National Study Conference on International Conflict and Violence Held
Diocesan Press Service. September 14, 1967 [57-5]
Participants in the 1967 National Study Conference on International Conflict and Violence, held in Princeton, N.J., Aug. 24 - 30, called upon the church to "speak boldly against the involvement of this nation in the war against the people of Vietnam"; to "call upon our leaders to change our foreign policy from one of manipulation to one of cooperation"; and to "speak boldly against the forces, economic and political, that keep the Negro from enjoying the full benefits of American citizenship."
The conference, attended by 270 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, clergy and others concerned, explored what forms of social action are appropriate to counteract racial, economic and ideological conflict prevalent today.
In the statement, adopted by a vote of 101 to 17, participants stated that "We know in our bones that the warlike pretensions of this nation in the international arena and the treatment of the people in our ghettos are wrong. We have been told at this conference that God is on the side of the oppressed. This we believe." The statement then continued to identify the people of Vietnam and the black people and poor and undereducated whites of this country as the oppressed, and the white establishment of this country as the oppressor.
At the end of the Conference a letter was presented to clergy, faculty and administration for their signatures. The letter, signed by some 55 persons, a majority of those present, including all six of the social scientists and theologians, who composed the conference leadership, was sent to President Lyndon B. Johnson.
It stated that this country's involvement in Vietnam has deepened the sense of resentment of those who feel oppressed at home and that confidence was being lost in normal ways of obtaining justice. It then called for an end to American involvement in Vietnam by the immediate cessation of bombing in North Vietnam and the promise that the National Liberation Front may have a legitimate role in the reconstituted political life of South Vietnam.
The Conference was sponsored by The College and University Division of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, the National Episcopal Students Committee, the Episcopal Dioceses of New Jersey and Newark and the University Christian Movement in the Northeast Region.
Featured speakers were Senator Eugene McCarthy (D., Minn.) and the Hon. Z. K. Matthews, Ambassador of Botswana to the United States and the United Nations.