Peace Groups Start Protest Over Vietnam

A Harvard Yard rally yesterday afternoon and a teach-in at M.I.T. last night began local participation in a nation-wide, week-long protest against President Johnson's Vietnam policy and the recent draft increases.

A coalition of almost all major peace groups in the U.S. will hold demonstrations in over 100 cities during their "International Week of Protest." There will be teach-ins, marches, and rallies in the largest combined effort ever to try to end the war.

Today the Cambridge sponsoring groups, which include the Students for a Democratic Society and the May 2nd Movement, plan to leave the Cambridge Common at 1 p.m. and march to the Boston Common. The marchers, joined by students from Boston University and M.I.T., will picket the U.S. Army recruiting station at 42 Boylston Street and listen to a series of speeches at the Common's bandstand.

Police Fear Violence

The Boston Police Department has assigned 500 men to prevent violence during the demonstration. A Boston Police Sergeant said yesterday that the department was especially concerned with the possible burning or draft cards in front of the army recruiting office. He also anticipated that anti-demonstration demonstrations might become disorderly.

A spokesman for the demonstrators claimed that all marchers will receive special instructions to avoid violence. The group has recruited its own marshals to prevent any incidents. However, the Boston protestors refuse to give any "positive guarantee" that trouble will not occur.

Guardsmen Stand Ready

In Berkeley, Calif., 600 combat-equipped National Guardsmen stand ready to help police halt a proposed seven-and-one-half mile peace march which will terminate with a rally and a "sleep-out" in a vacant lot. City officials have refused to issue a parade permit because of the student riots which took place last year. A proposed SDS plan to interfere with the shipment of weapons from San Pedro Harbor has also raised police apprehension in Southern California.

Elsewhere in Massachusetts, students from Clark University have planned a protest at Worcester City Hall, and a joint group from Bennington, Amherst and Williams will culminate a 17 mile march from Bennington with a rally on the Williams campus. New York City police anticipate that 15,000 marchers will take part in a protest parade along Fifth Avenue to Central Park.