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Daniel Patrick Moynihan's Files
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Statement by
Alexander Heard
Chancellor of Vanderbilt University
on completion of his mission as
Special Advisor to the President
July 23, 1970
I am issuing this statement pursuant to a suggestion
made by the President to me on July 17 that a summary be
released of the activities undertaken by my associates and
me, along with the texts of the principal memoranda we have
sent to him commenting on campus conditions. I am also,
with his agreement, including a brief outline of subjects
on which recommendations were made, but not the details
of the proposals.
On May 8, the President asked that I serve as
Special Advisor to help keep him "fully and currently informed
on the thinking of the academic community and especially of
the young. " I was "to help present to this Administration
the views and sentiments of the campuses around the country."
The President later also asked that I recommend ways he
might in the future keep better advised on campus affairs.
These two requests constituted my assignment. It was not
my function to investigate individual campuses nor to make
recommendations to anyone other than the President or his
representatives.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
2
On the urging of academic colleagues, who had
proposed to the President that he make such an appointment,
I accepted the assignment as an adviser on campus affairs
to the President (not as his representative to the campuses).
The President asked that the assignment run through the
summer. I accepted it until June 30. The Danforth Foundation
of St. Louis, Missouri, has covered the expenses of the
professional staff, through a grant to Vanderbilt University.
Salaries of this staff have been paid by their regular employers.
Shortly after going to the White House, I was joined
by James E. Cheek, President of Howard University, who since
that time has had the same access to the President as I.
Working with us in later weeks were John Gaventa, senior
student and president of the student body, Vanderbilt University;
Miss Gail Gordon, White House summer intern, senior student,
Smith College; Charles V. Kidd, Director, Council on Federal
Relations, Association of American Universities; and John
Searle, Professor of Philosophy, University of California,
Berkeley. Supporting clerical and stenographic staff was
provided by the White House.
The usefulness of our mission can doubtless best
be appraised after a period of time. Even so, observers
are likely to measure what they see and don't see against
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
3
their own hopes and standards, without knowledge of what
might or might not have occurred otherwise. Moreover, events
themselves are sometimes the best instructor.
From the beginning, the President and many of his
staff have made us welcome and have shown hospitality to
the purposes of our novel mission. Dr. Cheek and I have
had more access to the President than I anticipated when
I came, and all we could reasonably expect. I have spent
over eleven hours with him in sessions of various kinds.
We have submitted memoranda totalling some 50 single-space
pages, not including exhibits, and he gave evidence of
reading them. Our exposure to other high officials of the
government has been extensive (as detailed below)
The
President asked me in Cabinet meeting to circulate as
"command reading" to all members of the Cabinet the memorandum
of June 19 that is quoted in full below. He asked members
of the Cabinet to arrange for my colleagues and me to meet
with their senior staff in each department, which we did
to the extent time permitted. We have been an "embassy"
within the White House, courteously accorded opportunities
enjoyed by regular staff. In a sense, we have had the
privileges of the White House accompanied only by the
responsibilities we imposed on ourselves.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
4
I will not attempt to predict what action the
President will take on particular proposals made to him
or the extent to which we may have affected his general
thinking. Nor do I think it useful to estimate what
influence Dr. Cheek and I may have had on actions taken by
him or others in the recent past. He or I, or both of us,
recommended, for example, that the President sign the voting-
rights bill, that the tax status of segregated institutions
be re-examined by the Internal Revenue Service, that the
Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department work
with the American Council of Education to develop guidelines
for permissible political activity on campuses, that the
Justice Department intervene in Jackson during the tense
weekend of the burials of the youths killed at Jackson State
College, that the President meet on two occasions with college
and university chief executive officers, that he confer
privately with students when he visited Knoxville, Tennessee,
in May, and that a national commission be created to inquire
into the Kent State and Jackson State tragedies.
In some cases, of which these are illustrations,
the actions taken accorded with the recommendations. We
were pleased with these responses. On other occasions,
proposals were made which, for one reason or another, were
not followed -- for example, my suggestion made immediately
after arriving in Washington that the President confer with
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
5
the Special Committee on Campus Tensions of the American
Council on Education which had issued an informative report
in April, a copy of which I sent to the President.
The President made clear to us his serious concern
over campus developments. He has displayed openness and
a searching interest in what we had to say about campus
beliefs, attitudes and behaviors, the conditions thatunderlie
them, and their significance for public policy and national
leadership. I judge the mission to have been worthwhile.
If I had known on May 8 what I know now, I would still
willingly have undertaken the assignment.
The Commission on Campus Unrest, created under the
Chairmanship of Governor Scranton following the tragedies
at Kent State University and Jackson State College has,
unlike my own mission, a comprehensive charge, including
"to identify the principal causes of campus violence,
particularly in the specific occurences of this spring."
I believe its work can be a compatible follow-on of my
mission. It is equipped to address the phenomena of
campus violence in depth and on a broad front. At the
President's request, we have made our files available to
the Scranton Commission. President Cheek is himself a
member of the Commission. Another of our group, John Gaventa,
has become a member of its staff. We will forward to the
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
6
Scranton Commission future communications sent to my office di
and will continue to assist in any way possible. no
Attached are three addenda to this release: (1) a ni
summary of activities; (2) copies of written commentaries
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Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
7
I.
Summary of Activities
A. Input from Campuses
We met with groups from approximately 35 campuses
which came to Washington following May 8, along with a
large number of individuals familiar with campus conditions.
We received several hundred pieces of unsolicited mail
conveying views and suggestions, some 40 resolutions and
statements from colleges and other organizations, numerous
analyses, reports, speeches, and other commentary, and a
range of petitions and recommendations.
We held a one-day conference in Washington to discuss
ways to improve government-campus communications, and
another one-day conference in Washington to discuss ways to
expand governmental and political opportunities for young
people. Both sessions were attended by individuals invited
from in and out of government, in and out of Washington.
Through the U.S. Office of Education a questionnaire
was circulated to a sample of 240 campuses across the country
soliciting an account of events in May on each of those
campuses. Returns were received from 193.
At my suggestion, the American Council on Education
commissioned Louis Harris & Associates to survey opinion
among a representative sample of students on four-year
campuses during the latter part of May. The results of
that poll are currently being made public by Harris.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
8
We met with a substantial number of representatives
of educational organizations located in Washington, including
the President and Directors of the American Council on
Education.
B. Consultations in Washington
We have conferred with numerous individuals in
and out of government. These individuals included the
then Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Mr. Finch;
the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Hardin; the Secretary of
the Interior, Mr. Hickel; the Attorney General, Mr. Mitchell;
the then Secretary of Labor, Mr. Shultz; and the leadership
in the Congress, Senators Mansfield and Scott, Speaker
McCormack and Representative Ford.
We conferred from time to time with other Members
of Congress, in both parties in both houses, and with
officials such as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue,
Mr. Thrower; the Director of the National Science Foundation,
Mr. McElroy; the Director of the Selective Service System,
Mr. Tarr; and Elliot Richardson, first as Under Secretary
of State and later as Secretary of HEW. Various meetings
were held with personnel from the Department of State, HEW,
the Peace Corps, the Teacher Corps, the Civil Service
Commission, the National Science Foundation, the National
Institutes of Health, the White House Conferences on
Children and Youth, etc.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
9
I had an extended meeting with the Attorney General
and senior members of his staff in the Department of Justice.
Colleagues joined me for meetings with the Secretary and
senior staff in the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce.
At the invitation of John Ehrlichman, Assistant to the
President for Domestic Affairs, on June 11 we also spoke
to the "Sub-Cabinet," Presidential appointees below the
level of Secretary, meeting in the Department of State
Auditorium. We also met with FICE, the Federal Interagency
Committee on Education, on June 22.
C. White House Consultations
I met with the President in nine sessions related
to our mission. President Cheek has been with me in the
seven sessions held since he joined our mission. In each
instance, one or more of the President's staff was also
present. Two meetings concerned with campus unrest were
set up independently, one on May 21 with representatives
of the American Bar Association (35 minutes) and one on
June 8 with eight young White House staff members who had
visited college campuses (75 minutes). Two of the sessions
were with presidents of colleges and universities invited
to confer with Mr. Nixon, one on May 20 of presidents from
predominantly black colleges (125 minutes) and one on
June 22 of presidents from a wider range of institutions
(90 minutes). Four private sessions were held with the
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
10
President, on May 12 (90 minutes), May 28 (45 minutes),
July 7 (120 minutes), and July 17 (25 minutes). On June 24,
I appeared before the Cabinet in session with the President
(65 minutes).
At the invitation of the Vice President, I met
with him and two of his staff for a 90-minute conference.
I met later with his staff for a conference of similar
length. At my request, the Vice President received a group
of faculty from the University of Minnesota. I was present
when he met them for slightly over two hours.
My associates and I have conferred frequently
with members of the White House staff, doing business at
one time or another with two dozen or SO of them. My most
significant relationships were with Messrs. Ehrlichman,
Finch, Garment, Kissinger, and Moynihan. At Mr. Ehrlichman's
request, President Cheek and I met on June 2 with his
Domestic Affairs staff. Throughout, we also exchanged
memoranda with members of the White House staff.
We have not submitted a formal, written "report"
to the President. Our written communications with him
have consisted of several memoranda. Three principal
memoranda were submitted prior to appointments with him
as briefing papers. It is from those four memoranda that
the following pages come. In reading them, please remember
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
11 SI
that they were prepared at different times and for different
purposes. They were designed to serve as basis for discussion,
not as comprehensive treatments of a topic. Since part of
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Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
12
II.
Commentaries
A.
to
to
(Note to Press: Following is given the text of a
memorandum from me to the President dated June 19.
The memorandum reports certain student attitudes
and was given to the President prior to a meeting
with a group of college and university presidents
held on June 22, to serve as a basis for questions
he might explore with them.)
Seven million students enrolled in colleges and universities
are on the threshold of adult citizenship. Millions more in
high school and junior high school soon will be. What they
believe, how they behave, will inevitably shape decisively
future life in the United States--and our domestic tranquility
this coming September.
We do not believe that our national government really understands
that a national crisis confronts us. The condition cannot be
conceived as a temporary, aberrational outburst by the young,
or simply as a "campus crisis" or a "student crisis." Because
of its immediate and potential consequences, the condition we
face must be viewed as a national emergency, to be addressed
with the sense of urgency and openness of mind required by
national emergencies. The characteristics of evolving student
thought--the characteristics, not their origins, are treated
here--help illuminate the condition we face.
(Note to Press: Please note particularly the charac-
teristics here portrayed are not offered as describing
all college students. The student population is
itself divided and often intensely polarized. The
qualities described below reveal, according to our
analyses, present and developing characteristics of
a large and important segment of students.)
1. The meaning of May: a big shove Leftward.
The Cambodian action (followed by the Jackson State and Kent
State killings) sharply intensified feelings among students
already protesting the war and showing disaffection with society
generally. More important, Cambodia provoked and exposed anti-
war and societal discontents among large numbers of students
of normally moderate and conservative political viewpoints.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
13
Before Cambodia, many of us on the campuses believed that deep
disaffection afflicted only a small minority of students. Now
we conclude that May triggered a vast pre-existing charge of
pentup frustration and dissatisfaction.
A poll conducted for the American Council on Education at the
end of May provides significant empirical evidence of widespread
anti-war feeling, concern over domestic failures, disaffection
with governmental leaders, and loss of confidence in the basic
institutions of our society. The poll sampled opinion on a
representative variety of 50 four-year campuses, seeking thus
to reach a representative sample of students. (It was conducted
by Louis Harris and Associates, the only organization found
able to make the poll on short notice. George Gallup was unable
to do so. The full report of the poll will be provided to your
staff on completion.)
Of those questioned, 48 percent said they had actually taken
part in anti-war protests in May; 62 percent believed themselves
more politically active than a year ago; 76 percent said they
feel basic changes in the system will be necessary to improve
the quality of life in America.
(Note to Press: Many of our conversations and written
communications were private ones with students or
others who did not claim to speak for their institutions.
Dr. Cheek and I have not made any individual institution
the subject of any commentary, report, or recommendation
to the President. Where institutions were cited for
illustrative purposes as in two places in the following
paragraph, and the information came from private sources,
the illustrations have been omitted in this release.
In each case where this is done, it is so indicated.)
The testimony of delegations visiting Washington that we inter-
viewed (from about 30 campuses across the country) and the many
hundreds of letters received strongly support these conclusions.
Students from agricultural schools (for example, ) and
engineering schools (for example, ) said they had previously
been politically inactive, but were now among the protesters.
Some student sentiment favoring U. S. policies in Southeast
Asia is visible, but the general effect of May was one of
radicalizing as well as politicizing student opinion across
the board.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
14
One senses that from the best of our young comes the worst of
despair. The University of Minnesota's Regent Professors
wrote:
"A frightening picture is seen by those of us who
work daily with college students. We find among
A
our bright, hard-working, ambitious, well-read to
students a widespread distrust of their government,
a growing despair about the political process, a
mixture of fear and resentment toward America's
leadership. These are not lazy, violent irrespon-
sible rebels--they are competent and conscientious
young people, quietly pursuing their studies to be
physicians, businessmen, lawyers, engineers,
psychologists, biologists. to
2. The integrity of intentions.
As baffling as student behavior often appears, we cannot discount
its motives. "All students want to do is to restore the real
ideals of democracy for which the United States has stood for
in the past, SO said one. Another, crying for what he called
a sense of humanity, deplored viewing war solely in military
terms (winning or losing) instead of in human terms (death and
suffering).
Though often emotional and egocentric, the passions of idealism
produce not only brave heroes on the battlefield but also
determined fighters in the struggles for social change. What-
ever one may think of its origins or consequences, the idealism
of college students toward domestic and overseas problems
embraces an increasing willingness to abandon the conventional
postures of national and personal interest. (The mood is
familiar to those of us who went to college in the 1930's.)
There is a humane concern for victims of racial discrimination,
for those who suffer in the urban ghetto, for the poor in
Appalachia, and for those who die--under whatever flag--in
Southeast Asia. According to a nationwide survey conducted at
Swarthmore College, students' draft status seems to have little
relation to his position for or against the war. (Note to Press:
The survey was done by Professor Kenneth Gergen and Mary KaToB
Gergen, Psychology Department, Swarthmore.)
The strain of idealism in college students helps to explain
the intensity of beliefs and the vigor of actions rooted in
those beliefs. Student behavior that to some seems simply
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
15
"unpatriotic" may be intended by the student as the highest
form of patriotism. Not my country right or wrong, argues
such a student, but my country, if she is right, and to set
her right, if she is wrong.
3. The emerging class consciousness of students.
The self-identification by college students as a separate class
in society is assuming extraordinary proportions. A student
class may well become a structural feature of our political
scene, remaining after present issues are ended.
Student class "solidarity" stems in important measure from the
conviction of many students that they do not find sympathy for
their concerns or understanding of their problems among older
people, from the belief that older society brings unwarranted
sanctions against them for wanting to be different (e.g.,
objections against unconventional appearance, use of marijuana,
etc.), and from the perception that "society" improperly
imposes burdens upon them which, having had little part in
their imposition, they do not wish to carry (the draft and
"irrelevant" college curriculum being most often cited). One
student observed that if he were working in a factory he would
be viewed as an adult, but while in college, he is "viewed as
a little boy."
Whether easily understandable by older persons or not, we are
still faced by a new fact of political life: growing class
consciousness among students. For effective national govern-
ment, this constituency requires attention and understanding
just as do farmers, organized labor, veterans, blacks, etc.
This group, however, has much ambition, much energy, and more
future than the others. Student class consciousness has been
growing for some years, but the Cambodian crisis catapulted it
into something approaching a national political movement. The
crisis also threw a sizeable percentage of previously moderate
and apolitical students into the arms of the radical elements
in the university community. This class consciousness leads
very easily to another quality.
4. Fears and facts of repression.
Men of wide experience and goodwill ask, "What is this repression
I hear about? Where is it? Certainly no one is repressing
criticism of the government. What is being repressed?"
Perhaps the matter can be understood by reference to Jackson
State and Kent State. To most Americans, they were exceptional
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
16
events, tragic and to be deplored, but accidental and unusual.
To the disaffected, they are the norm. The disaffected regard
the safe and easy expression of dissent as the exception, and
they see the killings as an expression of the American system
of authority. Here is a paragraph written by a professional
psychologist from Vanderbilt who was reared near Jackson,
Mississippi, which he visited after the killings:
"Jackson State College students now find themselves
in a great dilemma. They are nearly paralyzed by
the fear that any sign of demonstration or protest
may be prejudged as a sign of disorder that will
result in murder and massacre. On the other hand,
they feel an increasing urgency to be heard, to
express their feelings as human beings, and to
experience the dignity and freedom that characterize
the new humanness. Many feel they must bow to the
system epitomized in the Mississippi Highway Patrol,
or risk death in a struggle for a new level of
personal freedom."
Perhaps we understand how this comes to be on a black campus in
Mississippi. Yet, with the development of class consciousness,
similar feelings of fear and persecution have developed among
students in general. The Vanderbilt professor further observes,
"I believe these turbulent interactions of fear, anger, shame,
and despair on the one hand and the desperate search for personal
integrity and freedom on the other hand now characterize a large
and rapidly growing nationwide segment of students, other youths,
and adults."
Fifty-eight percent of the students in the poll agreed with a
statement that, compared to a year before, the United States
had become a highly repressive society, intolerant of dissent.
Among the goals chosen for many of the student strikes in May
appears the demand "that the United States Government end its
systematic repression of political dissidents."
Among the evidences of repression often cited are: "police
brutality," in a variety of forms ranging from hostility toward
demonstrators to the alleged unjustifiable assaults of the
Black Panther Party; curfews; prohibitions against assembly of
more than a limited number of persons; sledgehammer statements
by public officials impugning the motives of dissent; and
discouragement of outspokenness on grounds of protocol or
propriety.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
17
The arrest of students and faculty after your speech in
Knoxville for "disrupting a religious service" is taken as
evidence, as are the attacks by construction workers on students
in New York and on the veteran and his family in St. Louis.
5. Intellectual intolerance on campuses.
Some students are guilty of a brand of repression of their own.
Its roots include distrust and self-righteousness. Intolerance
of contrary opinion on certain campuses has become a virulent
form of anti-intellectualism, sometimes involving violent and
disruptive attempts to silence opposing views. Said a
undergraduate: "You can't go around worrying about freedom
of speech and of access when something like Cambodia is going
on."
This intolerance poses as great a threat from within to the
educational freedom of our campuses as they face from without.
In emphasizing campus intolerance, I also emphasize that on many
campuses dissent has been expressed with high loyalty to concepts
of free speech, open forum, and intellectual freedom. Strong
efforts by students and faculty to moderate the heat, restrain
emotionalism, and keep the way open to expression of all view-
points have been notable on many campuses.
6. Lack of "responsiveness" by government.
Young people have always been impatient, if only because of their
shortened time perspective.
But even from an adult perspective, educational and governmental
institutions are often sluggish. When leaders and institutions
do not appear to move effectively toward solution of problems,
the result, as expressed by the current President of the Ripon
Society, is "a frightening feeling of frustration, betrayal and
impotence among students of all philosophical outlooks. Students
are exhausted with a war which has offered victory just around
the corner for all the years of their political awareness." Says
a professor of government from
"If the best of our young
men and women now in colleges and universities believe strongly
that Government is unresponsive, that it is not an instrument
through which they can work, the future of the country is indeed
grim."
The apparent ineffectiveness of our institutions in solving the
great problems of the day--e.g., the war, racism, environmental
decay--is as great a cause of disaffection as are any of the
problems themselves.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
18
7. Lack of "credibility" in government.
A student pleaded: He wanted to believe his government, but
how could he? It lied when the U-2 was shot down, when the
Bay of Pigs was invaded, repeatedly about Vietnam.
Disbelief, added to fear of repression and lack of responsiveness,
produces an immense skepticism of government. Only 19 percent
of the students surveyed believed that troops would really remain
in Cambodia for only six to eight weeks; only 25 percent believed
the Administration had been frank with the American public in the
handling of the war; only 21 percent thought the Cambodian move
would actually shorten the war. Skepticism produces basic
distrust, polarization, and disaffection.
8. The "validity" of the whole system.
Students ask: How can a system of government that produces a
Vietnam and is unable to rectify it be valid? Are we really a
good country? For many, Cambodia was the conclusive negative
reply.
About 70 percent of college youth had serious doubts about the
action. The war has been going on for nearly all their politically
conscious lives. Add to this the other tensions and unfulfilled
expectations of the society. Sixty-five percent of students said
that our troubles stem from economic competition as a way of life;
78 percent said that the United States lacks a sense of values,
is too conformist and materialistic. Serious students of
government, including some political leaders themselves, worry
whether we can solve the problems of race, poverty, health,
environmental contamination, foreign war, and all the rest.
Unlike previous crises in our recent history, not just individuals
and policies are being questioned, but the political system
itself.
9. "One more chance."
Frustrated, disillusioned students are saying, "The system has
one more chance." They are not always clear on when and how
they will know whether the system has successfully used that
chance--except that ending the war this summer would earn high
marks. What if the system does not measure up? Some say
revolution; some say they will leave the country; others say
they don't know.
It does seem clear that the political activation stimulated in
May will have a residual effect, leaving students more sensitive
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
19
OS
politically, more determined to take a part in the governmental
process, and feeling more deeply about a range of issues. At
present, a significant proportion of students say that they will
direct their energies through ordinary political channels.
Fifty-nine percent of those who participated in recent protests,
and 39 percent of all students surveyed, say they plan to
participate this fall in campaigns for "peace candidates.
As one letter put it, "The vast majority of moderate students
see this as a desperate effort to challenge the revolutionaries
and radicals and to make the system work. If those efforts
are condemned, or receive no encouragement, and apprehensions
about the war continue to deepen, then, as President James
Hester of New York University put it, "We can expect the hard-
core radicals to gain influence and increasingly violent
demonstrations to take place.
The situation is beyond partisan politics. Not surprisingly,
over three-fifths of the students surveyed perceived no real
difference between the Democratic and Republican parties.
More significantly, few present-day political leaders have
.1
extensive student support. Loyalty to existing institutions
and faith in the country are crucial contemporary issues.
10. Black students. eved odw alsubivibnt betreist
Isipoa
The national emergency our nation faces is more acute for black
students, by several powers of magnitude, than for other students.
The fact of their lives and their sense of deprivation multiply
their fears and frustrations and bitterness. We will be
addressing you separately about their special emergency.
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Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
20
B.
(Note to Press: A second long memorandum dated
July 6 was sent to the President for the two
purposes stated below. The material pertaining
ee
to the first purpose is here quoted in full.)
This memorandum does two things. First, it states why we
believe it essential that you and members of the Administration
develop as deep an understanding as possible of moods and
beliefs on our campuses -- and in the black community, where
attitudes and behavior connect closely with the moods and
beliefs of black students. Second, it recommends procedures
to help do this during the next 12 months.
Youth and black attitudes are uniquely important to governing
the United States in the 1970's.
1. The segment of black and white young people who are
baffled, disillusioned, and angered are at a crucial
psychological and intellectual stage in their lives, a
stage that shapes lasting personal attitudes and convictions.
Many talented individuals who have futures of potentially
great social influence are affected. That fact alone behooves
the nation's leadership to understand them and to be understood
by them.
to
to
The percentage of students attending four-year institutions
who are disaffected is sufficiently large to warrant concern.
Look at these illustrative results from the survey made for
the American Council on Education by Louis Harris during
the period May 20-26, 1970. (A copy of the survey report
is attached as Tab A.) (Note to Press: Please don't call
us for copies. We have none left.)
Of the students interviewed, 17 percent characterized
themselves as "conservative" or "far right" and 27 percent
as "middle-of-the-road, a total of 44 percent of the
sample. Among these:
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
21
SS
Conservative
Middle-of-
or far right
the-road
bns
70%
75%
agreed that "until the older
thing to generation comes to understand
ni Illw
the new priorities and life
to
style of the young, serious
conflict is going to continue"
(p. 37)
IIs
sW
.S
47% 64% agreed that "our troubles all
IIiw IBW A anostem from making economic
competition the basis of our
YIIS to way of life" (p. 42)
50%
9dd
27%
agreed that "except for a few
radicals, most young Americans
are satisfied with the direction
ob in which America is heading"
palmosed
(p.
48)
57% 66% become believed that "basic changes in
evisoIqxe the system will be necessary
"yreve no to improve the quality of life
to блиодтор bbs in America" -- 92% of the
blacks believed this (p. 55)
62%
45%
TUO
agreed that "the recent protests
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The tabulations from which they
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believe that "it is possible
9pnsi
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Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
22
These are only the conservative and moderate students. The
responses from students who classify themselves as "liberal"
and "far left" reveal much greater disaffection. Even
with substantial sampling errors, the basic point would
remain: Among an important segment of citizens on whom
the future governance of the nation inevitably will in part
depend, there is significant lack of confidence in the
present state of the United States.
2. We are warned on all sides that events of this summer
will determine which colleges and universities open this
fall, and under what conditions. A widening of the war will
make it impossible for some institutions to operate normally.
The residual activating effects of May promise, in any
event, to keep issues alive (e.g., ROTC) and campuses tense.
The elections will further agitate and politicize the campuses.
(Note to Press: These comments were made privately.
By making them public, we do not wish to encourage
the possibilities of their becoming true.)
Several dozen campuses experienced violence in May. The
killings at Jackson State and Kent State heighten explosive
tensions in many locales. Young blacks are on edge every-
where. Backlash and polarization add to the compound of
volatility.
We have been exposed to much sober argument that our inter-
national policies simply must in the future take greater
account of factors affecting what we shall call internal
U.S. security. You are better acquainted than anyone else
with the painful competition for the funds that finance
domestic programs that affect the social health of the
nation, and hence its internal security. On another front,
however, the quality of feelings that lead citizens to
reject order and normal authority, that lead to violence
and other disruptions, are not easy to comprehend secondhand.
That is why we see the need for you to judge at close range
the varieties of thought and feeling that pervade the
academic and black communities. When disaffection is SO
widespread among conscientious, patriotic people that
ability to govern in accordance with traditional precepts
is called into question -- and many believe this is now the
case and will continue to be -- the symptoms and the sources
of the trouble need your personal analysis.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
23
3. The young may be trying to tell us things we ought to
hear. You should have the chance to evaluate firsthand
the assumptions of those who reach different conclusions
from yours about Southeast Asia. The views of youth and
the trends they represent have grave political and social
consequences. Effective execution of foreign policy and
maintenance of respect in the world are both hampered by
dissent at home.
(Note to Press: Please note that the following
reference to a "communications gap" does not
refer simply to difference in vocabulary but
also to difference in assumptions and definitions
See the section following the next paragraph
called "A Student's View.")
The "generation gap" and "credibility gap" are really
largely a communications gap. A communications gap results
when those who seek to communicate use different assumptions
and definitions. A nationwide poll taken last October showed
81 percent of respondents saying that "the antiwar demonstrators
may not be entirely right, but they are raising real questions
that ought to be discussed and answered. It is hard to
discuss and answer without a common language. Tab B, "A
Student's View. suggests some of the sources of the communi-
cations gap and of the seemingly indelible differences
over policy.
*
*
A
STUDENT'S
VIEW
This memorandum addresses three questions we have heard
discussed around the White House about student attitudes
and their relationship to Administration policies. We have
sought to compress here the views of a "composite" student.
Something like these views are held by significant numbers
of activated students, although obviously not by all such
students. We report these views as an aid to understanding
the questions being asked, not to imply their validity
nor to question their validity.
I. Why do the President and disaffected college youth have
trouble "communicating" about Vietnam? At least four factors
are at work.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
24
First, the President uses words that mean one thing to him
but something different to many students. For example,
he has emphasized that he and students both want "peace.'
By "peace" students mean an end to the killing immediately.
To them the President seems to mean not that, but "a just
peace" and "self-determination for South Vietnam," which
they see as probably meaning maintenance of a pro-American
regime in Saigon, continued U.S. military presence in
Southeast Asia, and whatever military action is necessary
to produce these ends.
Exacerbating this difficulty is the belief of many students
(shared, it is fair to say, by many nonstudents) that the
course we are on has no real chance of success. They do
not believe Hanoi can be induced to negotiate. They find
unthinkable using enough military power to force Hanoi
to negotiate. They believe the longer we keep fighting
the more difficult the U.S. position becomes at home and
before world opinion. They believe our leaders must
understand this, and consequently when those leaders do
not act accordingly by "getting out," they must be either
blind or evil. Frustration to the point of fury builds up
from watching us follow, at an enormous cost in human life,
a policy they believe to be leading nowhere. When the
President explains that we must act in Cambodia to protect
the lives of American fighting men, they argue that it
would be better protection to bring the men home.
The President's admirable remarks in St. Louis on June 25,
1970, showed insight into student idealism and compassion
for their anxieties. The phrase "to win peace," however,
does not describe a proper goal in the eyes of some students.
Second, what the President regards as successes, students
often regard very differently. Reducing the troop level
in Vietnam by sometime in 1971 to something over 200,000
men seems to many in government a formidable achievement.
The President SO proclaims it. Yet to the young, who face
the draft and think on the time scale of youth, these with-
drawals seem wholly inadequate. Their attitude should not
be mistaken for that of a draft-dodger in World War II.
They are not seeking to avoid personal danger. Rather,
they abhor personal involvement in a war they perceive as
"immoral." Hence, a plan to have a troop level of over
200,000 men next year, and possibly indefinitely, seems
.I
intolerable -- to the point that some of them say they
would prefer to kill and be killed in a revolution at home
to being involved in an immoral war abroad.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
25
Third, to some students, the President appears not to
understand the nature of the crisis that has come over
the country. He speaks of "deep divisions" in the country.
But "deep divisions" suggests a serious disagreement in
a stable society, a matter of different groups holding
different opinions, whereas students perceive the situation
in radically different terms. They see not just differences
of opinion, but rather the whole social order as being in
a state of erosion. In the St. Louis speech the President
said, "we should do something about it and not allow that
division to become something that eventually could erupt
and destroy a society." The student says the division
is already erupting and destroying the society.
The President's visit to the Lincoln Memorial on May 9
was a splendid act. Reports got about, however, that the
President passed pleasant queries about surfing and football.
That offended students who felt immersed in a national
tragedy, like telling a joke at a funeral.
Fourth, and this really underlies the other points, the
President and some students proceed from vastly different
assumptions. The President says "America has never lost
a war," as if "winning" or "losing" were the important
consideration. He seems to them to hold attitudes derived
from the Cold War, such as the domino theory, and to view
Communism in Southeast Asia as a source of danger to
America. Wrongly or rightly, many of our best informed
students do not share these assumptions.
The President speaks of maintaining "national honor" and
implies that this can be done through military power.
Students distressed with the failure of their country to
achieve all its ambitious ideals at home and abroad think
of "national honor" as something yet to be attained. They
see the Vietnam war and its effects at home as obstructing
fulfillment of their concept of national honor. Just as an
earlier generation fought in World War II to preserve the
nation's ideals, they want to end the war to help attain
the nation's ideals.
The President presents the goal of "self determination" for
South Vietnam as a rationale for our military involvement.
To students the cost is too high, SO much too high as to
make the war "immoral." A faculty member wrote from
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
26
" at the root of the opposition to the war
in Indo-China is the moral revulsion to the
carnage undertaken in our name. Peasant societies
are subject to the most awesome destructive technology
that man can devise; huge areas are depopulated
into free fire areas; defoliants, pesticides, and
herbicides scorch the earth, and bomb craters
create a moonscape; great masses of people are
uprooted from their ancestral lands and turned
into refugees in their own countries, and
war spares neither the elderly nor the women
and children. Surely such death and devastation
are out of proportion to whatever objective we
might hope to achieve.
"
II. Why are students not impressed by Soviet atrocities
such as the invasion of Czechoslovakia?
The apparent insensitivity of students to Soviet actions
and to evils in the Soviet system is at least partly
explainable by considerations like these: First, they
feel that by the wrongness of our own policies, such as
the war in Vietnam, we have lost our moral standing to
condemn other countries. Second, there is an obsession
with our own problems, a feeling that our own crises should
occupy all our attention. Third, the fear of Communism is
less than existed a decade ago.
Students perceive the Czech invasion as one more evil action
by a powerful imperialist government, but they don't perceive
it as a threat to the United States. Since the Sino-Soviet
split, they see Communism as consisting of different and
often competing national governments and styles. The
Russians appear to repress their satellite countries, but
students see that fact as parallel to American domination
in its sphere of influence (the Dominican Republic, Guatemala,
economic exploitation, etc. ) They see the Russians as no
better than we, maybe not as good, but feel more responsibility
for our actions than for those of foreign powers.
III. How do they compare the United States with other
countries generally?
Instead of viewing the United States as in competition with
other great powers, or as being potentially threatened by
them, the students we speak of tend to be suspicious of all
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
27
85
national powers, including the United States. As the
President said in his "State of the World" message on
February 18, 1970, "Today, the 'isms' have lost their
vitality -- indeed the restlessness of youth on both sides
of the dividing line testifies to the need for a new
idealism and deeper purposes. A generational loyalty
appears to develop, a loyalty to young people internationally,
that transcends national loyalties. bits
thea
A tendency toward an absolutist conception of moral values
helps to make it impossible for these students to be
satisfied with the comparative superiority of the U.S. in
striving for social justice and equality. Rather than
emphasize what is good about America, most students emphasize
what could be better about America (which frequently appears
to be merely an emphasis on what is wrong with America)
Therefore, any form of injustice and inequality, such as is
evident in our racial problems, is taken as an indictment
of the entire social system, regardless of its improve-bleer9 vd
ments over the past, or its relative superiority over evoties
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Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
28
C.
Isnolden
(Note to Press: Because Dr. Cheek and I were
advising the President, we concerned ourselves to
primarily with the relationship of Federal
Government actions and policies to campus beliefs
and events. To put our conversation in broader
perspective, I sent him the following statements.
in a memorandum, dated July 16. All language except
A
that pertaining to specific recommendations is
included.)
In seeking to understand the "causes and cures" of student
disaffection, perhaps an imperfect analogy to human illness
helps. There are symptoms, particular ailments that produce
the symptoms, and a general level of susceptibility to
illness. Many of the observations and recommendations made
by President Cheek and me to you have concerned symptoms
the seriousness of prevailing discontent and hostility.
When fever is raging, the first therapeutic need is to
reduce it. We have also had a few things to say about the
next need, to attack the conditions that produce the symptoms--
the policies and actions of colleges and universities, of other
types of private institutions in society, and of government.
Since our mission has been to advise the President, we have
focused our observations and suggestions on what you and the
U. S. Government might do, rather than where our attention
usually is, on ourselves.
We have not addressed systematically the conditions of
"susceptibility," the worldwide assertion of individual person-
ality against institutions and traditions, which sometimes
manifests itself as a crisis of authority and self-discipline.
I will not speak to this last matter except to applaud your
own awareness that we are dealing with a social condition
found in all categories of nations. That condition is doubtless
related to contemporary existential thinking, and also--among
other things--to erosion in all cultures of stabilizing influences
of family, religion, education, historical tradition, etc. This
erosion, in turn, is probably a consequence of magical increases
in mobility, communications, and the rapidity of institutional
change.
Certain factors at work are beyond your influence. Certain
factors that lead to campus disruption are beyond the control
of the college or university president. The painful part is
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
29
that when the campus comes apart, regardless of the reasons,
the campus president gets the blame, and often the gate--simply
because he couldn't make the show go. Even those who think
he did right desert him because he could not get enough others
to do right, too. (One must not only be right, but also
succeed!) Similarly, if the U. S. has a sustained,
serious, national campus crisis, an unwelcome share of the
"responsibility" may be assigned to you simply because there
is a problem and you are in office.
Educators have a lot of work to do for themselves. At my
first meeting with you on May 12, George Shultz said, profoundly,
that the big question now is "What is a university for?"
American colleges and universities are being forced to make
basic reappraisals of their purposes and working requirements.
If we in education are smart enough and lucky enough, we will
largely lead the reappraisal and take whatever actions are
indicated ourselves. Much inventive energy will be directed
by able and dedicated persons to answering George Shultz's
question, and also to creating and maintaining (or recreating)
the conditions of intellectual freedom necessary for any
of the basic functions of a college or university to be
performed well.
Your principle of Federal "non-interference" in internal
educational affairs is wise. As educators assess their own
processes, however, remember that colleges and universities are
SO much a part of national life that they can never do this
alone. The American university is probably the central secular
institution in our society, aside from government itself. In
our day, more aspects of our national life ultimately depend
on the university than on any other type of institution.
Inevitably, many persons outside of education will be involved
in the processes of reassessment and change, the Federal
Government not least among them.
Federal policies shape higher education, in ways intended and
anticipated by both government and educators, and sometimes
with side effects not foreseen by either. The G. I. Bill of
Rights after World War II, subsidy of medical and scientific
research after 1951, subsidy of graduate education through the
National Defense Education Act of 1958, construction loans and
grants, tax policies to encourage private donations, and all
the rest, were designed by the Federal Executive and Congress--
in proper exercise of their functions--to achieve national
objectives. In clear ways like these, as well as for more
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
30
general reasons, Federal policies directly affect what colleges
and universities do, and how they do it. In years ahead, Presi-
dents of the United States will probably need to look at higher
education through more concerned and sophisticated eyes than
deemed necessary or appropriate in years past.
Higher education can accept a share of responsibility for the
symptoms that have concerned our mission--distrust of govern-
ment, frustration on campuses, etc.--but its doing so should
not obscure the role of Federal policies in producing these
symptoms.
One campus representative after another has emphasized his
deeply held conviction that, as long as our "national priorities"
remain unchanged, no improved Presidential communications or
understanding will soften tensions and dissipate alienation
and disaffection. The tough version says that the only commun-
ication that counts is action, and the only action that counts
is "getting out" of Vietnam and applying ourselves more
effectively to home difficulties.
To describe or predict a condition is not to favor it. To
foretell the near or distant future is very difficult. It
does appear to me and my colleagues that if the Vietnam war is
thought to "expand" (as was the case with the Cambodian action),
the consequence will probably be further internal campus turmoil,
including some violent protest, increased radicalization of
many students and some faculty, alienation of large numbers of
presently moderate students, and the intensification of hostile
reactions both on and off the campuses to these developments.
As during last May, it would be difficult for some institutions
to operate normally.
When the war is brought to an end, the salient issue, though
not the only issue, of radical student protest will have been
removed. Only when that happens can steps to restore the con-
fidence of the disaffected young in the political system be
most effectively taken. Though most students feel that student
activism will continue, an end to the war will reduce the volume
and volatility of campus dissent.
If involvement in Southeast Asia continues generally its present
course, with periodic, moderate decreases, steps to restore
confidence on the campuses in the effectiveness of public
policies, and to bring the country together, ought to have, and
appear to have, certain qualities.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
31
SE
First, students, blacks, and others who are disillusioned
simply must feel that their President has sincerely listened
to them, listened with an ear willing to learn from them.
They want assurance that he has given thought to their
feelings and views, and even though not always agreeing with
them, has taken those feelings and views seriously into
account in making national decisions.
Second, the policies adopted and steps taken that respond to
concerns of the disillusioned must be recognized and understood
by them as doing just that--if their confidence is to be
restored. In other words, measures taken that benefit, for
example, American blacks, must be clearly identified and
communicated so that those concerned know what has been done
and for what purposes.
Third, the measures adopted must also add up to a sense of
national leadership and common purpose. They must also have the
subtle psychological element that somehow conveys the feeling
that we are moving forward together.
All of this is easier to say than to do. The recommendations
in my memorandum of July 7, 1970, and the comments on vocabulary
difficulties under its Tab B, are designed to help. So are the
recommendations later in this memorandum on engaging. youth in
government and improving communications.
Some realist might well ask whether the students, faculties,
blacks, and the others warrant all this energy and emphasis.
They do. The importance of the symptoms that have concerned
us, and their causes, goes beyond manifestations of unrest and
protest. Power takes many forms in society. We are familiar
with military power, financial power, governmental power,
political power in organized groups, and other effective
influences. Intellectual power ought not to be forgotten.
Time and again in the world's history, ideas have prevailed
over other forms of power, from the teachings of Jesus through
those of Tom Paine and Karl Marx to those of Adolph Hitler.
Intellectual power is at work in new ways in the United States.
New ideas are challenging established ways--which is the most
important fact of all to be acknowledged and understood.
(Note to Press: The following paragraph opened the
section as recommendations.)
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
32
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Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
33
D.
(Note to Press: This memorandum was prepared by
Dr. Cheek and was dated July 22, 1970. Much of its
content was discussed with the President prior to
that date. All language except that pertaining to
the recommendations is included.)
This memorandum is provided as a follow-up to the several
memoranda that Chancellor Heard and I have provided in
connection with our special mission on colleges and univer-
sities. The justification for providing a separate memorandum
on the "Black Institutions and Black Students" lies in the
fact that while these institutions are faced with the same
general problems and issues that face all institutions of
higher learning, they are sufficiently distinctive to warrant
special consideration and attention.
No effort is made in this communication to treat the subject
systematically or in great depth. What this memorandum does
seek to do is to provide you with a quick overview of the
context in which the condition of black institutions and
black students can be viewed and to highlight some specific
aspects, which hopefully, may clarify some questions. Specific
recommendations for your consideration are included.
I - GENERAL OVERVIEW
"Campus unrest" among black students has its genesis in and
is related to the total socio-economic situation of black
Americans in 1970. It represents in microcosm the macrocosm
of opinion, feelings and attitudes of the black communities in
general across the country. The frustration, anger, outrage,
fears and anxieties of black students are expressive of the
same feelings and emotions which exist among a large spectrum
of the black population--"moderate" as well as "militant."
Today there is not an appreciable difference between the feelings
and attitudes of these generalized categories; the principal
difference may lie in the degree of faith each has in the ability
and willingness of the government (Federal) to be responsive to
the legitimate goals and aspirations of black Americans.
Black students and black institutions of higher learning also
must be understood and seen in the context of the overall
contemporary struggle of black Americans.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
34
In the latter 1960's, especially among the college age
population, the struggle of black Americans began to shift its
focus from that of "civil rights" to "social justice."
This is not to suggest that "civil rights" did not--and does
nto now--remain a concern, but the ethos and spirit of
"social justice" are grounded largely in issues related to
equity, opportunity and human dignity. The emergence of
concepts of "black power," the increasing emphasis upon black
pride, black identity, black unity, black studies in the
universities, etc., are all expressive of this changing focus
among black college students, and to some extent among other
segments of the black population.
It can be said that civil rights dealt with issues of being
American citizens and directed its interest toward changes in
the law. Social justice, however, grows out of the conscious-
ness of black Americans as human beings and as members of a
society whose principles are founded in the honoring and
preserving of human rights, human liberties and human equality.
In sum, what has been called the "black revolution" can be
characterized as more fundamentally in the spirit and character
of the original "American Revolution."
There is among the black students much of the rhetoric, passion
and commitment that characterized the original "radicals" in
the 1700's who are national heroes and regarded as our "founding
fathers."
Black Americans see themselves today in relation to their
government in much the same way as Hamilton, Jay, Madison, etc.,
saw themselves in relation to the "Mother Country." There is
beginning to emerge among the black leadership a delineation
of the grievances against the "establishment" which echoes the
"Declaration of Independence.
The achievement of the goals of social justice will be harder
to achieve than those of civil rights. The issue of civil
rights addressed itself to changes in our laws; that of social
justice addresses itself to the character of the American society.
The fulfillment of social justice will require a fundamental
redistribution of the nation's opportunities, rewards, benefits,
and powers. Such a redistribution must affect all minorities--
the disadvantaged and disprivileged segments of our society--
but, because black Americans are the largest and currently the
most volatile of such groups, immediate attention must be given
to their needs and grievances; and, in so doing, the other
minorities that are disadvantaged and disprivileged can also be
accommodated.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
35
In the struggle for social justice, educational opportunity
is vital and strategic. The rewards, benefits and powers of
the society--which black Americans now seek--depend for their
realization on equity in the opportunity of access to education
beyond the high school, and on the successful completion of
such education. Higher education leading to the standard or
traditional degrees is critical as opposed to technical and
vocational training for this segment of the black population.
The "Booker T. Washington philosophy" will not do and every
effort must be avoided to suggest that this approach represents
national policy in educational opportunity for black youth.
II - SPECIFIC OBSERVATIONS
The following specific observations may be helpful:
A. The New Black Outlook
There are special characteristics that differentiate the mood
and posture of the black college community from the broader
higher education community. The attitudes and postures of the
black college community are based on past and present experiences
with racially defined issues. These issues are more sharply
drawn by the fact that most of these colleges are in the South.
Though progress has been made, the underlying inequities based
on racial issues have been harder to endure. As many students
view it, no promises are the norm. Where promises are made,
broken promises are the expectation. In any period there is
Cynicism and skepticism. The students and faculty hope for the
best and prepare for the worst.
Against this background the war in Vietnam is an additional
issue that aggravates and intensified feelings already there.
If the war ended today, however, and the draft ended the day
after that, it would not significantly reduce the feelings of
cynicism and distrust among black college youth or the potential
for more unrest. In fact, the ending of the war without some
accompanying dramatic attention to their historic problems would
increase their feelings of doubt that the basic institutions
in the society will be responsive to their needs and to those
of their colleges.
Higher education for many black youth increases their intellectual
grasp of the current inequities and how deeply embedded they are
in the fabric of American life. Thus they feel more keenly how
difficult it will be to achieve equality of income, housing and
equal education for their future offspring. A stronger sense of
history among this generation of black youth impresses them with
how long and hard it has been for their parents and grandparents
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
36
to get this far. They are now re-evaluating all the basic
strategies used by the established civil rights groups. The
black community is in what might be described as a "generational
transition" with respect to the question of how best to achieve
social justice and equal status as citizens and as human beings.
This "generational transition" began before the Vietnam war
and before this Administration took office. There is then, an
opportunity for this Administration to take advantage of this
searching for new strategies among black youth. Students
say there are "political wolves" in the South and "political
foxes" in the North--which means that these young black students
have no strong allegiances to traditional political alliances
or strategies. They are looking for what works and what gives
them some sense of control in working out new directions--as
against those new directions worked out by others, e.g., "liberal"
social planners.
B. Police-Student Relations
Another special characteristic of the problems of unrest on
black college campuses is the nature of student perceptions of
all law enforcement agencies. Decades before the current
antipathy between white college youth and policemen, black
students viewed police officers with suspicion, hostility and
fear. Very few black persons in southern communities expect
fair treatment at the hands of law enforcement agencies.
College students come out of those communities. It is of great
importance and significance to these youth that SO many black
persons in the South have been murdered in the last decade and
SO few convictions for murder have occurred. Some of the
more cynical black students had only the comment "now they know
how it feels to be black" after the police-student confrontations
in Chicago in 1968 and after the Kent State slayings last May.
When such things happen to white students it creates greater
fear as to what will happen to black students at the hands of
the police and the national guard. Jackson State, following
the Augusta slayings, confirmed their worst apprehensions.
C.
The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 1970
The approach to student unrest on black college campuses must
deal with the fact that the status and the financial support
patterns of the black colleges are an extension of the students'
own unequal status and needs. These students have struggled
through many handicaps to get to college and in finding ways to
survive there. Half of them come from small towns and rural
areas in the South, the sources of the congestion and social
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
37
dynamite in the hearts of our major cities. Two-thirds of them
come from families with less than $5,200 family income,
compared to 60 percent of the national college population with
family incomes of $10,000 or better. Most parents of black
college freshmen have less than a high school education, a
third of the fathers went only as far as grade school, and a
third of both fathers and mothers are domestics or laborers--
yet these families are producing college freshmen, not delin-
quents or welfare cases.
When one talks about initiative, determination, and sheer grit
within the American social order, these college freshmen
represent tens of thousands of miracles based on just those
qualities, and precious little else. Somehow these families
have given their children the guts and fortitude to stick it out
in poorly equipped and understaffed high schools and to go on
to enter college.
The great needs of these students make clear the correctness
and foresight of the policy expressed in the Higher Education
Opportunity Act of 1970 in targeting subsidized loans and
outright grants to students from low income families. Imple-
mentation of this legislation is vital to maintaining and
increasing the opportunity of higher education for black youth.
8 .8
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Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
38
III.
A Note on Recommendations
Detailed recommendations were made to the President
on a number of subjects. Some of them proposed particular
assignments for named individuals. Implementation of some
of the proposals might be handicapped by making them public.
All of the recommendations, like the comments on campus
conditions reported above, were drafted as private communi-
cations to the President.
Among the subjects on which we made recommendations
are the following:
A. That the President increase his exposure to
campus representatives, including students, faculty, and
administrative officers, SO that he can better take into
account their views, and the intensity of those views in
formulating domestic and foreign policy.
B. That the President designate a senior staff
member in the White House to have special responsibility
for White House liaison with higher education.
C. That the President arrange for the considerable
knowledge of higher education already available in United
States government agencies, especially the Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare, to be put more readily at
his disposal.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
39
D. That the President increase his exposure to
representatives of the black community and other racial
minorities.
E. That the President take initiatives welcoming
young people into political and governmental processes.
F. That the President initiate an assessment of
youth opportunity programs in the Federal government,
looking toward their enrichment and better utilization.
G. That the President take steps to improve two-way
communications with the campuses of the country through
activities in which he, White House staff members, and
others in government participate.
H. That the President and others undertake to
understand the fears of "repression" among certain groups
in our country and to understand the realities underlying
those fears.
I. That the President use the moral influence of
his office in new ways designed to reduce racial tensions
and help develop a climate of racial understanding.
J. That the President increase involvement of
blacks in domestic policy formation and develop an ongoing
Federal mechanism for research and action on minority
problems.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
et
40
03 STUROKY That the President act immediately to provide
additional student aid funds for the coming academic year
to economically disadvantaged students.
seldionim
L. That the President seek to provide special
additional assistance during the coming academic year to
those institutions primarily serving black youth.
M. That the President make a long-term commitment
to assist predominately black colleges and universities
to enable these institutions to increase their enrollment
and improve their academic programs.
Das
From time to time Dr. Cheek and I have made other
recommendations to the President, orally or in writing.
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Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 26, 1970
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
THE WHITE HOUSE
PRESS CONFERENCE
OF
DR. DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN
AND
ROBERT H. FINCH
COUNSELLORS TO THE PRESIDENT
AT 12:07 P.M.
EDT
MR. FINCH: You have before you the copies of the
report that Governor Scranton and the Commission and staff
handed to the President this morning. I would just say this:
Dr. Moynihan and I will speak to the report itself. We have
had a chance to read it overnight.
There will be two further reports, a separate
report on Jackson State of about 80-scme pages and a Kent
State report of about 115 pages which are being edited.
They will be released and the entire volume will be put out
at one time later this week. That will go to governors,
higher educational presidents, all of the interested members
and the general public.
This that you have, unlike some of our predecessors,
and contrary to some speculation that it would be suppressed
or tucked away someplace, has been handed to the President
and he, in turn, has directed that it go out immediately.
Whether or not there will be a formal response
from the President, of course, will turn on his reaction
after he has read the report, which he has not had the
opportunity to do so far.
There has been some comment and some criticism
from some sources with respect to the expense on this. I
would like to make the point that this Commission is one of
the first to come in within schedule, under budget. That
has not been true of some of the other Presidential
commissions.
I think with that I will let Dr. Moynihan give
you a description of the President's comments and what went
on in the meeting. Then we will both answer your questions.
DR. MOYNIHAN: The President met first with
Governor Scranton at 10:30, and then about 11 o'clock will
the full Commission came in and the staff of the Comm: szion
came in. The meeting went on thereafter to about 11:35.
The President's statements were general, of
necessity, simply because he hadn't read the report. It had
just, in effect, been handed to him. He said this, however,
with considerable emphasis, and repeated the theme several
times, "I can assure you that your report will be con-
troversial. I haven't read it, but I want you to know,
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- 2 -
don't worry about that. Worry if it is not controversial.
We don't want a bunch of intellectual eunuchs around here."
a
Could you repeat that statement so we can all
get it down?
DR. MOYNIHAN: All right.
or
This is the President talking?
DR. MOYNIHAN: Yes, this is the President talking
to the Commission and the staff. He said, "I can assure
you that your report will be controversial. I haven't read
it yet, but I want to say don't worry about that. Worry if
it isn't controversial. We don't want a bunch of intellectual
eunuchs around here."
Governor Scranton had spoken about what I think
anyone who has been following this knows very much to be the
case, that the staff of this Commission has worked as no
group in this city has worked in a very long time.
The President made clear that he understood that
and appreciated that, and spoke at some length to the staff
about what they had done. He assured them that he would
probably not be able to read the report in the coming 978)
week, as he would be overseas, but he would certainly do so
immediately on his return.
He said that Governor Scranton, in particular,
asked him to read the initial chapter entitled "To the
American People", or a preface. The President said of course
he would read that, but he wanted to read the whole thing.
We have some general comments to make.
Again, the President pointed this out, and
Governor Scranton did, that the report is addressed --
Q
Could we ask the photographers to move back
a little bit?
DR. MOYNIHAN: I kind of like that. Ron was
telling me about wearing these bow ties.
MR. ZIEGLER: Not that bow tie, Pat.
Q
I am not clear about when the entire report
is going to be ready.
DR. MOYNIHAN: You have the entire basic report
and then there are two supplemental studies of Kent State
and Jackson State.
MR. FINCH: Hopefully, we are assured by the end
of the week. Mat Byrnes assures us of that. Those reports,
he says, are about a 90 percent factual rep artorial: position
of what they found there and then 10 percent conclusions and
recommendations. Because there is a great deal of litigation,
both criminal and civil involved in both of those incidents,
the Commissioners were very careful not to assess blame or
to point the finger at individuals, as I understand it.
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But we have not yet seen those reports.
The point I was trying to make is what you have
here today is the report, but the final published report
by the end of this week will also have these other two
specific documents gathered with it.
DR. MOYNIHAN: I will make just a very few
general comments. The first is to say that the President
remarked that the report is, in effect, addressed to three
audiences.
First, the American people generally, as the
preface says. Secondly, to the university community.
And, thirdly, to the national government.
Obviously, the concerns that most immediately
concern us are what it says to the Federal Government.
But there then are some general points.
I would like to simply say this, that the report
is emphatic, explicit and, I think, vigorous in support of
the President's proposals in the field of higher education,
specifically with respect to the Higher Education Oppor-
tunity Act of 1970, which the President sent to the Congress
in March; also to the general point that Federal financial
aid programs should be reformed to give a much larger pro-
portion of aid directly to students; that institutional aid
should emphasize grants for especially innovative 19
educational programs, including aid to stimulate improved
teaching techniques and for institutions especially deserving
of direct Federal support such as the predominantly black
colleges of the South. This is practically the language of
the President's report.
The Higher Education Opportunity Act was designed
to insure, among other things, that any student admitted to
an American college or university would have the financial
resources equivalent to that of a student from a family with
an income of $10,000.
O
What page is the language you quoted on?
DR. MOYNIHAN: I was just quoting at page 7/24.
I think the second thing I would like to say is
that from the beginning, and this is a point which we make
with some emphasis here, the President has had to take
positions on higher education with increasing frequency in
recent months, perhaps, but we would like to point to the
fact that his basic position was announced in his ninth
week in office, in a statement on March 22, 1969, and he
has never veered from that position.
The fundamental statement was that violence had
to stop, but that this was a task the university community
had to do by itself. For outsiders to intervene to protect
intellectual freedom on campus was by definition to destroy
it, and if the universities are to become politicized, they
will die. They will die of many things but not least the
fact that they inevitably achieve an adversary position with
the larger community.
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The Scranton Commission says, "As a practical
matter it would be naive for universities that frequently
or intensely involve themselves in controversial political
issues to expect to retain the full financial and
attitudinal support of a society to which they may seem to
be laying political seige."
It is absolutely necessary to be clear about one
thing on a subject about which many people are fuzzy. It
is one thing for a member of a university community, a
professor, a student, whomever, to announce his politics
and do the best he can to advance them.
It is a very different thing for the university
as an institution to take political positions. It is
altogether destructive of the tradition of liberal
knowledge and research. The President has said that from
the outset.
MR. FINCH: I just want to amplify that, if I may.
This report does come in very specifically on the individual
things that the various components of the academic
community can do, the governing boards, the presidents,
the faculty, the students and the alumni.
I find a particular significance and a great deal
of effort went into this, the very specific catalog of
steps for law enforcement officers at every level, local
and particularly at the State level.
This report also brings that fact out. After all,
these higher educational institutions, whether public or
private, are State chartered. When you have disturbances,
it is not the President who calls out the Guard. It is
the governor. That is why the President particularly wants
to have the governors and these others brought in.
Then it goes through a historical narrative which
we think is very well done with regard to the history. It
goes back to the memory of man runneth not about disorders
on campus and makes it very clear that you can hardly blame
any cneadministration or any single set of individuals for
the kind of problems that we are confronted with on the
campuses today.
Q
Can I ask Dr. Moynihan a point of information
simply?
What university has ever taken a political
position? I am not aware of any myself. There may have
been some. Have you any in mind?
DR. MOYNIHAN: I do not think this has yet
occurred in America. I hope it never does. But there
is an increasing demand that it should.
0
I thought you said it had and the American
people had been confused about this.
DR. MOYNIHAN: No. I didn't mean to say that.
I may have done it.
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But the demand that the universities, in effect,
become political actors is a very strong one by certain
elements at this time, and before it was even being said
the President was saying "don't do it."
You asked where that was, on 6/8.
I have three quick other points. I am just
speaking as a person who hasdealt with that. I think in
Chapter 2 there are some pretty high-powered analyses,
pretty hard-nosed analyses, of the nature of this emerging
youth culture, which they describe, particularly in the
anti-democratic features of it, the anti-liberal, anti-
capitalist.
It says: "We would also point to the still largely
implicit opposition to democracy which is beginning to receive
serious formulation by some political theorists."
They speak, of course, about Marcuse, and the
general oppositional nature of this emerging culture
towards what they describe as the patterns of liberal
democratic capitalist society.
I will just finish this and say that there is
another section on that same point. I would commend your
interest to the analysis of the emerging culture as saying
that "These young people are part of the first generation
of middle-class Americans to grow up in the first depression
American welfare state under the tutelage of a parental
generation which embodied the distinctive modern vision of
moral liberalism."
For no other purpose than I have the microphone,
I want to say I don't think this is a general national
phenomenon. I think this is a continuing tradition of
American culture and a much more evident and prominent one
than it was in the past.
I have two last things.
I would like to point to a very hard analysis of
the change in the tradition of student unrest, campus unrest,
that Bob Finch has described. At Berkeley, in 1964, it was
called the Berkeley Invention. This is the analysis of
Nathan Glazer, who was a colleague of mine and one of the
consultants to the Commission. I think the Berkeley
Invention is a very powerful analysis.
Finally, I commend to your attention the chapter
on the Black Student Movement, where what seems to me to be
a reasoned argument is made on behalf of the maintenance of
predominantly blackMinstitutions in certain circumstances,
a pluralist argument associated with views that are somewhat
different from the assimilationism of the past, a rather
simple-minded assimilation of the past. I don't endorse
or reject those views. I don't know whether the black
community would or would not, or whether the white community
would or would not.
But you have a reasoned statement by intelligent
men of the position they hold. For the intellectual
interest as well as for the reality of the subject, I wanted
to bring it to your attention.
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-6-
Q
In that connection, Dr. Moynihan, it has
on 7/6 it is one of the recommendations that the President
should deliver a major address reaffirming the nation's and
his Administration's commitment to realizing the long denied
birthright of black Americans.
Is he going to do that?
DR. MOYNIHAN: The President hasn't read the
report and I think it would be inappropriate for us to say
what he will or won't do.
Q
Do you feel he has not made such a statement yet?
MR. FINCH: I certainly think the record has been
very clear in terms of his concern, particularly with regard
to the black institutions and therrecycling of that extra
$30 million, where they are hard pressed. I think it is
implicit in many of his addresses and with the groups he has
seen. I don't know of any prior Administration that has
made the efforts to try to reach out, not only on his part,
but the staffs and the Department.
Q
So, you are saying it is unnecessary for him
to make that statement?
MR. FINCH: I am not saying that. I am simply
saying we don't have a record that we must apologize for
at all.
DR. MOYNIHAN: If we can get the Family Assistance
Act, that fact might be a little more important than some words.
0
Can I ask you this about the report: You and
Mr. Moynihan have found areas that you think are important,
that you think the President agrees with.
MR. FINCH: We didn't say that. We said the
President has not read it. We are expressing our viewpoint
for whatever it may be worth to you.
or
But you have not addressed yourselves to some
of the obvious criticisms of this Administration and the call
on the President to exert moral leadership and to try to
dampen divisive voices in the body politic.
What do you think about that part of the report?
MR. FINCH: That, essentially, is what the Heard
Report recommended and I think he has taken steps in
that direction. But you have to recognize, as this report
does do, there are very severe limitations in terms of
practical things that a President of the United States should
or should not do, if you are going to keep the integrity
of these individual institutions. I, for one, think that
the steps he has taken and the actions and statements have
set the right kind of moral tone, as Pat Moynihan indicated.
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-7-
From the time we came in, we said the business of
the campus is not the business of the Federal Government.
We want pluralism. We want each school to decide its own
mission, whether it is a predominantly black or white school,
decide what they are going to do and then run their shops.
I think this report is supportive of that.
Q
Is there anything in the report that either
of you gentlemen has seen so far that would lead you to
suggest that the President and this Administration do anything
differently than it has in the past?
MR. FINCH: I want to give the report a great
deal more scrutiny than I have had an opportunity to do
in one quick reading, because there are a great many
recommendations here that we can ask others to act upon,
governors and local law enforcement officials. You will
find a whole laundry list of things that they suggest
local police ought to do, how individual presidents ought
to not just leave to the controller the business of deciding
what security you are going to have on campus.
It is a case, in many cases, of what the President
will say about certain portions of this that he urges that
the people who do have the actual day-to-day responsibilities,
be they administrators or governors or whatever, and state
legislatures, might do. He can highlight those things.
That is another form of leadership.
DR. MOYNIHAN: May I just say one thing here? I
think it is very important. It would seem to me it would be
a very great mistake, and a very great injustice to this
Commission would occur, if it was thought that what it said
in its sort of final wrap-up recommendations is that what
the American people need is some more pretty words. They
have addressed themselves throughout their study to facts
and conditions, and I think it would be the agreement
that Governor Scranton would say, and I am sure he would,
on the old proposition that those who would do good, must
do good in minute particular.
If this country wants to show some moral leadership
with respect to the problems, say, of low income students,
they should pass the Higher Education Opportunity Act of
1970, the most extraordinary proposition yet put forward.
It has been greeted with astonishing silence on upper class
campuses where it might have some disadvantages. If anybody
wants to help black institutions, they should help follow the
President's proposal to establish a National Foundation for
Higher Education, which explicitly directs itself to such
propositions. If anybody wants to help the problems of
poverty, they should pass the Family Assistance Act, which
would do, in one single stroke, more for poverty than any
legislation in American history, more about eliminating
poverty.
The morality of action is the proper province
of an American President, and I think the Commission would
agree.
MORE
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
-8-
Q There are urgent recommendations in the report
that the President do something, that he call meetings of
governors, that he call meetings of black leaders, that he call
meetings of student leaders, that he get governors to do things.
MR. FINCH: Every one of those things he has done in
whole or in part. That doesn't mean that we won't do more.
a
But this Commission report has a very urgent
call to it, that there is a crisis right at your doorstep.
It says it time and time again. It doesn't say anything about
what you have done before.
MR. FINCH: I would argue with you, sir, there has
been no lack of sense or urgency on the part of this
Administration with regard to this whole problem.
Q Mr. Finch, a few minutes ago you defended the
Commission against the charge that it was coming in in the
red. I would like to know your reaction to the seemingly
predominant Republican criticism of the Commission long
before the report was put out.
MR. FINCH: Again, this came from sources of every
philosophical hue. They were pre-judging. They were speculat-
ing about stories that were drifting out from staff, papers
that had been prepared in great quantities, some of which were
used and some of which were not used. We now have the
report. Here it is. It speaks for itself. I think it isn't
proper for anyone to pre-judge it until they have the material
in front of them.
Q
On page P/4 in the first complete sentence it
says, "In the current political campaign and throughout the
years ahead the President should insist that no one play
irresponsible politics through the use of campus unrest."
That is part of the call for halting the divisive
rhetoric and the political campaigning, exploiting campus
unrest.
Do you give that equal weight to the point you have
brought out in the report as a cause and a corrective measure
for campus unrest?
MR. FINCH: I think everyone in this room is
realistic enough to realize that the President is hardly in a
position to dictate to governors or to other candidates
what they do or do not do in a political situation. I think
his conduct and his position on this has been just impeccable.
DR. MOYNIHAN: Do you mind if I say what do you
suppose the President meant on the 22nd of March 1969 when
he said, "At all costs, no matter what else, we must not
politicize our universities"?
Q
Let me ask you one follow-up question. That
is not particularly the quote I had in mind. I was thinking
about Mr. Agnew's "effete snobs", this sort of campaign
rhetoric that he is involved in now. Is this what the report
is referring to? It seems to me it is.
MORE
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
-9-
MR. FINCH: I would disagree with that.
DR. MOYNIHAN: There is a very different thing from
arguing with individuals about their individual positions and
the politicization of an institution so it becomes a
political act itself. No one is proposing in this Commission
or anywhere else that Americans stop arguing with one another
about politics. But it is important that the university
remain nonpolitical as an institution.
Q
You said that the President cannot control what
every candidate around the country is saying, governors,
Congressional candidates, and so on. He could, however, ask
his Vice President to say things differently Dr not say
different things. Do you think that is what this report
is referring to?
MR. FINCH: I do not.
2
Dr. Moynihan, you said a couple of times on
March 22nd the President emphasized that the campuses not
be politicized. How do you respond to the great number of
college students who today say that the campuses have already
been politicized, by the very fact that we have ROTC on campus,
that you teach courses which are reactionary in content, that
you are, in a sense, perpetuating the establishment and the
politics of the establishment? How do you respond to that
kind of criticism?
DR. MOYNIHAN: I think this is an argument that is
a position that has a legitimate place in any debate in any
university. It turns on the facts. It turns on to what degree
the use of the institution itself associates and puts forward
political views.
I don't know any university, a serious university,
which would fit the description you just gave, although I know
very well this description is made. I think this is not,
by and large, the view of men whose serious commitment is
to the maintenance of an open academic atmosphere. Remember
one very important thing. This Commission report continually
refers to the phenomenon of intolerance and even anti-
intellectualism in the emerging culture. It says many nice
things about this emerging culture. Obviously, it is a mixture.
But it is not atypical to hear these days in the name of
academic freedom the demand that a conservative professor
not be allowed to teach.
o
Neither of you have talked about solutions
or remedies yet. Could we ask your assessment of the
Commission's description of the ailment? It is really
quite serious. It talks about the country being on the verge
of tearing itself apart unless something is done quickly.
It is even more than urgent.
MR. FINCH: Here, again, I am giving a personal
reaction. The thing I think that Dr. Moynihan has tried to
point out is our position, the position of the President,
right from the beginning -- and my testimony as Secretary of
HEW straight through -- has been that if you come to the
Federal Government and lay this at the door of the Federal
MORE
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
- 10 -
Government and you get a Federal presence on that campus, and
you get institutional cut-offs, and you put this Federal
template on there, then higher education as we have known it
today is indeed dead. There are those who are arguing that
the Federal Government must, by some overt means, extend its
presence to higher educational institutions, public or private.
That is all for naught.
O
Apart from blame or responsibility, do you agree
with that assessment of the urgency of the national problem?
MR. FINCH: As I said earlier, there has been a
sense of urgency about the problem manifested by the American
people, this Administration, the Congress. It is a question
of how you go about solving it.
a
Do you think it is as serious as the Commission
thinks it is?
MR. FINCH: It is a national and serious problem.
On the other hand, I would have to say, speaking for myself --
and Dr. Moynihan can speak for himself -- on the campuses
I have been on since the opening of school I find a different
climate this year, and I have been pleasantly surprised at
the steps, the plans and the innovative programs that most
of these individual institutions developed by themselves
which appear to be paying off.
Q Mr. Finch or Mr. Moynihan, would either of
you say how far you think the President has gone in fulfilling
the obligations that this report says are his on this problem?
DR. MOYNIHAN: I don't want to answer that. First
of all, this is the Commission's day. They are having a
press conference this afternoon. We have really come here
to point out some things which were certainly of interest to
us in our first time around. Let them make their statement.
Q
The report says that the most importantrec
ommendation it makes rests with the President.
DR. MOYNIHAN: Yes, that is right. I think we would
respond at varying levels.
I wish somebody would read the President's Message
of March before any of these things happen. I will tell you one
of the reasons it is not read is because it is quite compli-
cated. These are not easy ideas, politicization. The
President talks about the degree to which the Federal Govern-
ment has distorted higher education in the last quarter
century by hiring universities to do work that had Federal
priorities and so forth. These are not easy ideas. But really,
I urge you to read that.
MORE
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
- 11 -
Q
He has appointed a commission since then,
however, hasn't he?
DR. MOYNIHAN: Yes, but I mean we have been involved
with this subject --
Q
He obviously expected something besides what
was in that report from the Commission. It seems to me you
are disowning the report.
DR. MOYNIHAN: We are doing nothing of the kind.
Don't say things like that.
Q
That is the implication I get from it.
DR. MOYNIHAN: Get rid of that implication forthwith.
The President appointed a Commission in the context of two
tragic events at two universities which, among other things,
needed a very clear inquiry. That inquiry has now been
made and it will be published.
Q Mr. Finch, do I understand that you don't see
the criticism of divisive and insulting rhetoric by public
officials as applying to Vice President Agnew or any other
Administration official?
MR. FINCH: You will have to ask Governor Scranton
that this afternoon.
Q
I mean you don't see him guilty of that?
MR. FINCH: I am not going to pass judgment:
on individuals within this Administration. We are all
free to say what we please with regard to our own views.
That is as far as I want to take it.
O
Dr. Moynihan said it would be a mistake to
believe that this report suggests more pretty words would
help some of the problem. Would both of you, or either
of you, concede that the report is asking for fewer
ugly words in the contribution to the problem?
DR. MOYNIHAN: Yes, very clearly. It does not
suggest that these words emanate from any one source.
They obviously are hurling around the American scene at
this point. One despairs at the efficacy of a general
desire of this kind. Obviously, no one is able to control
these things in a general way. But the Commission Report is
very clear on this.
The Commission is responding to the fact that
higher education is increasingly becoming politicized in
the country, precisely the thing the President in his
ninth week in office said "do not do. No matter what
you do, you do this and the universities die." This is
the way a culture dies.
MORE
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
- 12 -
Q
How would you define "increasingly
politicized"?
DR. MOYNIHAN: Subject to political
controversy. . You run for office for or against the
students, for and against the position.
Let me just say to you that the reason we
have trouble with discussing and even analyzing this
phenomenon is that it has never existed in this country.
Go to a nation where the universities have been
politicized and you will notice the difference there.
MR. FINCH: It does make the statement in
the report that this is an international phenomenon.
That is in here, too.
I have to catch an airplane and I don't want
to keep you from Governor Scranton at one o'clock.
Act II will follow.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END
(AT 12:40 P.M. EDT)
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 24, 1969
Office of the White House Press Secretary
THE WHITE HOUSE
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT TO
REVEREND THEODORE HESBURGH
Dear Ted:
I share your concern over the recent disorders that have paralyzed campus
after campus across our country in recent weeks, and I want to applaud the
forthright stand you have taken.
As you know, the issues raised by the protesting students range from minor
reforms within the academic community to major concerns of national policy.
But the means of some students -- a small, irresponsible minority - have
employed reflect an impatience with democratic processes, an intolerance of
legitimately constituted authority, and a complete disregard for the rights of
others.
Violence and vandalism have marked many of these protests, and the rights of
the majority of the students have been grossly abused.
If the integrity of our universities is to be preserved, then certain principles
must be re-established and certain basic rules enforced. Intimidation and
threats remain outlaw weapons in a free society.
A fundamental governing principle of any great university is that the rule of
reason and not the rule of force prevails. Whoever rejects that principle
forfeits his right to be a member of the academic community. The university
administrator who fails to uphold that principle jeopardizes one of the central
pillars of his own institution and weakens the very foundation of American
education.
I have directed the Vice President in meetings in Washington this coming week
with the Governors of the fifty states to discuss what action, consistent with
the traditional independence of American universities, might be taken at the
state and federal levels to cope with the growing lawlessness and violence on
our campuses. I would appreciate it greatly if you would take the time to give
him your views on this matter.
With warm regards,
Sincerely,
/S/ RICHARD M. NIXON
#
#
#
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Campus Unrest: Don't Blame Mr. Nixon
By DOUGLAS L. HALLETT
with changing historical currents. Instead of
WASHINGTON-President Nixon has now
Douglas L. Hallett, a scnior at Yale
changing teaching content and academic
had an opportunity to study the initial testi-
University and editorial chairman of the
structures, they just marked time.
mony of his Commission on Campus Unrest
Yale Daily News, is a summer employe in
On a public policy level, Mr. Perkins bc.
headed by William Scranton. He has also re-
The Wall Street Journal's Washington
lieves this led to the universities' advocating
celved a report from his special adviser on
bureau.
two premises that were "bankrupt" long bc.
campus problems, Alexander Heard, chancel-
fore the academic community noticed. One
lor of Vanderbilt University. Hopefully he will
was that the United States could intervene
read both selectively. Although the commis-
Can it really be argued that students, a
freely throughout the world. The other was
sion and Mr. Heard have elucidated some of
group possessing the luxury of time to use
that integration, accepted by both black and
the problems facing universities, their basic
traditional political channels and the most po-
white, would be the answer to racial tensions.
thrust is much too one-sided and much too
tential for eventually controlling them, de-
Mr. Perkins says these faulty ideas have
limited by contemporary events to be of any
serve the President's special attention?
real value.
Can it really be argued that students are
"chopped up" universities. And although he
does not continue his argument, presumably
While the testimony before the Scranton
doing anything more than indulging their own
commission and Mr. Heard's report make
uncontrolled emotions when their activities
he means that this has taken place at least
polarize the society and undermine the politi-
partly because the universities have refused
some reference to the need for reform on uni-
to accept responsibility for their views. Now,
versity campuses themselves, the dominant
cal viability of issues with which they are
in their efforts to escape responsibility, they
tone is somewhat different: The President is
supposedly concerned?
at fault. He must listen to the students, re-
Mr. Keniston and others who have been
are blaming Mr. Nixon. In the process, they
are breeding in their students the kind of rig-
spend to their views, end the war, and if that
counseling the President over the past few
idity that comes only with a one-sided histori-
cannot be done tomorrow, at least try to
weeks may be optimistic about the students
cal analysis.
"communicate" with the nation's colleges
and their concerns, but the real radicals in
and universities.
this society fear them. They see many stu-
Unchanged Since the Middle Ages
may well be that the only line in your
dents as indulging themselves at their ex-
The Perkins analysis can also be extended
report that will have meaning for our colleges
pense. The Black Panthers denounced the
to the internal structure of universities. Uni-
and universities is the line that reads: "This
white students who took to the streets during
versities are the only institutions in American
war must end'," said Sen. Edward M. Ken-
the May weekend demonstrations as "racist
society that have not fundamentally changed
nedy (D., Mass.). From Robben Flemming,
exhibitionists who know black people, and not
since the Middle Ages. They still maintain
president of the University of Michigan: "An
they themselves, will have to face the reper-
highly structured tenure systems that protect
end to the use of American troops in Vietnam
cussions of their madness."
incompetence and cheat the student out of the
will not still campus unrest, but it will do
And Steven Kelman, a Socialist and recent
personal tutoring that he is told the best uni-
more than anything else to help contain it."
Harvard graduate whose book, "Push Comes
versities offer. But the academic commu-
From Charles Palmer, president of the Na-
to Shove." is the best yet on campus unrest,
nity's own rigidity does not stop it from lash-
tional Student Association: "As long as there
blasted his fellow students before the Scran-
ing out at the political system and accusing it
is substantial American military involvement
ton Commission for their "snobbish, arrogant
of the very same authoritarianism and re-
in Indochina, students will continue to oppose
and elitist attitude." He said unrest would
pression academic institutions so perfectly
it."
continue "as long as students continue to re-
exemplify. Learning from people who engage
And the foundation of criticism of the war
gard the American people not as potential al-
in this kind of self-delusion and self-projec-
lies in solving problems but as an enemy to
tion, students naturally come away confused
is always buttressed with the nation's other
be confronted."
about their history and their place in it.
alleged failings. "Unless we can begin now
(restoring youth's faith by doing their bid-
A Fundamental Realization
In fairness. it must be noted that the prob-
ding)," testified Yale psychologist Kenneth
Neither the Panthers nor Mr. Kelman
lem lies deeper than the campus. The loss of
Keniston, "ours will not only be a divided and
would appreciate being coupled with Vice
historical perspective and the diminished and
sick society, but a society that has lost the
President Agnew, but they share with him
unsure sense of the self that it brings have
best of its youth-a society on its death-bed."
one fundamental realization: Most so-called
been encouraged by other institutions as well.
Even calm Mr. Heard recommended "that
Writes historian Daniel J. Boorstin, "In our
student radicals cannot be trusted. Students
the President increase his exposure to cam-
don't know what they want. They identify for
churches the effort to see man sub specie ae-
pus representatives, including students, fac-
ternitatis has been displaced by the 'social
periods of time with anybody from Eugene
ulty and administrative officers, so that he
McCarthy to Bobby Seale, but their commit-
gospel'-which is the polemic against the sup-
can better take into account their views, and
ments are transitory. The outrage that fol-
posed special evils of our time. Our book pub-
the intensity of those views, in formulating
lowed the Cambodian incursion has not been
lishers and literary reviewers no longer seek
domestic and foreign policy."
the timeless and durable, but spend most of
followed by sustained political activity among
There is, of course, some validity in these
their efforts in fruitless search for ala mode
students. As president Kingman Brewster of
views. Certainly the war and the threat of the
Yale knew when he undertook his policy of
'social commentary'-which they pray won't
draft have created consternation on campus.
be out of date when the issue goes to press in
generous tolerance last spring, students get
Certainly many able students are shocked by
two weeks or when the manuscript becomes a
bored easily when it comes to the hard work
the disparity between their own luxury and
book in six months." Nor have the news
of political organization and stop when the
the deprivation around them when they leave
media, in this day of up-to-the minute televi-
initial enthusiasm has passed.
comfortable suburban high schools for the
sion coverage, done much to develop in their
Worse yet, students are frighteningly igno-
dirt and tedium of urban university neighbor-
audience a feel for the slow and deliberate
rant of the problems the country faces and of
hoods.
the efforts that have been made to solve
character of social change.
Important Social Factors
them. They react strongly to rhetoric because
But inevitably the universities must take
Even more important are other social fac-
they have nothing else on which to rely. It can
primary responsibility for the confusion
tors the Scranton Commission and Mr. Heard
be argued that President Nixon's withdrawal
among many of our students. More than any
have yet to discuss. Students discover in col-
from Vietnam is too slow, but those who
other institution, they influence the thoughts
lege for the first time that they will not in-
make this point should be willing to acknowl-
and feelings of the brightest of our young.
herit the earth, that the increasingly central-
edge that Mr. Nixon is doing exactly what
And more than any other institution. they are
ized nature of the American economy has
Robert Kennedy proposed in 1968.
responsible for preserving our past and pass-
foreclosed many of the opportunities for self-
Similarly, it is possible to quarrel with the
ing along the best of it to the next generation.
expression they thought they would have.
"new urbanology" of Daniel Patrick Moyni-
They have failed miserably in that role. And
Thousands study international relations in
han and Edward Banfield, but it should also
only when they begin to succeed will students
be clear that their approach is designed par-
turn to more constructive paths for their emo-
college, but the State Department can use
only 150 each year. Only a few in any profes-
tially to eliminate the statism that proved so
tional surges.
ineffective in the Johnson Administration's
This does not mean President Nixon can-
sion can rise to positions where individual ini-
"Great Society" programs. Students, in their
not take some steps to ease campus tensions.
tiative and creativity are truly possible.
But no amount of frustration with society
false morality, refuse to make these ack-
He can persuade his Vice President to soften
justifies or explains the destructive path some
nowledgments because their historical sense
his statements that appear to many students
is too weak to breed in them the tolerance
to be deliberate incitement to riot. He can
student protest has taken recently. President
that should come with learning.
make a far better intellectual presentation of
Nixon has withdrawn more than 100,000
his own views than he has so far. He
troops from Vietnam and instituted draft re-
Responsibility for this situation does not,
form that will lead to a voluntary army. He
as the Scranton commission testimony and
can begin advocating the kinds of public
Mr. Heard's report come close to implying,
and private decentralization that will
has proposed an income maintenance plan
that would be the most revolutionary domes-
lie with Mr. Nixon. Rather, as only a. few
create new opportunities for self-expres-
brave academic souls such as former Cornell
sion for students and others. But Mr.
tic program in a generation and he is already
the first President since Franklin Roosevelt
President James Perkins have partially con-
Nixon should resist, and resist vigorously,
ceded, it lies with the very same people who
anybody who advises him to institute artifi-
to spend more on domestic programs than on
defense.
have been devoting SO much energy to blam-
cial consultation with students that cannot be
It can be argued that these steps are not
ing the President: The faculty and adminis-
followed by policy decisions the students de-
enough. But can it really be argued that they
trators of the nation's colleges and universi-
sire. The problem goes far beyond anything
ties. During the Fifties, Mr. Perkins argues,
symbolic gesturing could solve, and besides,
are so unsatisfactory that burning buildings
universities became so distracted by the Me-
students get too much of that already on their
and disrupting classrooms become justifiable
Carthy furor that they failed to keep pace
campuses,
or even understandable?
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
THE WASHINGTON POST Tues, 25 August 1970
Commentaries From the Heard Report
The following "commentaries" are ex-
brave heroes on the battlefield but also de-
This group, however, has much ambition,
cerpted from two memoranda submitted
termined fighters in the struggles for social
much energy, and more future than the oth-
to President Nixon in June and July by
change. Whatever one may think of its ori-
ers. Student class consciousness has been
Alexander Heard, Chancellor of Vanderbilt
gins or consequences, the idealism of college
growing for some years, but the Cambodian
University. On May 8, the President had
students toward domestic and overseas prob-
crisis catapulted it into something approach-
asked Dr. Heard, to serve as special adviser
lems embraces an increasing willingness to
ing a national political movement. The crisis
to help keep him "fully and currently in-
abandon the conventional postures of na-
also threw a sizeable percentage of pre-
formed on the thinking of the academic
tional and personal interest. (The mode is
viously moderate and apolitical students
community and especially of the young"
familiar to those of us who went to college
into the arms of the radical elements in the
and to help "present to this administration
in the 1930s.) There is a human concern for
university community
the views and sentiments of the campuses
victims of racial discrimination, for those
Fifty-eight per cent of the students
around the country."
who suffer in the urban ghetto, for the poor
agreed with a statement that, compared
in Appalachia, and for those who die -
SEVEN MILLION students enrolled in
to a year before, the United States had be-
under whatever flag - in Southeast Asia.
colleges and universities are on the thresh-
come a highly repressive society, intolerant
The strain of idealism in college students
of dissent.
old of adult citizenship. Millions more in
high school and junior high school soon will
helps to explain the intensity of beliefs and
Some students are guilty of a brand of re-
be. What they believe, how they behave, will
the vigor of actions rooted in those beliefs.
pression of their own. Its roots include dis-
Student behavior that to some seems simply
inevitably shape decisively future life in the
trust and self-righteousness. Intolerance of
United States-and our domestic tranquility
"unpatriotic" may be intended by the stu-
contrary opinion on certain campuses has
this coming September.
dent as the highest form of patriotism.
become a virulent form of anti-intellectual-
Z
ism, sometimes involving violent and disrup-
We do not believe that our national gov-
THE SELF-identification by college stu-
tive attempts to silence opposing views.
ernment really understands that a national
dents as a separate class in society is assum-
This intolerance poses as great a threat
crisis confronts us. The condition cannot be
ing extraordinary proportions. A student
from within to the educational freedom of
conceived as a temporary, aberrational out-
class may well become a structural feature
our campuses as they face from without.
burst by the young, or simply as a "campus
of our political scene, remaining after pres-
In emphasizing campus intolerance, I also
crisis" or a "student crisis." Because of its
ent issues are ended.
emphasize that on many campuses dissent
immediate and potential consequences, the
Student class "solidarity" stems in impor-
has been expressed with high loyalty to con-
condition we face must be viewed as a na-
tant measure from the conviction of many
cepts of free speech, open forum, and intel-
tional emergency, to be addressed with the
students that they do not find sympathy for
lectual freedom. Strong efforts by students
sense of urgency and openness of mind re-
their concerns or understanding of their
and faculty to moderate the heat, restrain
quired by national emergencies
problems among older people, from the be-
emotionalism, and keep the way open to ex-
The Cambodian action (followed by the
lief that older society brings unwarranted
pression of all viewpoints have been notable
Jackson State and Kent State killings)
sanctions against them for wanting to be dif-
on many campuses
sharply intensified feelings among students
ferent (e.g., objections against unconven-
The situation is beyond partisan politics.
already protesting the war and showing dis-
tional appearance, use of marijuana, etc.)
Not surprisingly, over three-fifths of the stu-
affection with society generally. More im-
and from the perception that "society" im-
dents surveyed perceived no real difference
portant, Cambodia provoked and exposed
properly imposes burdens upon them which,
between the Democratic and Republican
antiwar and societal discontents among
having had little part in their imposition,
parties. More significantly, few present-day
large numbers of students of normally mod-
they do not wish to carry (the draft and "ir-
political leaders have extensive student sup-
erate and conservative political viewpoints.
relevant" college curriculum being most
port. Loyalty to existing institutions and
Before Cambodia, many of us on the cam-
often cited.)
faith in the country are crucial contempo-
puses believed that deep disaffection af-
Whether easily understandable by older
rary issues.
flicted only a small minority of students.
Now we conclude that May triggered a vast
persons or not, we are still faced by a new
The national emergency our nation faces
fact of political life: growing class conscious-
is more acute for black students, by several
pre-existing charge of pentup frustration
and dissatisfaction
ness among students. For effective national
powers of magnitude, than for other stu-
government, this constituency requires at-
dents. The fact of their lives and their sense
Though often emotional and egocentric,
tention and understanding just as do farm-
of deprivation multiply their fears and frus-
the passions of idealism produce not only
ers, organized labor, veterans, blacks, etc.
trations and bitterness
When the war is brought to an end, the
salient issue, though not the only issue, of rad-
ical student protest will have been removed.
Only when that happens can steps to restore
the confidence of the disaffected young in
the pollitical system be most effectively
taken. Though most students feel that stu-
dent activism will continue, an end to the
war will reduce the volume and volatility of
campus dissent
NO
SOME realist might well ask whether the
students, faculties, blacks, and the others
warrant all this energy and emphasis. They
do. The importance of the symptoms that
have concerned us, and their causes, goes
beyond manifestations of unrest and protest.
Power takes many forms in society. We are
familiar with military power, financial
power, governmental power, political power
in organized groups, and other effective in-
fluences. Intellectual power ought not to be
forgotten. Time and again in the world's his-
tory, ideas have prevailed over other forms
of power, from the teachings of Jesus
through those of Tom Paine and Karl Marx
to those of Adolf Hilter. Intellectual Power
is at work in new ways in the United States.
New ideas are challenging established ways
-which is the most important fact of all to
be acknowledged and understood.
Young people, in all their variety and con-
ditions of organization need to be viewed as
full-fledged constituents of government.
Effective participation in politics and gov-
ernment by them increases their under-
standing of government (and therefore often
their patience with it), increases their ac-
ceptance of the results of community deci-
sion-making processes (local, state and na-
tional), and increases their influence over
PRESERVATION
substantive policy, thereby sometimes im-
proving the quality of public decisions.
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Panel Expected to 'Gig' Nixon, Police
GOP Fears Report on CampusUnrest
By Ken W. Clawson
and protest on college cam-
increased role in campus
most of their opinions and
Washington Post Staff Writer
puses.
life.
actions.
There is a growing fear
2-The report will zero in
4-Acts of disruption and
terror are actions of individ-
A staff member of the
among Republicans that
on "official violence," alleg-
President Nixon's commis-
ing over-reaction by police
uals and not an organized or
commission headed by for-
sion on campus unrest will
and National Guardsmen in
coordinated strategy of radi-
mer Gov. William Scranton
shortly produce a report
dealing with campus disor-
cal student organizations.
of Pennsylvania said he ex-
sympathetic to student dem-
ders.
5-Below the surface of
pected these points to be
onstrations and harshly crit-
3-Administrative struc-
campus disorders lies an
made, too, but that the rhet-
ical of the Nixon administra-
tures of colleges and uni-
idealism that cannot be sat-
oric of the report would be
tion and law enforcement
versities are archaic and un-
isfied as long as the United
more restrained, and that it
tactics.
would be balanced with crit-
responsive to students, and
States is engaged in conflict
Worried GOP senators
are therefore unable and un-
in Southeast Asia, which
icism, "hard, tough criti-
and congressmen up for re-
willing to satisfy legitimate
students see as morally
cism," of student violence.
election in November have
student aspirations for an
wrong and which colors
See REPORT, A3, Col. 1
already warned the White
House that anticipated criti-
cism of the administration
and police may damage
strong law and order cam-
paigns.
"We have every reason to
believe this report is going
to gig the President, the po-
lice and the National
Guard," a Senate source
said. "How can you cam-
paign for firmness in deal-
ing with disorders when the
President's own commission
will say the unrest is caused
by Mr. Nixon, the police and
the National Guard?"
Sources inside the adminis-
tration and on Capitol Hill
said that based on back-
ground papers and tenta-
tive drafts of sections of the
report, the following points
will be made:
1-The rhetoric of Presi-
dent Nixon and Vice Presi-
dent Agnew on dissent and
campus unrest is responsi-
ble for much of the disorder
PRESERVATION
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Republicans Fear Campus Pro
REPORT, From A1
Vice President Agnew
called for the resignation of
The staffer, who asked not
Rhodes within a few days
to be identified, said the
after he was named to the
nine members of the presi-
commission. Rhodes said in
dential panel started out in
an interview that he wanted
June "in an atmosphere of
to find out whether police
mutual suspicion that has
on campuses were thinking
evolved into mutual respect
about "campus bums when
despite continuing strong
they pulled the trigger."
disagreements." The com-
mission's report is due by
This was shortly after Presi-
Oct. 1.
dent Nixon referred to some
Administration sources
campus dissenters as bums.
made it clear yesterday that
After the Vice President's
they will consider the report
attack, Rhodes announced
worthless if it does not con-
that with funds from a "pri-
tain "object lessions" based
vate source" in New York
on the incidents that promp-
he was forming his own task
ted the commission to be
force of young people to
empaneled in the first
keep the Scranton commis-
place-for example, that col-
sion probe honest.
lege administrators should
Cheek was associated with
not abdicate their roles once
Alexander Heard, chancellor
police or National Guards-
of Vanderbilt University, in
men have been called on
advising Mr. Nixon on cam-
campus, as some have done.
pus affairs. Their memoran-
"The President has made
dums, made public in July,
it clear that foreign policy
criticized the administration
isn't going to be made in the
for not understanding that a
streets, so I hope this group
national crisis con-
doesn't waste its time and
fronts us."
the money we've given it,"
White House aides went
one source said.
of of their way to discredit
President Nixon ap-
the Heard-Cheek memoran-
pointed the commission
dums.
June 13 in the wake of dis-
One aide who has read
turbances at more than 100
background papers on which
colleges, including student
the Scranton report will be
deaths at Kent State Univer-
based, said this document
sity and Jackson State Col-
will make the Heard Cheek
Kent State President Robert White, left, met with
lege.
memorandums "seem like
National Guardsme n
kindergarten stuff."
killed four students at the
Inside the administration
Rhodes, Cheek and Ortique
and Bernard G. Segal, pres-
Ohio university on May 4,
and on Capitol Hill an in-
on the left, to General
ident of the ABA.
Eleven days later, Missis-
creasing amount of criticism
Davis, who reportedly was
The ABA itself submitted
sippi State Police killed two
is being directed at the man
the only member who did
an initial list of prospective
students in disorders at
responsible for naming the
not wish to assign blame to
members. It also outlined
Jackson State.
commission members, John
Mr. Nixon and Mr. Agnew
The commission members,
Ehrlichman, the President's
in a letter to President Nix-
four of whom are black,
assistant for domestic af-
Ehrlichmann actually re-
on a recommendation that a
were characterized
as
fairs.
ceived widespread advice
campus unrest panel be
"strongly middle-of-the-
"When you put Rhodes,
within the administration be-
named and outlined what it
road" when President Nixon
Cheek and Ortique on the
fore selecting the commis-
considered the duties of
announced their appoint-
commission, you can expect
sion members.
such a group.
ment. Chairman Scranton
what is now taking place," a
For example, presidential
Nevertheless, Ehrlichmar
said the members are
high administration source
counselor Daniel P. Moyni-
is receiving the bulk of the
"objective people who don't
said. "All three of them hate
han recommended Martha
blame, although counseloi
have preconceived notions."
the President, and they will
Derthick, the only woman in
Robert H. Finch and special
But White House aides, in-
vent that passion in a report
the group, who had written
assistant Leonard Garment
cluding some who recom-
like this."
her doctoral thesis at Rad-
are assigned primary White
mended appointments to the
A Republican Senate
cliffe College on the Na-
House liaison duties with
commission, now believe a
source, who acknowledged
tional Guard. Neither did
the Scranton commission.
majority is to the left of
that he had hoped the
Ehrlichman personally tap
Sen. Gordon Allott (R-
center. On aide said that on
Scranton commission would
Rhodes; he was recom-
Colo.) reportedly was includ-
the basis of the "road show"
issue a report placing the
mended by another White
ing all three in his Sept. 4
conducted by the commis-
blame for campus unrest
House aide who had pre-
scathing attack on the com-
sion at hearings at Kent
"on the campuses," said that
viously worked with Rhodes.
mission's anticipated report.
State, Jackson State and on
Ehrlichman simply "does
Chairman Scranton, Chief
While absolving President
the West Coast, he would
not understand the campus
Ahern, Gen. Davis and Orti-
Nixon of responsibility for
characterize four commis-
situation or the New Left
que were recommended by
the makeup of the commis-
sion members as "moderate
and that's why he could
the American Bar Associa-
sion, Allott said that the
liberals, with the remaining
make the blunder of appoint-
tion.
selection of members
ones far to the left."
ing those people."
Before the final selection
rests heavily on the shoul-
The commission members
He said that the selection
was made, it was learned
ders of a few of the Presi-
are:
of Rhodes was an example
yesterday, the nine members
dent's senior domestic advis-
James Ahern, 38, police
of how "conservatives don't
were approved by Ehrlich-
ers."
chief of New Haven, Conn.;
understand the New Left."
man, Attorney General John
The report he said, may
Erwin D. Canham, 66, edi-
"I am sure Rhodes really
N. Mitchell, presidential
"pour kerosene on the
tor-in-chief of the Christian
appealed to Ehrlichman;
counselor Robert H. Finch,
flames" of campus unrest. It
Science Monitor; Dr. James
black, neatly dressed, ac-
E. Cheek, 37, president of
complished changes without
Howard University; Benja-
violence on the campus at
min O. Davis, former Air
California Institute of Tech-
Force lieutenant general
nology, articulate. Like the
who served briefly as pub-
good Seattle lawyer that he
lic safety director of Cleve-
is, Ehrlichman never looked
land; Martha A Derthick, as-
below these surface things
sociate professor of political
to find out what Rhodes
science at Boston College.
really stands for. But he's
Bayless Manning, 47, dean
going to find out soon."
of Stanford Law School; Re-
Staff sources inside the
vius O. Ortique Jr., 46, presi-
Scranton commission indi-
dent of the Urban League of
cated that young Rhodes is
PRESERVATION
New Orleans and former
indeed the most emotional
president of the National
member, but not a radical
Bar Association; Joseph
firebrand. They said the phil-
Rhodes Jr., 22, a junior fel-
osophical spectrum on the
low at Harvard University.
commission ran from
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
THE WASHINGTON POST
Sunday, Sept. 13, 1970
3
be Will Criticize Nixon,
Police
independent study on cam-
a member of the Knight
pus unrest.
chain, granted him a leave
The staff of the Scranton
of absence to write the
commission is headed by
20,000-word section of the re-
Matthew Byrne Jr., 39-year-
port dealing with the disor-
old former U.S. Attorney for
ders at Jackson State Col-
Los Angeles, who was ap-
lege.
pointed by President John-
Bass, a political reporter,
son but was kept in office
said he had an understand-
by the Nixon administration
ing that he would not write
until last May. Byrne is well
about the Scranton report.
liked by the Justice Depart-
During his month with the
ment and was seriously con-
commission, Bass said he
sidered to head the Law En-
was paid on a per diem basis
forcement Assistance Ad-
of "less than $100 a day"
ministration before being
and expenses.
named executive director of
Reichley also took a
the campus unrest unit.
month's leave of absence
His deputy is John J.
from Fortune, where he is a
Kirby who is on leave from
political writer. He also said
President Nixon's former
he would not write directly
New York law firm.
about the upcoming report.
Emerging as the key staff-
Reichley served as Gov.
er in putting the report to-
Scranton' legislative secre-
gether is Paul Weaver, pro-
tary from 1962 to 1967.
fessor of political science at
While the size of the com-
Harvard and an associate
mission staff varied during
editor of The Public Inter-
the summer, it reached its
est.
peak during the field inves-
Six professional writers
tigations and hearings. It in-
were hired for periods rang-
cluded more than a score of
ing from a few days to the
lawyers, police officials, uni-
three months of the commis-
versity personnel and oth-
sion's existence. They are
ers.
Robert Abernathy, NBC
Key staff people included:
News; James Reichley, For-
Paul Brest, law professor at
tune magazine; Lee Win-
Stanford University; Rich-
frey, Detroit Free Press;
ard Baungart, political sci-
Jack Bass, Charlotte Ob-
ence professor at the
server; Erwin Glikes, Basic
University of Maryland;
Books division of Harper
James J. O'Toole, former
United Press International
and Row, and Robert Rice, a
Time-Life employee who re-
William Scranton on the troubled campus last month.
former staffer of the Kat-
cently completed a Ph.D.
zenbach crime and law en-
at Oxford; Roland Patzer,
forcement commission.
was learned later that Allott
vice president for student
Scranton investigation be-
Some newspapers refused
had received some informa-
affairs, University of Ver-
cause testimony being taken
to permit reporters to work
tion on the tentative shape
mont; James Strazzella, vice
by the unit appeared to be
for the commission because
of the report from inside
dean of the Pennsylvania
"weighted in favor of those
they believed it would com-
the commission.
Law School; Owen Fiss, law
who have caused trouble
Earlier, Sen. Robert Byrd
promise them in dealing
professor, University of Chi-
and against those who want
with stories about the com-
(D-W.Va.) said in a Senate
cago, and Raymond T. Gal-
to get an education."
mission and its eventual
speech that he could detect
vin, police science special-
Byrd subsequently pre-
report.
the possible outcome of the
ist at the University of
sented to the commission an
Bass said his newspaper,
Minnesota.
PRESERVATION
Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum