Hickel 's centrist voice inside the Nixon Administration eventually led to confrontations with the President . In 1970 following the shooting of college students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard , Hickel wrote a letter critical of Nixon 's Vietnam War policy and urging him to give more respect to the views of young people critical of the war , writing in part , " I believe this administration finds itself today embracing a philosophy which appears to lack appropriate concern for the attitude of a great mass of Americans – our young people . " That dissent garnered worldwide media attention , and on November 25 , 1970 , Hickel was fired over the letter . Days before he lost the office , Hickel had told CBS ' '' 60 Minutes '' that he would not quit under pressure and that he would go away only " with an arrow in my heart , not a bullet in my back . " Hickel 's undersecretaries , such as Leslie Glasgow , who was in charge of Fish , Wildlife , Parks , and Marine Resources , were also dismissed . After less than two years in Washington , Glasgow returned to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge , where he was a professor with expertise in the study of wildlife in the marshes
shooting of college students
Kent State shootings
Wally Hickel