Bosco says that has he been met with hostility only from members of the Faculty, which voted to end Harvard’s on-campus ROTC unit 30 years ago and continues to oppose the program because of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. And even these have been relatively minor incidents: disparaging comments from a knot of professors as he walked through the Yard in uniform, a debate with a teaching fellow in section.
Neither the anti-war feelings on campus nor his ROTC uniform have dissuaded Bosco from voicing his own opinions, shaped by a brand of conservatism that has left him at odds with liberals, as well as conservatives like Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53.
“I believe the main difference between us is that he is conservative in the sense of being inherently suspicious of change,” Bosco wrote of Mansfield in an e-mail. “He reveres old institutions for their own sake, and deeply admires proponents of aristocracy such as Edmund Burke. Mainstream American conservatism, in contrast, focuses heavily on liberty and the rights of the individual. Such conservatives venerate Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson over proponents of aristocracy like Burke.”
His beliefs have also led him to become an adamant supporter of the Bush administration’s foreign policy.
“It’s not that I love Bush, it’s just that I support his vision of U.S. foreign policy,” he says. “He understands that the preservation of human rights requires the U.S. to use its power, sometimes in forceful ways.
About a month ago these convictions led Bosco to speak out at a teach-in on Iraq held by the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice.
“I made a comment where I expressed my opinion that a lot of what had been said in that debate was not accurate,” he said. “There’s been a lot of talk about American human rights abuses, so I asked them how they justified supporting policies that would’ve allowed Saddam Hussein’s regime to remain in power, given the massive and institutional nature of the human rights abuses that occurred under him.”
“They responded pretty negatively,” he adds. “There was sort of an attempt to shout me down as I was speaking.”
Bosco’s strong views on foreign policy extend beyond his support of the Bush administration. He spent last year in Taiwan, working with the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy—an NGO that works to promote democracy in Asia—and last summer interned in the war games section at National Defense University, helping to create crisis scenarios.
He has also authored two articles for the Harvard Political Review on international affairs, and in December 2002 wrote an op-ed for The Crimson in support of U.S. military action in Iraq.
But now Bosco will be the proverbial tip of the spear, carrying out the policies he has so vocally supported in a world that has become increasingly dangerous.
Indeed, the Vandegrift is a modern vessel, built during the Cold War and armed with missiles, torpedoes and a 76 mm gun. But one of Bosco’s jobs next year might be more in the tradition of John Paul Jones: boarding a ship and searching compartment after compartment for terrorists or contraband.
“Typically there are indications that it’s going to be really hostile,” he says of the potential scenario. “Then there have been times when you never know what the reception is going to be like.”
—Staff writer Christopher M. Loomis can be reached at cloomis@post.harvard.edu