To the Editors of the Crimson:
Your March 13 edition reports with convincing detail that the Harvard Salient was affiliated with the Harvard/Radcliffe Conservative Club until 1985, when all ties were severed in an angry dispute over the club's decision to invite a South African diplomat to campus. The drama inherent in this history almost makes one wish it were true, but the real facts are much more pedestrian. The Salient has had no connection with the Conservative Club since 1982. Therefore, while many Salient staff members did oppose the club's invitation of Abe Hoppenstein (and its subsequent sponsorship of a speech by Duke Kent Brown), our opposition was no more significant than that of any other students.
In addition, I suspect that the Conservative Club's hibernation--which, incidentally, dates from 1987, not 1985--resulted from the graduation of its most committed members rather than from a backlash against the Hoppenstein invitation, as your "news" article asserts. The club members whom I knew always enjoyed a good backlash, which perhaps accounts for their choice of speakers. Caleb Nelson '88
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