1961-1965

1963: Early Stirrings

As tensions in Vietnam rose, people in the U.S. - in particular activists inside and outside of campus communities - turned their attention towards the conflict in Southeast Asia. The article “Past UC Speaker In Protest Against Mme. Nhu Before Fall Of Regime” in the November 11, 1963 issue of the Ursinus Weekly details how members of the Buddhist community protested a speaking appearance by the First Lady of South Vietnam at Princeton University. What makes this relevant to Ursinus is that one of the protestors, Rev. Geshe Wangal of the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America had been a speaker at UC’s “Kaffee Klatsch” - a lecture series about religion. This article demonstrates how inter-Vietnamese tensions spilled over into American society before the war even began in earnest.

1965: "Worth the Price?"

By the middle of the 1960s, the Vietnam War was in its earliest stages, and the debate over whether or not the war was justified had already begun to seep into the Ursinus community. The February 22, 1965 issue of the Weekly features an opinion piece entitled "Victory in South Vietnam - Is It Worth The Price?" The piece details a public debate at the aforementioned Kaffee Klatsch where two professors spoke up in favor of intervention in Vietnam. This came after a flyer from the Swarthmore chapter of the SDS was found on a bulletin board on UC. Here, we can observe to what extent the arguments made by the professors mirror the official US rationale, as well as the response that students had to said rationale. The opinion piece itself is strangely neutral in tone, but does seem to come off as pro-intervention.

1965 (cont.): Opposition to the Opposition

Splashed on the front page of the November 15, 1965 Weekly is a re-printed letter from the National Student Committee for Defense of Viet Nam (sic). The letter is written on behalf of a bipartisan student committee in support of intervention in Vietnam, and it discredits student resistance movements as a "small, noisy minority." Quote: "We welcome your cooperation and assistance in this bi-partisan, national program to show the American people that the new student radicals do not speak for our generation in their irresponsible opposition to our country's policy in Vietnam."