Today's campus protests aren't nearly as big or violent as those last century — at least, not yet

In a way, the black-and-white Palestinian scarf draped over Hannah Sattler’s shoulders this week and the tie-dyed T-shirts of 1968 are woven from a common thread.

Like so many college students across the country protesting the Israel-Hamas war, Sattler feels the historic weight of the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations of the 1960s and 70s.

“They always talked about the ’68 protest as sort of a North Star,” Sattler, 27, a graduate student of international human rights policy at Columbia University, said of the campus organizers there.

“Even the choice to take over Hamilton Hall was always the plan from the start of the encampment,” she says. “Not only because it just made a lot of sense logistically, but it also has that ... strong historical connection with the 60s protests.”

Still, although it might be tempting to compare the nationwide campus protests to the anti-Vietnam War movement of a half century ago, Robert Cohen says that would be an overreaction.

“I would say that this is the biggest, in the United States, in the 21st century,” said Cohen, a professor of history and social studies at New York University. “But you could say, `Well, that’s like being the tallest building in Wichita, Kansas.’”

So far, there have been no bombings, like the one in August 1970 at the University of Wisconsin that killed a postdoctoral researcher and did $6 million worth of damage. There has been no repeat of the infamous Kent State massacre of May 1970, when National Guard troops opened fire on protesters at the Ohio campus, killing four.

Police have cleared encampments and made more than 2,000 arrests, and some, like the crackdown Thursday at UCLA have involved violent clashes. A police officer involved in clearing Columbia's Hamilton Hall of protesters Tuesday discharged his gun inside the building. But demonstrations elsewhere have been peaceful and even led to agreements with administrators to address students' demands.

Yet, to some, there is a feeling that the situation is just one hair-trigger moment away from tragedy, says Mark Naison, who took part in the sometimes violent protests at Columbia in 1968.

“People are terrified,” said Naison a professor of history and African & African American Studies at nearby Fordham University.

In many ways, this does feel like the America of what Cohen calls “the long 60s.”

In September 1970, barely five months after the Kent State tragedy, the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest delivered to Richard M. Nixon a “Letter To The American People.”

“This crisis has roots in divisions of American society as deep as any since the Civil War," the panel wrote. "The divisions are reflected in violent acts and harsh rhetoric and in the enmity of those Americans who see themselves as occupying opposing camps.”

Watching the gyre of emotions on campuses from Connecticut to California, those words feel as if they could have been written this week. Even U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert made an allusion to that earlier time.

“This is not the summer of love!” the Colorado Republican shouted through a bullhorn during a visit to chide protesters at George Washington University on Wednesday.

But Cohen says emotions — and sheer numbers — are nowhere near the levels they reached at the height of the Vietnam era.

“Look. NYU was one of the first campuses to mobilize,” he says. “Maybe there’s 200 students — maybe. There are 30,000 (undergraduate) students at NYU, right?”

Another difference that has struck observers is the quick crackdown by campus authorities. In 1968, students occupied Columbia’s Hamilton Hall for nearly a week before authorities moved in. The bust -when it finally came - saw more than 700 arrested.

“It’s funny because Columbia is very proud of ... Columbia students’ history of activism,” said Ilana Gut, a senior at the university's sister school Barnard College. “So their attitudes toward the modern-day activists, at least in the eyes of protestors, is very ironic -- that they’re so proud of their past protestors, but so violently repressive of their modern-day ones.”

Robert Korstad, who protested in the 1960s and is now a professor emeritus of public policy at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, does see comparisons.

Then, as now, they were protesting a violent war. And now, in addition, students have felt pervasive conflict, said Korstad, with the country's rash of mass shootings and the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police.

“I’m really thinking about what’s motivating these young people and what they’ve grown up with and thinking about over their short lifetime,” he says.

Another disturbing difference between then and now, says Jack Radey, is the lack of respect on campuses for differing views.

Radey was a 17-year-old activist during the original Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley. He says today’s students have succeeded in amplifying the Palestinian cause, but, in some cases, at the cost of civility.

“We did not look on those students who had not joined the free speech movement as idiots or traitors, but as people we needed to convince,” said Radey, president of the movement’s archives. “You don’t do that by violence or with super-heated rhetoric.”

Some, like Korstad, believe the campus unrest hastened the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. Many of those protesting today want their colleges and universities to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., protesters are asking MIT to end all research contracts with Israel’s Ministry of Defence, which they estimate total $11 million since 2015. Students there have taken direct inspiration from MIT protests against the Vietnam War and South African apartheid, including turning to the archives to study those protesters’ strategies and using some of the same slogans on their signs and setting up the encampment in the same place.

But the group also learned from the failure of protesters in the 1980s to convince the campus to divest from South Africa.

“We acknowledge that disclosure and divestment is a longer process,” said chemistry graduate student David Berkinsky, who is part of MIT’s Jews for Ceasefire group. “That’s why we have such a pinpointed request. We think it’s a reasonable ask.”

With such widespread support for Israel, Cohen says major changes at most campuses are unlikely.

“This is not an American war, except the Americans are, their firepower is being used by the Israelis,” Cohen says. “It’s different when you have American troops there and you might be drafted.”

Still, students like Sattler now feel a part of a larger tradition.

The Baltimore native is Jewish, but has been wearing a keffiyeh scarf to the protests. Sattler, whose parents were in college during the 70s, said the period has very much informed the current action, noting that students watched a documentary about 1968 and had people from those demonstrations speak to the protesters.

Sattler says the Columbia protesters were specifically trained in non-violent tactics and de-escalation. “I would not be a part of a movement if it wasn’t centered in nonviolence,” she says.

She is willing to be arrested, if that is how the authorities wish to respond.

But not all share that level of commitment.

Wearing a stretchy Spiderman mask and black hoodie, 18-year-old Brayden Lang hung on the fringe of the protest as fellow Northern Arizona University students carrying black-red-white-and-green Palestinian flags swarmed around him.

Asked if he felt a kinship with the student demonstrators of the 1960s and 70s, the freshman business marketing major responded innocently: “You’re talking about the women’s suffrage movement?”

Earlier this week, police there dismantled a small fence made of chicken wire as well as nearly two dozen tents. About 20 people were arrested.

Lang says he will continue to protest. But he says he won’t go to jail for this cause. “They have much more bravery than I do,” he said of those who were arrested. “They’re much more willing to commit than I am. I am not willing to go that far.”

Breed reported from Raleigh, North Carolina; Gecker from San Francisco. Associated Press reporters Adam Geller, Cedar Attanasio and Noreen Nasir in New York; Bianca Vázquez Toness in Cambridge, Mass.; and Nick Perry in Meredith, N.H. also contributed.

FILE - A memorial stands tall on the Kent State University campus site Sunday, May 3, 2020, where four students, Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder, were killed when Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire May 4, 1970 during a student protest against the escalation of the war in Vietnam. In addition to the four students killed, five were wounded in the 13 seconds it took 28 guardsmen to get off 67 rounds. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

FILE - As light rain falls, New York City police officers take people into custody near the Columbia University campus in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building taken over by protesters earlier in the day was cleared, along with a tent encampment. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

FILE - Police advance on pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - Demonstrators are detained by police in an encampment set up by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - A police officer launches a smoke bomb on the UCLA campus during a raid on a pro-Palestinian encampment Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)

FILE - Pro-Palestinian demonstrators block the entrance to a building on the UCLA campus Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - A pro-Palestinian protester confronts police as demonstrators clash at an encampment at UCLA Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold hands as police advance on them on the UCLA campus, Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)

FILE - Demonstrators are on the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

FILE - People hold their ground near a main gate at Columbia University in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, as New York City police officers move to clear the area after a building was taken over by protesters earlier today. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

FILE - A student wrapped in and Israeli flag listens to Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on campus at the University of Texas at Austin, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File )

FILE - Pro-Palestinian demonstrators embrace while charging devices at an encampment on the UCLA campus Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - A student protester waves a Palestinian flag above Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (Pool Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - Demonstrators clash at a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA early Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - A demonstrator pumps his fist as he hangs a sign from a window in Hamilton Hall inside the Columbia University campus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - A woman sits outside an encampment area on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Milwaukee. The Pro-Palestinian rally is calling for the University to cut ties with Israel and for peace in Gaza. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

FILE - A student protester parades a Palestinian flag outside the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool, File)

FILE - A person walks through an encampment by students protesting against the Israel-Hamas war at George Washington University on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

FILE - A passer-by, right, walks through an encampment of tents, Thursday, April 25, 2024, on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

FILE - A man uses a megaphone to chant against the Israel-Hamas war at a protest site set up at the University of Texas at Dallas, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Richardson, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

FILE - In this August, 1970, file photo debris scattered inside the Army Merthamatics Research Center in Sterling Hall following a bombing at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Forty years after after the Aug. 24, 1970 explosion that killed one, injured others and caused millions in damage, Leo Burt remains the last fugitive wanted by the FBI in connection with radical anti-Vietnam War protest activities. (Bruce Fritz/The Capital Times/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File)

FILE - Police advance on pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

FILE - In this August, 1970, file photo investigators work at the site of a bomb explosion at the Army Mathemetics Research Center in Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Forty years after after the Aug. 24, 1970 explosion that killed one, injured others and caused millions in damage, Leo Burt remains the last fugitive wanted by the FBI in connection with radical anti-Vietnam War protest activities. (The Capital Times/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File)

FILE - Pro-Palestinian protesters lock arms as police remove tents erected by protesters from the campus of University of Wisconsin in Madison on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 in Madison, Wis. Campus police spokesperson Marc Lovicott says at least a dozen people have been arrested. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond, File)

FILE - In this August, 1970, file photo officials look for clues after a bomb exploded outside the Army Mathematics Research Center in Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Forty years after after the Aug. 24, 1970 explosion that killed one, injured others and caused millions in damage, Leo Burt remains the last fugitive wanted by the FBI in connection with radical anti-Vietnam War protest activities. (Ed Stein/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File)

FILE - Police advance on pro-Palestinian demonstrators in an encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - A general view shows tear gas and students during an anti-Vietnam war protest at Kent State University, May 4, 1970, in Kent Ohio. U.S. National Guardsmen opened fire during the protests killing four students and wounding five. (AP Photo/Larry Stoddard, File)

FILE - A person is carried away at a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA late Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Los Angeles. Dueling groups of protesters clashed at the University of California, Los Angeles, grappling in fistfights and shoving, kicking and using sticks to beat one another. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A massive Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea early Friday caused power cutoffs in the city of Sevastopol and set a refinery ablaze in southern Russia, Russian authorities said.

The drone raids marked Kyiv's attempt to strike back during Moscow's offensive in northeastern Ukraine, which has added to the pressure on outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces who are waiting for delayed deliveries of crucial weapons and ammunition from Western partners.

The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 51 Ukrainian drones over Crimea, another 44 over the Krasnodar region and six over the Belgorod region. It said Russian warplanes and patrol boats also destroyed six sea drones in the Black Sea.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol, which is the main base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet, said the drone attack damaged the city’s power plant. He said it could take a day to fully restore energy supplies and warned residents that power would be cut to parts of the city.

“Communal services are doing their best to restore the power system as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.

Razvozhayev also announced that schools in the city would be closed temporarily.

Earlier Ukrainian attacks damaged aircraft and a fuel storage facility at Belbek air base near Sevastopol, according to satellite images released by Maxar Technologies.

In the Krasnodar region, the authorities said a drone attack early Friday caused a fire at an oil refinery in Tuapse which was later contained. There were no casualties.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted refineries and other energy facilities deep inside Russia, causing significant damage.

Ukrainian drones also attacked Novorossiysk, a major Black Sea port. The Krasnodar region’s governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, said fragments of downed drones caused several fires but there were no casualties.

Belgorov Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle, killing a woman and her 4-year-old child. Another attack set a fuel tank ablaze at a gas station in the region, he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops were fighting to halt Russian advances in the northeastern Kharkiv region that began late last week.

The town of Vovchansk, located just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Russian border, has been a hot spot in the fighting in recent days. Ukrainian authorities have evacuated some 8,000 civilians from the town. The Russian army’s usual tactic is to reduce towns and villages to ruins with aerial strikes before its units move in.

Russia has also been testing defenses at other points along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line snaking from north to south through eastern Ukraine. That line has barely changed over the past 18 months in what became a war of attrition. Recent Russian attacks have come in the eastern Donetsk region, as well as the Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the north and in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. The apparent aim is to stretch depleted Ukrainian resources and exploit weaknesses.

Follow AP's coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of a destroyed MiG 31 fighter aircraft at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of destroyed MiG 31 fighter aircraft and fuel storage facility at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of a destroyed SU 27 fighter aircraft in revetment at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)

This image released by Maxar Technologies shows a damaged plane, likely a MiG 31 fighter aircraft, at Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, in Crimea, Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies via AP)