June 11, 2002
The End of an Uncivil War
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
AMBRIDGE, Mass. — The historical mutual sneering between America's soldiers and its universities is coming to an end.
One of the scars from Vietnam was this reciprocal contempt, leading each side to despise a caricature of the other: redneck, baby-killing, misogynous storm troopers with the ethical sensitivity of Nazis; and arrogant, long-haired America-hating rebels, all wimps and probably mostly gay feminist Communists as well.
Here in Ivy Central — dazzling this time of year with new Harvard graduates and pot-bellied fogeys oozing false modesty at reunions ("I can't believe that I've been so successful in my career, earned such wealth, and successively married four such beautiful women") — the Harvard newspaper, The Crimson, editorialized in 1969 in favor of a North Vietnamese victory. And that same year the Harvard faculty expelled R.O.T.C. so that students who wanted to participate had to go down the road to train at M.I.T.
Yale, Columbia and other elite universities also expelled R.O.T.C. from campus, and 3,0000 high schools still ban military recruiters from coming to talk to their students. The result of these recruiting bans is that the gulf between the military and academia is reinforced as the army fills up with rednecks from places like my childhood home (Yamhill, Ore.) without being counterbalanced by effete intellectual snobs from my current home (New York).
But all this is changing, partly because of 9/11. Now Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other elite universities are showing more respect for the military and welcome R.O.T.C. students.
Dryden Pence, Harvard class of '82, proudly wore an Army "Special Operations Command" polo shirt to his 20th reunion — and survived. A major in the Army Reserve, Mr. Pence recalls a sense of "clear hostility" to the military when he was in R.O.T.C., and he sat alone when he first wore his uniform into his Harvard dining hall. But now a military emblem is a badge of honor.
"The same people who thought I was crazy and took great issue with me for being in the military now understand, or even thank me," Mr. Pence said. "They realize that I've done a whole lot more humanitarian stuff than they have."
And that is the nub of it. Boomers like myself are, belatedly, shedding a vision of the military shaped largely by Vietnam and are beginning to realize that almost no American institution has such humanitarian potential as the armed forces.
Afghanistan is the latest example of not only a just war but a humanitarian war. The vaccination efforts and other medical campaigns made possible by the invasion may save a million Afghan lives over the next decade.
While ice-hearted hawks helped cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia in the 1960's, mush-hearted doves helped kill — by failing to push for military force — hundreds of thousands in places like Rwanda in the 1990's.
At Harvard, many students and faculty members are hostile to military and R.O.T.C. training because the military discriminates against gays. It's a fair point, and the discrimination is worth fighting. But it was the American military that deposed the Taliban, the most viciously anti-gay regime in the world, one that executed gays by knocking over walls on top of them. America's military does discriminate against gays and is a bastion of anti-gay attitudes, but it has also done more for gay rights — albeit in Afghanistan — then all the gay organizations in the Ivy League put together.
Here at Harvard, President Larry Summers has been pressing since 9/11 for the university to build bridges to the military. Last week he attended a ceremony for R.O.T.C. graduates. Harvard has also allowed students to list their R.O.T.C. activities in the student yearbook and has put information about R.O.T.C. on its financial aid Web site. A student council endorsed a measure that would ease the way for R.O.T.C. students, and The Crimson editorialized in favor of the action.
The student-run Yale Daily News has gone further and formally called for a full return of R.O.T.C. to campus. To anyone familiar with the history of Ivy League newspapers, these editorials seem incredible; next these student journalists will be calling earnestly for a restoration of parietal hours.
Soon, it appears, the Vietnam War will be over.