According to an
article in the March/April issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine, the entire senior class of 1968 at Yale
"got up as one and applauded" university chaplain William Sloane Coffin at their baccalaureate service. One member of the Yale class of 1968 was George W. Bush.
Coffin had become
nationally prominent after he
"suggested in a televised debate that young men resisting the draft hold a mass rally to turn in their draft cards." At the time of the baccalaureate service Coffin was under
indictment, charged with
"conspiracy to evade aspects of the draft law."
It would be interesting to hear Bush explain whether he was at that service and whether he rose to applaud Coffin, a man who enjoyed "singing Russian folk songs" and who in his own words intended to "counsel, aid, and abet these men in their decision to refuse service in the armed forces."