Local Activists Plan Campaign For Amnesty

More than 100 people, many of them representatives of New England activist organizations, attended a conference Saturday to develop strategies for a nationwide drive for reconciliation with Vietnam and unconditional amnesty for all Vietnam war resisters.

The all-day conference at the Divinity School, one of seven regional meetings held across the nation, included workshops on veterans' problems, recognition and aid for Vietnam, and amnesty for was resisters.

The meeting sought to unite individuals and organizations concerned about war-related issues in an effort to influence the incoming Carter administration, Anita J. Greenbaum, a conference organizer, said yesterday.

Greenbaum said one focus of the meeting was to begin a nationwide campaign to obtain signatures for a petition to be presented to President-elect Jimmy Carter on Inauguration Day.

The petition will ask the new administration and Congress to:

Normalize relations with the nations of Indochina and accept admission of Vietnam to the United Nations:

Provide reconstruction aid to Vietnam;

Grant unconditional amnesty to "all draft, military, and civilian resisters and veterans with less than fully honorable discharges":

Assure adequate rehabilitation and compensation to all physically or psychologically wounded veterans.

Greenbaum said the campaign will begin officially this week or next with a press conference and ceremony, during which Sen. Edward M. Brooke (D-Mass) and other legislators will sign the petition.

Sponsors

The meeting Saturday, sponsored jointly by Friendshipment and the National Council for Universal Unconditional Amnesty, was organized locally by the Massachusetts Coalition for Amnesty and Friends of Indochina.

Cora Weiss, national coordinator for Friendshipment, said one immediate goal of the conference was to generate support for U.S. recognition of Vietnam.

Friendshipment is a coalition of 45 religious and activist groups organized to raise money for the reconstruction of Vietnam.

Conference participants issued a statement to President Ford asking that the U.S. not veto the entrance of Vietnam to the U.N. when the question arises.

In the workshop on reconciliation, Weiss--who has traveled to Vietnam several times--said recognition of Vietnam has been withheld because of the "personal vindictiveness" of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger '50.

Weiss said the U.S. is not fulfilling its agreement in the Paris peace accords to work towards "healing the wounds of war." She said this was understood by both Vietnam and the U.S. to mean reconstruction aid.

"Carter is coming to the White House with clean hands," she said, adding she is optimistic that he will respond to popular pressure to provide aid to Vietnam.

Weiss said a major effort is underway to raise money to build a hospital at My Lai, site of the massacre of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers.

She said many Western nations, and some Third World countries, including India, have provided reconstruction aid to Vietnam. She added that the hospital would indicate to the world that the "American people support reconstruction even if the American government does not."

In the workshop on amnesty, Patricia Simon, national coordinator of Gold Star Parents for Amnesty, said "during the war people in the peace movement encouraged draft resisters, but [the movement has] now fallen away to do other things, while was resisters need help."

The name of Simon's organization refers to the gold star emblem that is awarded by the government to parents whose sons are killed in action.

"Nixon said we couldn't have amnesty because it would make a mockery of all those killed in Vietnam," Simon said. "That made many parents of killed servicemen very angry. We've organized and have received significant support."

Simon said Carter's proposed "pardon" would benefit only 4400 draft evaders, the "whitest and best-off group financially," and would subject deserters to a case-by-case review which the speakers said would be slow and inherently discriminatory