Harvard’s Counter Teach-In, 50 Years Later
How a student disruption prefigured the extremism of today’s college campuses
Fifty years ago, some friends and I had the audacity to sponsor what we called the “Counter Teach-In: An Alternative View.” It took place at Harvard University on March 26, 1971, and argued in favor of American involvement in the Vietnam War—a position roughly as outrageous then on campus as arguing in universities now that Israel should defeat the Palestinians.
Opponents of the war disrupted the event. In doing so, they took the first step toward the cancel culture that has overtaken campus life, with faculty and students alike now being investigated by star chambers before being fired or expelled for the sin of holding the wrong views. Similarly, the strong words and weak actions of Harvard’s leadership foreshadowed cowardly conduct of university administrators who speak bravely but act with pusillanimity.