Speakers Denounce Viet Policy

Two hundred peoples came to a "facts forum" on Vietnam Thursday and heard denuciations of several aspects of U.S. policy in Asia, including a call for students to go to jail rather than serve a government of "Fascist butchers."

Larry Robinson, a graduate student, opened the meeting with a discussion of the extent of North Vietnamese infiltration into the South. "Until recent American bombing sorties, the Viet Cong received only token support from the North," he said.

Despite recent step-ups in aid, Robinson continued, the Viet Cong form an independent South Vietnamese army and "it is painfully obvious that North Vietnam can't call off the Viet Cong."

Robinson ended his 27-minute speech loud applause by calling for responsible protest and declaring, "It is one thing to spend a few years in jail, quite another to becomes accomplices of these Fascist butchers."

Not everyone agreed with Robinson's analysis. An African student rose in the back of the hall and said that he felt the speech had been "devoid of facts." The statement met with both mind applause and some hissing.

A member of the Students for a Democratic Society then declared that "this meeting had been advertised as a facts forum ... therefore, this type of speech, based largely on emotion, was out of place here and has most likely alienated rather than attracted people to our cause."

Robb Burlage, another SDS member and a graduate student in Economics began his talk on the Great Society and the war's effect on it by lambasting the President for "declaring war on everything: Vietnam, puberty, poverty, and Congressman Ford. It seems as though our President has a Churchill complex."

"This society has not known massive economic growth in the last 35 years except as aided greatly by hot or cold war," he said. President Johnson lacks "the guts to build a peacetime economy in the United States," he declared.

Steve Rosenthal, a Harvard graduate student, berated the United States for its part in supporting the "dictatorial regime of Diem."

As for the reaction of the South Vietnamese people to possible Communist rule, Rosenthal said that there has been only one peasant uprising in North Vietnam and large numbers of such uprisings in the South. The Vietnamese, he concluded, "consent to the rule of the Communists" because "the Communists offer both brutality and betterment, while the United States offers only brutality."

The final speaker, John Schrecker, associate professor of Chinese History of Princeton, said the North Vietnamese had adopted many aspects of Chinese civilization including religion, language, and bureaucracy, but they definitely want to remain free of China.

However, Schrecker felt that U.S. policy is pushing the North Vietnamese closer to the Chinese and that unless U.S. involvement in South Vietnam is ended soon, North Vietnam will become a puppet of the Chinese.

Not everyone agreed with Robinson's analysis. An African student rose in the back of the hall and said that he felt the speech had been "devoid of facts." The statement met with both mind applause and some hissing.

A member of the Students for a Democratic Society then declared that "this meeting had been advertised as a facts forum ... therefore, this type of speech, based largely on emotion, was out of place here and has most likely alienated rather than attracted people to our cause."

Robb Burlage, another SDS member and a graduate student in Economics began his talk on the Great Society and the war's effect on it by lambasting the President for "declaring war on everything: Vietnam, puberty, poverty, and Congressman Ford. It seems as though our President has a Churchill complex."

"This society has not known massive economic growth in the last 35 years except as aided greatly by hot or cold war," he said. President Johnson lacks "the guts to build a peacetime economy in the United States," he declared.

Steve Rosenthal, a Harvard graduate student, berated the United States for its part in supporting the "dictatorial regime of Diem."

As for the reaction of the South Vietnamese people to possible Communist rule, Rosenthal said that there has been only one peasant uprising in North Vietnam and large numbers of such uprisings in the South. The Vietnamese, he concluded, "consent to the rule of the Communists" because "the Communists offer both brutality and betterment, while the United States offers only brutality."

The final speaker, John Schrecker, associate professor of Chinese History of Princeton, said the North Vietnamese had adopted many aspects of Chinese civilization including religion, language, and bureaucracy, but they definitely want to remain free of China.

However, Schrecker felt that U.S. policy is pushing the North Vietnamese closer to the Chinese and that unless U.S. involvement in South Vietnam is ended soon, North Vietnam will become a puppet of the Chinese.