This is the first article in a two-part series looking at how the University community confronts war, both in the 1970s Vietnam conflict and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The tension-filled night in May of 1970 when 2,000 angry students marched on Maury Hall protesting the Vietnam War remains emblazoned in the mind of English Prof. William Fishback, then University chief public affairs officer. Chills run up his spine as he remembers students threatening to invade the University president's house on Carr's Hill later that night. He still hears the passionate mob of Vietnam protestors yelling as police dragged them from the intersection of Rugby Road and University Avenue during another protest.
Fishback and a handful of other professors saw the University through the turbulent Vietnam era and their memories provide a fascinating glimpse into a world that current students can only read about. This backward time-travel particularly is interesting today, as the nation wages a war on terrorism.
The world will never forget the powerful image of the Twin Towers crumbling after the nation was attacked Sept. 11. But out of the rubble, Americans discovered a newfound patriotism. The overwhelming majorityof Americans continue to support the ensuing war against terrorism, according to many nationwide polls.
The backdrop of war provides the only connection between the stages of 1970 and 2002, according to Fishback, a faculty member since 1966. As he begins a journey back to the tumultuous spring of 1970, the professor's eyes exude nostalgia.
"The explosion happened with troops going into Cambodia and the Kent State shootings," Fishback said. "Those events galvanized young people into opposition to the war."
Negative response to the war, in particular the draft, graced the cover of The Cavalier Daily and its letters to the editor virtually every day.
"All wars are immoral, the Vietnam conflict perhaps more so than others," said student Benjamin Clavan in his letter published in The Cavalier Daily on Oct. 9, 1969. "It is the responsibility of the intellectual of the country, especially those here at the University dedicated to carrying out Mr. Jefferson's principles, to oppose the war."
Students vehemently protested authority in many ways, Applied Science Prof. Doris Wilsdorf recalls. Born in Germany 80 years ago, she is no stranger to breaking boundaries. A poster child for pioneering women everywhere, she obtained her doctorate in materials science in 1947 and began teaching at the University in 1963 - the first female professor outside of the Nursing School. She shakes her head with half-hearted disdain as she remembers the hair and clothing revolution that took hold of the University.
At that time students were required to wear a coat and tie to class. The first sign of rebellion was students arriving to class with bare feet. The tie was the next article of clothing to go. And in a matter of several weeks, this defiant striptease escalated to students' shedding their coats.
"It became fashionable to look as unkempt and shoddy as you could," Wilsdorf said in her faint German accent. "If the hair didn't look awful there was something wrong. Jeans had to have holes, shoes had to have holes and the soles had to flop off."
Students skipped classes, some even skipped exams. Many called for a strike to shut down the University.
Numerous professors, such as Inis Claude, professor of government and foreign affairs, accepted the students' disregard for their studies and facilitated their protest. In a letter published in the Nov. 12, 1969 Cavalier Daily, Claude set forth his exam policy.
"If you decide that your conscience compels you to refrain from taking the hour examination on November 13, I ask you to give me a letter setting forth in reasoned fashion the way in which you have resolved this complex issue and have reached the conclusion that you are morally obliged to use non-attendance at the examination as a means of declaring your position on Vietnam," Claude wrote.
Today America fights a different type of war, Fishback, Wilsdorf and Sociology Prof. Theodore Caplow agreed.
"We got into Vietnam ourselves," Fishback said. "As for the current war, we were attacked at our heart."
America wanted to go to war after Sept. 11. Polls taken by USA Today, Newsweek, CNN and Gallup all showthat "American people support digging out the seeds of terrorism," Fishback said.
Vietnam, as opposed to our current war, "posed a physical threat and a question of conscience to every student," said Caplow, a faculty member since 1970. There currently is no draft; therefore, nobody is suggesting a national sacrifice, he elaborated.
Just as students spoke out in opposition to the war in Vietnam, many vocalized their support of efforts to thwart terrorism by waging war in Afghanistan.
"Thousands of innocent people have died as a result [of Sept. 11], and thousands more may die at the hands of these devils if the U.S. does not defend its citizens by going to war," said Craig Edwards in a letter published in The Cavalier Daily on Oct. 9, 2001.
The outpouring of support sharply contrasts with the protests that characterized the Vietnam period. The picket lines of the early '70s are distant blurs in the eyes of today's University students. Fishback said that the reason for the lack of opposition is obvious - "we were attacked."
"We have had protests against injustices of many kinds - civil rights, apartheid, Vietnam - but in the current war we haven't suffered enormous casualties. We were attacked and that makes an enormous difference," he said.
But some people, such as first-year College student Orran Brown, are opposed to the war in Afghanistan. Decades later, the inclination toward protest that characterized the counter culture has not wavered in Brown's mind. If the war escalates to the point where many Americans have died and no end is in sight, Brown said he definitely would take part in a protest.
"If the war gets to the point where it is ridiculous I would not hesitate to protest," he said. "I think Bush had to do something to gain national security and comfort, but I think there should be limits."
As the tragedy of Sept. 11 and the resulting war only begin to be glued onto the pages of history, History Prof. Brian Balough stressed the importance of time when addressing the different responses. The United States fought the Vietnam War for over 10 years, whereas the war in Afghanistan is only months old. Initially, there was very little resistance to the war in Vietnam, he remarked. The nation rallied around President Lyndon B. Johnson when he passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
"Over time, America asks questions about goals in foreign policy," he said with an explanatory nod. "We don't know what will happen in this case."
Americans opposed the war in Vietnam because there was a growing skepticism that the monolithic communism [the United States]was fighting against was a real threat, Balough said.
"Protest grew out of highly secretive policies of the administration and of the growing questioning as to just how much of an external threat monolithic communism was," he said. "If Americans stop believing that terrorism is a real threat and they feel that the administration is pursuing a war in secrecy and lying, then you might well see protest."
But polls indicate that support for the military action in Afghanistan has not even begun to diminish. CBS News reported that 87 percent of people questioned Feb. 21-24, 2002 "approve of the military attacks led by the United States against targets in Afghanistan." That number had only dropped by 1 percent as compared to the 88 percent of people voicing their approval when the same poll was conducted Oct. 25-28, 2001.
Therein lies the core difference - Americans are not divided on the issue of war. By and large Americans agree that this war is necessary and beneficial, Caplow asserts.
"Obviously something had to be done," he said. "What was done was vigorous and successful"
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