The War in Vietnam and Political Suppression
Through their increasing interest in politics the students quickly engaged in discussions concerning the war in Vietnam. They formed the opinion that the United States had no right to fight in Vietnam, not only because of the victims but mainly because of what they saw as an imperialistic foreign policy.
The government, however, had to back the USA since they were still watching over Germany after World War Two. For this reason, university boards put a ban on political activities by students (e.g. discussions) at the universities. They explained this act by saying that science should always be neutral. This was the same explanation the professors had used to justify their behaviour during the Third Reich. The students wanted to be able to act politically, not only because of the war in Vietnam, but to protest against the horrible conditions in the Third World as students and not only as individuals.
Read more about this topic: German Student Movement
Famous quotes containing the words war, vietnam, political and/or suppression:
“We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“Above all, Vietnam was a war that asked everything of a few and nothing of most in America.”
—Myra MacPherson, U.S. author. Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation, epilogue (1984)
“No God and no religion can survive ridicule. No political church, no nobility, no royalty or other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field, and live.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“... peace produced by suppression is neither natural nor desirable.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)