have arms and nothing else." is nil, and holiday nights that "drunken, marauding, raping of soldiers" are a peril to the Congolese people.

the Tshombe-Adoula conflict problem," Halberstam summed can't take step one in the until the army is disarmed."

forces like fear, lack of , lack of knowledge, and the that "nobody knows his job and everybody has to fake it" all make central control impossible, Halberstam said. Illustrating the communications he said that often the Times will send him a communique suggesting that he call up Tshombe to ask him about this or that. "What they didn't tell me," Halberstam said, "is that it was for me to call them in New York telephone Tshombe."

Halberstam, a former managing editor of the CRIMSON, will return to the Congo correspondent after a month's the United States. The Congo was his first assignment for the Times.