University of Virginia Library

A Speaker's Rights

Richard Kliendienst is not exactly a friend
of the movement. He is the man who, as the
Nixon Administration's Deputy Attorney
General made all the inflammatory predictions
about the march on Washington; he is
the same man who held up the permits for the
march for so long; he is, in short, one of the
leading spokesmen in the Nixon Administration's
drive to stifle and discredit dissent.

For all of these reasons, he is likely to
meet an audience tomorrow night that is not
overwhelmingly friendly. There may well be
pickets of some sort and there will undoubtedly
be some barbed queries prepared
for the post-speech question and answer
session that is customary at Student Legal
Forum events. This is the kind of situation
that has led, on other campuses, to disorders
designed to prevent the speaker from being
heard.

The University has a long history of
tolerance of outside speakers, a history that
has undoubtedly contributed to the success of
the Legal Forum in obtaining speakers for no
honorarium. George Lincoln Rockwell and
Gus Hall were received here in the early 60's
with no incidents. We don't think that
Richard Kliendienst should be any exception.

He has been invited here to state his views
and answer questions concerning them. His
appearance can be a profitable experience for
his audience, and perhaps even for the Justice
Department, if he is allowed to do so. If he
chooses to duck the questions which will be
asked, it will reflect to the discredit of the
Administration he represents. But if his
speech is disrupted, the effect will be to give
the Administration another share of evidence
that it is the Left, and not the Right, which is
intolerant and repressionist.