Less than two years into his U-M presidency, Robben Fleming spoke out against the Vietnam War, calling it a “colossal mistake” before 5,000 at Hill Auditorium. Few knew his views were shaped decades earlier, when, as a young Army lawyer in WWII, he defended two German teenagers facing execution for espionage. His experiences demonstrate how the tragedies of his youth in war shaped his leadership during one of U-M’s most turbulent periods.
