"I have a mission in life: to stop the Star Wars program, nuclear weapons and energy, and help preserve the environment," wrote kaku.

Classmate Peter F. Hagerty also found himself in the military after graduation, on a World War ll-era destroyer heading for the Tonkin Gulf.

However, after he refused to fol low an order to signify that the frail ship was ready for combat, the Navy threatened to court-martial him. Hagerty says, though, that the Navy decided instead to discharge him "when faced with the proposal of an Ivy League officer rotting in their jail."

Only months after this incident, that same ship blew up its forward gunmount, killing or blinding many members of the crew. "In order to forgive myself," says Hagerty, "I went and formed a legal organization called the Lawyers Military Defense Committee."

This group went to Vietnam to defend soldiers being tried for different forms of protest against the war. The most common form of "protest" was the first-degree murder of officers, called "fragging."

Among his experience in Vietnam was an encounter with a patrol of Viet Cong soldiers at a pagoda on the Mekong River.

Hagerty wrote in the class report that he "spent four hours that night talking about baseball and girlfriends with a group of men who, just two years before, I had been trained to kill at close range."

This experience taught Hagerty that "enemies can coexist and can transcend cultural and religious differences if they have a common ground."

When Hagerty saw "The Day After" television movie in 1984, he became terrified by the prospect of nuclear war, but recollections of his experience in Vietnam gave him hope for improvement.

Hagerty became inspired to try to do something about the Cold War threat by building an economic common ground. In 1985 he bought wool from a Soviet dealer as the first trade deal of his new company, "Peace Fleece," whose motto is "To build trust through trade."

War Affects Women, Too

Radcliffe women, faced with the same times but immune from the draft, have a somewhat different perspective and have been impacted less directly by the war.

Rachel R. Lieberman '68, in fact, sees the Vietnam War not as a catalyst of social change as it seems to have affected some of her Harvard classmates, but rather as an impediment.

"If the Vietnam War had not happened, there would have been more progress in civil rights," says Lieberman, "but we got sidetracked."

"For better or for worse, I continue to feel a sense of hope," says Lieberman, "a sense that common sense will prevail, and that liberal ideals will continue."

At her commencement, Lieberman spoke out against the Vietnam War. She was also involved in several demonstrations during her senior year.