University of Virginia Library

Varied Speakers

More than any other symbol
displayed was the American flag.
The hundreds of small and large
American flags were apparently
shown with the same devotion,
though not the same emotion, as
those seen earlier in the week on
Veterans' Day.

On that day, Lester Maddox had
warned a cheering Georgian crowd,
"There are some misguided punks
among us today..." while Mendel
Rivers welcomed a pro-Vietnam
crowd with the V-sign, a la Mr.
Nixon. Mr. Rivers showed it with
the same fervor for victory as Dr.
Benjamin Spock does for peace.

Hyperbole and irrationality is
not limited only to the Establishment.
A businessman at the rally
incredibly talked of the need to
replace the depersonalization of
government with "business-like
techniques."

The SNCC chairman, protected
on the speaking platform by his
two body guards, talked of the
impending "revolution of the
third-world peoples," and of their
leader, Ho Chi Minh.

And the deceptive oratory of a
political convention was not totally
absent either. One speaker told an
ecstatic crowd that official reports
being broadcasted over the radio
said the turnout was "over one and
a half million people."

Another asked for a ride or
contributions to help send a young
wife to California to see her
husband, dying from injuries received
in Vietnam, yet neglected to
inform the eager crowd of the
standing policies of the government
and the Red Cross to provide
transportation under such circumstances.

The speakers were as varied as
the crowd itself. David Dellinger,
his voice at times rising in emotion,
called for an end to capitalism as
well as to imperialism, after attacking
the favorite target of the day,
Spiro Agnew. "Spiro Agnew is the
Richard Nixon of the Richard
Nixon Administration," he said. "If
he didn't exist, we would have to
invent him."

Mr. Dellinger was followed by
Senator Charles Goodell, whose call
for a change of direction in
American policy seemed mild in
contrast to Mr. Dellinger's.

Folksinger Christopher Mann
sang: "If I die for a good reason,
that's all right, because sometimes a
man has to fight."

Yet, later, Rip Tom read a poem
that ended: "Kill for Justice/Kill
for Peace/Kill for Honor/It's insane."

Explained Peter Yarrow of
Peter, Paul, and Mary: "We have
listened to a number of people say
'Peace' in many different ways. But
that's democracy."

The Yippies were having a great
time, riding on the top of a rented
Ryder truck, throwing oranges into
the crowd, and looking more like
the tail end of a wild party than the
precursor of a new movement.

One Yippie, with long curly hair
and a yellow flag with "Yippie"
printed on it, looked as if he was
flying higher than the four Army
helicopters that orbited overhead.

"Ho-Ho-Ho Chi Minh," he kept
saying, as he chewed his glove. He
recited chants with all the conviction
or thought of a child reciting
rhymes while jumping rope: "1-2
stop the trial; 3-4 stop the war; 5-6
stop the trial; 7-8 smash the state."

If the Yippies are the clowns of
the clowns of the peace movement,
the Weathermen are the fools.
Often wearing crash helmets and
carrying Viet Cong flags, the far-left
faction of SDS was bent on
disruption.

They even felt compelled to
heckle a symphony string quartet
that played at the rally, because
they wanted more rock bands to
perform.