Moratoriums, marches highlight year
Peace activism increases at KU
by JOHN GOODRICK
Kansan Staff Writer
Pence was a major issue on the University of Kansas campus and on other college campuses and major cities nationwide this school year.
Support for the moratoriums Oct., Nov. and April 15 was significant but not enough to unify the people. Rallies, marches, speeches and open forums drew crowds of students numbering in the hundreds and in some cases the thousands. Although one goal of the peace movement, to get us out of Vietnam, was not reached, the movement did succeed in apathy among some moderates.
On October 14, Chancellor E. Laurence Chalmers Jr. said, "There have always been persons who have objected to every war this country has fought, but the war in Vietnam is perceived by our students as politically unjustifiable and morally indefensible, and I agree with them on both counts."
In a march on the following day an estimated 3,000 participants marched down Memorial Drive, West Campus Road and Jayhawk Boulevard.
Several students wore black arm bands showing their opposition to the war and many boycotted classes for a day. Several lectures, open forums, folk singers, and open microphones were scattered over campus so that expression of opinions was actively free and open.
The Student Mobilization Committee organized the events of the day and sought volunteer help to get people to work at information tables to obtain signatures on petitions condemning the war and to help distribute information booklets about the war.
Petitions were signed by several students demanding an immediate end to the war in Vietnam and condemning the actions of two Kansas congressmen, Representatives Larry Winn and Keith Sebelius. The two congressmen had signed a letter sent to President Nixon saying, "We urge an immediate resumption of bombing of North Vietnam, including the dikes of the Red River which protects North Vietnam's major rice fields." It also asked for South Vietnamese Rangers to be sent into the North to conduct similar activities as the Viet Cong do in the South.
Robert Swan, 1968 unsuccessful congressional candidate, addressed about 350 persons in front of Wescoe Hole and challenged the United States involvement in Vietnam and the "myths" that sustain the conflict.
Swan quoted President Nixon as saying, "To allow government policy to be made in the streets would destroy the democratic processes."
Swan retorted to this comment by saying the moratorium was the "greatest outpouring of democracy in recent years."
Reverend Robert Shelton, assistant professor of religion, told demonstrators that they could make a significant impact on national policy.
He said, "Man cannot talk about a just war in a nuclear age."
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Harry Shaffer, professor of economics, said, "You (you young men) shall have to die, and be maimed and become killers, because men in Washington don't have the guts to admit they have been wrong."
More than 150 students gathered in front of Strong Hall to participate in a silent vigil mourning the dead. Signs reading "Rockchalk Jaydove, stop war, try love" and "Save lives, not face" were held.
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Students participating in the November 15 Washington war moratorium gathered at the Washington Monument to hear speakers and rock bands protest the continuation of involvement in Vietnam.
pleaded to President Nixon in front of a crowd of an estimated 22,000 to 55,000 persons in Washington, D.C., to "bring the boys home, and bring them home now."
Mrs. King said the war was "an enemy of the poor and black people" and a destroyer of life in Southeast Asia.
"We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. My friends which will we choose?" asked Mrs. King.
Ronald Reagan, California governor, said, "We have the right to suspect that at least some of the anti-war participants are lending comfort to the enemy."
President Nixon insisted the moratorium would have no effect upon his decision.
After the moratorium Chalmers said, "A democratic right was exercised in a well disciplined manner and I can't see how such a unique event won't effect our nation's policies."
Barry M. Goldwater, 1964 G.O.P. presidential candidate, said the demonstrators were "playing into the hands of people whose business it is to kill American fighting men."
Lawrence Velvel, associate professor of law and one of the first faculty to come out against the war, seven months after the Oct. 15 moratorium stated,
"Somebody had to do these things. If nobody starts the ball slowly rolling it never will get rolling fast."
Velvel compared it to a snowball rolling down a hill gaining size and momentum.
Shelton recently said the Oct. 15 moratorium was the "first real involvement."
Shelton said the moratorium had a definite impact.
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"Although it had no immediate effect on the governmental policies, it had an effect on the thinking of the war itself and what kind of people support our withdrawal," he said.
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He said before, a lot of people thought that those who demonstrated against the war were "freaks" and now "a lot of people think different."
At Washington University in Washington, D.C., Oct. 19 John Bowman, Wichita sophomore, and others represented KU in a meeting of the National Student Mobilization Committee which included 100 students from the East Coast, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio.
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An estimated 250,000 persons participated in a march on Washington, D.C., Nov. 15, including about 100 KU students. About 500 persons marched in Topeka on the Capitol Building. On the KU campus a less numerous crowd participated in the two day moratorium, Nov. 14 and 15.
Black arm bands were still evident though many students who had boycotted classes before said they could not afford to boycott classes for two days.
Private Joe Cole had spoken before the moratorium Oct. 30 telling a large crowd at Hoch Auditorium about "G.I.'s United Against the War in Vietnam." He said many G.I.'s were sympathetic to the peace movement.
Like the October moratorium, the November moratorium sponsored several open forums, speakers and open microphones
for the expression of opinions.
A rice luncheon was given at the United Campus Christian Fellowship center to help finance the moratorium activities. The dinner simulated a Vietnamese dinner.
Chalmers spoke at a "teach in" to about 350 persons in Hoch Auditorium including two biology and a sociology professor. The professors spoke on the historical, sociological, and chemical and biological effects of the Vietnamese War. The chancellor defended his support of the moratorium.
John Wright, associate professor of human development and family life said in New Haworth, "The president dipped into the silent majority and came up with a couple of cupfuls of people," but the anti-war factions had done the same thing with similar results.
Harry Shaffer, professor of economics, said, "Build a better
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