Central figure in '67 UH protest to retire

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

May 29, 1967, began with great news for Oliver Lee.

Olive Lee plans to travel and finish writing a book.

But within a week, with the backing of UH President Thomas Hamilton, Furniss had not only rescinded the letter, he had fired Lee, effective June 30, 1968.

That decision set off a chain of events that was to result in a much-publicized 11-day takeover of the Bachman Hall Administration Building by students, 153 arrests, the threat of university censure by a leading association of college educators and an academic freedom debate that reverberated across the country.

When the dust settled, the dean and the president were both gone. Lee remained — with tenure.

Thirty-two years later, Lee still remains. Come June, the unrepentant Marxist and anti-war protester, will retire from the university.

"I feel vindicated, of course," said Lee, 73, about the events of 1967-'68. "I would have done nothing differently. I do have mixed emotions. The whole thing taught me some lessons about the fragility of academic freedom at this university in those days. But I felt all along that I would win."

Yet, two years shy of forty years at UH, Lee remains an associate professor.

"If I'd been a good boy, I think I'd be a full professor by now," said Lee from the small 10-by10-foot office he has occupied in the UH Social Sciences building since the mid-1970s.

Even before Lee had received his letter of intent, he had been criticized by the administration for his teaching and publishing "weaknesses." But what set off the storm of protest was something that happened only moments after Lee got the good news on May 29.

He met with the Student Partisan Alliance, a tiny band of extreme radicals that had drafted a leaflet that advocated infiltrating the military and killing officers to hasten an end to the war.

Lee, who was the group's faculty adviser, said he didn't agree with killing officers. But he believed the Student Partisan Alliance was entitled to express an unpopular opinion.

"It was a very radical, two-page statement," recalled Lee. "They were Marxists. They were supporting the Viet Cong. In general, those were my own sentiments. And I said, 'On the whole, I agree with your statement, but not with all of it.' "

Oliver Lee was the only person punished for the distribution of leaflets advocating the killing of U.S. military officers during the Vietnam War. Advertiser library photo • June 1967

To the administration's surprise, the students and faculty overwhelmingly supported Lee's position. The controversy, which lasted more than a year, culminated in Hamilton's resignation and the peaceful Bachman Hall sit-in by hundreds of students.

The sit-in was organized by the Students for a Democratic Society, which was founded at UH by John Witeck.

"For most of us, the central issue was academic freedom," said Witeck, 56, who is a training specialist with the Honolulu Department of Environmental Services. "Also, we thought that to fire an anti-war professor hurts the struggle for peace. Those were the two things that united us.

"We weren't there on the issue of the content of the SPA flier, which most of would not support."

Witeck personally questioned the logic of putting out such a radical flier, but he was more concerned about the fact that the only person punished for it was Lee.

"The SPA students were never punished, only the faculty adviser, who never wrote it and never passed it out. So, we were saying it's wrong to go after that one individual."

Bill Smith was president of Students for A Democratic Society during the civil disobedience at Bachman Hall. Today, he is the deputy prosecutor in Hilo.

"Ain't history ironic?" said Smith, who remembers the Student Partisan Alliance as a "whacko" group.

"I would be of the opinion that Oliver's judgment as to that stupid flier leaves something to be desired. I mean, killing officers, or anybody else, strikes a real bad chord with me.

"But the Oliver Lee case was a catalyst to bigger and better things. It certainly wasn't a protest movement because Lee was the greatest professor who had walked the halls."

On May 29, 1968, exactly one year after Lee received his letter of intent, the UH Board of Regents issued a harsh statement declaring that Lee had acted irresponsibly and immaturely in advising the Student Partisan Alliance.

But an article written by two UH professors and printed in a national science bulletin, countered that, "The regents' charge of irresponsibility on the part of Oliver Lee was simply a cloak to legitimize the lack of toleration of certain political views."

In January 1969, after sending in a team to investigate the issue, the American Association of University Professors issued a critical report saying the administration and regents had mishandled the Lee affair. It threatened censure.

With pressure mounting, on April 14, 1969, acting UH President Richard Takasaki notified Lee that he had been reinstated as a member of the faculty. Lee accepted the position.

There is little doubt that the events of 1968 are special to Lee.

"Part of what stays with me is the sense of excitement, of empowerment, and a sense of solidarity with my supporters; some of them are very close friends," he said with a wistful smile. "There were many things happening that were very stimulating and energizing."

Lee considers himself "a hot-shot teacher." Others aren't prepared to go that far.

"I think Oliver was an adequate teacher, but he hadn't done much publishing," said Robert Potter, who co-wrote a history of UH and was associate dean of academic development at the time of the student sit-in.

"And that's one of the things they brought him here for. He was suppose to be a China specialist, and they expected him to take a lead in the department, and he really didn't."

Lee contends the university simply has a long memory. He pointed out that he won't be getting the title of "emeritus" usually given retiring professors.

Following his departure, Lee plans to travel, finish his book on the economic roots of American imperialism, and, of course, keep the faith.

"I won't slow down,'' promised Lee, who marched the picket lines during the recent UH faculty strike, and plans to take an anti-globalization stand during Honolulu's upcoming Asian Development Bank conference.

"I'll be out there on the sidewalk."