Then and now: Comparing the radical and dangerous SDS protest plans of 1970 with the HandsOff! peaceful protests.

It’s been 55 years since I was part of a national protest against what the government was doing. In the 1970’s our side won, though it took a long time. There were many factors which led LBJ to decide the war was a lost cause. One was that that he was watching the country turn against him. How much he cared about the student protests isn’t known, but reports suggest he really cared about what Walter Chronkite said even though there are conflicting reports (here) about LBJ’s reaction.

This is from a Newsweek article.

The Vietnam War officially ended on April 30, 1975, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon, leading to the reunification of Vietnam under communist control.

Click images to enlarge.

Below are pictures of the two sides card available at the Clackamas Mall HandsOff! rally.

I was one of thousands of students who protested the war in Vietnam in 1970. I was a graudate student in Social Work at Michigan State at the time. I was never in SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). I was aquainted with some of the leaders, but wouldn’t call them friends.

The only violence that occurred during the anti-war protests was against the protesters. The best known was the Kent State massacre. However there was at least one act of violence at Michigan State. That was when someone drove a pick-up truck into the line of thousands of peaceful marchers heading up the main road from E. Lansing to the State Capitol building in Lansing. I was in that march and heard about the incident as people passed the news up the line. Nobody was killed, but some were injured. I have been in contact with someone who was right there at the time and he was one of the people who pulled the driver from the vehicle and held him until the police arrived. He told me via a PM just yesterday that he still sometimes has PTSD-like flashbacks to the incident.

My own role during these protests was as one of the student leaders in the Social Work Department. I gave a few speeches to small groups, helped organize a very well attended all-night vigil, and was one of many speakers who addressed an overflowing crowd at the MSU auditorium when the students decided to go on strike. I can still remember the overwhelming experience of having thousands of people cheering when I slowly listed the five demands of the Social Work department. Demand number one… pause for cheers… it was to use a term from the times, an incredible rush.

Here’s a good article about the anti-war movement at Michigan State.

Excerpt:

Things came to a head in early May 1970. President Nixon announced the United States' campaign into Cambodia, and four students at Kent State University were killed by the Ohio National Guard while protesting said Cambodian Campaign. These actions left many on campus, particularly anti-war protestors, deeply disturbed. This sparked a new wave of rallies and demonstrations on campus, which some used as a cover for vandalizing campus. Damage to buildings on campus the night of May 1 ended up costing the university roughly $40,000 to $50,000. In light of these troubling events, and calls from students to shut down the university, President Wharton called for a circulation of petitions to more accurately gauge the opinions of students and faculty regarding the war. President Wharton stated he would share the information of the petition with the Michigan Congressional delegation, so that he could express the views of the MSU community "not through massive confrontations or reckless violence which bread countermeasures and retaliation – but in the seats of power where foreign policy is made – in Washington, D.C." The results of the referendum, sponsored by ASMSU, were stark. Roughly a quarter of the student population was polled, with 92% of respondents saying they favored some form of withdrawal from the Indochina region.

I have one of the 800 copies of the 50 page report shown below (click images to enlarge):

I went to the Michigan State Capitol building to get mine. It is not available online. You have to go to one of the Michigan libraries to see a copy.

This is a summary of what is in the report from the University of Michigan student paper:

Here’s a rendering of the text (with some formatting errors)

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Wednesday, September,2, .1970-4

HUBER COMMITTEE

Report

hits

campus

control

By RON LANDSMAN

Managing Editor, 1969-70

A report prepared for the

Special State Senate Committee

on Campus Disorders recon

mends that no punitive legis-

lation be passed to control cam-

puses and that communication

between college groups be in-

creased to help avert major

campus unrest.

The generally conciliatory tone

of the report runs counter to

much of the tongue-lashing

State Rep. Robert Huber (R-

Troy), chairman of the commit-

tee, had given campus protesters.

And two points of the report

that "off-campus agitators or'

on-campus activists" are not a

major cause of campus violence

and that scholarships should be

granted and withdrawn only on

academic grounds-go directly

against much of what Huber,

had said in the past.

The report was officially re-

leased last March at an all-day

conference at Nazareth College

in Kalamazoo.

It additionally states that:.

* New laws are not needed

either "to enumerate new crimes

or to make more serious offenses

of existing crimes in order to

deal with, campus disorder."

* Increased communication

should be initiated to avert

campus problems, including

physical availability for direct

communication with some rec-

ognized symbol of authority,

preferably the president.

* Dissatisfaction in general

with college life is the underly-

ing reason behind student dem-

ostrations. The report also as-

serts that students don't always

know why they are protesting.

* Colleges should seek to "de-

velop ways to really rewarding

good teaching," 'saying there is

a "far greater need for teaching

doctorates today than there is

for the highly research-oriented

programs which are the back-

bone of graduate instruction at

the present time," and

* Colleges should pay more

attention to local problems.

"New programs must be devel-

oped which will make the uni-

versity the urban equivalent of

the land-grant colleges," the re-

port states.

The report has three major,

sections. One is an analysis of

data gathered from question-

naires sent to seven people on

each of the 72 state campuses-

president, dean of students, fac-

ulty chairman, trustee board

chairman, public relations di-

rector, student newspaper editor

and student body president.

There is also an analysis of

the interviews with students,

faculty members and adminis-

trators on 51 of the campuses

and, the third part is recom-

mendations on legislation.

Intervention by the Legisla-

ture, the report states, "is un-

likely to contribute" to chan-

neling "the energies which are

reflected In student unrest into

more productive mechanisms

and paths.”

Huber's committee received

from the University little more

than a compendium of archaic

by-laws, student handbooks,

public information bulletins,

Student Government Council

regulations and a complete.

guide to the University world

of concerts, lectures and movies.

The University completely ig-

nored the question on radical

groups - which seeked infor-

mation on "all white political

action groups" especially names

of radical groups, their size, fI-

iancial ties with the- University,

and a University assessment of

which "seem to be affecting your

campus the most."

In the prologue to the report,

the agency says it does not rec-

ommend that "the way to fore-

stall student disorder is to bow

in advance to student dissent

(because) most disorders may be

defused if new means or tech-

niques of communication are

found for determining student

needs and student feelings . . .

“A similar attitude is taken'

toward young faculty members,

who "may be defused harmlessly

by more skillful. institutional

communication. than has pre-

valled in the past."-

"Communication f a i1 u r e is

often cited as a root of our more

complex social problems; college

communities represent no ob-

vious exception,", the report

states.::_

"One of the, most important

considerations related to this is

that an image be projected of'a.

readiness for open -communica-

tion, (including) physical avail-

ability for direct communication

of some recognized symbol of

authority, preferably the presi-

dent.”

On the question of campus

security, the writers of the re-

port strongly place the respon-

sibility for policing campus vio-

lence on the State Police rather

than city police or county sher-

iff's departments.

Citing considerable student

dissatisfaction with what col-

leges now offer, the report sug-

gests modification of present

undergraduate curricula, and

faculty responsibility "to ac-

count for the increasing sophis-

tication of today's students."

. Further, the report postulates

that an overall discouragement

with classes and colleges, is the

major reason for student dem-

onstrations.

University presidents play

the most crucial role in all this,

the report states. "No single fac-

tor may be more significant in

coping with student unrest than

is the style or stance of the

president of the institution."

It is not so much what the

president says or does, only that

he be seen, the report suggests.

"Visibility seems to be more im-

portant finally than accessibil-

ity," it explains.

College presidents come in for

special scrutiny by the agency,

which believes the current cam-

pus crisis; is giving "a signifi-

cance and an importance (to)

the president's office that few

previous analysis of the institu-

tion may have ,conceded."

High administrative officials

come in for some comments as

well, although they are generally

of little c o n c e r n. The report

notes that trustees are "often

called 'absentee landlords' " and

n o t e s, parenthetically, "with

some justification, judging from

this study.”

Thomas Emmet Jr., who heads

the higher Education group that

conducted the study, pointed

out that the report was aimed

not just at the Legislature but

at the academic community as

well.

Summer forced a temporary

halt in the tf union recognitions

drive, but when it is resumed in

the fall, things could happen

fast.

The confrontation spiral is

already in motion for the Gay

Liberation Front (GLF). Formed

last May, the group was denied

their request to hold a midwest

conference on homosexuality. In

rejecting the conference, Presi-

dent Robben Fleming said it

would adversely affect the Uni-

versity's image and he also said

such a conference should be lim-

ited to those with a "profession-

al interest" in. the subject.

But with Student Government

Council maintaining that it has

the right to organize conferences

for organizations which it recog-

nizes,and that Fleming, there-

fore, has no say in the matter,

the GLF conference is tentative-

ly scheduled for September. The

issue is a relatively minor one,

in that GLF actually has only

about a dozen active members.

But 107 people were arrested a

year ago over another seeming-

ly minor issue-the student

bookstore.

Women's Liberation is in

much the same "sleeper" posi-

tion that the blacks were a year

ago-not very unified. Their im-

mediate concern is for a perma-

nent day care center, supported

by the University.

From the struggle over an is-

sue such as a day care center

could come the organization and

awareness to create a major

conflict over the other issues of

discrimination against women

in employment and admissions.

And then there are the fa-

miliar issues which have caused

trouble in the past, and, re-

maining unchanged, hold po-

-tential for the future. The

ROTC controversy last fall nev-

er really got going, but it could,

in the future, still be a topic of

student concern. The sit-ins last

February over job recruiting by

corporations which hold defense

contracts only resulted in a

number of arrests, but could

also happen again. Classified re-

search, if anyone can,manage to

get enough facts on it, could be

a source for confrontation.

But no matter what happens,

there will undoubtedly be an

"aftershock" when new state

and University laws and rules

are applied to demonstrators C'

for the first time.

The Regents' interim conduct

rules have been severely criti-

cized by both faculty and stu-

dents.

And, under new state laws, a

student is subject to expulsion,

cutting of scholarship funds,

fines and stiffer jail sentences

for various demonstration-con-

nected offenses. Avoiding com-

pliance will be difficult for the

University, partly because of the

nature of the laws, and partli

because of the mood of the

public. If they do cause in-

creased unrest this year another

flock of repressive laws 'over

next summer could make things

very different for 1971-72.

But the concern now is for

1970. Several issues have the po-

tential for conflict-only time

will tell for certain which ones,

if any, will combine to produce

an explosive mixture.

I can’t get the text from the Huber Report so you’ll have to click the image below to read the section I want to share. They show just how far members of SDS were willing to go to achieve their goals. It must go without saying that if Trump or someone like him had been in power at the time, all it would take would be for even these plans, let alone protesters doing any of these things, to lead him to invoking the Insurrection Act and the country would be under martial law.

The rest of the section provided medical information for dealing with being tear gassed.

Democracy loving Americans breathed a sigh of relief that all of the HandsOff! protests were peaceful. No doubt this was much to the dismay of Trump and his allies.

Today we have nothing like SDS. There’s no Black Panthers which J. Edgar Hoover called "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." (Reference)

Instead we have only one group resorting to violence and law breaking, and that is Trump and his Gestapo.

We have to keep it this way.

Recommended reading, not just because Thom Hartmann was also part of the anti-war movement at Michigan State:

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