In a time of heated political tensions in the nation, especially on college campuses, it is useful to check back with that handy instrument that provides a good perspective on what it happening today, history.
As there is little new under the sun in human events, it is also true that one must have a proper perspective before you get concerned that your present is really something of concern.
There is timely article in the April 2018 edition of USNI’s Naval History by Brendan J. O’Donnell, CAPT USN (Ret) that deserves your attention.
We live in a calm, reasonable, and easy time. It wasn’t long ago that this was the environment young leaders were being brought up in.
First, we need to set the scene;
…the later years of the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Many host colleges and universities nationwide terminated NROTC to express opposition to the war and the U.S. military. In New England, among the six unrestricted NROTC units (Harvard, Tufts, Yale, and Brown universities; Dartmouth College; and the College of the Holy Cross), only Holy Cross decided, after a lengthy review, to retain the program.
The NROTC unit at Holy Cross did not get to stay by chance;
On Monday, 4 May, the Holy Cross faculty voted to suspend normal academic activities. The next day, several discussion groups were held to address the Vietnam War, the capitalist system, racism, and political prisoners, and rumors suggested that meetings or discussions would take up the issue of ROTC on campus.
The NROTC unit’s officers, staff, and midshipmen decided to observe strict restraint and avoid confrontation.
…
At one late-evening discussion group, a leader of the Revolutionary Student Union (RSU)—the Holy Cross equivalent of the SDS—announced there were plainclothes policemen on campus, and a brief confrontation occurred near the Air Force ROTC building (now the Millard Art Center).
…
On Wednesday, the Air Force removed its files from the building as a precaution. A discussion of ROTC was scheduled for that evening in Hogan Campus Center Ballroom, and the RSU was advertising via telephone that another demonstration would occur outside the Air Force building that evening. The college asked the NROTC staff to remove weapons and ammunition from the armory in O’Kane Hall, which was accomplished without incident. At the ROTC discussion, one of the Air Force senior cadets, speaking from the floor, first used the phrase “oppressive minority” to characterize the RSU; this became a rallying cry for ROTC supporters over the next few days.By 2230, the RSU had given up hope that anything substantive would come from the ROTC discussion, and it shifted the scene of action to the Air Force ROTC building. One of the faculty members present proposed that part of the building be converted to a peace center, at which point an RSU student threw a rock through a window. Immediately, 30 to 40 nonviolent, antiwar students formed a human chain to block occupation of the building. The strategy of the ROTC students to avoid physical confrontation with their opponents had produced a schism among the various antiwar and anti-ROTC factions.
…
Father Swords would meet with the protestors in the Hogan Ballroom. There, Father Swords opined that ROTC had a place on campus, drawing derision from the RSU and Black Student Union representatives on the stage with him. This led to an audience demand that ROTC be represented on the panel, so the NROTC midshipmen battalion commander and one AFROTC student joined the group on stage. By 0130 the next day, fatigue and continuing unseasonably cold weather ended the meeting.The following day, the midshipmen reported on the previous night’s activities to the unit staff. During this meeting, one of the deans called unit commander and professor of naval science Captain Edward F. Hayes to ask that the midshipmen officers’ swords be removed from campus. Captain Hayes refused, saying that the next request would be to remove pencils with sharp points.
At first, there appeared to be defeat;
The majority report, from one faculty member and both students, concluded ROTC should be phased out over three years as a symbolic moral protest of distorted national priorities. The minority report from the trustee and the second faculty member found the aims and goals of Holy Cross and the presence of ROTC not to be mutually exclusive and called for its retention with some modifications.
Need organization? Midshipmen and Cadets can do that
…the midshipmen concluded the generally centrist beliefs of the student body could work to the advantage of ROTC if the student vote truly were representative. The Inter-House Congress (part of the student government) arranged for a student vote to be held 30 September and 1 October that would offer three options: support the majority report, support the minority report, or support neither.
The Navy midshipmen and Air Force cadets organized down to the level of dormitory corridors, posted and distributed flyers advocating support for the minority report, and engaged in extensive personal contact with friends and fellow students. Supplemented by position papers distributed through campus mail and an information table in the Campus Center, this “get-out-the-vote” campaign emphasized not letting a small minority of students dictate to everyone.
…
The results of the vote were decisive: with 55 percent student turnout (the largest in memory), 55 percent supported the minority report; 38 percent supported the majority report; and 7 percent (both pro- and anti-ROTC) supported neither. Shortly after the results were announced, the RSU, through the chairman of the Inter-House Congress, requested a public forum with ROTC advocates be held immediately before the scheduled Faculty-Student Assembly vote on 5 October. The midshipmen declined to participate.
…
On 5 October, each faculty member received a letter from the midshipmen outlining some of the recent changes in NROTC policies, courses, and activities. The agenda for that day’s Faculty-Student Assembly proved too ambitious, and the vote on ROTC was postponed to a special meeting on 12 October.The midshipmen again sent each faculty member a letter, this time urging the highest possible participation at the meeting. The event was broadcast on the campus radio station and opened with many statements from ROTC opponents, but they could not find common ground on language to eliminate ROTC. Their position gradually collapsed. As Father Brooks, acting as assembly chairman, recognized pro-ROTC speakers—particularly Jesuits—a tide of momentum built. In the end, 89 members voted against the ad hoc committee majority report, 60 voted for it, and five abstained. ROTC would remain at Holy Cross.
Read the full article. What a great story of institutional moral courage.
On a personal note, when I first wore a Navy uniform in 1984, this period of turmoil recently ended – even on at my university which was much more accommodating as a whole to the military than Holy Cross. People would talk about how in recent memory it was not a good idea to walk around in uniform on campus, even if it was just once a week. Even then you’d get the snide remark or so, but it was really nothing. Times had changed for the better, and they are even better today.
In many ways, we are a much better nation now than we once were – a more united country today as well. As with all human institutions, there are areas that need work, but on balance 2018 is a good time to be alive.
Remind people of this fact next time you find them having a spell of the vapors. If they look at you funny, just tell them to pick up reading as a new hobby – preferably something written before they were legal to drive at worst, before they were born at best.
Libraries full of keys
Where’s your lock?
– Peter Murphy
As a side note, if you don’t get your Naval History, get a subscription. Well worth it.
