Senator Dodd in Colorado

The most recent edition of the Dodd Report on Communism in the Teach-In Movement contains a blank page. Since the report itself and the specific charge that has been retracted were widely publicized last October, the story of how the page came to be blank ought to be better known.

The Report, issued by Sen. Thomas J. Dodd (D-Conn.) on behalf of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Internal Security Subcommittee, included six "Eyewitness Accounts of Tech-Ins." Five of them were taken from newspapers or were signed by correspondents. But the sixth, which dealt with a tech-in at the University of Colorado, was anonymous.

Four professors, it said, had organized two Colorado teach-ins, and these four were close friends of two other professors who were ex-members of the Communist Party. One of them, at a teach-in, had called President Johnson, Secretary Rusk, and Adlai Stevenson international outlaws. A second teach-in was "much worse;" propaganda leaflets were distributed and a Communist film shown twice. Furthermore, the report said that the four professors controlled the Colorado Daily, the student-subsidized newspaper. The paper, said the report, "is being used to extend the influence of that particular group." "The net result is that 14,000 of our students are being subjected to continuous teach-in type brainwashing," the report concluded.

Calls to the committee revealed that the anonymous writer was "a reputable member of the faculty," but failed to elicit his name. It appeared to be another chapter in a familiar story; unsubstantiated charges lodged by a man freed from libel by Congressional immunity.

But at Colorado, things didn't go by the script. For one thing, the anonymous writer had made an incredible number of errors. Professor Howard Higman, he wrote, was now carrying on the teach-ins. But, replied Professor Higman, he had been asked to speak at both teach-ins and had refused; in fact, he favored Johnson's Vietnam policy. One of the four professors charged with "friendship" with the two ex-Communists had never met them; another was acquainted with them professionally. Only one considered himself a "close friend" of the two men, both respected, tenured faculty members. Professor Richard Wilson denied calling Johnson, Rusk, and Stevenson outlaws, and all hands agreed that the Communist film had not been shown at the teach-in in question. It had been shown at a later meeting, but on that occasion pro-Administration speakers outnumbered their opponents.

Daily editor Jim Gates, acquainted with only one of the professors in question, denied that they controlled the paper. The Daily gives space to columnists for violently outspoken comment on all sides of all issues. The day the report was published, Gates's editorial condemnation of Dodd was accompanied by a column praising Johnson's Vietnam policy.

But the charge still might have stuck had two officials not stood up for the accused teachers and the paper. Colorado's governor John Love said he deplored the teach-ins, but wondered whether "the possibility of a witch hunt" wasn't a greater danger. CU's President, Joseph Smiley, fired off a letter to Dodd demanding proof or a retraction.

Wonder of wonders, he got a retraction. Dodd said the evidence his committee had accumulated showed that the University is influenced by "extremist" elements. He cited a Daily column calling Johnson "guilty of genocide." But he argued that the printed report was "inaccurate on several points."

So a new version of the Dodd Report, printed this month, includes this statement, on the page that once contained the atack on Colorado: "Material originally appearing in this space, having been found erroneous in several respects, has been deleted. All remaining material in this volume has been checked and found accurate; and none of it has been a subject of complaint."