Protest: To Hanoi, from Dr. Spock

Americans who militantly oppose U.S. involvement in the Vietnamese war range all the way from the hysterical Vietniks of the far left to the less strident, pacifistically inclined groups that fault the Administration for backing a repressive right-wing regime in Saigon but offer no alternative to the Communist tyranny that would surely succeed it. The Vietniks so far have hogged most of the headlines with draft-card burnings, teach-ins and frenetic statements in support of the Viet Cong “revolution.” Last week some 22,000 of the older, quieter protesters, from 140 groups, came to Washington to publicize their views on Viet Nam.

Organized by SANE (National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy), demonstrators and speakers argued that neither side has made any serious attempt to settle the war in Viet Nam, urged the U.S. to make the first move. By way of proving its good faith to Hanoi, they maintained, the Administration should immediately end the American buildup in the South and halt the bombing of North Viet Nam. Before marching around the White House, leaders of the demonstration—among them Old Socialist Norman Thomas, Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr., Pediatrician Benjamin Spock—expressed their opinions to White House Aide Chester Cooper, and seemed surprised that his response was “less than satisfactory.”

Any Time. Carrying signs with neatly lettered slogans such as SUPERVISED CEASEFIRE, marchers tramped to the base of the Washington monument for oratory by demonstration sponsors. Cried Baby Doctor Spock: “When will the Administration grow up and stop blaming Communists for America’s mistakes?” Protest leaders, who took pains to maintain order, posted more than 300 monitors to “persuade” leftist hangers-on to keep down their signs urging U.S. surrender and an immediate withdrawal from Viet Nam. To show that they, at least, were ready for negotiations any time the Communists were willing, SANE leaders capped the proceedings by sending a letter to North Viet Nam’s Ho Chi Minh (R.F.D. 1, Hanoi?) urging him to join the U.S. in efforts toward peace.

Lyndon Johnson, who has been the target of much of the protest, issued an unwontedly graceful statement allowing that dissent was a sign of political vigor and would help establish that the basic U.S. policy in Viet Nam had been framed and tested in a climate of “free discussion and openness.” The President, while emphatically affirming the right to protest, reminded the protesters that their efforts could only strengthen the conviction in Hanoi and Peking that the U.S. is so riven by internal dissension that in time it would be forced to quit the war. “The fact remains,” Johnson said, “that the great majority of Americans do support our course of action in Viet Nam.”

Cookies & Cards. Indeed, the protests have mobilized impressive support for the Administration. A nationwide group called YES ACTT (Youth Expresses Support Through America’s Trains and Trucks), backed by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Young Democrats and Young Republicans, is working to fill 100 railroad boxcars with sorely needed supplies for the people of South Viet Nam, already has 20 cars packed for Christmas Eve loading aboard a ship in Oakland, Calif. To G.I.s have gone 35 to 40 tons of cookies from Pennsylvania residents, 150,000 greeting cards from one group in a New Jersey town, and daily bags of mail from all over the U.S., addressed simply: “G.I. Joe, Viet Nam.” A high school in New York State is raising money to send a G.I. wife to a Christmas reunion with her husband in Hong Kong or Manila. An offer of 500 cases of beer from a Cincinnati labor union was regretfully declined by the Defense Department. Gratefully accepted was a continuing flood tide of blood donations from thousands of students at more than 60 campuses from Appalachia to Austria.