The Anti-Nuke Campus Trail

The New York Tinies described him as a “ruddy, silver-haired, grandfatherly figure.” Dartmouth President David McLaughlin called him an “honored guest” and invited him to come back to the campus any time. The eight hundred students in the audience gave him an ovation, and local papers described him in warm, patriotic terms.

He was Oleg Troyanovsky, Soviet ambassador to the United Nations. Despite protests from the State Department, Dartmouth invited him to speak on March 3, 1983 as part of its three-month-long Ivy League Conference on the Threat of Nuclear War. There were a few protests—from the campus Hillel organization, for example, which is skeptical of Soviet policies toward Jews. But the general feeling was that Troyanovsky would add to the debate, and that it would be discourteous if not McCarthyite to refuse to let him speak.

About the Author

Dinesh D'Souza

Dinesh D’Souza is a writer, scholar, and public intellectual. He is the author of America: Imagine A World Without Her, in which he explores the landscape of a world in which America had lost the Revolutionary War.

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The New York Tinies described him as a “ruddy, silver-haired, grandfatherly figure.” Dartmouth President David McLaughlin called him an “honored guest” and invited him to come back to the campus any time. The eight hundred students in the audience gave him an ovation, and local papers described him in warm, patriotic terms.

He was Oleg Troyanovsky, Soviet ambassador to the United Nations. Despite protests from the State Department, Dartmouth invited him to speak on March 3, 1983 as part of its three-month-long Ivy League Conference on the Threat of Nuclear War. There were a few protests—from the campus Hillel organization, for example, which is skeptical of Soviet policies toward Jews. But the general feeling was that Troyanovsky would add to the debate, and that it would be discourteous if not McCarthyite to refuse to let him speak.

About the Author

Dinesh D'Souza

Dinesh D’Souza is a writer, scholar, and public intellectual. He is the author of America: Imagine A World Without Her, in which he explores the landscape of a world in which America had lost the Revolutionary War.