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January 14, 1970

To The Editor
Campus Newspaper
Jamestown Community College
Jamestown, New York

Dear Sirs:

Please allow me a few lines to reply to the column by Mr. Charles Quackenbush in your December 17th issue in which he comments at some length on the speech I delivered at Jamestown Community College on December 8th.

I cannot apologize if my jokes were tasteless or too well know for a raconteur like Mr. Quackenbush; as I recall, other members of the audience liked them well enough.

In all charity, I think Mr. Quackenbush will admit that my discussion of the war in Vietnam went far beyond stating that it was wrong. I mentioned that it was a part of world-wide revolutionary fervor, and that the United States acted as a counter-revolutionary force in attempting, without success, to suppress such movements. I discussed the economic and social cost of the war as well.

I did not say that President Nixon equaled violence. I did say that "metaphysically"; in the 1970's, that President Nixon and Vice President Agnew represented the sort of violence which resulted in high infant mortality rates and increased unemployment for black people.

Nor did I say that Nixon and Agnew could be blamed for all of the country's social ills. In fact, I quite explicitly said "it is simplistic to assume that these difficulties began on the day