Feb. 3, 1964 - The students at Hofstra University in Hempstead, L.I., approximately 50% of them Jewish, learned today that an anti-Semite can be a crashing bore. Their instructor was George Lincoln Rockwell (pictured today in passenger seat), self-styled führer of the American Nazi Party.
Rockwell, a gum-chewing character with no visible means of support, appeared on campus in a rumpled brown suit and green zipper sweater. He gnawed on the sort of corncob pipe Gen. Douglas MacArthur made famous. The pipe was explained when Rockwell faced the press in the basement of Hofstra Playhouse before addressing some 1,000 students upstairs. He said he regards Gen. MacArthur as the only acceptable candidate for President in 1964 and thinks that he (Rockwell) would make an excellent Vice President.
Rockwell reminded newsmen that he was entered as a Presidential candidate in the New Hampshire primaries. He called Sen. Barry Goldwater, also a candidate there, a “fake and a demagogue.” The Nazi said that Goldwater, “like former President Eisenhower, was sent over from the left to lead the right.”
Dr. Randall Hoffman, dean of students, and Robert Van Lierop, president of the student council, explained to the audience that their guest’s philosophy was repulsive to them but that the students had the right to hear him.
After taking the podium, Rockwell said: “This is probably one of the most liberal, leftist, and Jewish universities in the country. I’ve got to give you credit for inviting me here.” Rockwell then denied being anti-Negro: “I share basically the same ideas on the color question as Malcolm X — so how can anyone call me anti-Negro?” He also denied being an anti-Semite: “I am anti-Zionist just as I am against pornography and all that sort of thing.” Some of the students giggled, while others dozed in the crowded auditorium.
