- Clipping from The Progress, Clearfield, PA - January 7, 1967Following are excerpts from the book “Campus Wars – The Peace Movement at American State Universities in the Vietnam Era” by Kenneth J. Heineman, published in 1993.
Publishing these excerpts is intended neither to glamorize nor disparage Neil Buckley’s participation and leadership in the movement. It is simply an effort to illuminate Neil’s activities, ideas and writings at the time.
Heineman writes:
"Neil Buckley, a 'Hollywood version of a campus radical,' his critics claimed, had an enormous ego as well as ambitions to become a national New Left figure. Jealous of (another’s) influence in the chapter, Buckley at one point had to be restrained from beating up his rival. When Buckley and Creegan were not fighting each other, they were locking horns with Pam Farley, who was increasingly disgusted with the male SDSers’ sexism. In December 1965, at a national SDS conference in Illinois, Farley had encouraged the women delegates to meet separately in the ladies’ restroom…
"The winter of 1967 began miserably for SDS and then worsened. SDS’s unpopularity on campus mounted throughout the winter. At a SDS dormitory forum in January, a student argued that if SDSers did not like the university, they should drop out of school. Buckley replied that such an action would be like “committing suicide if one does not like the world rather than trying to change it. The audience then urged Buckley to commit suicide...
"Following that incident, the chapter learned that it lacked even minimal student support… Even though a number of SDSers, including Buckley… had grown weary of campus organizing and decided to drop out of school, they enthusiastically laid plans for a serious of spring actions against the war...
"A number of PSUers that summer eschewed street protest for their own version of community organizing, establishing a commune in nearby Bellefonte. Initially Buckley, who had announced with much fanfare his intention to leave school in order to work for revolution, sought to create a communal environment which would serve to radicalize the working poor. However, the SDS commune quickly became a magnet for juvenile revelers. None of those teenagers were interested in SDS diatribes on revolution. Indeed, the often drunken street kids physically intimidated the middle class SDSers.
"By autumn, the commune had disbanded, succeeding only in convincing the locals that SDS wished to corrupt the mores of those children."
Publishing these excerpts is intended neither to glamorize nor disparage Neil Buckley’s participation and leadership in the movement. It is simply an effort to illuminate Neil’s activities, ideas and writings at the time.
Heineman writes:
"Neil Buckley, a 'Hollywood version of a campus radical,' his critics claimed, had an enormous ego as well as ambitions to become a national New Left figure. Jealous of (another’s) influence in the chapter, Buckley at one point had to be restrained from beating up his rival. When Buckley and Creegan were not fighting each other, they were locking horns with Pam Farley, who was increasingly disgusted with the male SDSers’ sexism. In December 1965, at a national SDS conference in Illinois, Farley had encouraged the women delegates to meet separately in the ladies’ restroom…
"The winter of 1967 began miserably for SDS and then worsened. SDS’s unpopularity on campus mounted throughout the winter. At a SDS dormitory forum in January, a student argued that if SDSers did not like the university, they should drop out of school. Buckley replied that such an action would be like “committing suicide if one does not like the world rather than trying to change it. The audience then urged Buckley to commit suicide...
"Following that incident, the chapter learned that it lacked even minimal student support… Even though a number of SDSers, including Buckley… had grown weary of campus organizing and decided to drop out of school, they enthusiastically laid plans for a serious of spring actions against the war...
"A number of PSUers that summer eschewed street protest for their own version of community organizing, establishing a commune in nearby Bellefonte. Initially Buckley, who had announced with much fanfare his intention to leave school in order to work for revolution, sought to create a communal environment which would serve to radicalize the working poor. However, the SDS commune quickly became a magnet for juvenile revelers. None of those teenagers were interested in SDS diatribes on revolution. Indeed, the often drunken street kids physically intimidated the middle class SDSers.
"By autumn, the commune had disbanded, succeeding only in convincing the locals that SDS wished to corrupt the mores of those children."
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