RICHARD PIPES
MARLBOROUGH, N. H. 03455
Tel. (603) 827-3487

August 4, 1968

Prof. Joshua Lederberg
500 Pasteur Drive
Palo Alto, Calif.

Dear Professor Lederberg:

Whatever the semantic difference between "guilt"
and "responsibility" (and I am not certain there
is any) in daily usage the two terms mean the
same. The theory of "collective responsibility"
strikes me not only as being immoral and des-
structive, but in the case of the murder of M.
L. King as absurd. The only burden I can feel
for that assassination is that, by having fa-
vored and abetted the emancipation of Negroes

in this country, I have contributed to the awa-
kening of that ‘yacklash” of which King fell
victim. If that proposition were true, then
morality would dictate placating the racists.

Yours sincerely,

rete