At War with War

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The confidence derived partly from the fact that the young no longer saw themselves confronting a monolithic Establishment. At dozens of campuses, university presidents supported student demands for an end to the Cambodian venture and a withdrawal from Indochina. Oberlin College President Robert Carr simply canceled final exams, gave all his students credit for their courses and turned over the campus to antiwar planning. James Farmer, Assistant Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, spoke out in support of the students. The defeat of G. Harrold Carswell for the Supreme Court persuaded many that the system could be responsive to protest. Nor was the anger of so many Washington legislators lost on the young. They realized that for the moment at least it was Richard Nixon who looked isolated.

With that in mind, clean-cut, often freshly barbered students in ties and jackets swarmed over Capitol Hill, visiting sympathetic Congressmen, obtaining audiences with willing members of the Administration. Illinois Republican Charles Percy told one group: "A lot of candidates this fall will be more attentive if they know that there are going to be thousands of young people out working for or against them."

In New Haven, Yale seniors began organizing a "counter-commencement," planning to have nearly 1,000 members of the graduating class wear suits and ties to commencement and donate their $8 cap-and-gown fees to a fund for the benefit of antiwar candidates. A group called Action for Peace collected 60,000 signatures in the New York City area in two days to support a Senate amendment to curtail the Indochina war; the group began mailing petitions to high schools and colleges across the country for more signatures. Williams College students began organizing "Pause for Peace," a national work stoppage set for May 27 between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Williams students are asking alumni to spread the protest. Some 400 faculty members from four western Massachusetts campuses have voted to invite Spiro Agnew to speak at their campuses; they reason that once the Vice President arrives, he can be indicted for crossing state lines to incite a riot—which would surely break out if Agnew came to visit. Another student movement would have the young boycott soft drinks for the duration of the war—"You've got a lot to live," the motto goes, "and Pepsi's got a lot to lose." When Indiana's Senator Birch Bayh addressed a delegation of 1,000 students on Capitol Hill, he said: "We can make this system responsive from within instead of trying to destroy it from without." The students reacted with a standing ovation.

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