Student Activities
Like many college campuses in this period, Poly was a hotbed for political subversion. Anti-war activites on campus were already prevalent in 1969, one year before the Kent State Massacre. During this year, groups were already holding sessions on anti-war activites, such as the "Draft and Anti-War Basic Training" sessions (Dyckoff). And subversive groups such as the Polytechnic Radical Action Group were already active on campus, based off student newspaper reports (Dyckoff). These groups clashed with pro-government groups such as the Reserve Officers' Training Cops (ROTC). In one incident, anti-war students pumped Hydrogen Sulfide gas into a Poly classroom being used by the ROTC (Dyckoff). This friction between students groups would only escalate as public sentiment against the war grew into the next year.
Protest goals
Student demands
Strike instructions
Kent State response
A lot of the intricacies of student-lead anti-war activites can be derived from their posters, such as their motivations, goals, and intentions. After the Kent State Massacre and many controversial actions by various government bodies made public opinion towards anti-war activities much more favorable. These controversial actions included the bombings over Cambodia and Laos, the assassination of Fred Hampton, and the My Lai Massacre. This in turn helped grow anti-war groups at Poly. These posters concern a stike scheduled for May 27, 1970, in direct response to the Kent State Massacre. What's notable is that they include issues unrelated to the Vietnam War in their material: demanding a decent wage for U.S. postal workers. In a poster detailing their demands, they call for Poly to take a public stand against the war, end all Department of Defense funding, dispel the ROTC from campus, and finally support the for the strike by students and faculty. The "Stop the World for Peace" strike called for each participant to stay home for 24 hours, in an effort to stifle the economy.
The intention of these flyers was to not only sway public opinion against the war, but also coalesce students so that they could take more impactful actions. It surprised me how explicit these posters are in communcating their beliefs, which could mean that Poly administration was sympthateic towards anti-war causes, if they allowed the hanging of these posters. Or it could simply mean that these posters were distrubted clandestinely.
S.T.O.P. letter
By looking back at the popular culture of this period, it may seem that nearly every college student participated in anti-war activites. But it would be an oversimplification of the student body landscape to not include pro-war or pro-government student groups in the conversation. The S.T.O.P. movenemt (Students To Oppose Politicization) was not necessarily pro-war, but they argued that the Poly administration should not comment on political matter, such as the Vietnam War. This is in contrast to the ROTC, where it seems its members were more zealous with defending U.S. action in Southeast Asia (Dyckoff).
This letter is really intriguing because it's quite vague in terms of the S.T.O.P. group's stance on the war. They stated that they were more opposed to politization of the school than actually having a pro-war stance. But were they against R.O.T.C. being on campus, since many students would argue it is a political organization? They must have had a stance on the draft, as its members must have been actively enrolled in the draft, and could be called for duty at any moment. I'm very interested in learning more about this group and if there are any interviews with its leaders or members.