South Bend, March 14, 1972
The Demand for Troop Reduction
Senator Mike Mansfield has stressed again his demand for the reduction of American troops in Europe. At the present time, he argued, the U.S. maintains 300,000 soldiers and 250,000 dependants in Europe, costing 14 billion dollars annually. America cannot afford this in the long run.
South Bend, March 14, 1972
Primaries
It is a certainty that Richard Nixon will be the candidate of the Republicans for reelection as president. Yet on the Democratic side a broad field of candidates has entered the primaries. At the top of the list are the Senators Edmund Muskie, George McGovern, Hubert Humphrey, and Henry Jackson. However, the great surprise in today’s Florida primary was Governor Wallace who attracted 42% of the Democratic votes. Wallace campaigned against “school busing,” whereby he hit a sensitive nerve in the South.
South Bend, March 27, 1972
Anxiously Waiting for the Green Card
[Since the 1960s America had a growing surplus of academics who could not find employment. This resulted in restricting to a high degree the immigration of scholars and scientists. I had entered the United States with my family on an H-1 visa, which could be changed into an immigration visa. I regarded that change as a mere formality. That was a big mistake. Toward the end of February, 1972, I was informed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that my application for immigration had been denied. That was a hard blow. From that moment on, anxiously waiting for the green card had begun. Until that time I did not even know what the green card was. The so-called “green card” is the identification for having completed the immigration process. It grants permission for gainful employment and permanent residence in the United States. Notre Dame appealed on my behalf. The University had to prove that my teaching was indispensable for its foreign study program and that there were no local teachers available who could do the job. Waiting for the outcome of this appeal was the most difficult time my wife and I had to endure in America. It opened our eyes to how difficult and complicated immigration can be. We drove several times to Hammond, Indiana, to get information from the Bureau of the INS there about the status of our visa. The following short note of March 27 tells of our impressions during one of those visits.]
The hours in the small waiting room of the INS Bureau in Hammond, Indiana, are agonizing. The predicaments of the people who stand in line here can be seen on their faces. My wife and I are waiting here for information whether we are allowed to stay or have to leave the country by the end of June.
Addendum
[By the end of May I finally received word from the INS in Chicago that my application for immigration had been approved. Immediately thereafter the immigration was processed by the INS Bureau in Hammond, which now made a much more friendly impression. On August 29, see entry below, the immigration visas with the green cards for me and my family were issued.]