Protestors Disrupt Kissinger Event at Stern
Activists protested against him by disrupting inside the event and rallying outside.
Protests swelled in response to Stern hosting a talk with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Tuesday evening. The invitation-only event, which barred media access including NYU Local, was disrupted numerous times by student activists accusing him of being a war criminal. Starting around 5 p.m. a large crowd of demonstrators gathered for two hours at Gould Plaza outside of Stern’s Kaufman Management Center where the event was being held, chanting and brandishing signs with slogans such as “Prosecute Kissinger” and “(Kiss)inger My Ass.”
At least four student protestors interrupted the talk, which was part of Stern’s “In Conversation with Lord Mervyn King” series, and were forced to leave. Several then joined the crowd of over one hundred demonstrators outside making their voices heard; they passed around a megaphone for different activist speakers, shouted at times explicit rebukes of Kissinger and the university, and loudly chanted expressions including “We don’t need you, get out of NYU!” and “NYU, shame on you!”
Kissinger is a contentious figure, revered as an elder statesman by some and a war criminal by others. He has been described as “the most important foreign policy official in modern American history,” and served as national security advisor and secretary of state under presidents Nixon and Ford. Some of his foreign policy initiatives included a five-year carpet-bombing campaign in Cambodia which killed an estimated 100,000 civilians, overseeing the bombing of Laos and North and South Vietnam, and enabling bloodshed by the military dictatorship in Argentina.
Monday happened to mark the 45th anniversary of Kissinger being controversially awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with his North Vietnamese counterpart Le Duc Tho for their efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the Vietnam War.
The coincidence was pointed out by several activists and groups such as NYU Disorient, one of over two dozen clubs involved in organizing the demonstration. The alliance published an open letter addressed to the NYU community ahead of the rally in which they denounce NYU for hosting Kissinger and describe him as “the morally reprehensible poster child of U.S. militarism and imperialism.” Its signatories include student organizations such as NYU Against Fascism, the university’s Amnesty International chapter, and NYC Democratic Socialists of America.
Those participating in the protest, officially called “No War Criminals at NYU,” did not hold back when talking about Kissinger. Many called him a war criminal; others labelled him “subhuman,” “scum,” “despicable,” and an “imperial warmonger.” They also criticized NYU for implicitly endorsing Kissinger by having him speak.
“NYU basically acts like a global corporation, so it makes sense they’d honor Kissinger,” said Jennifer Lenow, a recent GSAS graduate.
“It’s really appalling to me that the school that I go to and pay tuition is having this man come here,” said Aeslyn Vlahos, a junior in Silver. “We’re not going to tolerate this stuff, and if we can’t stop these events from happening we’ll at least have our anger be heard.”
The protest at times veered off-topic, with different speakers criticizing the Democratic Party, the Palestinian conflict, and politicians from both sides of the aisle, namely John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
At one point the crowd called out Stern in particular, chanting “Fuck Stern!” repeatedly.
One Stern student who gave his name as Keith expressed his displeasure as he watched the rally. He admitted he hadn’t heard of Kissinger before.
“It’s pretty annoying,” he said, given upcoming midterm exams. “These students are a nuisance.”
Recordings inside the talk were banned, but several of those who disrupted filmed themselves or were filmed by others.
In one video, activist Leen Dweik yells at Kissinger, “You deserve to answer to war crimes, to crimes against humanity, you deserve to go to jail and then rot in hell,” and was met with boos from attendees. She is quickly approached by a guard, who can be heard saying, “It’s time to go. You’re gonna get arrested, its time to go.”
As she leaves, John Beckman, Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Strategic Communications, tells her “give your ID to the — ” before the video cuts off.
He told Local in a statement, “Asking students for their IDs is customary when there has been an incident that may involve a disciplinary referral.”
Dweik told Local that after being escorted out she was told to hand over her university ID because she was on NYU property and that she could face arrest if she failed to do so.
“I was like ‘Why do you need my ID?’ and they told me, ‘Oh, don’t worry, you aren’t in trouble, you won’t be in any trouble,’ but then they asked if I live in on-campus housing, and when I said, ‘No, so you can’t take my housing away,’ they said, ‘Don’t worry, that’s not what we are doing,’ and I was like, ‘Then why the in the hell did you ask?’” Dweik recalled.
She said she refused to hand over her ID and did not give her date of birth when asked.
One student disruptor was met with shouts of “Throw him out!” and was quickly followed by another protestor to loud booing and calls to “Throw her out!”
“The mood in there is very Stern-centric. The people were mostly older white men,” said student Ben Zinevich, who was in the room. “Whenever someone ended up disrupting in a popcorn style, there were people who were claiming [Kissinger] was a war hero. It was very defensive and very hegemonic in thought.”
He described several NYU senior administrators who were present as being tense because of the frequent disruptions, including Beckman and Marc Wais, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs.
“[They] were both very present and just staring down the student section,” Zinevich said. “They were looking at students individually, just waiting for a response. When I got up to leave I didn’t make a disruption, but they all kind of jumped and expected me to do something. They were very on edge throughout the whole thing.”
He said Kissinger himself ignored the disruptors. The 95-year-old entered and left Kaufman in a wheelchair with several guards amidst a crowd of screaming protestors.
The talk was not Kissinger’s first appearance at an NYU event. In April 2010 NYU Wagner, along with the New-York Historical Society, sponsored a talk with Kissinger held at the private Metropolitan Club where he discussed Middle East policy.
Many of the student protestors took issue with the university for hosting him again.
“NYU is our educational institution and we think it’s important to hold NYU accountable in line with our values,” said Madison Kelts, who is involved with groups including SJP and Disrupt. “NYU needs to be an anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, anti-racist institution, and so must not normalize the legacy of imperial warmongers like Henry Kissinger and not give them a platform.”
Update: October 18, 2018
This article has been updated to identify John Beckman as the man in the video who tells Dweik to giver over her ID and to include a comment from him. In addition to confirming his identity he gave NYU Local the following statement:
“The event went forward as planned, but during the course of it, there were a handful of brief interruptions. Those who stood and shouted were escorted from the room by Public Safety. Our rules are clear: NYU values and respects dissent, but it is impermissible for dissent to take the form of shouting down an invited speaker; those who do so make themselves subject to sanctions.”
Additional reporting by Justin Pilgreen.
