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This Week in Princeton History for October 27-November 2

By April C. Armstrong *14

In this week’s installment of our recurring series, protesters find ways to distribute a message, a Klan supporter chastises Princeton, and more.

October 27, 1962—Demonstrators protesting John F. Kennedy’s policy on Cuba in Palmer Square from Princeton’s Student Peace Union and SANE are prohibited from distributing leaflets promoting their views on the grounds that they might incite a riot. They place their statement on an orange crate nearby instead with a sign saying the literature is under a police ban.

AN END TO GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY Statement of Kennedy’s Cuba Policy by the Princeton Student Peace Union Recent events indicate a pause in the crisis generated by President Kennedy’s establishment of a naval “quarantine” of Cuba. For the moment, the immediate danger has passed, giving us the opportunity to re-evaluate our government's actions. Kennedy alleges that the establishment of “offensive” missile bases in Cuba “endangers the peace of the world and the security of all American states.” The world cannot but condemn this belligerent and precipitous action on the part of Russia and Cuba. We of the Student Peace Union join in this condemnation, but we believe that President Kennedy’s actions are a dangerous and misguided response to the present Communist menace. WE OPPOSE KENNEDY’S ACTION BECAUSE: 1. He left Russia the alternative of either provoking open conflict or backing down completely. Placed in a similar position in Berlin, which alternative would our own government choose? 2. The argument that the “quarantine” is strategically imperative for the defense of the free world creates a dangerous precedent for future hostility. If Red China adopted Kennedy’s policy, she could justify a blockade of Formosa, which is supplied with large quantities of American arms. Similarly, Russia could threaten the supply of our missile bases in Turkey and Europe. Kennedy, instead of seeking effective means to reduce Cold War tension, is playing a dangerous game of nuclear brinkmanship. 3. The Soviet Union has committed an aggressive act by placing missiles in Cuba. However, the real threat to peace is the very existence of a world order based on the ludicrous idea of nuclear deterrence and “balance of power.” Atomic weapons and missiles of both sides will continue to endanger the world no matter where they are placed. And the immediate fact is that our nation’s rash action in the long-established war of nerves—a war for which we bear as much responsibility as the Communists—increases the tension that may lead to a Third World War. 4. Instead of acting through the framework of international law, Kennedy precipitated a crisis which threatened the survival of the whole world. Such an action abandoned our long-established principle of peaceful and responsible negotiation through the U.N. or by other means, thus putting the “quarantine” on the same level as the Soviet Union’s strong-arm tactics. In short, Kennedy is risking an immediate nuclear holocaust in order, he contends, to preserve the peace. As long as our government keeps thinking in terms of military deterrence, it can never hope to maintain, in the long run, “the peace of the world and the security of all American states.” As an alternative to these policies of dangerous and futile sword-rattling, our government should initiate a greatly enlarged program to stem the blight which has driven the Cubans—and people throughout the underdeveloped world—toward Communism: hunger, poverty, disease, and inequality. WE CALL ON PRESIDENT KENNEDY: 1. To reassure the Cuban government that we will not violate their sovereignty. 2. To establish a real basis for responsible negotiation and alternative action on the Cuban crisis through the United Nations. 3. To reassert our moral and political stand by abandoning self-defeating military policies which serve only to increase the tensions of the Cold War. If you are interested in the peace movement, contact: STUDENT PEACE UNION 37 N. Edwards WA 4-1709 Handwritten after this text: "Maddex, J.P. '63"
Leaflet Princeton’s Student Peace Union was prohibited from distributing due to riot concerns, 1962. Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students Records (AC136), Box 32.

October 30, 1889—Sophomores have formed a whist club.

October 31, 1923—The Daily Princetonian interviews Alma White, bishop of the nearby Pillar of Fire church. White, an ardent supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, says,

For Princeton to try to remain indifferent to the Ku Klux Klan, if indeed she is trying to, is for Princeton to revolve, detached, in her own little eddy of oblivion while the rising tide of the greatest moral and political movement of the generation sweeps by.

November 1, 1861—Rumors that students will be forcibly conscripted into the military if they vote are false. They will be exempt unless the enemy invades New Jersey.

Did you read the previous installment in this series?

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April C. Armstrong *14

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