Harvard ROTC Coverage: 1950

Harvard ROTC Coverage: 1950 - 1989

Harvard Archive material relating to the Deans of Harvard College. Comment: This general archive listing contains much authoritative information about the history of ROTC at Harvard. It documents how Harvard terminated some of the required elements of an ROTC program specified under the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 (Part 1 Part 2), thus terminating the ROTC program.
8 February 1950 Harvard Crimson article "Faculty Discusses Informer Clause, Criticisms Will Go to Naval Heads". Note: Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences expressed displeasure with a Naval ROTC loyalty oath that required students to inform on subversives.
9 March 1950 Harvard Crimson article "Navy Policy on NROTC Certificate May Change".
4 February 1952 Harvard Crimson article "Harvard Today: Excerpts From the President's Report : Reserve Groups". Note: During the Korean War, President Conant notes that 40% of undergraduates are enrolled in ROTC.
8 January 1953 Harvard Crimson letter "Warburg Remembers When R.O.T.C. Caused University Dissension" by James P. Warburg '16 . Note: Warburg recounts the debate on the Harvard campus in 1915-1916 about establishing an ROTC regiment.
4 February 1954 Harvard Crimson article "Committee Will Reopen Study of ROTC Credits". Note: This article discusses the history of partial Harvard course credit for ROTC courses.
4 May 1956 Harvard Crimson article "AFROTC Will Now Include Outside Study: Will Recognize One Non-Military Credit ". Note: ROTC credit was approved for two existing Harvard courses.
29 September 1956 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC's Entrants Indicate Greatest Gain Since 1952: Officers Say Questionnaire Aroused Additional Interest". Note: An ROTC preference questionnaire sent to incoming freshmen is credited with increasing ROTC enrollment.
21 May 1957 Harvard Crimson article "Princeton ROTC Revision To Cause No Changes Here:
Has 'Gone too Far'". Note: Harvard considered Princeton's move to give ROTC credit for many regular courses to be too sweeping.
12 June 1957 Harvard Crimson article "All R. O. T. C. Groups Plan Commissioning Ceremony for Today". Note: This was the first joint Commissioning Ceremony of graduates of the Army, Navy and Air force ROTC programs. President Nathan M. Pusey and Dean McGeorge Bundy of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were to address the graduates.
16 April 1958 Harvard Crimson article "Army to Change College Courses In ROTC Study". Note: The Army added courses by Henry A. Kissinger '50, lecturer on Government to the ROTC curriculum. Col. DeVere P. Armstrong, professor of Military Science and Tactics, said this was to give future Harvard officers a much broader viewpoint on world affairs than the straight military reserve training provides. The University's program is considerably more difficult than the average Army ROTC course, and thus provides its students with a better quality of training.
29 November 1958 Harvard Crimson article "NROTC May Add, Replace Two Courses". Note: The faculty were considering whether to allow midshipmen to take a regular Harvard course to fulfill an ROTC requirement.
27 September 1967 Harvard Crimson article "Ex-Cadets Criticize Army ROTC: 4 From Harvard Unit Write Letter to Ford". Comment: The four students were denied ROTC commissioning after getting low grades. The grades met Harvard standards but did not meet the higher standard set by ROTC. They wrote to Franklin Ford, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
29 September 1967 Harvard Crimson article "Harvard, Col. Pell, and ROTC". Comment: The article raises grievances against the Professor of Military Science for Harvard's Army ROTC and his relationship to Harvard.
28 October 1967 Harvard Crimson column "To be cool, detached is to be irrelevant. Passion is the way now" by James K. Glassman '69. Note: The article states that Robert McNamara "led a movement to abolish ROTC as a student".
11 November 1967 Harvard Crimson article "Smithies, Walzer, and Peretz Discuss the Five R's: Recruitment, ROTC, Ranking, Research and Relationship".
24 February 1968 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Program Gains Popularity".
14 March 1968 Harvard Crimson article "A history of ROTC: On to recruitment". Note: The article contends that ROTC and military reserves are no longer relevant because the military has become highly technical, and that ROTC has become a pre-professional program.
15 March 1968 Harvard Crimson article "Harvard's ROTC Serves Two Masters". Note: The article says "To many anti-war students, the quiet presence of ROTC on the Harvard campus appears as a recent and insidious intrusion of the warmakers, an ill-conceived alliance between the University and the war in Vietnam".
15 March 1968 Harvard Crimson article "Students, Faculty At Yale Review Status of ROTC".
16 March 1968 Harvard Crimson editorial "Dis-Credit ROTC". Note: The editorial calls for withdrawal of all academic recognition of ROTC, treating it as an extra-curricular activity.
23 March 1968 Harvard Crimson letter "Trivial strikes at ROTC" by Ronald T. Luke '70. Note: The writer dismisses the points in the 16 March editorial and suggests that the opposition to ROTC is a protest against the Vietnam war.
23 March 1968 Harvard Crimson letter "ROTC civilianizing the military" by James N. Blair . Note: The writer disagrees with the 14 March article and points out that the ROTC is not primarily a pre-professional program because only a small minority of ROTC graduates become career officers.
25 March 1968 Harvard Crimson editorial "Half-Way Reform". Note: The editorial discusses the faculty vote reducing academic credit for ROTC.
29 March 1968 Harvard Crimson letter "NROTC curriculum change" by John Miller '68. Note: The author takes issue with some of the statements in 25 March editorial.
1 October 1968 Harvard Crimson article "HUC Initiates Protest Against ROTC Status".
19 November 1968 Harvard Crimson article "SDS Threatens ROTC Confrontation".
19 November 1968 Harvard Crimson article "HPC [Harvard-Radcliffe Policy Committee] Report on ROTC at Harvard". Majority Student with faculty and administration representatives.
2 December 1968 Harvard Crimson editorial "No Military Training at Harvard". Note: The Crimson opposed ROTC because "ROTC is based on the notion that the country's universities should serve the needs of the warfare state" and the "over-expansion of the American military machine has become perhaps the greatest threat of all".
2 December 1968 Harvard Crimson editorial board minority opinion "Let ROTC Stay" Note: The minority warned "To justify a permanent exclusion of the army and navy from Harvard, one must characterize them as inherently and irrevocably evil, as somehow beyond the pale of civilized society. That analysis is a little glib. Harvard was able to support the United States armed forces eagerly during World War II, and the same might well be true of a future military commitment--in the Middle East or Berlin, for example."
4 December 1968 The Case for ROTC at Harvard. Note: The Army ROTC faculty at Harvard University note that the Vietnam war "is the immediate source of their blanket denunciation of everything related to the military" and "reasons for wanting to destroy ROTC are patently contrived because they are exactly the same reasons that existed without challenge for 50 years before Vietnam clouded our vision and robbed our logic".
6 December 1968 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Can Stay on Penn Campus Despite Loss of Academic Credit".
11 December 1968 Harvard Crimson letter "Keep ROTC" by Major General Joseph M. Ambrose '42. Note: MG Ambrose, co-founder of the Harvard ROTC Alumni Fund, argues for the importance to Harvard and the nation of having Harvard graduates in the leadership of the military.
11 December 1968 Harvard Crimson article "CEP Backs ROTC Change".
11 December 1968 Harvard Crimson editorial "CEP on ROTC". Note: The Crimson opposes the faculty Committee on Educational Policy recommendation that some ROTC courses could get Harvard credit if approved by a degree-giving department, arguing that it "allows the U.S. military establishment to trade on Harvard's name and prestige in its recruitment efforts".
13 December 1968 Harvard Crimson editorial "Paine". Note: The Crimson ponders the sit-in on 12 December protesting a closed faculty meeting on ROTC.
13 January 1969 Old Mole column "ROTC: SDS Challenges the Liberal Position" by Alan Gilbert. Note: An instructor in government at Harvard compares the liberal position that ROTC should be reformed to fit with academic standards, and the radical position ROTC should be eliminated due to it being a tool of American imperialism.
15 January 1969 Harvard Crimson editorial "Faculty Power". Note: Harvard's faculty overturns the Administrative Board expulsion of 5 students involved in the 1968 anti-ROTC sit-in, substituting probation.
29 January 1969 Harvard Crimson letter "ROTC punishment for Grad students". Note: Five graduate students provide the text of the disciplinary letter sent to participants in the 1968 anti-ROTC sit-in.
3 February 1969 Harvard Crimson article "The CEP Explains Its Motion". Note: The faculty Committee on Educational Policy, seeking a way to keep ROTC at Harvard, suggests that some ROTC courses could get Harvard credit if approved by a degree-giving department.
3 February 1969 Harvard Crimson article "SDS Position Papers: Why ROTC 'Must GO'". Note: Students for a Democratic Society argues that ROTC should be banned in order to undermine the strength of the US military.
3 February 1969 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC at Harvard--The Fight This Fall: Faculty Meets Tomorrow To End the ROTC Morass".
3 February 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Col. Pell's Case for ROTC". Note: Col. Pell notes, in this memo submitted to the Committee on Educational Policy on 4 December, that none of the arguments against ROTC relate to any factors that have not been present for 50 years. He points out that withdrawal of faculty appointments for the Professors of Military Science would trigger cancellation of the programs under the terms of the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 (Part 1 Part 2). In contrast, he thinks "the withdrawal of academic credit for Army ROTC courses at Harvard would not, of itself cause the Department of the Army to withdraw the ROTC unit from Harvard."
4 February 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Faculty Will Meet Today To Decide ROTC's Fate". Note: The article lists 3 different approaches to ROTC: banishment, denial of academic credit and faculty appointments, and forcing ROTC courses to "re-apply individually for credit through existing Harvard departments". The second was chosen.
4 February 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Spokesmen Debate ROTC 'Views For 700 at Sanders Convocation". Note: James Q. Wilson, professor of Government, said that the proposal to allow ROTC courses to reapply for credit through existing Harvard departments is the only one consistent with Faculty policy, since it leaves the Faculty the power to decide "what courses are given and who gives them."
4 February 1969 Minutes of Special Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University What to Do About ROTC. Note: The faculty debated 4 proposals, ranging from a proposal cutting all ROTC ties to a proposal that many ROTC courses would be sponsored by academic departments. The faculty voted to withdraw all faculty appointments and course credit for ROTC, but not prevent ROTC from remaining as an extracurricular activity. 5 February 1969 Harvard Crimson editorial "Curbing ROTC". Note: The editorial supported the faculty vote denying academic credit and faculty appointments for ROTC.
6 February 1969 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Director Contradicts Pell On Harvard Unit". Comment: Brigadier General C. P. Hannum, director of Army ROTC affairs, said that prospects for the Harvard unit's continuing as an extracurricular activity were "extremely good." Army Col. Robert H. Pell's, Professor of Military Science said the Faculty's action would drive ROTC from Harvard. The article presents these views as mutually exclusive, yet both turned out to be accurate.
7 February 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Naval ROTC Hinges Upon Professorship". Note: Capt. Thomas J. Moriarty, professor of Naval Science, pointed out that withdrawal of the faculty appointment for ROTC officers means that the program must end because of terms of the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 (Part 1 Part 2).
11 February 1969 Letter from Dean Ford to President Pusey. Note: Franklin L. Ford, Dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, wrote to Harvard President Nathan Pusey, raising the possibility "the Corporation would offer professorial appointments to the ROTC unit heads, quite outside the structure of this Faculty". This would meet one of the key provisions of the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964.7 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Statement". Note: Harvard College Dean Fred Glimp announces that the Faculty's resolutions on ROTC will be implemented but "withdrawal of the units seems to me to be an extremely unlikely outcome".
14 February 1969 Letter from Dean Glimp to President Pusey. Note: Fred L. Glimp, Dean of Harvard College, wrote to Harvard President Nathan Pusey about his conversation with General C. P. Hannum, Deputy Director of Individual Training for ROTC affairs. Hannum related that "the Army simply can't expect to require academic credit for strictly professional military subjects" and a proposal for such credit to be optional was working its way through the Pentagon. In addition, Army lawyers indicated that giving a title of "visiting professor" to the professors of military science would also be consistent with the provisions of the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964.
7 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Negotiators To Heed Faculty ROTC Edicts".
7 April 1969 Harvard Crimson letter "Lines drawn on ROTC". Note: Four members of Students for a Democratic Society criticize President Pusey's 25 March appearance before the Student-Faculty Advisory Council and announce that "ROTC must go because we oppose the policies of the United States and we oppose the military that perpetrates them. The lines are clearly drawn; the time to take sides is now".
8 April 1969 Harvard Crimson item "ROTC". Note: The item announced a meeting of Students for a Democratic Society concerning "further strategy in the anti-ROTC campaign, including the possibility of militant action".
9 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC, Merger Also Discussed". Note: At a faculty meeting, Harvard College Dean Fred Glimp announced plans to withdraw academic credit for ROTC courses.
9 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "300 Storm Pusey's House After Anti-ROTC Meeting". Note: The demonstrators announced anti-ROTC demands and plans to occupy an unspecified university building.
9 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Students Occupy University Hall, Eject Deans, Staff from Offices". Note: Two of the demonstrators' demands were anti-ROTC, and a third demanded amnesty for students involved in a 1968 anti-ROTC sit-in.
9 April 1969 Harvard Crimson column "Pusey at SFAC" by Robert M. Krim '70. Note: Krim commented on President Pusey's 25 March appearance before the Student-Faculty Advisory Council in which he discussed ROTC.
10 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Occupiers Remain in Univ. Hall; Administration Silent on Action". Note: The anti-ROTC occupiers of University Hall forcibly removed several administrators from the building, several of whom struggled and two were "bodily thrown out the door".
10 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "SDS Statement". Note: This statement, issued by Students for a Democratic Society during their occupation of University Hall, demands that Harvard "Abolish ROTC".
10 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Police Raid Sit-In at Dawn; 250 Arrested, Dozens Injured".
14 April 1969 Harvard Crimson editorial "Strike". Note: The Crimson calls for termination of ROTC, arguing "The present contractual arrangement for the training of officers here constitutes, as President Pusey indicated during his appearance before the SFAC [Student-Faculty Advisory Council] last month, support for the U.S. military and the policies which it carries out." It opposes the ROTC question being decided by a referendum of the university community since "ROTC is not a question, to be resolved by majority vote. It is a moral question, and for this reason a majority vote cannot be considered binding".
14 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Dean Ford's Letter to Pusey on ROTC". Note: This contains excerpts from an authentic 11 February letter found by students occupying University Hall who searched through university files. Franklin Ford, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, states his support for ROTC being extracurricular and suggests the possibility of the Professors of Military Science having faculty appointments outside the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
15 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Stadium Meeting Votes to Strike, Backs Teaching Fellow Proposals". Note: Various ad-hoc student groups assemble and vote for a strike with demands including abolition of ROTC.
15 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Who's Lying About the Original Demands?". Note: This is a 9 April statement by President Pusey, discussing the demands of Students for a Democratic Society.
15 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "'They Were Never Meant Seriously'". Note: This is an 11 April statement by Franklin Ford, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, discussing the demands of Students for a Democratic Society.
18 April 1969 Time Magazine article "Harvard and Beyond: The University Under Siege". Note: Students for a Democratic Society charged that the university wanted ROTC because "These businessmen want Harvard to continue producing officers for the Viet Nam war or for use against black rebellions at home for political reasons." After police cleared University Hall of students and outsiders who had taken it over the Faculty of Arts and Science voted 395 to 13 that the university should drop all criminal charges against the Harvard intruders. The administration immediately agreed to do so.
19 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Corporation Statement". Note: The Harvard Corporation announced that it would treat ROTC as an extracurricular activity "no special facilities or privileges not ordinarily available to other extracurricular activities".
29 April 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Corporation Approves Of Faculty Resolution In 'Letter and Spirit'".
6 May 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Fire Hits ROTC Building; Evidence Indicates Arson".
8 May 1969 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Telegrams". Note: Harvard President Pusey informed the Navy that Harvard's policy is that ROTC may have extra-curricular status only. Admiral Charles K. Duncan, Chief of Naval Personnel, replied that the terms of the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 (Part 1 Part 2) require termination of the program under this condition.
10 June 1969 Harvard Crimson article "The Class of 1919 Comes Home". Note: The alumni discuss the founding of Harvard ROTC in 1916 and its early years.
11 June 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Fifteen's Report on the Crisis". Note: This report discusses the ROTC issue in the context of the April 1969 occupation of University Hall.
12 June 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Pusey Commends ROTC Cadets" Note: This was the last appearance of a Harvard President at a Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony until President Summers appeared in 2002, the first year of his presidency. Pusey said that "I think in time this attack made on ROTC will not look too good and will be found to be one of the shameful episodes in the history of this university."
12 June 1969 Harvard Crimson article "SDS Member Talks at Ceremonies". Note: A member of Students for a Democratic Society was allowed to talk at Harvard Commencement. He said that "ROTC must be smashed" and that David Rockefeller and C. Douglas Dillon, president of the Board of Overseers, "need ROTC to protect their foreign investments" before six Class Committee members and Class Marshals came to the stage and led him away.
12 August 1969 Harvard Crimson article "Army Plans to Terminate Harvard ROTC in 1970; Air Force Stays Until '71"
15 October 1971 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC May Return to Ivy Schools".
13 January 1972 Harvard Crimson article "Princeton Students Protest Return of ROTC"
19 March 1973 Harvard Crimson article "Harvard Republicans Campaign To Reinstate ROTC Program".
14 June 1973 Harvard Crimson article "Bok Urges Reconsideration of ROTC, Wants Programs to Meet Harvard Ideals". Note: "According to Bok, many alumni protested Harvard's abolishing its ROTC and "sensed" that "Harvard had not opposed ROTC solely for academic reasons but had behaved expediently in the face of pressure."" Bok said that he was "inclined to agree" with this opinion.
2 July 1973 Harvard Crimson article "Buckley Commends Bok For Position on ROTC".
1 September 1973 Harvard Crimson column "ROTC: Is It Coming Back?" by Peter M. Shane '74.
19 September 1973 Harvard Crimson editorial "No ROTC".
28 September 1973 Harvard Crimson article "A Survey of ROTC's Status in the Ivies".
10 November 1973 Harvard Crimson article "Bok Inches On ROTC". Note: Harvard President Bok said that the 1969 Faculty decision to abolish ROTC was made under extreme pressure and great haste.
16 February 1974 Harvard Crimson letter "Changed minds" by John Hook '69. Note: The writer, "twice suspended from Harvard for occupying buildings with the demand to abolish ROTC", advocates a return of ROTC to Harvard since "the United States should seek the best officers possible for our armed forces. Harvard has an obligation to educate men and women to complement the officers of the military academies".
15 April 1974 Harvard Crimson article "The Faculty And the Strike".
15 April 1974 Harvard Crimson article "A History of the Strike".
15 April 1974 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Makes A Stormy Exit".
21 February 1975 Harvard Crimson article "Dartmouth Faculty Rejects Proposal to Reinstitute ROTC".
8 October 1975 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Funded Scholars Can Now Attend Harvard".
2 December 1975 Harvard Crimson article "CUE Recommends ROTC Clarification". Note: The Committee on Undergraduate Education recommended that the Faculty permit two Harvard students to cross-register at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in order to take a Reserve Officer Training Corps course for credit.
1 March 1976 Harvard Crimson article "Pipkin Will Request Vote On ROTC Policy Change".
5 May 1976 Harvard Crimson article "Faculty Moves to Allow Students to Take ROTC". Note: The faculty decided to allow students to cross-register in non-credit ROTC courses at MIT.
7 May 1976 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Slips Through the Backdoor".
20 May 1976 Harvard Crimson editorial "ROTC Is Unacceptable". Note: The Crimson said "ROTC in its guise as a non-credit, extra-curricular activity is no more acceptable than in any of its previous forms".
20 May 1976 Harvard Crimson dissenting opinion "A Blow to Paternalism" by Mark D. Stegall '79. Note: Stegall said to "argue that Harvard should prohibit enrollment in ROTC on moral grounds leads to the conclusion that it should extend moral judgements to other student activities".
25 May 1976 Harvard Crimson letter "For a Shortened Crimson" by Peter Keyes '78. Note: Keyes wrote "The editorial on the ROTC left me dazed... one wonders what would have been the reaction if the faculty had been considering a prohibition on participation in a radical organization, instead of the ROTC."
17 June 1976 Harvard Crimson editorial "No to ROTC". Note: The majority on the Crimson note that the "student antiwar movement which forced ROTC off campus in that late '60s held that there should be no connection between the university and the military", and conclude that "ROTC in its guise as a non-credit, extra-curricular activity is no more acceptable than in any of its previous forms".
17 June 1976 Harvard Crimson dissenting opinion "Anti-Paternalism" by Steven A. Ballmer '77, Paul L. Bixby '77, Stephen J. Chapman '76, Francis J. Connolly '79, Jefferson Flanders '77, Robert B. James, Jr. '78, Sharon E. Jones '77, Grover G. Norquist '78, William L. Pollak '78, Mark D. Stegall '79. Note: The future presidents of Microsoft and Americans for Tax Reform and others say that "the decision to permit participation in ROTC eliminates a glaring example of University paternalism that has existed too long".
7 October 1976 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC". Note: The article relates that only three Harvard students enrolled in the ROTC program at MIT, though more are expected.
8 April 1981 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC: Making a Comeback". Note: "Through cross-registration at MIT, 41 Harvard students are enrolled in the Army ROTC--a 65 per cent jump from last year--and 29 are in the Air Force program." In December 1980, ROTC requested "the use of a room on campus to tutor students who could not reach their MIT classes". This was turned down. Stanley Hoffmann, Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France, who also argued against ROTC in 1969, now says "if some kind of loose association were to be proposed, it's possible that we could arrange something" between Harvard and ROTC.
2 October 1982 Harvard Crimson article "Yale ROTC". Note: The article describes the resignation of the last ROTC cadet at Yale and quotes a professor as saying "The Army's image of Yale is not good. They're not recruiting [at Yale]," adding that, they think "what you get are bugouts."
20 November 1982 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC". Note: George Washington University announced plans to start a Naval ROTC unit.
15 March 1983 Harvard Crimson article "New Name May Gain Approval For Proposed ROTC Group". Note: Some undergraduates sought approval for an ROTC-related club at Harvard, but others felt such a club may recruit others into ROTC or promote "military and ROTC policies against hiring and recruiting homosexuals and handicapped students".
11 April 1983 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC at Harvard: Three Views".
15 April 1983 Harvard Crimson letter "Misrepresented?" by Alden Cavanagh. Note: The writer, a member of the Spartacus Youth League, announces that his group has formed an "Enemies of ROTC" group in response to the official recognition of a "Friends of ROTC" club. However, a 16 April letter "No Relation" by Jonathan E. Elwitt '84 pointed out that a different "Enemies of ROTC" group was already forming and the Spartacus Youth League was pirating their name.
16 April 1983 Harvard Crimson letter "Misguided Foes". Note: Some friends of ROTC were refused entrance to an "Enemies of ROTC" meeting on the grounds that "it was perfectly right to discriminate against "murderers, peasant killers, and those who practice genocide"". Members of "Enemies of ROTC" "exclaimed that the Soviets were doing an excellent job crushing the Afghan rebels".
23 April 1983 Harvard Crimson article "A Campus in Revolt: The ROTC at Harvard During the 1960s". Note: Professor James Q. Wilson recalls the words of one colleague at the time, saying something to the effect of "As long as there is a war going on in Vietnam, we cannot have ROTC here". Professor Richard Pipes, a faculty sponsor of "Friends of ROTC" said "We need good officers, and Harvard, as part of an intellectual elite, and other schools like Harvard, should provide their share".
26 April 1983 Harvard Crimson article "Divide and Conquer". Note: Both an "Enemies of ROTC" group and an "Opponents of ROTC" group were approved, with the Spartacus Youth League changing their group name to Opponents.
28 October 1983 Harvard Crimson article "Inactivity Plagues Friends of ROTC".
2 December 1983 Harvard Crimson article "MIT Asks for Help Funding ROTC; Harvard to Weigh $40,000 Request".
27 January 1984 Harvard Crimson article "Harvard May Start Paying MIT for ROTC Expenses". Note: A faculty committee voted to pay the expenses but some students objected that the military discriminated against gay students.
13 February 1984 Harvard Crimson column "Anti-ROTC" by Jake Stevens. Note: Stevens argues that paying ROTC expenses supports discrimination against gays and handicapped people by the military, and compares this to discrimination against Blacks.
27 February 1984 Harvard Crimson article "Gay Conference". Note: A conference speaker compared discrimination against gays by the military to discrimination against blacks by the Ku Klux Klan.
9 April 1984 Harvard Crimson column "Reflecting On the 1969 Student Strike" by Nathan M. Pusey '28. Note: President Pusey reflects on the ROTC-related unrest during his presidency.
13 December 1984 Harvard Crimson article "Some ROTC Classes May Get Credit". Note: "Harvard students are already permitted to take these two or three classes for credit, because they are pre-screened and co-offered by MIT."
5 February 1985 Harvard Crimson editorial "The Decent Thing to Do". Note: Harvard agreed that ROTC courses recognized as credit-worthy by MIT should be accorded the same treatment by Harvard.
9 February 1985 Harvard Crimson letter "ROTC: Gay Discrimination" by Jake Stevens '86. Note: Stevens criticizes the Crimson editorial and asks "What if Harvard gave students academic credit for a course which no Black students would attend?"
25 February 1985 Harvard Crimson letter "Courses Don't Discriminate" by Harry R. Lewis '68. Note: The future Dean of Harvard College points out that the MIT courses are open to all, including gay students.
12 May 1986 Harvard Crimson article "Preparing Today for the Military Tomorrow: Harvard and ROTC".
12 May 1986 Harvard Crimson article "The Return of the Military: Harvard and ROTC".
2 October 1986 Harvard Crimson editorial "AIDS Testing Arrives". Note: The Crimson protests the policy of the military to discharge soldiers (and ROTC cadets) infected by the AIDS virus, calling it "unsupported by clinical evidence about AIDS" and advocating keeping AIDS testing off the Harvard campus.
9 October 1986 Harvard Crimson letter "AIDS-ROTC" by Christiana B. Huffaker '87 and Stephen J. Smith '87. Note: Two ROTC midshipmen observe that argue that the policy on AIDS in the military is "certainly consistent with the military regulations which exclude from active duty anyone suffering from a variety of ailments".
18 October 1986 Harvard Crimson letter "ROTC & AIDS" by Brian C. Harrington '87 and 13 other Harvard students in ROTC. Note: The writers observe that the military policy on AIDS is consistent with other disqualification for enlistment including "being allergic to wool or sleepwalking."
23 March 1989 Harvard Crimson letter "ROTC" by Sumner Anderson '92. Comment: A Navy Midshipman criticizes a quote in a 21 March news article that an ROTC student is like an "indentured servant" because of the agreed military service. Similar service requirements in other programs such as the MD PhD program are not mentioned.
5 April 1989 Harvard Crimson letter "In Defense of ROTC" by Timothy McCormack '91. Note: A Naval ROTC midshipman criticizes a professor's "derogatory generalizations" about ROTC students in a 21 March news article.
10 April 1989 Harvard Crimson column "Forcing a Military Option" by Daniel B. Baer. Note: The author observes that 20 years after the expulsion of ROTC from Harvard, a "full batallion [sic] meeting of the ROTC took place on campus this semester".
24 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "The Resolution". Note: Text of a proposed Undergraduate Council resolution advocating holding of non-credit ROTC classes on the Harvard campus.
24 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "Activist Response Planned". Note: After the Undergraduate Council passed a pro-ROTC resolution "40 anti-ROTC protesters, several in tears stormed out of the council's meeting". The head of one group said militants should "take over the Undergraduate Council office". Another student said "If we approach this with the attitude of fighting the military establishment, people will shut their minds right there ... I think we should concentrate on [ROTC's] weakest point, and their weakest point is homophobia." Another counseled against a referendum on ROTC because "we would lose."
25 April 1989 Harvard Crimson letter "ROTC and the Council" by Charles W. Henebry '90 and Matthew F. Drummy '89. Note: The writers oppose ROTC on the grounds that the military discriminates based on sexual orientation.
25 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "Students Plan ROTC Protests". Note: Joseph H. Cice '89 of the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Students Association denounced ROTC, citing military discrimination against gays, lesbians, women, minorities and the handicapped.
25 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "Committee Ignored ROTC Bias". Note: The Academics Committee of the Undergraduate Council did not debate the military discrimination against gays and lesbians during their ROTC deliberations. Joseph H. Cice '89 of the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Students' Association denounced a student-initiated meeting with Dean of Harvard College L. Fred Jewett '57, saying "It horrifies me that a dean seems to have thrown all of his bigoted weight on top of lesbian and bisexual and gay students."
27 April 1989 Harvard Crimson column "Lieutenant Second-Class?" by Laurie M. Grossman. Note: Grossman opposes the Undergraduate Council vote supporting ROTC and asks "How can our student representatives ignore the students that preceded them by 20 years, who got beaten and jailed".
27 April 1989 Harvard Crimson column "Still Time for a Just Vote" by Joseph R. Palmore '91. Note: Palmore describes the debate in the full Undergraduate Council about homosexuality in the military and the conflict with Harvard anti-discrimination rules.
29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson column "History's Lessons" by Rebecca Walkowitz '92. Note: Walkowitz points out that the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964 (Part 1 Part 2) prohibits ROTC from being a completely extra-curricular activity, making the resolution passed by the Undergraduate Council "completely meaningless".
29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Re-Vote Set for Sunday: Student Poll: Return ROTC".
29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson column "Just Not Now" by Joshua A. Gerstein '91. Note: Gerstein relates that "ROTC has reached extremely innovative and flexible arrangements with colleges which have had qualms about outside interference with their curricula". He also advocates permitting homosexuality in the military.
29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson column "ROTC's Already Here" by Michael J. Note: Lartigue '89. Lartigue argues that since Harvard pays MIT overhead charges for ROTC students it is already supporting ROTC.
29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "Other Campuses". Note: A summary of the status of ROTC at several elite universities.
29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson editorial "Never Again: ROTC at Harvard". Note: The editorial says "ROTC should not return ever, under any circumstances".
29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Re-Vote Set for Sunday".
29 April 1989 Harvard Crimson article "A Week the Council Will Never Forget: The ROTC Debate". Note: Some members of the Undergraduate Council say they voted on ROTC without knowing much about the homosexuality issues.
1 May 1989 Harvard Crimson letter "No ROTC" by David E. Carney '89. Note: A Naval ROTC Midshipman says Harvard should not endorse ROTC now because "the armed forces specifically prohibit women from holding certain jobs" and "Department of Defense regulations require commands to discharge homosexuals" and these conflict with Harvard's anti-discrimination policies.
3 May 1989 Harvard Crimson article "Council May Consider Tabling ROTC Debate". Note: On 30 April The Undergraduate Council narrowly voted to repeal its resolution calling on Harvard to work toward reinstating ROTC, without academic credit.
5 May 1989 Harvard Crimson letter "Explanation" by Lawrence Goodman '92. Note: The only member of the Undergraduate Council to vote against a 30 April resolution calling on the military to admit gays explains that he did so because the military separates men and women in different barracks as a way of regulating heterosexual contacts in the military and it would be unclear how a similar policy could regulate homosexual relationships in the military.
5 May 1989 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Debated at Forum".
5 May 1989 Harvard Crimson column "What Cost Constitutionality?" by Garrett A. Price III '92. Note: Price points out that the military separates men and women in different barracks as a way of regulating heterosexual contacts in the military and it would be unclear how a similar policy could regulate homosexual relationships in the military.
17 May 1989 Harvard Crimson letter "Our ROTC Coverage" by Andrew Clubok '90. Note: The writer criticizes Crimson news stories as anti-ROTC and asks why the endorsement of ROTC by Reverend Jesse Jackson was buried deep in an article.
2 November 1989 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Holds Second Drill On Campus Since 1969". Note: In an effort "to show MIT members the annoyance of a daily commute for Harvard ROTC students "more than 100 midshippersons in formal Navy blues gathered in Harvard Hall for orders and a weekly officers' address".
3 November 1989 Harvard Crimson article "Activist Groups to Hold Anti-ROTC Meeting". Note: Discussing the 1 November ROTC drill on the Harvard campus, Harvard College Dean L. Fred Jewett '57 said, "ROTC has a right to request campus space on an individual, time-to-time basis like any other activity."
13 November 1989 Harvard Crimson letter "ROTC" by Chad Heap '90. Note: The writer criticizes the 1 November ROTC drill on the Harvard campus and argues that ROTC shouldn't get privileges of undergraduate organizations because of discrimination against gays.
16 November 1989 Harvard Crimson letter "Rejecting Rooms for ROTC" by Jed David Kolko '92. Note: The writer criticizes the 1 November ROTC drill at Harvard and argues that it violates a 4 February 1969 faculty vote "to cease the free allocation of space in University buildings to ROTC."

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Last updated 03 November 2007