#anitwar

TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 1968

The Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that enemy strength in South Vietnam at the start of the Lunar New Year assault ranged as high as 515,000 to 600,000 men, significantly greater than the United States had thought at the time.

Bitter fighting broke out in the tense northernmost province of Quảng Trị, as 12 United States marines were killed and 24 wounded in a five-hour clash. A military spokesman said that the marines, supported by artillery, helicopter gunships and tactical aircraft, killed 67 enemy soldiers.

Delivering his statement of resignation before the House of Commons, former Foreign Secretary George Brown said that the Labor Government was at least partly responsible for a “mood of cynicism” among the British people. 

Speaking in Minneapolis, President Johnson said that the time had come for “austerity” and a “total national effort” to win the war and peace in Vietnam and solve domestic problems. His fiery speech made it clear that he was not going to alter his war policy despite enemy successes on the battlefield and opposition to his renomination within the Democratic party.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy delivered a harsh attack on President Johnson’s “bankrupt” Vietnam policy before a wildly cheering college audience at Kansas State University. He ended his speech with a plea for help and a promise—“I will work for you and we will have a new America.” 

Governor Rockefeller will announce Thursday afternoon that he is a candidate for the Republican nomination for President and will enter the Oregon Republican primary on May 28. With his statement of candidacy in preparation, his advisers were divided over what he should say about the war. 

Senator Eugene J. McCarthy used the words “untenable and pointless” to describe the aborted offer of Senator Kennedy to withhold his declaration of candidacy if President Johnson would create a commission to seek “a wider path to peace in Vietnam.” 

uncredited writer, Chicago Tribune, 26 March 1967

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership conference, told 5,000 peace demonstrators yesterday that the Viet Nam war is a “blasphemy against all that America stands for,” and that President Johnson is more interested in the Viet Nam war than in the war on poverty.

Dr. King had led the demonstrators in a parade in State street. At his side was Dr. Benjamin Spock, co-chairman of the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, a sponsor of the parade and rally.

Atrocities Equal Cong’s Speaking in the Coliseum, Dr. King said, “We are committing atrocities equal to any perpetrated by the Viet Cong. We are left standing before the world glutted by our own barbarity. We are engaged in a war that seeks to turn the clock of history back and perpetuate white colonialism.”

Dr. King said the United States spends $322,000 for each enemy that is killed and it spends $53 for each person in the “so-called” war on poverty.

“And much of that $53 goes for salaries of people who are not poor,” he said.

Peace Lovers Organize “Those of us who love peace must organize as effectively as the war hawks. As they spread the propaganda of war, we must spread the propaganda of peace. We must combine the fervor of the civil rights movement with the peace movement. We must demonstrate, preach, and teach, and organize until the very foundations of our nation are shaken.”

Dr. King left immediately after he spoke, and the audience began to leave with him. Dr. Spock, who followed Dr. King to the rostrum, spoke to a half empty house.

Dr. Spock called America the aggressor in Viet Nam and charged that our government has succumbed to an unhealthy distortion of reality.

“Accusation Isn’t True” “Lyndon Johnson launched attack on North Viet Nam claiming that it was engaged in a direct military effort to take over South Viet Nam. But history shows—to anyone willing to read it—that this accusation was not true.

“For 13 years our government has been trying, unsuccessfully to gain control of South Viet Nam, by means of a Quisling puppet regime and more recently by armed invasion.”

Dr. Spock to Quit After the rally, Dr. Spock, 64, said he plans to retire from his post at Western Reserve university to devote more time to the peace movement.

 Another speaker, Emil Mazey, secretary-treasurer of the United Auto Workers, said, “There has been a tremendous credibility gap in the information that the American people have been fed concerning Viet Nam.”

He called upon President Johnson to redouble efforts to achieve peace.

Peaceful Pacifists During the parade, the demonstrators marched along peacefully carrying numerous signs protesting the war and identifying some of the groups of marchers.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends, family and neighbours! Along with Turkey and football games, another staple of American Thanksgiving for many is listening to the 18 minute classic, “Alice’s Restaurant.” November has been Peace month in the School Library, with an emphasis on understanding peace education, the antiwar movements, civil disobedience and other non-violent means of…

Cease-fire Broken

Excerpt from the comic In-Out: Gender Through the Brexit Lens. This was made with Valentino Vecchetti just after Brexit. David Cameron was the prime minister and responsible for several invasions in Syria and Libya. He is back as Secretary of Foreign Affairs with another UK invasion on Yemen that he calls ‘targeted strikes’ on Houthi military.

We know that the previous invasions led to unparalleled suffering and deaths across Libya and Syria for which he was never held accountable.

We must end this never ending cycle of genocide and ecocide. These military strikes are unjustified. Unlawful. Undemocratic.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends, family and neighbours! Along with Turkey and football games, another staple of American Thanksgiving for many is listening to the 18 minute classic, “Alice’s Restaurant.” November has been Peace month in the School Library, with an emphasis on understanding peace education, the antiwar movements, civil disobedience and other non-violent means of…

Ann Arbor Mich. (UPI) - Twenty-nine University of Michigan students and teachers told a judge today their sit-in at a selective service office was a valid protest against an International crime-the Viet Nam war.

They asked Circuit Court Judge James R. Breakey Jr. to throw out their trespassing convictions for the sit-in here last Oct. 15, part of a nation-wide "day of protest" against United States involvement In the Viet conflict.

Ten of the 29 lost their student draft deferments as a result of the sit-in. So did three others who pleaded guilty to the trespass charge and are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. All 13 have been reclassified 1-A, or available for Immediate induction.

Effect Not Clear

It wan not clear whether today's appeal, if successful, would affect the draft status of the 10 students. Last Dec. 4 Lt. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, head of the selective service system, said the Ann Arbor demonstrators were reclassified because of the trespass conviction, not for the Viet protest.

But Hershey and Col. Arthur Holmes, selective service director for Michigan, have said at other times that the students lost their deferments because they broke selective service regulations, by sitting in at a draft board office.

Today's appeal hearing covered the trespassing convictions only. The demonstrators were convicted Oct. 22 in municipal court here. Each was sentenced to 10 days in jail and fined $65.

Called Act of Communication

In his brief, Ernest Goodman, attorney for the 29, told Breakey the sit-in was an act of communication, protected by the constitutional guarantee of free speech.

He said the Nuremburg trials of German war criminals established the duty of Individuals to fight policies of their own government which violate international law.

"The defendants have chosen this form of protest to fulfill their duty to make a moral choice between or compliance or rejection of this nation's actions in the commission of what they believe to be international crimes," Goodman said.

Must Take Precedence

"... the national commitment to open, uninhibited criticism of the government's policies on a vital issue which could mean life or death for all of mankind must take precedence over minor infringement of property rights by a technical trespass."

Goodman said the demonstrators did not interfere with work at the draft board office.

"Since the protest was specifically directed against our government's policy of committing troops to a war in Viet Nam, the appropriate agency for the protest was the draft board," he said.

Liberties Union Aids

The American Civil Liberties union meantime promised to appeal the students' draft reclassification "as far as is necessary to secure their rights."