South Bend, March 4, 1975
James T. Farrell
With a heavy breath, which made it difficult for him to form words in complete sentences, the author of the Studs Lonigan trilogy and additional twenty novels spoke to the students of Notre Dame. At the age of 72, the ailing Farrell has remained the predominant figure of Naturalism in American literature, who reaches back to Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser. He also exemplifies that, since the beginning of the 20th century, Chicago has become a vibrant center of American letters.
[The Studs Lonigan trilogy (1932-35) is an autobiographical narrative of Farrell’s youth in Chicago.]
South Bend, March 7, 1975
Phnom Penh
The urgent appeal of President Ford to Congress and the American public to come to a last minute rescue of the beleaguered capital of Cambodia met with no response. Following the experience of Vietnam, no one is willing anymore to send troops to Indochina. One has already resigned to the fact that Phnom Penh will fall and that the Communist regime of the Khmer Rouge will take over Cambodia.
South Bend, March 17, 1975
The President’s Visit
The University of Notre Dame has three times been the historic scene of visits by sitting Presidents: Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960, and today on St. Patrick’s Day Gerald R. Ford. The official occasion was the conferral of an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on Gerald Ford. But beyond that, the presence of the President on the Notre Dame campus was of a more far-reaching significance. It should have a healing effect of bringing about reconciliation between the government and the universities. For the first time in ten years, a U.S. President has set foot on the campus of a major American university. Ford was given a spontaneously cordial reception.
By a random distribution of seats for the faculty, I came to sit directly in front of the podium with the “Seal of the President of the United States.” Ford made the impression of an informal, straightforward, upright personality. The humanitarian theme of his address came from the heart. His habit of speech, pronouncing the “e” in judg(e)ment, could not have been missed. In his speech, Ford clearly denounced the newly growing isolationism. America will not withdraw from its international obligations. Despite the economic recession in his own country, he was determined to continue sending aid to suffering nations in the world. For one day, the Notre Dame campus was the news center in the country. Security precautions were accordingly extensive but not obtrusive. There were no demonstrations or incidents. The visit went well to mutual satisfaction – for the President and the University.
South Bend, March 30, 1975
People on the Run
In South Vietnam the tragedy of our century with all its misery is happening again: People are on the run. These days millions are fleeing from the advancing North Vietnamese troops in the Northern provinces. With only the clothes on their back, they try to find any imaginable way to escape and to seek refuge in Saigon which is still safe. Today the important harbor city Da Nang fell. What American troops have been defending by extreme effort for a decade is now given up nearly without resistance. South Vietnam is simply being overrun by the forces from the North.