University of Virginia Library

March Holds Scenes
Of Present, Past

By David Burke
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Two men, both in their early
twenties, stood fondling the thick,
wooden sticks in their hands and
eyeing the group of longhairs mocking
the McIntire Victory March
proceedings.

A Viet Cong flag about 300
yards to their left caught their
attention and the two men ran in
its direction. The Washington Post
ran a picture of them "pinning" the
holder of the flag.

A George Washington University
student reported to his friends of
planned sniper fire in Georgetown
for last Friday evening.

A young boy, a huge spray-painted
peace sign across his back,
stared at the night stick handed to
him by one of his friends with the
sickened look of a soldier awaiting
the battle.

But for the most part, the
20,000 people who attended Saturday's
Victory March at the Washington
Monument milled about in
the atmosphere of a mid-western
county fair.

While the platform speakers
droned on about World War II,
Korea, and Viet Nam, the marchers,
the majority being over 50 years
old, sat on imported beach chairs
and listened intently to the conversations
around them.

Like the one between a self-proclaimed
priest and a young girl:
the "priest," who wore a homemade
collar and was walking
through the crowd with a peace
sign around his neck and passing
out Kool-Aid, approached the girl
and asked her about her poster
coupling God and killing.

After several minutes of debate,
the girl proclaimed the man as not
deserving of life in the United
States and she refused to even look
his way. (The same "priest" was
accused by many people of spiking
his Kool-Aid with L.S.D. and other
"evils.")

Like the group of peaceniks
who cheered wildly when the
speaker asked if there were any
people in the march from Canada.

And there were bands and balloons
and a "giant" Uncle Sam, a
man on stilts who wore boxing
gloves and a heavy rope around his
wrists and carried a balancing pole
with the signs at the ends.

During the march, Mr. McIntire
carried a microphone and broadcast
his radio show from the march.
Several people from the crowd ran
on to Pennsylvania Avenue to try to
shout anti-war slogans over the air.

Also during the marching, a
group of hecklers mimicked the
marchers by trucking along side of
them out of step, falling down and
carrying upside-down American
flags.

But probably the best image one
can use to dramatize the event of
Saturday is the one that occurred
when walking away from the proceedings.
The speakers' words
echoed off of the Washington
Monument as to become garbled
and far-away. The crowd's
responses became a mock football
game cheer. One was reminded of
the Moratoriums and Germany
circa 1932.