THE UNIVERSITY AT WAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: NGA Records (Formerly NIMA)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78B05171A000300030006-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2003
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 1, 1969
• Content Type: OPEN

la Jolla, california ; october 1, 1969
Out of the libraries
stride the slaughterers.
The mothers stand
clutching their children, and
stare searching the skies numbly
for the inventions of scholars.
Bertolt Brecht
l~ J
The following is an extract from an later-
view between the Indicator and George Mur-
phy, Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Student
Affairs.
INDICATOR:
Could you describe what you think the role of
the university is in American society and spe-
cifically, whichactivities (i.e., research, gra-
duate work, undergraduate work), you think
are most important and why.
NOTE: During the summer the SDSdidare-
search project that had as its goal finding
out in what ways the university is connected
with the military and the war in Viet Nam.
This is the first article in a series that re-
ports the results of that project.
The purpose of the SDS project on
government financed research at UCSD
is not to create feelings of horror and
indignation among the student body-we
are not concerned with purifying the
University. Rather, the research project
was the' way in which we discovered-
and feel it is essential to pass it on-
just how intimately universities are invol-
ved in the policies and goals of the
United States government. We have begun
to see stopping military recruitment and
ROTC on campuses can only be the be-
ginning of a movement against US im-
perialism. This series of articles, pub-
lished under the title 'THE UNIVERSITY
AT WAR', will demonstrate, at least
in part, the 'uses of the university' in
order to lay to rest the notion of the
ivory tower 'house of the mind', to
dispel the myth of this value-free, neu-
tral university and to show that the un-
iversity's function is to perpetuate the
economic and social order of the society
and to give the technical expertise nec-
essary to implement the ruling class's
policies around the world. Specifically we
will be dealing with the relationship be-
tween the Department of Defense and the
University.
of the faculty actively engaged in Depar-
tment of Defense research, the Univer-
sity is significantly aiding the war in Vi-.
et Nam and is a willing tool in the ha-
nds of big business, the government and
the military. This is what 'university
complicity' means. The University is not
the 'house of the mind' that the admini-
stration and faculty pretend it is; it is
more than the 'pure' research center that
INTRODUCTION graduate students and science faculty of-
Like any other institution in the US, ten think it is. The University is what
the University has done its share to society's controlling interests want it to
perpetuate imperialism.* By training of- be.
ficers for the military, by defending Throughout the US's involvement in Vi-
military recruitment and by having many et Nam in the 50's and 60's, government
leaders continually proclaimed that US fo-
*Imperialism: Imperialism is the name gi- rtes were needed there to protect 'our
ven to that stage of capitalism in which pro- interests'. What 'our interests' are and
duction is concentrated in monopolies, banks how the US attempted to protect them en-
assume major roles in financing, massive ex- ables us to understand capitalist society
port of capital occurs i.e. investment in un- in -ways that the liberal administration-
derveloped countries, and the world is divi- whetheV. government or university--will at-
ded up into 'spheres of influence' by the ca- tempt to cover up.
pitalist powers. It is the system that in order WHO OWNS WHAT
to survive-must make colonies of other coun-
tries, use their raw materials and land, A relatively small group of people de-
control their economy, enslave their people. (continued to page 3)
MURPHY:
The role of the university seems tube cis
ging at this point in time and neither the di
section of change nor the eventual is
entirely clear to me. The America: univLr-
s ity, traditionally, has tried to to