2000:
2001:
18 October 2001 Bay Windows article "Support grows at Harvard to reinstate on-campus ROTC". Note: The article quotes later-to-be Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Gregory Mankiw who said he has "always been saddened by the university's policy toward ROTC. To protest the military's policy toward homosexuals, the faculty and administration (who are mostly liberal and upper-income) place a burden on students interested in ROTC training (who, I suspect, are mostly conservative and from working-class families). This policy acts like a tax on diversity among the student body, if diversity is judged by viewpoint and life experience, and thus works against one of the school's stated goals."
27 November 2001 President Summers and Leaders of "Advocates for Harvard ROTC" in Harvard Yard
2002:
2003:
5 March 2003 Eliot and Rafi Cohen - Family Tradition in Harvard ROTC
5 March 2003 Charles and Jeff Munns - Family Tradition in Naval ROTC
30 March 2003 New York Times article "Military Mirrors Middle-Class America".
31 March 2003 Wall Street Journal Best of the Web Today "Masters of the Obvious" by James Taranto. Comment: Taranto discusses the 30 March New York Times article "Military Mirrors Middle-Class America" and suggests "the most obvious way of getting more Harvard students into the military: reinstating ROTC on campus... If the absence of recruits with an elite education really is a national problem, the first step toward solving it is an attitude adjustment in the ivory towers".
2 April 2003 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed column "My Ivy League Soldier: Why is that such a rare combination?" by Regina E. Herzlinger. Comment: A Harvard Business School Professor tells of her son, who did ROTC while at Harvard, and says the country would be better off if more graduates of elite colleges served in the military. Prof. Herzlinger is a member of Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
14 May 2003 Defense Business Practice Implementation Board meeting minutes. Note: In a meeting of the Defense Business Board, Fred Cook said "we would like to have a DBB study on an effort to bring ROTC back to elite Northeast campuses that kicked them off campus during Vietnam. We want to set up meetings with the Assistant Secretaries of the Services to see if we could move forward." Dana Mead noted "There is an alumni contingent at Harvard, that would like to see this back."
3 June 2003 Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony.
3 June 2003 Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers' speech at the ROTC Commissioning Ceremony. Note: President Summers said "Harvard aspires to train leaders of our country" and includes military leaders in this universal vision for the university.
4 June 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Eight Cadets Become Officers In Yard Ceremony".
5 June 2003 Harvard Gazette article "ROTC members commissioned: Graduates prepared to serve their country". See also a photo of some of the graduating midshipmen.
July/August 2003 Harvard Magazine article "Commencement Confetti". Note: the article includes a photo and account of Rear Admiral Charles L. Munns administering the oath of office to his son, graduating midshipman Jeffrey C. Munns '03.
30 July 2003 Defense Business Practice Implementation Board meeting minutes. Note: In a discussion about ROTC on elite colleges by the Defense Business Board, Fred Cook said "Dr. David Chu is highly supportive but the Services are reluctant." Dennis Bovin said "Mr. Larry Summers indicated that the mood on campus has changed. Now might be a good time to get onto campus."
August 2003 Harvard College Freshman Dean's Office "Guide for the class of 2007: ROTC".
10 August 2003 Washington Post Op-Ed "Repressing ROTC" by Christina Hoff Sommers.
24 August 2003 New York Times Magazine article "Harvard Radical" by James Traub '76. Note: Traub cites Harvard President Lawrence Summers' support for ROTC as one of the defining stands of his presidency.
25 August 2003 National Public Radio "All Things Considered" segment "In Hilla, U.S. Troops and Locals Get Along". Note: NPR interviewed Harvard graduate Seth Moulton '01 about his TV show in Iraq.
25 September 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Radical Group To Rival BGLTSA: Founders favor queer ‘resistance’". The newly-formed "Queer Resistance Front" "protested and picketed the ROTC table at the Freshman and Upperclass Activities Fairs for their “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy towards queer members of the military."
10 October 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Panel Discusses Military Policy Toward Gays".
28 October 2003 Harvard Crimson column "Respecting ROTC" by Travis R. Kavulla ’06.
29 October 2003 Harvard Crimson article "More Students Enroll in ROTC: Class of 18 first-years is largest in recent years".
13 November 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Pressure Builds Against Military Recruiting: Despite HLS Petition, Summers Says Harvard Won't Challenge Solomon". Note : University General Counsel Robert W. Iuliano wrote “[F]or a variety of institutional considerations, including the partnership that exists between universities and the federal government in a number of important areas, the university itself does not expect to take the adversarial step of initiating litigation”.
18 November 2003 Harvard Crimson article "HLS Professors Will Soon File Solomon Suit: Summers explains University’s reluctant stance on litigation".
20 November 2003 Defense Business Practice Implementation Board meeting minutes. Note: The participants in Defense Business Board meeting discussed "implementing ROTC programs at top tier schools". Dov Zakheim mentioned the effort to restore ROTC at Columbia and said "I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and he is extremely interested ... We would like to get on the campus at Harvard. The President of Harvard has showed an interest in this." Bill Carr raised the possibility of restoring ROTC at Yale, citing the difficulty of Yale students traveling to ROTC programs at other colleges. He also discussed the tradeoff between getting top tier cadets and paying the high cost of ROTC scholarships to top tier schools. The group recommended to "approach Harvard's President first and if successful, then approach Yale, Columbia and Brown".
24 November 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Students Get West Point Experience, For a Weekend".
25 November 2003 Harvard Crimson editorial "Acting Unwise on Solomon".
8 December 2003 Harvard Crimson article "Alums’ Letter Blasts Summers: Gay, lesbian alums call for Harvard to fight Solomon Amendment.
2004:
14 January 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Faculty File Brief Against Pentagon". Note: A majority of Harvard Law School faculty argue that denying access of military recruiters to some Harvard Law School facilities does not violate the provision in the Solomon Amendment about universities prohibiting or preventing the military from "gaining entry to campuses, or access to students ... on campuses, for purposes of military recruiting".
20 February 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Government Pushes Solomon Amendment".
30 March 2004 "Chairman Cox Praises House Passage of H.R. 3966, Legislation to Revitalize ROTC on Campus". Note: The House of Representatives passed the bill by 343-81. Rep. Cox, a co-sponsor of the bill said it "might just as well be called the Harvard Act--because it squarely addresses the scandal of Harvard University and other schools banishing ROTC and military recruiters from campus, while cashing Uncle Sam's checks for billions of taxpayer dollars each year from the Department of Defense and other federal agencies fighting the global war on terror."
5 April 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Funds at Risk Due To ROTC Policy".
9 April 2004 Harvard Crimson editorial "Fight Discrimination at All Costs: Harvard should stand strong on ROTC, even if it means losing federal funding".
15 April 2004 Third Annual Harvard National Security Fellow - ROTC Student Breakfast.
7 June 2004 Harvard Crimson article "College Challenges Rigor of ROTC: In the wake of the Korean War, Harvard re-evaluated the role of ROTC on campus".
9 June 2004 "Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 2004". Note: Secretary of the Air Force James G. Roche DBA '72 was on hand to "show solidarity with a great academic leader and commission a young friend".
9 June 2004 Harvard University Gazette article "ROTC commissioning sends off Harvard officers". Note: More photos are in the 10 June version of this article.
9 June 2004 "Remarks of Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers: ROTC Commissioning Ceremony".
10 June 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Senior To Sail Troubled Waters". Note: An interview with Stephen P. Bosco '04, one of the students commissioned on 9 June. Bosco contrasts the positive attitudes towards ROTC among students to the attitudes among faculty.
20 June 2004 Boston Globe article "As ROTC debate stirs again, a few proud men graduate: Summers salutes Harvard program". Note: Rafi Cohen '06 responded to critics who say that the wealthy and educated send poor, uneducated people to fight their wars by saying "I essentially agree with those critics: There shouldn't be such a deep divide between social classes. That's part of why I enlisted".
September 2004 Harvard Magazine article "Dispatches from the Front: 'You minimize travel'". Note: Vincent J. Tuohey '01 says he appreciates how Harvard President Lawrence Summers has changed the attitude of Massachusetts Hall toward ROTC and the military: "It meant a lot to the alumni over here when he spoke at the [ceremony] and mentioned many of us by name."
4 October 2004 Harvard Crimson column "Recognize ROTC, Recognize War: Keeping ROTC off campus is keeping students in the dark" by Alexander B.H. Turnbull ’05.
18 October 2004 Harvard Crimson article "Rally Decries Military Policy". Note: The article describes the impending presidential approval of legislation clarifying rules for ROTC on college campuses.
18 October 2004 Harvard Crimson letter "Accepting ROTC would condone discrimination" by M Barusch '06 and Jordan Woods '06. The writers respond to the 4 October Crimson column.
30 November 2004 Associated Press article "Harvard Law to Bar Military Recruiters".
30 November 2004 A Perspective from the Professor of Military Science by LTC Brian L. Baker, Professor of Military Science at MIT. Note: LTC Baker, the ROTC leader in charge of Harvard students in Army ROTC said "We’re moving ever so closer to the day when we’ll need to post a Captain and a Sergeant on campus, in the Yard, with access, and University support. I will meet with President Summers this spring to discuss this very issue and intend to request he allow/enable us to take this next step necessary to double our enrollment by 2008."
1 December 2004 Harvard Crimson article "HLS Bans Military".
2 December 2004 Harvard Crimson editorial "Defeating the Solomon Amendment".
16 December 2004 Wall Street Journal article "At Ivy League Schools, ROTC, Long Banned, Plots a Comeback: Push May Stir Up Old Passions On These Elite Campuses; A Beachhead at Harvard". Note: The article discusses the movements to bring back ROTC to Harvard, Columbia, Yale and Brown, backed by the efforts of the Defense Business Board and a request from the military. See letters on 10 January.
2005:
10 January 2005 Wall Street Journal letters "Ivy League Should Open a Long-Closed Door". Note: These letters are in response to the 16 December ROTC article.
21 January 2005 Yale Daily News article "Return of ROTC is debated: Defense Department shows renewed interest in bringing program back to Ivy campuses". Note: The article also discusses efforts to restore ROTC at Harvard and Columbia.
21 January 2005 Associated Press article "Decades after Vietnam, ROTC making return effort to Ivy League". Note: The article suggests that the "Captain and a Sergeant" the military plans to post on the Harvard campus will be to run "a recruiting office".
21 January 2005 Yale Herald article "The Next Battle: ROTC at Yale: After a complex history, college military org. may reoccupy hostile territory".
21 January 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Solomon Case May Face Appeal". Note: Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried said the Supreme Court "does not like to leave a decision out there that says an act of Congress is unconstitutional". The Bush administration cited the “serious possibility” that the justices will uphold the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment. Harvard Law School is the only law school to have barred military recruiters after the Third Circuit court decision.
23 January 2005 Sunday Times (London) column "The truth about men and women is too hot to handle" by Andrew Sullivan. Note: Sullivan observes that Harvard President Lawrence Summers "backed allowing military recruiters on campus, despite a boycott because of their ban on gays. Some of the faculty have been regretting Summers’s appointment ever since".
7 February 2005 Harvard Crimson article "After Harvard, Yale Law Second To Ban Military Recruiters". Note: Due to a local court ruling against the Solomon Amendment, Yale is not defying the Solomon Amendment, but Harvard is on shaky ground after implementation of the Third Circuit court decision against the Solomon Amendment was halted.
15 February 2005 Brown Daily Herald article "Interest in ROTC minimal at Brown despite debate at other Ivies". Note: Currently there are only two cadets. Another student said "People at Brown are the type of people who should be filling the military in large numbers... I think the military is an institution we should be dedicated to repair and bring into the 21st century."
18 February 2005 Wall Street Journal article "Harvard Clash Offers Management Case Study". Note: The article discusses controversy over Harvard President Summers and states that some professors "maintain that Mr. Summers's main failing was running afoul of ideas favored by the liberal elite. Mr. Summers, for example, has expressed his support for Reserve Officers' Training Corps, which was banned from Harvard during the Vietnam era. While falling short of calling for a return, that stance has angered gay students because of the military's prohibition of openly gay soldiers."
25 February 2005 Boston Globe article "Professor's motion seeks to air dissent on Summers". Note: Prof. J. Lorand Matory's motion for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences meeting in March lists Summers' "support for the Reserve Officers Training Corps on campus" as one of two grievances about Summers' term in office.
27 February 2005 New York Times column "The Battle Behind the Battle at Harvard" by James Atlas. Note: Three reasons for the controversy over Harvard President Lawrence Summers are cited. One is that "he would like to see R.O.T.C., which was banished from Harvard during the sit-ins of the 60's, restored to campus".
27 February 2005 Shots in the Dark blog item "A Crucial Issue" by Richard Bradley. Note: Bradley, author of "Harvard Rules", predicts "If the military lifted its ban on gays, the Harvard faculty would vote to bring ROTC back to campus the next week". (The ban on open homosexuality in the military is actually a federal law.)
1 March 2005 Military.com article "Harvard Graduate Answers Call to Duty". Note: Inspired by fellow Harvard student Larry Obst '01 who completed Army ROTC, Moses Bloom '00 joined the Marines.
3 March 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Motion Filed to Censure Summers: Vote on docket for March 15 faculty meeting". Note: The motion lists Summers' "support for the military’s Reserve Officer Training Corps program" as one of two grievances about Summers' term in office.
3 March 2005 Shots in the Dark blog item "The Motion" by Richard Bradley. Note: Bradley quotes the text of Harvard Prof. J. Lorand Matory's motion for the March 15 meeting of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences "to register dissent from Mr. Summers' stated opinions". Of the three issues cited from Harvard President Lawrence Summers' term in office one is "the authorized presence on campus of organizations that infringe upon the equal rights of gay people".
11 May 2005 Harvard Crimson letter "Military Not the Only HLS Recruiter That Discriminates" by Elliott Marc Davis. Note: The writer points out that Harvard Law School allows recruiters to discriminate by race but does not allow military recruiters to follow the "Don't ask, don't tell" federal law.
13 May 2005 Wall Street Journal column "Neither Fools Nor Cowards: Barriers between military service and higher education do a disservice to both" by Eliot A. Cohen. Note: Prof. Cohen discusses the civilian-military divide in light of Columbia's rejection of ROTC and the fact that "the institutional military is not all that eager to re-establish a ROTC presence on elite campuses". Prof. Cohen, a Harvard ROTC graduate, is pictured here at his son's Harvard ROTC commissioning.
8 June 2005 Harvard Crimson article "ROTC Delays Office Request: Head of training program at MIT decides not to ask Summers for space in Yard". Note: The article says that in a private meeting with LTC Brian Baker in July 2004 President Summers said "that he was “not prepared” to make the argument for ROTC space on campus, according to Baker". Actually, according to Baker, Summers said only that he was not prepared to do so in 2004. Also, the "November 2004 speech" mentioned in the article was actually a letter, never delivered as a speech.
8 June 2005 Harvard Independent article "ROTC Commissioning Ceremony".
8 June 2005 "Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 2005". Note: LTC Brian L. Baker, Professor of Military Science at MIT, presented a civilian award for patriotic service to President Summers and thanked him for "supporting our program through thick and thin".
8 June 2005 Harvard University Gazette article "ROTC commissioning ceremony stresses importance of scholars and soldiers". Note: Capt. Vincent Tuohey '01 said "Now more than ever, the armed forces need leaders of your background and education".
9 June 2005 Harvard University Gazette article "Graduating into service: Seven seniors begin military service with ROTC commissioning".
July 2005 Harvard Magazine article "Commencement Confetti: Prepared to Serve". Note: "Lieutenant colonel Brian L. Baker, professor of military science and head of the ROTC program at MIT that Harvard students attend, told the gathering, “I can imagine a day when [Harvard] will allow us to post a captain and a sergeant on campus once again, sometime in the future.” He presented an Army citation and an award to Summers. “You are a true patriot,” he said as he affixed a lapel pin that reads “Patriotic Civilian Service.”"
24 July 2005 New York Times article "All Quiet on the Home Front, and Some Soldiers Are Asking Why". Note: ""Nobody in America is asked to sacrifice, except us," said one officer just back from a yearlong tour in Iraq, voicing a frustration now drawing the attention of academic specialists in military sociology". Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales Jr. said he had heard a heavy stream of concerns from current officers that "the military is increasingly isolated from the rest of the country".
26 July 2005 Boston Herald Op-Ed "On national defense, Harvard's boss AWOL" by Virginia Buckingham. Note: She writes "Summers is the one Ivy League president with the guts to lead the charge to return the Reserve Officer Training Corp. to every campus".
August 2005 American Council of Trustees and alumni article "Universities and the Military: What You Should Know About the Upcoming Supreme Court Case" by Melvin H. Bernstein. Note: The article recounts the history of the Solomon Amendment and compares the attitude of the presidents of Harvard and Columbia towards ROTC.
20 September 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Law School To Allow Military Recruiters On Campus". Note: Harvard President Lawrence Summers announced that Harvard would file an amicus brief against the Solomon Amendment.
21 September 2005 Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal item "The Enemy Within" in "Best of the Web Today" by James Taranto. Note: Taranto notes Harvard's concerns about discrimination against gays on campus and notes how it pales in comparison to discrimination against gays by America's enemies.
22 September 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Professors Stand Up To Recruiters: Forty law faculty members file brief opposing military’s presence on campus". Note: The 40 professors claimed that the Solomon Amendment has unlawfully given the military a “unique privilege” to overrule university policies but Professor of Law Janet Halley suggests that Title IX rules on women in universities involves similar compulsion and if the Supreme Court overturns the Solomon Amendment it could use the same reasoning to invalidate Title IX.
22 September 2005 Wall Street Journal editorial "'To Serve Better Thy Country'". Note: The Journal quotes from the words on a gate to Harvard Yard and notes that Harvard Law School's decision to allow military recruiters was grudging.
22 September 2005 National Review column "Do Tell" by David Frum. Note: Frum compares Harvard Law School dean Elana Kagan's exclusion of the military to Harvard President Larry Summers' championing of the military, and suggests that readers check out the Web site for Advocates for Harvard ROTC.
23 September 2005 Harvard Crimson article "In Reversal, Harvard Takes Legal Action on Solomon Case: Brief by 7 schools urges Supreme Court to overturn military recruitment law". Note: The Crimson hears from Professor of Law Janet Halley that the arguments "could conceivably undermine, for example, the high court’s 1983 decision in Bob Jones University v. U.S., which held that the federal government could deny tax-exempt status to a South Carolina college that prohibits interracial dating."
28 September 2005 Harvard Crimson editorial "Upping the Ante: Kagan had to submit to Solomon, now the University must push back". Note: The Crimson editors call for Harvard to push for repeal of the "Don't ask, don't tell" law and assert that "in the civilian world, this type of discrimination has long been considered unconstitutional".
3 October 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Military Presence at Career Forum Sparks Student Protests".
7 October 2005 The World (PRI / BBC / WGBH) radio segment "ROTC Report" (audio here). Note: Harvard Navy ROTC students and faculty are interviewed about the importance of doing ROTC at elite colleges.
13 October 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Experts Debate Army Recruiters: Two law professors argue the constitutinality [sic] of the Solomon Amendment"
13 October 2005 Harvard Crimson article "HLS Protest Takes on Military: Students and profs call on Harvard to help repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy".
24 October 2005 History News Network article "Why Don't Harvard Graduates Join the Military Anymore?" by Richard F. Miller. Note: Miller suggests that a lack of leadership and character education result in an inward-looking attitude.
7 December 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Court Seems Ready To Uphold Solomon Law: Justices slam schools’ free speech claims; only Souter is likely to vote for FAIR". Note: The only argument taken seriously by the Justices was a question about the wording of the 2004 change to the Solomon Amendment, an argument disavowed by the lawyer for FAIR. "Experts weren’t surprised that FAIR spurned the statutory argument, since Congress could just amend the law again" and there is little question about the intent of Congress.
12 December 2005 Harvard Crimson column "Solomon's Other Song: The debate over the Solomon Amendment is about more than gay rights" by Samuel M. Simon '06. Note: Simon writes "The debate over the Solomon Amendment on this campus has largely become a proxy war between those who love the military and those who don’t... The question isn’t whether gays and lesbians at Harvard are moral enough for the military; it’s whether the military is moral enough for Harvard". See 19 December response by Peter H. Brooks '06.
19 December 2005 Harvard Crimson article "Recent Grad Injured By Bomb in Iraq". Note: George Morris ’04 was wounded in Iraq on 5 December and said “I want to get back to my platoon—they are an amazing group of individuals and it is an honor to lead them.”
19 December 2005 Harvard Crimson letter "Majority Of Military Not Poor And Uneducated" by Peter H. Brooks '06. Note: Brooks corrects "a claim based upon what is perceived as common knowledge" in a column by Samuel M. Simon '06 and suggests that such misperceptions are a symptom of the military-civilian divide.
19 December 2005 Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal column "Reporting for Duty: The U.S. military tells Iraqis the truth, and some call it a "scandal"" by John R. Guardiano. Note: Guardiano recounts how "an enterprising young Harvard graduate and physics major, Marine Corps Lt. Seth Moulton, founded his own television show, "Moulton and Mohamed" in Iraq". Moulton was interviewed in 2003 by National Public Radio.
20 December 2005 "The Drill Field Inside the Ivory Tower: Harvard Officer Training the Creation of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps" by Erik Sand '07. Note: Sand, an ROTC midshipman, recounts the how Harvard was ahead of the rest of the country in creating an ROTC program in 1916.
2006:
7 February 2006 Harvard Crimson column "Reasoning with Solomon" by Cormac A. Early '09. Note: Early writes that opposition to military recruiting "marginalizes rational and intelligent opposition to DADT, and acts only in the interests of those who wish to preserve the status quo" and "the University’s objections are more likely to be taken seriously as the legitimate objections of a rational, moderate, and patriotic institution, rather than the irrelevant obstructionism of radical leftists" if military recruiting is allowed.
21 February 2005 New York Sun editorial "Testing Harvard". Note: The Sun notes rumors of an impending resignation of President Summers and notes that he "showed his understanding of the role of Harvard in wartime, beginning with his appearance at a commissioning ceremony for the Reserve Officers Training Corps program that was kicked off Harvard's campus in the era of protest against the war in Vietnam."
22 February 2006 Wall Street Journal editorial "Veritas at Harvard". Note: The Journal notes how ROTC was one of the issues of contention between President Summers and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and notes a similar conflict faced by former Dartmouth president David McLaughlin.
23 February 2006 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed "Coup d'Ecole: Harvard professors oust Larry Summers. Now they must face their students" by Prof. Ruth Wisse. Note: Prof. Wisse points out that President Summers' support for ROTC was one of the reasons for his ouster, notes student support for both Summers and ROTC and predicts "students will sooner or later stand up for their contemporaries who want to serve their country".
6 March 2006 Harvard Crimson article "Court Says Schools Must Let Military on Campus: Ruling by Roberts '76 puts his alma mater in a bind".
10 March 2006 Harvard Crimson editorial "Constitutional, But Immoral: Although technically constitutional, the Solomon Amendment must be fought against". Note: The editorial calls for Harvard to lobby to change the "Don't ask, don't tell" law.
13 March 2006 Newsday op-ed "'Fortunate Sons' Should Have to Serve" by Elaine Kamarck. Note: A former aide to Vice President Gore details the problems with the "absence of America's upper classes from military service."
15 March 2006 Harvard Crimson article "All That She Can Be: The women of Harvard Army ROTC strive to find a balance between learning how to fight and learning how to fit in."
3 April 2006 Harvard Crimson article "From Plympton St. to the Pentagon: Caspar Weinberger dies at 88; former Crimson chief served under Nixon, Ford, Reagan". Note: The article quotes Harvard Alumni Association Executive Director Jack P. Reardon Jr. ’60 as saying that “Caspar Weinberger ‘bled’ crimson!” and that he was “endlessly interested in and supportive of Harvard and more especially Harvard students.” He was the co-founder with classmate David Clayman '38 of Advocates for Harvard ROTC and a member of its Advisory Committee until his death. Even in the final year of his life he continued to use his contacts and influence to press for having ROTC at elite colleges.
7 June 2006 Harvard Veterans Alumni Organization formed. Their Web site is www.harvardveterans.org.
7 June 2006 Letter of thanks from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Harvard President Lawrence Summers. Note: The letter was presented to President Summers at the Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony that day. Discussing ROTC, Secretary Rumsfeld wrote "Your support has been enormously constructive to the objectives of both our institutions".
7 June 2006 Address by COL (ret) Kenneth G. Swan '56 MD at the Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony.
7 June 2006 "Remarks at ROTC commissioning ceremony" by Harvard President Lawrence Summers. Note: President Summers said "our country is best served when great universities like this one stand with those who defend the freedom that makes it possible for us to do all the wonderful things that we are able to do here".
7 June 2006 US News and World Report blog item "The ROTC at Harvard" by Michael Barone. Note: The letter from Secretary Rumsfeld to President Summers is quoted.
7 June 2006 Harvard ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 2006.
7 June 2006 Daily Standard article "From Rumsfeld to Summers: The secretary of Defense sends a note to the outgoing president of Harvard." Note: The letter is the same as the one posted on the Advocates for Harvard ROTC web site on 7 June.
8 June 2006 Harvard Gazette article "ROTC faces down rough weather: Graduates, Summers honored at ceremony". Note: The Gazette notes the letter of thanks to President Summers from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and the president's response that "I look forward to the day when it is common and doesn't draw remark when an Ivy League president attends an ROTC commissioning ceremony".
9 June 2006 Washington Times item "Harvard hero" in Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough's "Inside the Ring" column. Note: The letter from Secretary Rumsfeld to President Summers is quoted.
12 June 2006 Harvard Crimson article "Rumsfeld Says He Is 'Most Grateful' for Summers' Support of ROTC". Note: The Crimson reported on the 7 June ROTC Commissioning Ceremony and found a Pentagon spokesman to authenticate the copy of the letter from Secretary Rumsfeld to President Summers posted on the Advocates for Harvard ROTC web site on 7 June.
16 June 2006 TCS Daily column "Profile in Courage" by Michael M. Rosen. Note: Rosen notes that President Summers "received what would otherwise be a kiss of death for any university administrator: a letter of thanks from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld praising him for offering a "recognition of [the officers'] personal commitment to serve this great nation.""
1 October 2006 Harvard Crimson article "Military Presence Sparks Protest". Note: To protest the inclusion of the military in the "Career Forum" protesters entered the forum location and changed into "superhero" costumes and "attempted to enlist in the armed forces to protest its ban on openly gay soldiers".
9 October 2006 Greg Mankiw's Blog item "ROTC". Note: The former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors calls for restoring ROTC at Harvard.
6 November 2006 Washington Times column "Not-so-smart college boys" by Suzanne Fields. Note: Fields discusses the history of ROTC at Harvard and writes "An honest embrace of diversity and multiculturalism would require inclusion of the military."
7 November 2006 New York Sun column "The Ivy Soldier" by Seth Gitell. Note: Gitell interviewed Retired Captain Paul Mawn, chairman of Advocates for Harvard ROTC. Enrollment in the Paul Revere Army ROTC Battalion, based at MIT, has grown 40% during the last year and a half. The Harvard contingent is the biggest, outnumbering students from the host college MIT. Gitell also interviews a Harvard student who tells of "considerable interest in ROTC on the part of his classmates".
19 November 2006 New York Times Op-ed "The Great Liberator" by Lawrence H. Summers. Note: The former Harvard president recounts how "Milton Friedman’s participation on a government commission on the volunteer military in the late 1960s was a kind of intellectual version of the play “Twelve Angry Men.” Gradually, through force of persistent argument and marshaling of evidence, he brought his fellow commission members around to the previously unthinkable view that both our national security and our broader interest would be best served by a volunteer military."
19 December 2006 Harvard Crimson article "Adams House Alum Dies in Car Crash". Note: Jamin B. Wilson ’04, an ROTC graduate, was killed in a car accident Thursday on his way to work at the Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.
2007:
27 January 2007 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed "Gliberalism" by Ruth Wisse. Note: Professor Wisse, a member of Advocates for Harvard ROTC, cites the ban on ROTC at elite universities as a prime example of an attitude "that leaves to others the responsibility for governance, and arrogates to itself the right to criticize". See 28 January comment by Columbia Prof. Allan Silver.
28 January 2007 Comments on Prof. Ruth Wisse's article "Gliberalism" by Prof. Allan Silver. Note: Silver, a sociology professor at Columbia and a a leading proponent on the faculty for return of ROTC to Columbia, suggests that both the universities and the country's leadership could do better to create an atmosphere conducive towards return of ROTC to elite universities. His comments were prompted by Prof. Wisse's 27 January article in the Wall Street Journal.
29 January 2007 Public Radio International "Open Source" story "Do Americans Need to Serve?" by Christopher Lydon. Note: Lydon interviews Alan Khazei, Alan Gropman, Frank Schaeffer and Seth Moulton '01 about the value of national service.