Anti-war protesters set off a bomb at 3:42 A.M., May 24, 1970 in a bid to destroy the Army Math Research Center housed in Sterling Hall. They wanted to highlight the American invasion of southeast Asia, state repression and operations of the Vietnam War machine at home.
The intent was to bomb an empty building, but one man was killed, others were injured.
Few here believe the bombing was not tragic, a life was inadvertently taken.
Most, it seems, also understand the state and the police are the worst purveyors of violence domestically, and that the Vietnam War was a crime against humanity.
Vietnam veterans often say the same thing: The war was a slaughter supported by lies.
In Madison, the presence of the Army-Math Center was not a slow burn leading to an August 24, 1970 crescendo, just a constant reminder of how deeply state violence is embedded throughout society.
Writes James Huberty in UW-Madison Campus Voices today:
It was obvious to me that something was going to happen [to the Army-Math Center] because this is, I mean, where could it go? It wasn’t going anywhere, it wasn’t getting less tense or less violent or less anything. It was getting more and more and more. You know, somebody is going to do something. There was stuff being said, you know. I mean, I didn’t personally hear anything at all from anybody, but it was just that sense of, you know, it’s, you know, it’s going to happen. Something’s going to happen.
One of the four men responsible for the bombing, Leo Burt, is still at large, which is to say he has escaped state violence that some characterize as being brought to justice.
Leo Burt
Burt was a crew member at UW-Madison.
The Rowing News ran a piece this Summer, quoting a teammate of Burt's who said, "The Leo we used to know was not the Leo who committed this crime. The war changed him tragically."
Actually, Leo Burt remained outgoing and friendly, according to Don Kosterman, a friend of Burt's. Caricatures about mad Sterling Hall bombers seem off the mark.
Kosterman, a professional photographer and retired journalist in Dane County, attended UW-Madison from 1968-1970, later obtaining a Master's in Journalism degree on police repression of Kaleidoscope, an underground newspaper. [Kaleidoscope: An underground newspaper and the law. Kosterman, Donald John (1975)]
Kosterman met Burt when they were classmates in a Photo Journalism class, and the two with other students enjoyed "close" friendships, taking a trip together to Racine as part of the Journalism School class, attending several anti-war rallies and marches, among other typical pursuits of college life.
Kosterman came home from Vietnam after two years with the Army in the mid-1960s, and transferred from UW-Milwuakee to UW-Madison.
"I was very good friends with Leo," Kosterman recalled in an interview in Fitchburg.
Kosterman recalled 1968 when the two were drinking beers at Memorial Union when a third party happened by and spoke furtively with Burt.
Moments later, Kosterman and Burt were introduced to two Weathermen fleeing Chicago after the 1968 Democratic National Convention, looking for a community to "get lost in."
Kosterman and Burt shared love interests, academic work and a general ethical sense that good works were demanded of individuals.
Asked what Burt was like, "kind-hearted," Kosterman replied without hesitation
"Oh, absolutely. Leo was a just a regular Catholic kid from Pennsylvania. He felt strongly about things," recalled Kosterman. "Put it this way, not knowing what was going to happen, Leo and I hit it off really well. Out of the whole class, he was the guy that I become friends with. It wasn't the fact that we hung around the same girlfriend."
During the Summer of 1970 in the weeks before the Sterling Hall bombing, Kosterman recalled walking out of the Journalism class, down the Henry Mall, and hearing a voice from an alley where a van was parked.
"Hey, Don, you going to the demonstration?" shouted Leo Burt from the passenger seat of the van.
"Oh, yeah. How about you," replied Kosterman.
"I'll be there," said Burt laughing, and he dangled his gas mask outside the window.
An anti-war rally on the UW-Madison campus in 1970 was planned; attendance was casually contemplated between freinds.
Within weeks Burt and others struck at what they believed was an immoral enterprise in an act that 50 years later defies easy explanation and clear meaning.
The legacy of the Peace Movement continues.
Wide skepticism of the type Kosterman and Burt shared towards military and police units dehumanizing populations as targets has kept a lunatic in the White House from starting wars to this point.
Domestic police remain militarized against populations raising concerns and hopes that something is going to happen, and state violence has to stop now.
That something may be a September-October surprise intended to show Trump commanding a killing machine.
However, thanks to the modern peace movement, such crimes may not result in a beneficial electoral result for the perpetrators.
This seems an important legacy of the war at home, and recognizing history and debating it will continue to inform the American experiment.
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The underground newspaper, Kaleidoscope, ran an exclusive statement from the New Year's Gang on the bombing some one week after the Aug 24, 1970 bombing in its Aug 31 - Sept 6 edition, (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries).
Kaleidoscope cover is below:
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