Word: mcnamara
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...chosen the tactic for a number of reasons First and foremost there was McNamara himself. The antipathy held towards this man by many students -- "radicals" and some non-radicals as well -- is hard to describe. It was voiced on Monday afternoon in the anguished cries of "Don't you care?" that answered the Secretary's admission that he didn't know how many civilian casualties U.S. troops had caused. Many students who heard McNamara Monday could only describe him in superlatives -- "one of the most callous, arrogant men I have ever seen," said one. So intense was two students disgust...
...McNamara's presence, it could be reasonably said, amplified the anti-war sentiment already present at Harvard. Even if some of SDS's leaders had been predisposed not to demonstrate, they would have been hard pressed to resist the will of the rest of the organization...
With the visit of McNamara, SDS saw yet another opportunity to generate interest in itself and in the war. Here was a clear-cut chance to do something -- a chance for a large number of SDS members to become involved in a significant anti-war protest. There was a good deal of personal satisfaction in this prospect for more experienced SDS leaders, who anticipated shattering the stolid indifference of the Harvard campus. The McNamara visit, then, was not to be ignored. It was potentially at least, the stuff of which strong organizations are made...
...Wednesday before McNamara was due to arrive in Cambridge, the Institute and SDS made what was to be the last serious attempt to resolve their differences. The petitions asking for a debate had already been collected, and the challenge to the Secretary of Defense was formal. Richard Neustadt called two leaders of SDS (Ansara and Eric Lessinger '68) into his office, and with Frank sought to convince them that there were good reasons for not permitting a debate. Until this time, Neustadt had remained relatively aloof from the public conflict. He had been preoccupied with a series of important lectures...
...never really wanted to negotiate," Neustadt said the evening after the McNamara confrontation. In fact, neither side ever strayed far from its basic position: the Institute was willing to guarantee a peaceful demonstration so long as McNamara was insulated from it (something SDS could have on its own any time); SDS insisted on McNamara in the flesh -- either standing before a public podium or stranded in the street. "All SDS wanted," Neustadt said, "was to embarrass the Secretary of Defense...