O'Neill Predicts Fight in Primary

Rep. Thomas P. O'Neill (D-Mass.) moved still further away from the Johnson Administration's Vietnam policy yesterday with a prediction that Johnson would have a hard time defeating Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn.) in the 1968 Massachusetts presidential primary.

O'Neill, who represents Cambridge, changed his position on the war in Vietnam last month from one of strong support for the Administration to one of moderate opposition.

In an interview on WKBG-TV's "Point of View," O'Neill said McCarthy's expected entry into the Massachusetts and New Hampshire primary elections "could cause a great deal of consternation" in the Democratic Party. He refrained from an outright endorsement of the Senator.

Peace Threat

Prior to O'Neill's modification of his Vietnam views, there had been wide-spread speculation tha anti-war forces in the Eighth Congressional District--which O'Neill represents--might mount a campaign to elect a slate of "peace" delegates to this summer's Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The Cambridge Neighborhood Committee on Vietnam, which assembled a large organization of volunteers during the anti-war referendum campaign here last month, is said to have contemplated such a move.

The election of an anti-Administration slate of delegates, without O'Neill's blessing, would constitute an affront to his leadership within the District.