1969–1970 Harvard University anti-Vietnam War protests
The Harvard Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs drew particular attention, with sit-ins disrupting their meetings.
[4] On the night of April 8 to 9, a group of about 300 students, led by the SDS, tacked a list of demands on the door of the home of Nathan Pusey, then President of Harvard.
[6]: 27 At 5pm, a meeting between moderate students and Dean Fred Glimp was convened at Lowell Lecture Hall, both agreeing on a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
[10]: 19 After the Students for a Democratic Society fractured in 1970, multiple groups emerged from the Harvard chapter, the more moderate of which was the November Action Coalition.
It secured a permit to organize a parade on April 15, 1970, protesting the trial of Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, as well as being part of a broader anti-war effort.
[12] Some protesters started rioting, throwing bricks, smashing windows, setting fires and taunting Harvard University students watching from their dormitories.
The roughly 2,000 police officers present started charging the protesters at 8:19pm, firing tear gas[12] and occasionally throwing back bricks thrown at them.
[12] Future Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was at this event, and credits it for his becoming disillusioned with leftist movements and beginning his turn towards conservatism.
[17] It provided economic advisory to developing countries and conducted research on international issues, but it was accused by the Students for a Democratic Society in 1965 as supporting the anti-Communist regime in Indonesia.
[18] Henry Kissinger was an Associate Director at the Center,[17] but was working as Richard Nixon’s National Security Advisor at the time of the bombing.
On October 14, 1970, a few minutes after 1am, a bomb placed in the desk of an Army colonel visiting Harvard for independent study, exploded on the third floor of the museum.
[18] In a letter sent to Boston news outlets the following day, the Proud Eagle Tribe claimed responsibility, describing themselves as a group of "revolutionary women" aiming to destroy "Amerikan [sic] imperialism".
