Re: academia/organizing (multiple posts)

Kevin Cole (kccole@one.net)
Wed, 13 Aug 1997 18:36:47 -0400

C'mon Ted, you know nothing is ever 100% right. Actually I was at
Lehigh during the most prominent of its antiwar activities and had many
subsequent chances to reevaluate the experience. In terms of
international politics I think you are closest to being correct -- it
was an act of national aggression. In terms of domestic politics,
however, the antiwar movement spawned class warfare quite apart from the
issues related to Vietnam. Safely ensconced at Lehigh, for example,
were all the fresh-faced Long Island kids whose parents gave them new
TR4s or XKEs for their 18th birthdays, none of whom seemed to even know
the name of a single kid who was drafted or who enlisted. Of course
there were some of Clinton's erstwhile colleagues in ROTC, but there
goes that class thing again -- only a few saw any action.

I dropped out of Lehigh and enlisted. When I came back it was just in
time to see Nixon abolish the draft, and to see any trace of anti-war
fervor disappear within moments afterward. Folks who had been in SDS
were suddenly selling insurance in their spare time or striking affluent
poses to amuse the women who'd just arrived on campus. There was lots
more war to go, but the movement had achieved what appeared to be its
actual goal, which was to keep "us folks" out of the draft, out of the
trenches, and out of the way of any real solidarity with those who
suffered in this country or abroad.

--Kevin

TED MORGAN wrote:

> Jim Cummins writes:
> >The sixties were responsible for the civil rights movement, which
> made a
> >big difference in the South, and even to some degree in the rest of
> the
> >country. The rest of it was of little consequence, mainly because it
> was
> >just wrong.
>
> The rest of this went, uh, right over my head. But, do tell, in what
> way WAS
> the "rest of it" (antiwar movement, women's movement, student
> movement,
> ecology movement, etc.) of "little consequence?" To say nothing of
> wrong.
> Have to say, the antiwar movement was 100% right; the war was an
> immoral act
> of national aggression by our government. Period.
> Ted Morgan
>
> ================================
> Department of Political Science
> Maginnes Hall #9
> Lehigh University
> Bethlehem, PA 18015
>
> epm2@lehigh.edu
> phone: (610) 758-3345
> fax: (610) 758-6554

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