Chapter 7
Beyond SDS—Grass Roots, ROTC, and Cambodia
Activists question Stanford's land use policies before launching demonstrations to throw the Reserve Officers Training Corps off campus. The 1969-70 academic year culminates in the nationwide student strike against President Nixon's invasion of Cambodia.
1
Divisions Within SDS and SDS at Stanford
Leonard Siegel characterizes the different positions that have emerged in SDS and how the radical movement at Stanford has been relatively free of the divisions which have plagued the organization elsewhere.
6
What's Been Happening on Maggie’s Farm
In preparation for a new round of activism, Stanford SDS published a second Radical Guide to Stanford, titled Maggie’s Farm.
7
8000 Jam Stanford Anti-War Rally
About 80 percent of the student body forsook classes yesterday and instead leafletted the community, participated in an anti-war demonstration in Palo Alto, and gathered last night on campus in rallies of unprecedented size.
8
Letters to Employees
SDS letters describing how the war affects local industries and their employees, and inviting them to participate in the anti-war march in Palo Alto and the evening rally at Stanford.
10
Rolling Stones Concert Location
Stanford Daily article on where the free Rolling Stones concert may or may not be held. (It ultimately was held at Altamont.)
11
Off-Campus Housing Crisis
Low cost housing for workers has not been a priority for companies profiting from the war.
12
Stanford and the Shortage of Low and Moderate Cost Housing
Committee report and recommendations concerning the lack of adequate low and moderate cost local housing.
13
SDS May charge up Coyote Hill
Palo Alto Times report on an SDS meeting held in Cubberley Auditorium.
14
House People, Not Profits
Lenny Siegel’s draft description of Grass Roots, a new land use movement in the Palo Alto area.
15
Grass Roots Proposal
Lenny Siegel’s proposal for Grass Roots’ positions on industrial development.
16
The Promised Land
61-page booklet covering the history of Mid-Peninsula land use and its relation to jobs and population, housing, ecology, Stanford, and Palo Alto.
18
The Real Victim
Letter to the Daily alleging that a Monopoly style board game conceived by Lenny Siegel and others was exploiting children
19
Exploitation?
Lenny Siegel's response to a letter to the editor concerning games for childrten.
23
Stanford and ROTC: Report and Recommendations
The Final Report from the nine-member Ad Hoc Senate Committee on ROTC, dated February 7, 1969, published as a supplement to Campus Report, February 11, 1969.
24
Trustees Call ROTC
Vital
Trustees
called ROTC ‘vital to the continued supply of civilian leadership for the military service,’Stanford University Press Release, March 11, 1969; with a cover note to Yale Braunstein, dated 3/13/69, from Fred Glover, suggesting that it answers questions raised in his March 12 memo to Pitzer.
25
Washington Growls, Pitzer Jumps
President Pitzer convinces the President's Advisory Committee on ROTC to conform to the directives from the Army, and the Faculty Senate then falls in line.
26
Revision of Army ROTC Institutional and Student Contracts
4-page memo from Colonel Ramey, Professor of Military Science to Vice-Provost E. Howard Brooks, October 22, 1969.
27
Faculty Senate Approves ROTC Plan
The Stanford Faculty Senate approved a plan which would permit Army ROTC course to qualify for limited academic credit on a one-year trial basis.
28
New Stanford Moratorium
A radical coalition calling itself the new Stanford Moratorium adopted a proposal to sponsor a campus-wide petition calling for the immediate removal of ROTC. The group also moved to bar photographers and radio station crews from all future meetings, a decision drawing angry retorts from campus news media. (Remember, at the time people didn’t have devices in their pockets capable of photographing, recording, and instantly transmitting discussions.)
29
Campus Humor Magazine Confronts ROTC
A group of student journalists, including Daily veterans who had been active in the April Third Movement, turned the Chaparral, historically the campus humor magazine, into a serious publication. On February 16, it published a 24-page tabloid devoted to criticism of Stanford ROTC. It linked ROTC to the Vietnam War, and it documented how students who tried to leave ROTC were punished
31
Protesters Parade Down El Camino Real, Breaking Windows
About 300 persons, mainly Stanford students, staged a torchlight parade down El Camino Real early Tuesday, smashing about 20 large plate glass windows in protest against the Chicago 7 trials and American capitalism.
32
OFF ROTC
Activists who formed the Off ROTC Movement initiated new tactics aimed at ending ROTC at Stanford.
33
Radicals Face Ramey
Stanford radicals interrogated the Army ROTC commander and stapled anti-ROTC petitions to the door of the Office of the President during a series of demonstrations yesterday afternoon. I don’t remember this event, but one of my functions in the Movement was to lead tours.
34
ROTC Debate
Is it morally intolerant to remove ROTC from campus was the topic of a rescheduled debate held late yesterday afternoon. The session was waged between ROTC cadet Mike Wolf and Leonard Siegel, member of the New Moratorium and SDS. I don’t remember this event, either.
35
ROTC Ambush Fails
I did not take part in the maneuvers by 100 People’s Liberation Army soldiers who planned to ambush ROTC cadets on their monthly maneuvers through the hills above Lake Lagunita. The ambush failed to materialize when the ROTC event rained out and the People’s Liberation army was left to itself roaming the hills.
36
Anti-ROTC Demonstrations Continue
Police arrested four persons and at least three others were clubbed as anti-ROTC demonstrations entered the second night of increasingly angry protest.
37
Third Night of ROTC Protest
In a third night of anti-ROTC demonstrations, hundreds of marchers surged across campus in a peaceful protest.
38
Memorandum and Order
Findings by four of the five individuals guilty of contempt and setting a date for sentencing. These were the adverbs used by the judge in the subsequent civil judgment against me. I think that many in the establishment were aghast that Stanford students could be so impolite.
39
Only Five Were Charged
Judge Barnett found four of us guilty of contempt of court for our on-campus anti-ROTC demonstrations. Subsequently, University officials filed affidavits for civil contempt of court charges against five members of the Off ROTC movement—Mike Sweeney, Janet Weiss, John Shoch, Lenny Siegel, and Art Busse. Santa Clara County Superior Court then ordered
show causecitations to these individuals on contempt charges based on a previous injunction against disruptive activities. The five individuals were charged with a variety of activities such as attendance at the April 3 Academic Council meeting, milling-in at the offices of the ROTC Commander, and attending ROTC classes. While these activities involved hundreds of people, only five were charged.
41
Fifth Night of ROTC Protest
At least 55 windows were quickly smashed by more than 250 anti-ROTC demonstrators last night in the fifth evening of protest against officer training.
42
Radical or Revolutionary?
Revolutionary rhetoric has become more frequent and proto-revolutionary action has largely replaced radical non-violent tactics.
43
Broken Windows: The William F, Durand Building
Fire and Sandstone contains a photo of the Durand building with broken and taped windows. I wrote the caption,
People who work in glass buildings should not do war research.
44
Pitzer Closes Building
Responding quickly to a noon mill-in at the ROTC Department, President Kenneth Pitzer last night issued an emergency regulation closing the Athletic Building and the ROTC Departments to all but employees or students having classes there.
45
Anti-ROTC Demonstrators Padlock ROTC Building
Between 150 and 200 anti-ROTC demonstrators papered and padlocked the entrance to the ROTC-Athletic building yesterday afternoon before police undid their handiwork and ordered them to disperse.
46
ROTC Credit Out
Students voted 3616 to 1898 to bar credit from ROTC courses, but chose to keep the program on campus bv a slim 138 vote margin (2919 to 2781).
47
Bye, Bye Air Force ROTC
It now ‘seems likely’ that the Air Force ROTC unit will be withdrawn from Stanford…
Link:
Stanford University News Service,April 16, 1970, A3M Historical Archive, 1969–1970: Off ROTC.
48
Police Arrest 23, Break Up Sit-In
At 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon, 460 ROTC protestors seized the Old Union. At 1:10 a.m. this morning, 50 Santa Clara deputies swept through the building, ending the sit-in and arresting 13 men and nine women on charges of criminal trespass.
49
Police Clear Old Student Union Building and Arrest 22
The Western Civ instructor who had kicked me out of his class my freshman year was arrested after being pushed into the building by deputies.
50
Same Day Protests at Stanford and U.C. Berkeley
Linus Pauling, who had won Nobel Prizes in both Chemistry and Peace, had been one of my heroes in high school. In fact, he was one of the reasons I chose physics as a major. The same day. the Daily headlined that rock-throwing anti-ROTC demonstrators had caused the closure of U.C. Berkeley, Stanford’s so-called rival.
51
Campus Strike Called To Protest Cambodia Action
Thousands gathered in Frost Amphitheater last night and shouted approval of a campus-wide strike today to protest U.S. involvement in Cambodia.
52
Violent Street Fighting Continues
On the eve of a planned student strike, anti-ROTC demonstrators staged a second round of street fighting with police.
53
Alice in ROTC-Land
An original play by Jeffrey Blum and Marc A. Weiss, performed on the campus during April and May.
54
Campus Strike Called
About 4000 people gathered in Frosh Amphitheater last night and shouted approval of a campus wide strike today to protest U.S. involvement in Cambodia.
55
Marc A. Weiss
Movement Oral History Project.
56
Rock-Throwers & Tear Gas, Again
For the second straight night, police used tear gas to break up rock-throwing bands of ROTC protesters at Stanford Thursday night, April 30.
57
Three Shotgun Blasts
Three shotgun blasts ripped into the Los Altos home of Stanford’s Army ROTC commander at 11:50 p.m., Friday, May 1.
58
Academic Council Members Ask Faculty Senate to Terminate Academic Credit for ROTC
At an emergency Academic Council meeting, faculty members asked the Faculty Senate to consider
without delay terminating academic credit for ROTC at the end of the current academic year.
59
Stanford Almost Totally Closed
Stanford remained almost totally closed yesterday as students and faculty boycotted classes, manned picket lines, sat in doorways and conducted teach-ins to protest U.S. involvement in Cambodia and the presence of ROTC on campus.
60
Black Demands Supported
Free Burnell Mackdemands were the main concern of a strike mass meeting in Memorial Auditorium where 1400 listened to discussion of felony charges against Mack, a black student charged with assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest in March 31 campus disorders.
61
Strike Against the Stanford Empire
Poster.
62
National Student Strike
Poster.
63
A Small Circle of Fiends
Poster.
64
Stanford Industrial Park
Poster.
65
Operation Total Victory
Our publication, “Operation Total Victory,” was distributed on May 4, 1970; and a longer, second edition was distributed on May 10.
66
Engineering at Stanford
A Pacific Studies Center 8-page treatise on the Stanford Engineering department and its relationship with the military.
67
Liberation College
A list of groups organized to propose and carry out alternatives to
business as usual,prepared by the Political Action Coordinating Committee (PACC) at the May 5 meeting. The correct first name of Professor Zimbardo, shown as William in this paragraph of the published versions, is Philip, as shown later in the book.
68
Hewlett Packard and the War
Flyer from
Group for Civil Disobedience, Stanford University.
69
The Destruction of Indochina
A 1970 report by the Stanford Biology Study Group analyzing the extent and seriousness of the long-term ecological damage done by the United States to Southeast Asia, with a foreword by Donald Kennedy, chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford.
70
Strike Momentum Maintained
Students and faculty remained on strike yesterday as the University was effectively shut down for the fifth consecutive day.
71
Committee Urges ROTC Move Off Campus
An eight man faculty-student committee Wednesday (June 3) unanimously urged Stanford President Kenneth S. Pitzer to initiate discussions with the Defense Department for new officer training programs for students off campus, following the phase-out of present ROTC programs at the University.
72
ROTC Enlistment Rising
In 1983 about 75 Stanford men and women were in ROTC programs, the highest total since Stanford’s own military science program was phased out 10 years ago.
73
Caps and Gowns May Go For Peace
Commencement participants may forego wearing the traditional cap and gown as part of national Peace Commencement next month. Money which would have been spent on cap and gown rental will form a national fund to support peace candidates in critical November elections.
74
Siegel and Johnson Arrested
Two former Stanford students, James E. Johnson, 26, and Leonard M. Siegel, 21, were arrested late Wednesday night at their home in East Palo Alto and charged with possession of explosive components and conspiracy.
76
Memorandum and Order
Finding four of the five individuals guilty of contempt and setting a date for sentencing.