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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMitt Romney, Student Protester--protesting against anti-war protesters
The date was May 20, 1966. A group of students had taken over the office of Stanford President Wallace Sterling, protesting against the institution of a test that was among the first steps toward the Vietnam-era draft.
Carey Coulter, a conservative and anti-Communist student who had spent time as a civilian in Vietnam, was outraged and organized a counter-protest. "We were there to get an education and these people holding the Administration hostage was antithetical to that," he recalled to BuzzFeed in his first interview about the day.
As the roughly 150 counter-protesters held signs and chatted with passing students, a tall, neatly-dressed 19-year old Coulter had never seen before approached him. "He walked up to me and said that he had some experience with the press, and that he would handle the press for me if I wanted him to," Coulter recalled. "I said fine, because I was busy running the demonstration."
Romney spoke to reporters and photographers, and wound up with his and Coulter's names in an Associated Press photo caption that circulated with the picture above, in which Romney holds a sign at the far right. "He just saw the demonstration, was sympathetic to it obviously, and came up," Coulter said. He added that Romney hadn't made the sign he's carrying in the photograph.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/exclusive-mitt-romney-student-protester
(Mittens on far right)
bigtree
(85,999 posts)WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)bigtree
(85,999 posts)then, off to France in the spring of 1968 . . .
read:
Romney's life as a poor Mormon missionary in France questioned
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/8959440/US-election-2012-Mitt-Romneys-life-as-a-poor-Mormon-missionary-in-France-questioned.html
Mitt Romney was a pro-war draft dodger who protested anti-war protesters
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/04/1051497/-Mitt-Romney-was-a-pro-war-draft-dodger-who-protested-anti-warprotesters?via=blog_1
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)yellowcanine
(35,699 posts)Romney did not, however, serve in Vietnam. As a Mormon missionary, he was considered "'a minister of religion'' by the church and was exempt from the draft.
Nice that he was an "ardent supporter" of the war, knowing that he would be safely out of harm's way with a religious exemption.....
Johonny
(20,860 posts)How can you ardently support a war if you're of military age, perfectly fit to fight and yet sit on your ass at home. The best you can say is he thought you were worth dieing so he could feel important holding a sign.