This didn't happen because many of the participants considered the United States the problem rather than a provider of solutions in international troubles.

And it didn't happen because the cadets are too bright to believe that the goals of U.S. policy are always benevolent. They know that self-interest necessarily plays a pare in foreign policy formulation.

Take Bob Potter. A senior at West Point he's very concerned about United States security interests. He doesn't want the United States to become a third-rate power. He consistently challenged the assumptions of his more radical colleagues on the Latin American study group.

But when the crunch came, he ended up backing many of the more radical proposals. He didn't want the U.S. to play a Big Brother role in Latin America. He didn't like what a lot of U.S. corporations were doing there. And despite his misgivings, he felt that the people of Chile will be best served if. President Salvador Allende's socialist government survives.

Potter is not unlike a lot of other cadets. Many of them seem to survive the rigid socialization and occasional indoctrination with their critical faculties intact. They're not all yes-men for the Government which pays them to go through West Point. This is especially clear when the cadets argue among themselves over U.S. strategic policies.

"Hell, we don't need those submarines there," one will say to another. "They don't do anything for our security. They could never do anything anyway."

THIS IS NOT, however, a typical attitude. Most of the Cadets, when pressed, favor maintaining or increasing American military commitments around the world. Most estimate that the West Point vote probably went about 80 per cent for Nixon. The Cadets like to deal is facts rather than speculation, so a political discussion often involves definitive statements of what is rather then musings about what might be. Most of the Cadets can describe each weapon in the American or Soviet military arsenal, predict its strengths and weaknesses, and most still view the world as a battlefield where it is important that the U.S. arsenal be stronger missile for missile than that of the Soviet Union.

But the Cadets are not supposed to spend their time discussing politics, and indeed the rigidity of their schedules leaves little time for it. The Cadets form by company (a group of about 110 men) at 6:13 each morning. Anyone late is "slugged", which does not mean beaten up, but does mean being confined to the barracks room except for classes, meals, and athletics. A person five minutes late for morning formation could be slugged for several weeks. Each Cadet carries at least six courses, often more, so that most have 24 or more hours of classes per week. They are supposed to study two hours for each hour in class and the grading is rigid.

In some courses, like plebe (freshmen) Math, the Cadets are graded daily, and in all classes, lists ranking the students in order of performance are posted monthly. Where the student sits in the classroom is determined by his monthly rank. No one even considers cutting classes at West Point. The students time up outside the classrooms before entering to facilities attendance taking, and the sight of a halfway-in a classroom building filled with line upon line of uniformed Cadets is a strange one for a civilian getting his first look at the Point.

BUT IF THE SCENE in the classroom buildings is strange, that in the dining hall--Cadet Menu It's called- in stranger still. All the Cadets eat together in one huge room. In the middle of the room stands a large granite structure which looks like the front of its Church. In fact, it was formerly the front door of the menu hall before the building was enlarged to accommodate larger classes.

All Cadets eat with their companies, and all march into the hall in groups so facilitate speedy accommodation for the 4000-odd diners. All remain standing still they receives an order over the public address system.

Once seated, the Cadets actions proved along rigid class lines. Upperclassmen are free to met end talk as they like, Plebes have if a lot tougher.

Plebes cannot talk at meals. They must sit rigidly straight. Their backs cannot touch their chairs. They must take bites that are neither too small nor too large. They must place their utensils back onto their plates before they begin to chew.

And it doesn't stop there. The plebes must memories the culinary preferences of their upperclass comrades. They must know who drinks milk, who drinks punch, who likes coffee; and they're responsible for serving their superiors.

There is one time when the plebes can talk. Occasionally, upperclassmen may ask plebes to memorize something or other (say the Communist Manifesto, or Bill Buckley's latest column). At a later meal, they are called upon to recite their lines.