Speakers Blast Draft Indictments Before Capacity Teach-in Crowd

The big guns of the Harvard antiwar movement spoke to packed audiences in the Brattle Theatre and Lowell Lecture Hall yesterday in an eight-hour Vietnam teach-in.

The recent federal grand jury indictments of Michael Ferber 2G, Dr. Benjamin Spock, and the Rev. William Sloan Coffin Jr. sparked this debate on the war, resistance to the draft, and the future of the protest movement.

Ferber, who received a standing ovation in Lowell Lecture Hall, spoke of the indictments as having a "galvanizing affect on the resistance," and said he hopes "for at least a civil-libertarian victory."

"We are on trial," he said, "but we're going to do our best to make this a trial of the government too. We will try each other."

Open Telegram

Martin Peretz, instructor in Social Studies, read an open telegram from Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn.) during the second half of the teach-in held in Lowell Lec.

The telegram read in part: "The American people have been asked to support the tragic escalation of the war in Vietnam and are being asked to support it definitively by their vote in 1968. But at no time, I believe, has the administration come forth with a clear and rational justification of why the Vietnam war should be supported...."

Peretz then voiced his fears about what he called the growing optimistic spirit of the peace movement: "There is a good chance that the indictment will be extremely popular and that the indictment will be extremely popular and that the government will take advantage of the popularity to squash the anti-war movement."

Dr. Robert Coles, research assistant in Psychiatry at the University Health Services, met a cool reception when he proposed a critical evaluation of "what this country is like" rather than personal attacks on Johnson as a "lunatic" or "paranoiac."

Many of the speakers speculated on the reasons behind the indictments and the government's next move. "They hope people will be silenced and think twice before they speak out against the war," Howard Zinn, professor of Government at Boston University, said. Two speakers repeated rumors that 21 more indictments are forthcoming.

Harvey Cox, associate professor of Church and Society, joined several other speakers in exhorting the audience not to be intimidated by the indictments.

"I hereby aid, counsel, and abet you not to participate in this war," Cox said, echoing the language of the indictment.

Only Harvard station WHRB was able to broadcast major portions of the teach-in. Educational station WGBH was unable to provide radio or television hook-ups on such short notice.