Higher Education and Anti-Vietnam War Demonstrations Comparing Occurrences and Administrative Responses
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HIGHER EDUCATION AND ANTI-VIETNAM WAR DEMONSTRATIONS COMPARING OCCURRENCES AND ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSES by WILLIAM LEE COLTRANE, B.A., M.A. A DISSERTATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION Approved May, 1992 iinl '3 iqqz A/o,// Copyright 1992, William Lee Coltrane ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The phrase "no man is an island" surely applies to one undertaking an investigative study such as this. I am, therefore, deeply indebted to certain people, and groups of people, who provided their support, advice, encouragement, and critique toward this work's completion. First among these is Dr. Leonard Ainsworth who always had the time in his very busy schedule to answer my questions and to lead me through this sometimes seemingly Sisyphean task. I must further give a hearty thank you to professors William Sparkman and Alwyn Barr for their many comments pertaining to style and to possible directions for additional research; and also, of course, to Drs. Robert Ewalt and Judith Henry for their judicious counsel relating to administrative questions. Moreover, this work could never have been completed without a vast amount of assistance from the personnel at Texas Tech University's inter-library loan department, the Texas Tech University Southwest Collection, Rice University's Woodsen Research Center, and Southern Methodist University's Degolyer Library Archives. Finally, I must say thank you to the friends who stood beside me for being patient and understanding, when I sometimes was not. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 11 ABSTRACT IV I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. 1960-1964: ROOTS 19 III. 1965 GENESIS 33 IV. 1966 PERSERVERANCE 51 V. 1967 AGGRESSION * 58 VI. 1968 ESCALATION 72 VII 1969 MORATORIUM 9 3 VIII. 1970 DEATH 109 IX. 1971-1975: PEACE 131 X. SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY 154 XI. RICE UNIVERSITY 172 XII. TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY 200 XIII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 224 LIST OF REFERENCES 253 APPENDICES 265 111 ABSTRACT . 1 Nearly half of American colleges and universities experienced at least one war-related protest during the Vietnam War period. And even though numerous works have been written on the subject of campus unrest, most have involved the incidents at only one school. A study needed to be produced for readers to compare student antiwar activities and administrative responses at several institutions. This work accounts for a few of the more publicized demonstrations as well as some of the lesser known events. It additionally introduces the occurrences at three previously unpublicized schools--Southern Methodist University, Rice University, and Texas Tech University. 1 The Vietnam War had little effect on college students during the early 1960s. But after President Lyndon Johnson began increasing the number of American troops in Southeast Asia, many students and faculty became more concerned. In 1965, teach-ins, not confrontation, provided impetus for the movement, and in 1966, most students seemed confused about their role in ending the war, so only a few sporadic protests occurred. During 1967 and 1968, however, antiwar students shifted to a more resistant stance, primarily directing their iv anger against ROTC programs, and Dow Chemical Company and military recruiters being on campus. Then, in 1959, large numbers of students participated in a national Vietnam War Moratorium. But campus antiwar activity reached its zenith in 1970 after the Ohio National Guard killed four Kent State University Students. America's participation in the Vietnam War created a strained atmosphere on many campuses, forcing university officials to respond to adverse situations. Some of their decisions adequately prevented violent confrontation; others proved disastrous. Accordingly, this dissertation first regards several cases in which antiwar students and administrators clashed; it differentiates between some administrative responses to the demonstrations; and it suggests some guidelines that administrators might consider for attaining peaceable settlements, primarily through better communication. V CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION War I abhor. And yet how sweet The sound along the marching street Of drum and fifei And I forget Wet eyes of widows, and forget Broken old mothers, and the whole Dark butchery without a soul. (Larned, 1908:121) Throughout history, people have confronted the problem of how to live together harmoniously. Some have chosen aggression as the means for combating incompatibility while others, abhorring the idea of physical conflict, preferred instead to vent their energies toward supporting more peaceful solutions. These latter individuals, commonly referred to as pacifists, come from all walks of life; they represent all careers and all socio-economic positions, and they are multitudinous. Throughout the twentieth century, higher education students have been a part of the American peace movement, but their role during the Vietnam War reached new heights in participation and in violence. Much has been written on the subject of campus unrest, but most of these works single out occurrences at the most selective and newsworthy institutions. Antiwar movements at some of the lesser known schools have been ignored, and few authors have made an effort to acknowledge the activities at more than one institution (Astin et al., 1975). A study needed to be produced ^ that would allow readers to compare antiwar movements | and administrative responses at various colleges and universities throughout the nation. There is, after v" all, more than a slight variation between different university climates and administrative procedures. As Franklin L. Ford, history professor and Dean of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University in 1969 said: All human institutions have '-^ their flaws and vulnerabilities, but they are not all the same.... It does not help anyone's under standing of a given case to assume that ... after Berkeley and Col umbia, it is clear just what Yale or Chicago or the University of Minnesota is in for. (The Rice Thresher, 1969, February 6) This study accounts for some of the more important antiwar demonstrations that affected American colleges, students, and administrators between 1960 and 1972. Although it is necessary to provide the reader with a brief sketch of some peace activity prior to the anti-Vietnam War student demonstrations, especially those cultivating incidents that occurred early in the 1960s, the pith of this work concerns those most turbulent years, 1965 to 1970. During that period, nearly 50% of four-year colleges and universities experienced at least one war-related protest (Astin et al., 1975), as dissent and disruption swept across the nation's campuses in response to America's involvement in Southeast Asia and higher education's support of that war through defense-related research. Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), and industrial and military recruiting on the campuses. Although American antimilitary activism has existed since the Revolutionary War period, no organized student group came forth prior to 1900 (Altbach and Peterson, 1972). John William Burgess, who founded Columbia University's political science department in 1880, is often thought to be the father of American political science; he might also be regarded as the father of organized peace movements in American higher education (Windmiller, 1968). Burgess, a Union soldier during the Civil War, found the slaughter and devastation of combat appalling. One night, in 1863, while standing guard amidst the screaming and crying of wounded and dying soldiers, he vowed that "if a kind of Providence would deliver me alive from the perils of the existing war, I would devote my life to teaching men how to live by reason and compromise instead of by bloodshed and destruction" (Burgess, 1934:29). He later established at Columbia a school of pacifist thought (Windmiller, 1968), that set the stage for forthcoming peace organizations in the twentieth century. Several antiwar groups developed during the 1900-1930 period. These organizations conducted national rallies, brought speakers to the colleges, circulated peace-oriented periodicals, and recognized the campus as an important facet of the national antiwar movement. Prior to World War I, Cosmopolitan Clubs, the Intercollegiate Peace Association (IPA), and the Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS) appeared on campuses. The Cosmopolitan Clubs, which began at Wisconsin in 1903 and Cornell in 1904, included students from all nationalities. These groups addressed the problem of war, preached a "pacific-minded internationalism," and worked toward promoting global friendship and understanding between university students. In 1907, eight universities represented the association, and by 1911, two thousand individual members from sixty countries represented the organization. The clubs also improved relations between students of diverse races and, during the 1930s, aided Black students in becoming involved with campus movements. (Naysmith, 1910; DeBenedetti, 1980; Altbach, 1974). In 1905, President Noah Byers of Goshen College, a private liberal arts college in Indiana, hosted a convention of college students and professors dedicated to peace; this group became the IPA. That year eight colleges, all controlled by religious denominations fundamentally opposed to war, represented the IPA. The following year, 1906-07, another twenty-eight institutions, none having religious ties, became members of the association,