The Fight Against an "Undeclared" War

Can you imagine a Binghamton campus where protests happened daily, classes were canceled due to boycotts, and marches occurred every week? This is what student life was like at Binghamton University during the Vietnam crisis in the 1960s and 1970s. SUAB (State University at Binghamton) students formed anti-war groups, led protests, marched on Washington, and rallied against the war in hopes that their efforts would make a difference. One of the earliest, and more minor protests against the war was the renaming of the student newspaper on campus in early May 1970. Originally titled The Colonial, students made it a point to scratch out the “colonial” on each paper’s masthead. This was an effort to protest what students believed was American colonialism in Vietnam. The paper was given the name that we all know and love, Binghamton Pipe Dream, that following Fall.

College students across the country led strikes starting in May 1970 following the student killings at Kent State in Ohio as well as confrontations between students and police at Jackson State in Mississippi. Binghamton students partook in this movement and led one of the biggest demonstrations that the university and county had ever seen. They organized a campus-wide strike of classes in May 1970, a common form of protest among college students at this time. This demonstration continued for such an extended period that university leadership canceled classes for the remainder of the semester. In a surprising turn of events, leadership seemed to support the anti-war movement among the students; Binghamton University president, Bruce Dearing, even led a march of thousands of students from campus to the courthouse to protest the war. Some Binghamton locals also participated in this march which resulted in 7,500 people gathering at the courthouse and The Pipe Dream dubbed the protest “the largest anti-anything demonstration in Broome County history.” As the war waged on, Binghamton students continued to lead rallies and protests against the fighting, even if they were small-scale events. In October 1971, 250 students once again marched from Columbus Park to the Broome County Courthouse to hear both local and national politicians speak about the war. They sat outside on the lawn rallying for their cause and made their message clear: “Protest against the war will not end until the war itself ends.” Although relatively peaceful, some protests led to the arrests of Binghamton University students and even faculty, such as the blockade of 1972. In May of 1972, 216 Binghamton students and professors blockaded the downtown Federal Building to protest President Nixon’s escalated bombing raids on North Vietnam. Eleven students were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and later stood trial, while countless others pleaded guilty to involvement in the blockade. Hundreds of students who originally pled innocent, later claimed they were guilty as a way of furthering their protest and making their stance on the war known.

College students, especially men, were the most at-risk group during wartime, so it makes sense that they protested it so strongly. College-aged men were vulnerable to the military draft and had fears that at any moment they could be shipped off to Southeast Asia. Male students publicly denounced the American draft system, stating that it was for an “undeclared war,” led open discussions among the campus community, and protested having recruiters on campus. Some Binghamton students even fled the country to escape the draft, such as Leslie F. Spear and Lawrence J. Wilt, who both fled to Canada. However, these men acknowledged that they were in the minority for their anti-draft protest and conceded that if it was put to a vote outside of the campus, the answer would be that they should be in Vietnam. But still, they persevered in their efforts and tried to make a difference in a time of crisis.

Binghamton students did face opposition from time to time. For instance, when students were participating in a telethon the day before their trip to march in Washington D.C. in 1969. Some people in Endwell called the student organizers and then left their phones off the hook which tied up the phone lines indefinitely. Local high school students also clashed with Binghamton University students. College students were statistically more liberal compared to those from the Broome County area which led to conflicts of interest about the war. BU students made their mark in this small part of New York and the university continues to remember their impact and dedication to making their voices heard.