University of Virginia Library

Harvard Speech

At Harvard, at Saturday noon,
Lindsay gave one of his best
speeches in months. A half hour
before he was scheduled to arrive,
Sanders Theatre was filled with
1200 students, while another
several hundred milled outside trying
to get in. An editor of the
Crimson and an activist from Students
for a Democratic Society
both estimated that next to Eugene
McCarthy, Lindsay was the most
popular politician among the Cambridge
undergraduates. When he
arrived, 20 minutes late because
he spoke briefly to those students
who couldn't get in, Lindsay was
applauded for almost two minutes.

The mayor began by speaking
about "honesty in politics." "How
many of the government officials,"
he asked, "who issued proclamations
in city halls and state capitals
across the nation on the death
of Dr. King ever bothered to meet
with him during his life, to talk
with him, speak out for him, or
walk with him? How many of the
corporations that sponsored public
memorials after his death had
been willing to contribute those
funds during his life to his organization,
or to the cause he
championed?"

But Lindsay, whose public
speaking style remains tight and
preachy, did not evoke spontaneous
applause from his audience,
that so plainly came to applaud
him, until 25 minutes into his
speech, until he began to speak
of Vietnam.

"America has been guilty of
deception and blindness in our
involvement in Vietnam," he said,
"in our refusal to acknowledge
civilian casualties from the bombing
of the North, in our unwillingness
to admit the existence of
the National Liberation Front...
We cannot spend more than $24
billion a year in Vietnam and still
rebuild our cities. We cannot speak
of non-violence at home, when we
are displacing, maiming, and
killing thousands of Asians..."