What would Ike do?

[Valin]

Ringside at the Reckoning

Paul Mirengoff
Apr 26, 2024

Regarding the situation at Columbia University, my friend Jim Dueholm sent me the following message:

In watching what's happening on the Columbia campus, I recalled Eisenhower had been Columbia president for four years.  I wonder what the five-star general would have done to bring peace to the campus, free Jewish students from fear and allow them to go back to class, and punish the malefactors?

For those of us who remember Ike, the question answers itself.

Those who don’t remember should consult this post by Peter Kirsanow. He reminds us that “President Eisenhower didn’t tolerate white mobs preventing black students from attending classes 65 years ago.”

That’s correct. Instead, when Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School to keep nine black students from entering the school, Ike ordered the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock to insure the safety of the "Little Rock Nine."

That’s called leadership and moral clarity. What we’re seeing from Joe Biden is called cowardice and moral confusion.

(Snip)

Pete offers a series of measures that should be taken in response to the reprehensible violence, calls for violence, and harassment against Jews on American campuses. They are:

• Students who lead or participate in chants exhorting violence or terrorism should — consistent with the First Amendment — be disciplined or, where warranted, expelled.

• The Department of State should require universities to immediately notify State of the names of foreign students who have engaged in violent or otherwise criminal behavior. State should revoke those students’ visas and require them to leave the country immediately. State should ensure these students’ departures or subject them to deportation.

• The Department of Justice should investigate the funding of the violent protests, particularly whether such funding comes from foreign sources.

• The Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education should investigate all college and university campuses where Jewish students have been subjected to persistent and/or unremedied harassment and abuse and withhold federal funding as circumstances warrant.

• Alumni should consider following the lead of Robert Kraft and other major donors and withhold or withdraw their donations until schools adequately address antisemitism.

• The House Education and Workforce Committee should conduct an investigation into foreign funding of American colleges and universities, with particular emphasis on funding from China and the Gulf monarchies.

• The House Education and Workforce Committee should also examine whether the Department of Education is enforcing existing reporting requirements.

• Mayors should allow the police to enforce the law.

In addition:

(Snip)

Eisenhower was one of our best presidents. Biden is one of our worst.