Sixty-three members of the Harvard Faculty have signed a letter claiming "we have lost the political initiative in Vietnam and are attempting to substitute military actions for political ones," a course that will lead to war with China.

They were among 422 faculty members of New England colleges listed in an open letter to President Johnson published in this morning's New York Times. The half-page advertisement advocates a negotiated settlement in Vietnam.

The letter accuses America of widening the war without legitimate cause. It claims that the U.S. is becoming increasingly unpopular everywhere in Southeast Asia.

The French, it says, had overwhelming numbers and fire power, but lost in Indo-China because they lacked the support of the population. "Do we face the same prospect?"

Foreseeing "seemingly endless" demonstrations and riots against the United States by "the very men we seek to sustain in power," the letter demands that we "initiate negotiations while there is still time."

The letter was drafted last week, chiefly by a group of professors at M.I.T.

Among the signers are Donald Fleming, professor of History; H. Stuart Hughes, professor of History; George Wald, professor of Biology; Rupert Emerson '22, professor of Government, and Everett Mendelsohn, assistant professor of the History of Science.