COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002		Whether restrictions on Soviet visitors are desirable in
C00007 ENDMK
C⊗;
	Whether restrictions on Soviet visitors are desirable in
present circumstances is a debatable question, but Professor Bernard
Roth and Associate Provost Gerald Lieberman have been making up facts
in support of their contention that restrictions are undesirable.
We refer to the following excerpt from a January 22 Associated Press
dispatch.

    The restrictions are ''absurd,'' according to Bernard Roth, a
professor in Stanford's Department of Mechanical Engineeering.

    ''Guys in the U.S. who know something about it (robotics) learned
from the Russians,'' he said. Potential military applications are
''very small. ... I don't think anyone will win a war on the basis of
those machines. It's certainly not of critical national interest.''

    He added that nothing is being done in the field that the Soviets
''either don't already know or can easily figure out for themselves.''

    In refusing to honor the restrictions, Stanford Vice-Provost Gerald
J. Liberman said, ''We believe the best interests of American science
and technology are served by open exchanges of university research
activities.''

    He said in a letter to the NAS, ''The campus is completely open; and
the thousands of visiting scholars to campus each year have free
access to any of the university's programs. Even if we had the means
to monitor or police the activities of visitors, such actions would
drastically disrupt the academic environment which is essential in
fostering creative research endeavors.''

	In our opinion,
Roth's statement about that we learned what we know about
robotics from the Russian is a total exaggeration; we cannot imagine
what he has in mind.  Moreover, he is mistaken that robotics has no
military potential.

	Lieberman is mistaken in his statement that everyone has free
access to all programs.  The Center for Integrated Systems intends to
give privileged access to the sponsoring companies.  He is also wrong
that it is impractical to put any restrictions on what laboratories
Umnov visits or what is discussed with him.  It may be impractical
to police such restrictions, but probably people will co-operate
with restrictions.

	Lieberman is throwing dust in saying,
''We believe the best interests of American science
and technology are served by open exchanges of university research
activities.''  This may be true, but

	1. There are other national interests besides those of science
and technology.

	2. Umnov is not from a university but an institute that is
not generally open to foreign visitors even if Roth did visit it in
1969.

	3. The best way to get open exchanges has not proven to be
to allow total free access in the hope that the Russians will reciprocate.
Experience shows that they don't.

	One of us has visited the Soviet Union more than ten times,
and our experience is that access to Soviet work is best achieved by
hard bargaining.