Harvard Senior Leads Democrats In Drive for Peace Plank in '68

A Harvard senior is directing the Massachusetts arm of Dissenting Democrats--a new anti-war group trying to get a peace plank in the 1968 Democratic platform.

Cort B. Casady '68 is collecting the signatures of Registered Massachusetts Democrats pledging to support only those party candidates who are "working in good faith to end the war." "Our eventual goal," Casady said Wednesday, "is to take the signatures to the Democratic platform committee, and say 'Look, here are 500,000 votes you're not going to get.' That would put some real pressure on."

Dissenting Democrats immediate project is to gather signatures for a November 11 advertisement in the Boston Globe. "That is a very concrete campaign," Casady said; "we've mailed out 14,000 letters.

Go After Faculty

The movement won't touch most Harvard students, he explained, because few are registered voters and few of those would vote in Massachusetts. But he does plan to go after Faculty members--many of whom have already put their names on more general war protest advertisements.

The Dissenting Democrats are working to get Lyndon Johnson off next year's ticket, but right now the group isn't connected with Al Lowenstein's Dump-Johnson movement. "I think there's going to be some kind of merger," Casady said; "Lowenstein is trying to form a coalition of peace groups, and it would be a real shame if the whole movement doesn't get together under one name."

"Lowenstein is trying to button-hole politicians, as I understand it," he continued, "and we're going after people who have not yet been visible in the peace movement, so what we're doing is complementary."

U.N.C.L.E.-man Robert Vaughn is the national chairman of Dissenting Democrats, and Amherst professor Henry Steele Commager is the chairman for the State. Casady's official title is Administrative Director which, he says, "means I'm doing all the work."

Vaughn started the organization June 23 in Los Angeles and gathered 8000 signatures in three weeks. He asked Casady to organize a branch here--one of about 20 around the country.