During the takeover of University Hall in April 1969, protesters disturbed more than just the peace.

Taking full advantage of their position of power, students surreptitiously rifled through administrators' file cabinets and stole confidential documents.

These documents were then leaked to The Old Mole, a bi-weekly, radical, underground newspaper run primarily by recent Harvard graduates.

In a "Special Bust Supplement." Old Mole printed many of these "liberated" documents, which linked the University to the CIA and to the war in Vietnam.

A column explaining the controversial papers was titled, "Reading the Mail of the Ruling Class." It portrayed Harvard as anything but the academic institution the University claimed to be.

"[These documents] provide proof that Harvard is...a plaything of the interlocking government-Pentagon-foundation world which makes American foreign policy," the paper's editors wrote.

Included in the supplement was a letter of appreciation from the U.S. State Department to Dean of the Faculty Franklin L. Ford.

"The United States Government deeply appreciates Harvard's making Professor Kissinger available for his extremely successful mission to South Vietnam," the letter read. Henry L. Kissinger '50 served as a foreign policy consultant to the government in 1969, and later he became President Richard M. Nixon's secretary of state.

Also printed in The Old Mole's April issues was a statement regarding a new Center for International Studies at MIT. Harvard administrators and the CIA were both involved in the project.

The Administration Had Lied'

In today's world, where Harvard's role in international affairs is taken for granted, such criticisms may seem trivial. But in recent interviews, editors of The Old Mole Today say 1969 was a very different time.

Michael S. Ansara '68, a writer for Old Mole , says the documents gleaned from University Hall were astonishing because they showed how Harvard had lied repeatedly about its role.

"The administration had said 'We don't take any CIA money,' and then there were these files which indicated that the CIA was subsidizing several research projects," Ansara says.

"What became very clear by the release of the documents was that the administration had lied about a number of issues," he says.

Most disturbing to students was a "Dear Nate" letter found in University Hall. It was printed in the April 22 edition of The Old Mole, which focused entirely on Harvard.