6
Thursday, July 26, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Peace Effort Alive Anti-War Movement Continues as Large-Scale Activism Wanes
Peace Movement At One Time Could Draw a Crowd
By JAY CURTIS
Kansan Staff Writer
Nearly six months have elapsed since the cease-fire in Vietnam formally went into effect on January 28, ending ten years of American military involvement in a war that has cost the lives of an estimated 2 million persons.
Most of the troops and some POWs have returned to the U.S. but the fighting and bombardment there have been a result.
WRIGHT SAID there was a direct correlation between the numbers of people involved in the peace movement at any given time. He said they were showing they saw point on in the government.
A major sees us as a major issue, and we are popular local and national support for the peace movement appears to have waned slowly from the large-scale activism of the '60s.
Byron Edmondson, former chairman of the KU chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), said congressional leaders in Washington that "we want" and "now we are a true force for good."
EDMONDSON SAID that the VVAW would continue to be active at KU during the coming school year. He said that plans were being considered by the national VVAW to change the name of the organization to "Winter Soldiers."
"There is a hard core that is still busy reminding people that there is a job to do," says John Wright, professor of psychology at the Lawrences Peace Committees.
But for some Lawrence residents active in the domestic peace movement of recent years, many of the problems and issues they have faced are still being resolved. These people have retained an active though quiet commitment to the cause of peace in Southeast Asia and in the region.
Max Sutton, associate professor of English and treasurer of the Lawrence Peace Committee, described the peace movement in Lawrence this summer as being "a real movement. Lists had been retained and the movement was "ready to mobilize, if need be."
The political and military situation in South Vietnam is described by some as serious and the possibility of renewed American bombing remains.
HEAVY FIGHTING broke out again last week between North and South Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces hold extensive territory. North Vietnamese forces laodian and Cambodian frontiers from Demilitarized Zone to the Gulf of Siam.
More than 25,000 of the South Vietnamese forces have been wounded and 5,000 killed since the cease-fire. The South Vietnamese say they have killed more than 20,000 Commissarius forces since January and the U.S. State Department has charged the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong with responsibility for the form of troop and equipment movements.
AMERICAN B-252 have continued the bombing of Cambodia and it has been reported that the President may seek an alternative congressional cut-off set, for Aug. 15,
"If Nixon goes before congress to ask for an extension of the bombing, that would be a crisis," said Max Sutton. He said it would be necessary for the peace movement to mobilize
The commander-in-chief of Cambodian government forces, Sosthene Fernandez, acknowledged the support if the bombing was stopped while North Vietnamese and Viet Cong groups were still in Cambodia. He has expressed confidence in the United States would grant his request.
Similarly, Nguyen Van Thieu, president of the republic of South Vietnam, has expressed confidence that the United States will be able to deal with it if the military situation should demand it.
MANY congressional leaders have
spoken out against continued American bombing in Cambodia and Congress has voted August 15 as the cut-off date. But if a crisis should arise in Southeast Asia, congressional action limiting the U.S. role in Afghanistan is needed for Kansans concerned about Vietnam.
Often there may be a discrepancy between the stated opinions of congressional leaders and their voting records. In a widely reported speech from Salma on July 7, Sen. Richard Burr said that he would continue bombing of Cambodia. One week earlier he had voted against an
Vet for Peace
amendment to eliminate congressional funding of the bombing.
THE NEXT several months may determine the extent of continued American involvement in Southeast Asia. The final decisions now rest with congress and with Mr. Trump's North Vietnam to honor the cease-fire agreements made during the past six months.
Meanwhile, some peace activists say they will continue to press for congressional action.
Edmondson said that obtaining amnesty for draft resisters was now the primary goal.
"But to me ammesty is not as urgent as the continued bombing of Cambodia," he said.
tax" portion of his telephone bill, forcing the federal government to collect the money from his savings account. He said that he had borrowed $300,000 until the bombing of Cambodia ended.
Wright said that although there were still some Lawrence residents who were refusing to pay the tax on their phone bills, the rest of them they had begun to diminish in numbers.
Edmondson has not been paying the "war
Nixon has said that as long as he remains President, amnesty is out of the question for draft resisters who fleed the country to avoid service in Vietnam.
IN VIEW OF the high level corruption becoming evident in the Watergate investigations, said Sutton, the President's counsel on anmency "seems all the more proteste."
Jo Wright, the wife of John Wright, and herself a member of the Lawrence Peace Committee, said the committee and other groups would continue to press for amnesty.
Both Writers say that they would like to see more limitations placed upon the power of the President to involve federal troops in the fight against insurgents by congress, as was the case in Vietnam.
"I want to see a push for legislative action to limit the president in this matter—a clear delineation of the rights of the congress and of the executive branch." said Jo Wright.
JOHN WRIGHT said the problem of the draft was an important factor in limiting the rate of completion.
"We should not dismantle the draft," he said, "but the determination of when to draft should be tied to congressional moves and not presidential ones."
Americans "have been lulled into thinking that the draft is no longer a problem since no one is being drafted," said Wright.
THE DRAFT law remains in effect and it is still necessary for men to take physicals and register with the Selective Service System.
No one will be drafted as long as a sufficient number of volunteers can be found to meet the present requirements of the armed services. But in recent weeks recruiters have reported that they have been unable to find a sufficient number of qualified despite lavish enlistment programs recently by the Army, and other services.
Yippie Activists Turn Apathetic
DEFENSE spending is another area of
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON—The aroma of marijuana jung in the stagnant Fourth of July air. Shrirtless and sweating, the three-man rock band beat mercilessly at electrified guitars. The harsh music resounded across the walls of the Smithsonian Buildings.
By PAUL VALENTINE
The crowd of 1,000 was sprawled under the trees, trying to escape the heat. A few people tapped their feet to the crashing wheels and danced lastlessly. Most sat and sated.
The Yippy-sponsored fourth of July marijuana "smoke-in" and "impeach Nixon" march was evolving into an urban law enforcement task. Why? Was the lusacate of the gathering uniquely characteristic of the Youth International Party (YIP) and its disciples—or was it symptomatic of a broader decay in American culture? Did the antiwar movement and radical left?
"CMON, PEOPLE," shouted a Yippy organizer over the PA system between rock sets. "We've been up dance. Show some You're nice, you all out on qualudes (dative drugs)."
into community issues; Topics like marijuana legalization and impeachment of the President are either passe or unpalatable.
The crowd was not only small but inert. The relentless pounding of the music failed to stir any adrenaline. The people, soaked by the loudness, required the required applause but little more. The day lacked even the usual irreverent maniences of hardcore exhibitionists who attach themselves to such events. No one was public, and no one took his clothes off.
Participants in the Yipp movement, as well as other members of the left, believe that, in general, the mass demonstration phenomenon is dissolving. The Vietnam War had a profound impact on support of mass demonstrations; Radicals are retreating from mass national actions
No one responded
THE FOURTH OF July gathering seemed to illustrate the point. Widely heralded in the news, the newspaper underground newspapers throughout in East and pushed in the straight press by Yippy advance men, the smoke-in-and fire on July 4 drew barely 1,000 people.
Late in the day, the rock bands rested, and organizers called for a march on the Capitol to demand impeachment of the President. Only about half the crowd stumbled to its feet and followed a flatbed truck to the west steps of the Capitol. There, they briefly sprend to life, frollicking in a mechanical fountain. But then they reverted to listening to a number of disorganized speeches condemning the Nixon administration. They dispersed soon after that.
concern for persons still committed to the peace movement. The President has requested a record $80 billion for defense this year, in comparison with $76 billion spent for defense last year, when U.S. forces were still present in South Vietnam.
"They picked the wrong issue," said a reporter for the underground Daily Rag newspaper. The reporter, who asked not to be identified, said legalization of pot in large urban centers like Washington "is hardly considered urgent" because of generally lax enforcement of anti-trafficking laws on the job, said. "You can smoke it into the street in Georgetown, and the cops usually don't do anything."
The South Vietnamese government has been promised continued financial and weapons aid by the United States. Such aid has so far抓total almost $150 billion.
"A LOT OF PEOPLE were too burned out on pot to make the march," said Aaron Kaye, another Yippie organizer, referring to the vast quantity of free marijuana available to the crowd throughout the day by the Youth International Party.
"We didn't politicize the crowd enough before the march," complained Yippy organizer Jeffrey Gill.
"What difference does it make if Nixon is impeached; Agnew would carry out the same kind of policies," said Lynn Watson, a longtime antiwar worker for the National Peace Action Coalition and Women Strike for Peace. She said her organizations had beenenchanted campaign because they were enrichment protesting what they said was the continuing covert U.S.-supported war in Indochina.
Antiwar and counter-culture advocates and they also view impeachment as a sanction against them.
He said that money for defense had been spent carelessly and that much of what could be saved could be spent on pressing domestic problems.
"It isn't that everybody in the peace movement wants to take money away from defense and put it into social programs," said John Wright.
"People don't feel fulfilled by demonstrations any more," said another Daily reporter. "They're ineffectual. People areturned to community organizing and issues now."
SOME organizations like Common Cause have shifted their attention to domestic issues, according to Virginia Adams, 2125 Terrace Rd., a Lawrence member.
reasonable model instead of just applying it" without "evaluation, control and im-
Anne Moore, 1007 Alabama St., a member of the American Friends Service Committee, said that much of the remaining momentum of the peace movement had led to domestic interests like Head Start and hunger problems in the United States.
SHE SAID she was dismayed by the apathy people were showing toward the cause of peace in the world. Part of this appearance of apathy, she said, "may be a very sensible backering away" from the crisis atmosphere of earlier years.
"The energy of Common Cause is now in the direction of election reform," said Adrian Fitzpatrick.
She said the organization was still pressing for an end to the bombing of Cambodia but there hadn't been much on this since the last national election.
He said that the defense department should "put the money into developing a
John Wright said that the war in Vietnam and the resulting movement for peace had to open up the political process" in the wake of Iraq, where the nation are now involved in domestic politics and politicians are being held accountable for their actions. He gave the Wategate rally a victory.
He said he believed that "silent public stress against the war" had done much to help him.
"Because so many unpeaceful things have been done in past years in the name of peace," said Sutton, peace may have acquired bad comventions for some people.
SOME HAVE seen the long war in Vietnam as a major turning point in U.S. history. They believe the effects of the war will ultimately be far-reaching.
Sutton said he continued to believe in the benefits of peaceful protest but was opposed to it.
Moore said the rapid social changes which began during the Vietnam war would have an especially important effect upon the country.
SUTTON VIEWED the "brutalization" of Americans by the war an important problem that would have to be dealt with in
"People have been bombarded with so much change I think many of them are tired
the future. He also said that "the nonemotion of indifference" that many developed during the war was of concern to him.
He has instructed his lawyer to make an application to the governor of the state of Massachusetts to rehabilitate (restore the lives) of Nicola Sacco and Bartomelo Vanzetti.
ALL AGREED that an end to American involvement in Southeast Asia would not end U.S. domestic and foreign problems. All said that they would continue to work to remedy problems of inequality and the lack of human understanding in the world
"I think the Vietnam war has left us with a lack of confidence in those who govern it."
"I think the peace movement didn't have a dramatic effect that it wanted, but it did have a positive effect."
The two Italian were executed by electric chair on Aug. 25, 1927, for the April 15, 1920, murders of a cashier and a policeman during a holdup at the Slater and Morril shoe company in South Braintree, Mass.
MILAN, Italy—Sabino Sacco, 90-year-old brother of one of two famous anarchists executed in the United States in 1927, is seeking the two men's legal rehabilitation.
"We should learn," said Sutton, "to reject visas as a way of relating to other people."
It was alleged they were seeking money in the holiday to finance their anarchist activities.
Agence France-Presse
Brother Seeks 'Pardon' for Sacco, Vanzetti
The "Sacco and Vanzetti case" became a cause celebrate of the 1920s. Liberals and left-wing groups condemned the prosecution as politically motivated and contended the case against the two anarchists was not proved.
Sabino Sacco's application for legal restraint rests primarily on the opinion of the late judge Angelo Michele Musmanno of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent and on the evidence of a gangster.
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