April Third Movement

Disturbing the War is Lenny Siegel’s inside story of the radical, anti-war student Movement at Stanford. 302 pages. Published by Pacific Studies Center. Available in paperback (ISBN: 0578803968) and in Kindle format.

Other Voices program, produced by the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center in Palo Alto and hosted by Paul George, Executive Director (Retired), peaceandjustice.org and Facebook.

Interview by Georgia Kelly, Founder and Executive Director of Praxis Peace Institute in Sonoma, www.praxispeace.org.

I entered Stanford University in the fall of 1966, majoring in Physics and looking forward to a career in the emerging computer industry. I had read how the Stanford Provost, Frederick Emmons Terman, Jr., had pioneered the concept of a “Community of Technical Scholars,” combining campus brainpower with local industry to create what later became known as Silicon Valley.

Unfortunately, the narrative failed to mention a third partner, the U.S. Department of Defense. Stanford’s Engineering School and the university’s wholly owned subsidiary, the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), were essential elements of the military industrial complex. At that time, it meant that Stanford research had gone to war in Southeast Asia.

By the time I arrived, the Stanford community was already leaning against the Vietnam War, but most people on campus did not recognize the university’s connection to it. So my friends and I launched a multi-year campaign to “Get Stanford out of Southeast Asia.” We conducted research, published pamphlets, held rallies and teach-ins and attended official meetings to which we were not invited.

Lenny Siegel