University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

Page 29 text:

0 K-1 D106 When pictures look alive, with movements free, When ships, like fish, swim beneath the sea, When men, outstripping birds, shall scan the sky, Then half the world, deep drenched in blood, shall die bij? 'J' -J

Page 31 text:

M 'VJ i iii : 3 .iz- I NORTH VIETNAM DELEGATION, from left to rightg Nguyen Co Thach, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Xuan Thuy, chief of the delegation to the Paris talks, Nguyen Dinh Phuong, interpreter, Le Duc Tho, special adviser to the delegation in Paris, and Henry Kissinger. The attitude of the students at the University of Mass., Amherst, this past academic year was in keeping with the general trend expe- rienced throughout the country. A sense of frustration and fatigue pervades American life. The very legitimacy of our political insti- tutions have deepened the prevalent mood of confusion and self-doubt in the nation. Our attention was led away from crucial lo- cal events to world wide issues through many channels. The principal attention get- ter this past year was politics. President Nix- on made peacemaking trips to Russia in the fall and then to China during the winter. The President spoke to top leaders of the two countries under the premise that he was negotiating long term peace, environmen- tal, and trade contracts. Soon afterwards these trips were to give him added votes necessary for his re-election. During this campaign as in the one previous, tragedy struck when Governor George Wal- lace was shot down and paralyzed during a campaign speech. Many of us in this area did not agree that Nixon was the better man for the job how- ever, and placed our hopes and votes with George McGovern. We voted for him by one of the most outstanding margins in the country hoping that he would enact the so- cial, economic and military programs that were his platform. Massachusetts' voice, as typified by enthusiastic political rallies, was not that of the nation though, and Nixon became our president. After the election many of us checked the media daily hoping it would bring us news that the Vietnam war was at an end. On jan. 24, 1973 Presidential adviser Henry Kissinger initialed the Vietnam peace agree- ment in Paris. f7