U. of Michigan Vietnam “Teach-In” Gets Underway

Mar. 25, 1965 - A scheduled all-night “teach-in” protest of the war in Vietnam at the University of Michigan got off to a jittery start last night as police kept busy searching for bombs.

About 2,000 U-M students, who had jammed into four auditoriums in Angell Hall, were forced outside by a bomb scare about two hours after the protest stated at 8 p.m.

Police searched the building but found nothing.

The crowd, which dwindled to less than 1,500 after the evacuation, moved back into Angell Hall about 11 p.m. for a question-and-answer period.

The 12 hours of rallies, speeches, and discussions were organized and supported by the Faculty Committee to Stop the War in Viet Nam, who believe the U.S. should withdraw its troops from the Southeast Asian country.

The rally began at 8 p.m. with a speech by Prof. John Donahue, a Michigan State University anthropologist, who spent several years doing field work in Vietnam.

He was applauded when he said:“It is a civil war. It is not an invasion from the north. The people of the south have joined in a war of liberation from the central government in Saigon.

“Any further bombings, gassing, and napalm will only work against the United States. The government has not been able to win popular support; the national liberation front has.

“When we leave — and we ultimately must — the situation will not be stable for years. But remember that both the North and South Vietnamese probably distrust the Chinese even more than we do.”No speakers were in favor of the U.S. policy were invited to the rally.

About 50 pickets from the Young Republicans Club at U-M paraded through hallways outside the auditoriums protesting the rally.

One of the pickets denounced the speakers, saying “they didn’t say one positive thing about our government.”

The picket also charged that a campus group called the Student Committee to Aid Faculty (SCAF) is raising funds “for the national liberation front, which they themselves admit is the Viet Cong.”

Professors organized the “teach-in” after coming under fire from Governor George Romney and the Michigan legislature when they announced they would skip their classes yesterday to dramatize their protests.

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s