Two hundred students entered the Center for International Affairs (CFIA) shortly after noon yesterday and disrupted a meeting of the CFIA's Visiting Committee.
The demonstration, organized by the November Action Committee (NAC), caused Visiting Committee members to file out of a second-floor meeting room and make their way through the crowd.
The demonstrators then followed the Visiting Committee, shouting obscenities and "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, Southeast Asia's going to win." Nevertheless, most committee members were able to scatter without further incident.
For those who did not escape the protestors' notice, there were four incidents of harassment. University authorities are investigating the initial disruption and ensuing events, but have not yet decided whether to press for any public prosecutions or internal disciplinary measures.
NAC called the rally to protest "the role that the CFIA plays in the imperialist American foreign policy." "It not only does foreign policy research and planning, but also is directly involved in the implementation of the ideas it produces," NAC claimed.
The most serious incident occurred behind the Harvard Square MBTA island, when Robert R. Bowie, director of the CFIA, and Joseph E. Johnson '27, vice-chairman of the Visiting Committee and president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, were followed by demonstrators and trapped in a taxi cab from 1:05 to 1:25 p.m.
Bowie and Johnson insisted that the Cambridge police clear away the hundreds of students surrounding them. Archibald Cox '34, the University's Law professor who oversees demonstrations, pleaded with Bowie and Johnson to leave the cab.
When they refused, Cox shouted, "Oh Bob, you're just going to cause a riot. Speaking for the President. I ask you to stop." At that point Bowie and Johnson changed their minds and got out of the cab.
The Visiting Committee finally resumed its deliberations in mid-afternoon. At least one committee member was prevented from eating lunch until after 2:15 p.m.
NAC originally stated that Robert S. McNamara, a member of the Visiting Committee, would be coming to Harvard
for the meeting. Bowie subsequently said that McNamara would not attend.
March to CFIA
After rallying for 20 minutes at Memorial Church the crowd charged toward the CFIA. While the Visiting Committee met on the second floor, an unarmed University policeman and Benjamin H. Brown, advisor to the CFIA Fellows, stood at the foot of the stairs.
The policeman and Brown talked to the demonstrators for several minutes, trying to convince them not to go upstairs. But the students squeezed through and burst into the upstairs meeting room.
At 12:39 p.m. Bowie attempted to read a prepared statement warning the demonstrators that they were violating the Faculty's Interim Resolution on Rights and Responsibilities. He was repeatedly drowned out to the chant of "bullshit."
After the initial disruption, committee members pushed their way through the crowd and filed out of the CFIA. They crossed Divinity Avenue and headed through the Mallinckrodt parking lot. Bowie, his wife, Johnson, and John J. McCloy, director of Allied Chemical, got into Bowie's car and were engulfed by the crowd.
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Marching From the Common