After an audience member asked why the issue of North Korea had lost momentum, Feith affirmed the administration’s desire to pressure the communist regime into six-party talks on nuclear proliferation.

During the course of the question-and-answer session, an attendee brandished a sign calling Feith a “war criminal,” prompting a Harvard University Police Department to confiscate it.

Brooks E. Washington ’06, a board member of the Harvard College Democrats, said that he thought the audience constituted “the most hostile environment towards free speech” that he has ever seen at Harvard.

“That’s not the spirit we’re going for at Harvard and I’m quite frankly ashamed of the display I saw tonight,” he said, adding that he personally enjoyed the speech, although he disagreed with some of what Feith said.

Kennedy School of Government first-year student Steve W. Aldridge, a supporter of Feith, said that the audience’s behavior was a reaction to Feith’s political affiliation.

“I think if the roles were reversed—if you had somebody from the left wing up there—I don’t think you would have seen a whole bunch of conservative students laughing, holding up signs, and jeering and snickering,” he said. “That reflects poorly upon the school.”

Before the event, a group of 10 students staged a protest organized by the Harvard Social Forum outside of the IOP’s main doors.

—Staff writer Javier C. Hernandez can be reached at jhernand@fas.harvard.edu.