The American Campus: 1962

I am writing this from New Haven. Last night I debated a retired general on the House Un-American Activities Committee before about two hundred students. The meeting was sponsored by “Challenge,” an organization at Yale which brings controversial speakers to the campus. A contingent from the local Young Americans for Freedom showed up, though they were not in costume (sometimes they come to peace meetings in ROTC uniform; on their last outing everyone wore dark glasses). I would guess that the audience was at least two thirds on my side and rather demonstratively so.

Ten years ago when I first came here to speak, the meeting was held in a student’s apartment off campus. Our mood was that of catechumens. This contrast in New Haven could be extended all over the country, for during the past decade the campus has opened up. There is a spirit of debate and concern working among the students.

I have been traveling the country throughout this period (for several years, I thought I should have been billed as the “oldest young socialist” alive; now, alas, students sometimes call me “Sir”). In that time, I have been privy to an endless number of bull sessions about the nature of ...