Harvard in the news: who is right in the confrontation between the university and Donald Trump?

In what follows, I will not answer that question but I will provide the community with some food for thought. The text below is a ‘reprint,’ so to speak. It was written in August 2016 and published for a limited, dedicated audience, my Harvard undergraduate class of 1967. This was my entry in the Class Report for the 50^th anniversary of our graduation. I believe that it has direct relevance to the present-day conflict over whether Harvard is an institution of higher education and research or a political entity promoting woke, inclusiveness at the expense of merit and other values that this administration condemns in the name of common sense and civilizational survival.