Moratorium Day, Washington D.C.

station break [inaudible] as soon as possible after each [inaudible] after each [inaudible] there will be fifteen seconds of background from here and [inaudible] will be given then fifteen seconds of background from here for each local station to identify. Stand by The feed will begin in thirty seconds from now Mark [background noise] [background noise] [background noise] A man isn't

free who, when he votes, is forced to vote for the lesser evil. A man isn't free who's drafted. A peace-time draft is a form of involuntary servitude [inaudible] for inadequate pay under threat of arrest. It's a kind of slavery. A peace-time draft has no place in American life. A nation is not pleased that wastes its substance, its wealth, its energy on useless and destructive disarmament. The

Pentagon, that blind Colossus on the Potomac, has become our American Bastille. Why are we here? Because these three things abide. Faith, hope, and love. Why are we here? So that government of people, by the people, for the people people shall not perish from the earth. That's what we want for America. That's what we want for Vietnam. That's what we want for all the nations of

the earth. [applause] Thank you Mr. Wall. And now, a [inaudible] We pause 15 seconds for station identification. This is the Eastern Public Radio Network. This is WRVR 106.7FM New York I'd like to say thank you very much. I don't have to tell you how important [Dick Gregory] inaudible] [Speaker 2] This is Dick Gregory, the comedian. [Gregory] Last month the President of the United States said nothing you young kids would do would have any effect on him. Well I suggest to the President of the United States if he wanna know how much effect you youngsters would have on a President, he should make one long distance phone call to the LBJ Ranch and ask that boy how much effect you can have.

You young folks in America have not only proved that you are strong enough to end the war in Vietnam, you've proved with unity, you're strong enough to break the back of a racist system, you're strong enough to wipe out poverty. And you've also proved that you are strong enough to do away with the military industrial complex. [inaudible] Now Agnew's been talking crazy lately [crowd noise] and to be honest about it, I think Agnew's putting us on, myself I don't believe it's humanly possible for any any one man to be born that dumb. Because if Agnew is as dumb as he comes off, he wouldn't be able to chew gum and walk at the same time. I mean, Agnew is so dumb I wouldn't be surprised if he hijacked a plane and said "take me to Cuba." But like I said, I dig Agnew myself because he's consistent.

I wouldn't be surprised if he get on worldwide television and called Nixon a honky. But I don't get upset over Agnew. I just look at Agnew as Washington, DC's answer to Rosemary's Baby. And in all honesty I worry a little bit whenever Nixon leaves the country and that means Agnew is the #1 boy in charge. And that bothers me a little bit. Because I kinda get the feeling when I look at Agnew that he would make a prank call to the Russians on the hot line. [Crowd] Right on [Gregory] But as I leave you youngsters today, let me say to you [Crowd] More, more. [Gregory] let me say to you young folks as you look around and see what you're doing today

you understand why they had to call the army out, you understand why they had to make the threat that there was going to be violence. 'Cause you young folks have come to the nation's capital today using the greatest weapon ever been used in the history of the world. A pure moral dedication will break the back of the most vicious power. And that's what you have today [applause] [Speaker 2] Alright that was Dick Gregory. He's just received a standing ovation from the crowd. He's not finished speaking yet. [Gregory] And so we say, not only to the Nixon administration, but we go on record today to say to powers all over the world, that in the not-too-distant future, we're going to see to it there will be no more war. Many of us might have to go to jail. Many of us have been to jail. Brother Bobby Seale is in jail. But

let me say to you that I can stand up on the highest mountain in the world and say with pride that Dick Gregory is a convict. All that means is I have been convicted in a courtroom. But I can also say with pride, Dick Gregory is not a criminal. [crowd approval] It is the criminals in America that have made the Dick Gregorys and the Bobby Seales and the Martin Luther King the convicts. But let me say to you if those criminals keep making enough of us good people convicts, then for the first time we will have enough convicts to convict the criminals. Thank you.

Gregory with a scathing That was Dick Gregory with a scathing attack on Vice President Agnew and criticism of what he calls the consistent tactic of [inaudible] of the United States government. He's received a standing ovation from the crowd here who's calling for Dick Gregory to come back again. It looks as if we're going to have another song from Peter Yarrow. No I'm wrong, he's just adjusting the microphone for Lillian Hellman. [Hellman] My name is Lillian Hellman. It's very nice to be able to introduce a fine singer and a brave man. Tom Paxton [crowd applause] [music] [Commentator] This is Tom Paxton, a folksinger and contemporary songwriter who appears frequently at antiwar peace and freedom rallies [Tom Paxton singing] [Paxton singing]

[Paxton singing] [Paxton singing] [Paxton singing] [Paxton singing]

[Commentator]That's Tom Paxton, folksinger and songwriter. [Paxton] [inaudible] some years ago [inaudible] Dorothy Custer, Dorothy Custer, your three year old daughter, Sarah, is next to the information booth next to the Washington Monument. Please go there immediately. All other children please stay with your parents or come up here to Dr. Spock. Go ahead [inaudible] [music] [Paxton] Sing this song with us. [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing]

[singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing]

[singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] Thank you. [Commentator] That was Tom Paxton who

[inaudible] Dr. Spock again We need money to pay for this occasion. There are a million of us here. If you will all pay $1.00, we'll get out of debt and we'll have something to start the next mobilization. Please give your money and buy our victory button. This is the button that has a hand with the victory sign against the background of the Capitol dome. Children buy the button, parents give $10.00 when the bucket is passed around. You will be able to identify the official sellers of the button by their identification badges. This sound system, for instance, costs $17,000 for the day. That's what it costs for you

to hear us now. And it will cost $1000s more before the world finally hears us. Now Im going to introduce a businessman. I know that in the peace movement, a businessman is equal to 10 professors. This businessman is also former Undersecretary of Commerce. His name is Howard Samuels. The most important thing about him is that he was one of the first people to join this mobilization and has stayed by it staunchly when others have wobbled. Howard Samuels. [applause]

[applause] [Commentator] Howard Samuels who may run for governor in New York [Samuels]. Thank you very much I'm a businessman but the business of America is peace. The business of America is not to create war. The business of America is not to create wealth but to use that that wealth for human progress and that must start with the end of the Vietnam War. But perhaps you'll let me speak to you a minute as a businessman because our management is the envy of the world. It has demonstrated its ability to set goals, to organize and to achieve them. Perhaps America would not be failing today if our government borrowed some principles from American management. For there's something the matter with a Congressional system that places the power of

Congress in the hands of men like Mendel Rivers, John Stennis Richard Russell and James Eastland. That kind of system must go in America. [inaudible] There's something wrong with the management of the Congressional system that passes $70 billion dollar defense budget in a matter of minutes and and lets Medicare languish in the dark allies of Congress for 17 years. There must be something the matter with the ability of our political system to develop leadership when it places a Spiro Agnew one heartbeat away from the most important job in the world. I say one of the tasks of this country is to rebuild our political institutions so that never happens again. [applause] Our leaders must stop peddling

nonsense to the American people i'm tired of hearing complaints about campus radicals when the real radicals of America are hawks like Senator Russell and Congressman Mendel Rivers. I'm tired of hearing Spiro Agnew complain of parental permissiveness when he remains permissive to the unbusinesslike military budget of this country I'm tired of politicians who complain about bureaucracy and waste in the antipoverty program when the real bureaucracy and the real waste is American military bureaucracy which sees America with the largest standing army in the world with half of our army abroad and 3,000 bases in 30 nations. I'm tired of leaders who question my loyalty and patriotism while neglecting to question their own disloyalty to the American dream. There's a growing tax revolt in this nation

against rising education and welfare costs. Yet the real villain for growing taxes is warfare not welfare. The military consumes 70% of the federal budget of this country and it costs every family in America $2,000 a year. This year, America will spend $75 billion for military much of which is to police the world, much of which is to increase our nuclear killing capacity. This is more money than the governments at all levels spend for education, health welfare and housing. America must begin to make choices in terms of [inaudible] goals. We must chose between maintaining 300,000 troops in Europe, 25 years after

World War II at a cost of $3 billion or rebuilding our cities. I say let's rebuild our cities. We must choose between constructing transport planes to carry American troops to fight in distant land or providing compensatory education for our children. I say let's support our children. We must choose between taking the battleship New Jersey in and out of mothballs at a cost of $100 million or double the expenditures to house our senior citizens. This peaceful demonstration gives us pause to celebrate the best that is in America not the worst. For the best that is America is embodied in the revolutionary spirit of Concord and Jefferson, of Lincoln crying out against the

Mexican American War, of Woodrow Wilson proclaiming the New Freedom, of Martin Luther King reciting his dream before 200,000 marchers in Washington, DC. This demonstration represents the best that is part of the American tradition. A tradition of protest, a tradition of striding for justice, a tradition of crying out against injustice whether committed in Selma, Alabama or South Vietnam. It is you who are here today, not Spiro Agnew, not Richard Russell, not Attorney General Mitchell, who are America's true traditionalists. And I believe America's true patriots. For it is my conviction that this peaceful demonstration today is more consistent with

the American tradition than the ugly war in Vietnam. The business of business is America and the first business of America is to end the war in Vietnam to reorder our priorities and to begin the long bitter fight to bring the management or our public institutions into the 20th century. Thank you very much [Commentator] We're going to pause now for 15 seconds for station identification This the Eastern Public Radio Network [Speaker 2] This is WRVR 106.7 FM New [Peter Yarrow] There's a person here who has [inaudible] moral [inaudible] of attitude and commitment of the young people of our country. It's lovely to see Arlo Guthrie. [Commentator] We are back at the rally again and Peter Yarrow has just introduced Arlo Guthrie. [Guthrie] Ha-Ha! It's far out, ain't it? Ha-Ha! Whew!! Whew!

[music][Guthrie] It's kind of groovy, it's kind of far out and groovy to be here. I was up in Canada yesterday and they all wanted to come down here. and I see some Canadian flags nice to have you guys here too. We're talking about the whole world, right. So, I don't see any Mexican flags. Must be some around though. I don't have much to say I mean it's kind of said already. I don't even think anybody had to show up As soon as they put the machine guns at the Capitol, the point was made [music][Guthrie singing] [singing]

[singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] Those are the only verses I know. I'll just sing 'em again. You can sing them with me. We're out of tune too. [singing] [singing]

[singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing][Commentator] That was Arlo Guthrie singing "I've Got to Know" [inaudible][crowd noise] I'm not quite sure what's happening but there's a loud uproar from the crowd right here where we are, yelling boo, boo as if they're waving Guthrie off of the stage but it's difficult

to tell what's happening. And something was just [inaudible] [inaudible] press gallery [inaudible] [Guthrie] Not only what he ][inaudible] but I'm sure he is. Maybe one of your little kids out there, maybe not. We're going to do some verses from a song that he wrote that aren't usually sung very much. At least they're not taught in school [singing "This Land Is Your Land'] [singing]

[singing] [singing] [singing] [singing]

[singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing]

[music]. Thank you very much. [Commentator] That was Arlo Guthrie singing one of his father's most famous songs, "This Land Is Your Land" [Speaker 3] [inaudible] Pete [inaudible] come up, I'd like to ask all the people over here just to sit down just like the rest of the half a million people over there and the other half a million over there just sit right down right where you are. If they can do it you can do even though you're carrying flags you can just sit right down. Everybody else is, just sit down and feel good and feel together. Ladies and gentlemen a very special guest from a very extraordinary world, welcome, for just a moment, Leonard Bernstein. [cheers] [inaudible] [cheers] [Bernstein] You're beautiful. You should be up here and see yourselves. Now listen, Arlo is a very tough act to follow. And besides, I represent the square world of classical music, very respectable

and I haven't got an orchestra to conduct and it's too cold to make a big speech. So I just wanted to come down here and say I'm with you and bless you. [Commentator] That was Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor of the New York Philharmonic. [Speaker 3] Now we [inaudible] another very special guest. As you all know, the greatest fighting [inaudible] in the American army and they are fighting against the war. Please welcome one of them. He's an editor of an underground paper called [inaudible]. He is Curtis Stocker, Specialist 5, Vietnam veteran, 2 1/2 years in the Army currently stationed at Fitzsimons in Denver, Colorado. Let's wish him well, Curtis Stocker. [Stocker]. I'm the one and only Vietnam fighting man today, and I have a few remarks to address accordingly. Richard Nixon gave a speech on November 3rd talking about his secret peace plan and his silent majority. I have a statement written by Tom Roberts, who is the co-editor of our paper in Colorado Springs, that is directed

mostly at you GIs, and we have an [inaudible] for Mr. Nixon over there surrounded by his buses. Many GIs who are opposed to the war in Vietnam perform their assigned duties to the ever-present fear of stockade and federal prisons. Many GIs opposed to killing nevertheless go to Vietnam when ordered in hopes that they will enter into a situation where they might not have to defend their lives by killing another human being. But when an armed enemy is running at you GIs with his weapon spitting bullets it's too late for a change of heart, it's too late for an inspection of your morals then, it's too late for anything because one of the two of you is going to die. The time for morality and the time for protest, the time for change of heart is the minute you are ordered to the Republic of Vietnam. The individual action taken, you should follow a careful assessment of your conscience. This action should in some way prevent you from being placed in this situation of kill or be killed situation. And if dig that, somebody's going to dig you a grave. If this sounds radical, please realize that there is nothing more radical than death, especially when your bodies are being used to insure that often sought after, but seldom attainable

thing, an honorable peace. If President Nixon had 39,000 tons of honor it could not help the dead across the river at Arlington. Honor is a dirty word to the dead at Arlington because they are the silent minority and they are very silent and they are very still. The GIs who go to Vietnam are the ones who see the war, they are the ones who fight it, they are the administration's war machine, and these are the very same people that the administration wants to keep quiet and this is for two main reasons. Number one, that the people will listen to these GIs who have been to Vietnam and number two, that the truth cuts the administration quite deeply. The government is all for having you GIs like myself go out there and fight for freedom in Vietnam but you come back to this country and you try to exercise those freedoms and you find out what happens to you. I'd like to make a prediction right now. Richard Nixon talks about his secret peace plan for ending the war, this is what's going to happen. Dissent is growing in the military, the GIs are the military, they make us the thing that's fighting the war. It's legal dissent and it's growing every day. In the last year the growth has been phenomenal.

The administration, the establishment, they cannot stop it because it's entirely legal. There will be no mutiny, there will be no broken laws, there will be an enforced Constitution, and this is going to bring the administration's war machine to a grinding halt. And the only thing we can say, Richard Nixon, if you don't bring the GIs home from Vietnam, they're going to come home all by themselves. [applause][Commentator] Apparently the yelling that we heard a little while ago was at a press platform that was being erected and blocking the view of a number of people. It was not jeering at Arlo Guthrie as I had originally thought. There is a little disturbance in the back

[inaudible]Announcement: for anyone who's going to California or anyone who has a few extra dollars, there's a girl, 18 years old, married to a veteran who is just been badly shot up and returned to San Francisco from Vietnam and he's dying and the girl has no money and wants to go to California. If anybody can help her go to California to meet her dying husband, if they would come to the back of stage, straight behind the stage, there's one entrance and we'll try to put someone in touch with them there. That's where she'll be. [Commentator] Just a very moving plea for assistance. Here's Dr. Spock. [Spock] A year ago, Dave Dellinger led the peace movement to the Democratic convention in Chicago Now he's being prosecuted according to an unconstitutional law by a government which the President's own commission on violence said was a police riot. Dave

Dellinger [applause] [Dellinger] I didn't come alone The government has succeeded in getting Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman into a 9-to-5 job five days a week. We're all on trial together. Jerry Rubin, who had his hair cut in jail. Abbie Hoffman and John Froines Tom Hayden and Rennie Davis are in San Francisco. And Lee Weiner is stoned. But the one that I wish really were here rather than any of the rest of us is Bobby Seale. Just before the last time we saw Bobby, just before they led him away on that four-year contempt sentence, he said to us

'you know fellas, I may not see you for a while again but then who knows, we may end up in the same can. but anyway, I want you to know that they may hang me upside down for the rest of my life but it won't matter because the conspiracy will win.' Now as a matter of fact, if they were going to charge somebody with using interstate facilities to incite a riot, more than a riot, a war they might consider Spiro Agnew Spiro Agnew is the Richard Nixon of the Richard Nixon administration. He's a caricature of the caricatures we always used to make of the Right. And if he didn't exist, we would have had to invent him. But don't underestimate Spiro Agnew

Like people underestimated Joseph McCarthy Like they underestimated Richard Nixon, like they underestimated the people who brought facism to Germany. Spiro Agnew is no activist. He is programmed. Now Spiro Agnew says that the television industry is a tiny closed fraternity and I agree with him. But this is a society in which tiny closed fraternities have the power. The government is a tiny closed fraternity. The economics, the factories, the farms are run by a tiny closed fraternity. The

answer is not to bring in the government to censor television or to have more power over the lives of the people than they do now. The answer is to democratize the society. To turn it back to the people. The factories, the farms and natural resources should be communally owned with popular control, decentralized control. Spiro Agnew says that the television distorts the news and I agree with him. The problem is he wants them to distort it more. And he wants them to distort it more in the wrong direction. If Spiro had his way, this wouldn't be shown on television at all. If Spiro had his way, people would think that the greatest cause of violence in the world today is the antiwar movement. Sometimes the antiwar movement breaks some windows or throws a few rocks. And I don't think that myself that that's going to shift

power in the country or build a united movement. But the greatest concentration of violence in the world is run by the United States government. And Spiro Agnew is the number two man, at least of the visible government. Behind the visible government of course is one of those tiny closed fraternities of the military industrial complex. We antiwar people may occasionally throw rocks, but the government drops six-ton bombs on Vietnam. It drops napalm, it drops fragmentation bombs. It doesn't break windows, it wipes out whole towns and cities. Let's put this whole question of violence into context. Even

before Spiro Agnew spanked television television was implying that the greatest test of this week's activities was whether or not there was violence. Yes, we're against violence this week and we've organized against it. But the greatest test of this protest is whether we can stop the massive violence in Vietnam. Whether we can stop the massive violence against the black people and the poor people in this country. Whether we can stop the institutionalized violence of the status quo, the institutionalized violence of capitalism under which profit and property is more important than human beings. Now everybody wants the war to end. Some people want the war to end because they know that that tiny, underdeveloped country

has defeated the United States and restored man to the to the center of the universe again. Other people want to stop the war because they've had their eyes opened and they know what the war is doing to the Vietnamese people, to the GIs, to the whole of society. The war against the Vietnamese people has become a war against the American people as well. But Mr. Nixon says we must have an honorable end to the war. I submit there are three conditions for an honorable end to the war. One is it must be NOW Otherwise, if it goes on to the end of 1970, as one of the senators has proposed another 10,000 to 15,000 GIs will be killed, another 100,000 to 150,000 wounded and many times that many Vietnamese.

To say we will end the war by the end of 1970 is tokenism. The war must be ended now. Secondly, the war must be ended with independent self determination for Vietnam. And just as people in England and France and Poland supported the American Revolution and American independence, the American people must support the independence of Vietnam by supporting the Provisional Revolutionary Government and by supporting North Vietnam. Independence and self determination is the second condition. And the third condition is that we must learn the lessons of this war. Richard Nixon has asked will those who have died die in vain. They will have died in vain if we do not learn the lesson. If we allow other Vietnams to take place as they are already taking place in Laos, in Latin America, and for

that matter in the black communities of this country. Now my final word is this. When imperialism is defeated abroad then it finds it necessary to scrap the facade of democracy at home. When imperialism is defeated abroad, it must either withdraw or institute facism in this country. It doesn't happen all at once but it has already been imposed on the Black Liberation Movement with its systematic attempt to wipe out the Black Panthers and other black liberation forces. Bobby Seale taught the country that that trial in Chicago is not a joke. Julius Hoffman is the Spiro Agnew of Chicago.

But that trial is not a joke and they intend to electrocute Bobby Seale. Never forget that. Yes, Robert Williams, somebody said and one could run down the list of the heroes who are trying to liberate the black people of this country But we must have black and white together in solidarity against the political repression And that political repression is coordinated, programmed and organized here in Washington at the Justice Department 5 o'clock this afternoon, Abbie Hoffman, John Froines Jerry Rubin and I will be marching with you I hope, with you if you really support us, marching to the Justice Department where that repression is being programmed.

All right. All GIs home. There is only one thing to argue about. One thing to negotiate and that is the amount of the reparations to that ravaged country. And anybody who's afraid of being victimized in a bloodbath over there with only a tiny handful of profiteers and leftover colonial offices anyway but offer them asylum. They're not the most lovely people in the world but bring them back in the same boat as the GIs. Right on! Paul Stookey. Paul, Paul Paul Stookey, come on up here. We're going to be singing in a little while. Come on up [inaudible]

I was introduced by Bill Coffin earlier as a leader of the Welfare Rights Organization. I'd now like to introduce one of the actual leaders of the Welfare Rights Organization. One of the new voices, one of the people who has been involved in the new movement of grassroots poor people, black, white, Chicano, Indians and Puerto Ricans all across this nation who are increasingly speaking out against the war and for new priorities. Mrs. Beulah Sanders, current vice-chairman of the National Welfare Rights Organization and chairman of the citywide coordinating committee of welfare groups in New York City. [inaudible] We welfare mothers are opposed to the war in Vietnam and we're opposed to government whose priorities are death and destruction. It is important to talk about priorities

since we are smart enough to know that the end of the war in Vietnam will not necessarily mean an end to the war on the poor that has been waged in this country. But we strongly feel that by joining together and letting our voices be heard, that we want an end to that war this minute and the boys to come home is the most important thing that we can do today and that is by joining together saying to President Nixon "end the war today, stop killing the men in Vietnam, bring the boys home and let's fight the war on poverty today." We feel that it's not necessary to spend $40,000 to kill one VietCong. We feel that $40,000

could go a long way in closing the gap that we have in this society. There need not be two societies. We are talking about human priorities and we should, in a country as rich as this, be able to live together in peace and to provide an income for all Americans regardless to his race, creed or color. We feel that he has to talking about a guaranteed annual income for all people instead of talking about escalating. The time is now that peoples' voices must be heard loud and clear. President Nixon, end the war in Vietnam and bring the boys home. Power to the people. [Commentator] We pause now 15 seconds for station identification. This is the Eastern Public Radio Network [inaudible]

[inaudible] It's not necessary to [inaudible] [inaudible] and they'd like to help pay for this event, you can you can also bring it to the back gate.[Speaker 2] Riverside Radio WRVR 106.7FM [Speaker 3] [inaudible] Washington Monument all day coverage of the activities here at the mas rally . Once again, correspondent Bill [inaudible]. [Speaker 4] We're back at the rally now. Peter Yarrow is coming to the mic to make another introduction. There have been one of two minor disturbances out in the crowd, groups standing up with Provisional Revolutionary Government flags and shouting Ho, Ho, Ho Chin Minh, but it's been nothing serious. It's not bothering anyone. [Yarrow] [inaudible speaking and singing] [singing]

[singing] Everybody clap your hands [singing] Thank you very much. Before we have announcement of the next person to come to [inaudible] we have to ask everybody over here to sit down because you're blocking the view of everybody in back of you. Sit down and over here you've got to sit down, everybody is waving to you.They can't see in back of you

Sit down. Everybody in back say 'sit down.' sit down sit down, sit down, sit down. Everybody sit down right where you are. Before we have the next speaker, there are three children that are lost. Would all three children [Speaker 2] We have had reports, which we might as well give you now while they're looking for lost children, that the stage behind the Washington Monument along with [inaudible] Capitol [inaudilbe]

[inaudible] They're estimates in the range of 600,000 people here This is not an official estimate of any sort. It's not the [inaudible]. It's simply the number going around the press that there may be as many as 600,000 people here. It's really a very impressive crowd, it's extremely impressive. Nearly the entire crowd is seated except directly behind the press benches where the crowd has to stand and then the line of standing people tends to stretch all the way back in the crowd so that they can see over the people in from of them. George Wiley. [Wiley] I now like to introduce one of the few Republican senators who has spoken out against the war. I'd like to say that Sen. Charles of New York has introduced a bill in the Senate of the United States that would, as a matter of law end the war in Vietnam.

He has been the only senator to introduce such a bill. We heard a lot about the criminals in the White House, the criminals who lock up the Bobby Seales, the criminals who kill the Martin Luther Kings. I think I think it is time that we begin to establish law and justice in this country and Sen. Charles Goodell is one that is leading in that struggle. Sen. Goodell. [crowd noise] [Goodell] Thank you very much. This great outpouring of people is not here to break a President or even a Vice President. We are here to break a war and to begin a peace. There are some leaders today who, instead of lowering their voices, are raising strident calls to

the flag, to patriotism and against Communism. They are even using the age-old device of imputing disloyalty to those in dissent. We say to them, you will not put us off with the divisive clamorous pointless rhetoric of yesteryear. Throughout the history of man, the most vulnerable policies have been cloaked in such gaudy garment. We know that the best noisemakers are not necessarily the best peacemakers. We shall not reply in kind. We appeal to the reasoned conscience and good sense of the American people. Neither are we making policy in the streets. We strive to involve all Americans in restoring the people's guiding hand. to misguided

policy. That is in the best tradition of America. It is not the people who get this country into trouble. It is the leaders who say we know best. They may listen to the silence of citizens and interpret it as assent. That is why we are not silent citizens today. Tragically, our nation's leadership, while striving for peace, has adopted a course that makes real peace unlikely. It is a policy that believes we can brutalize the North Vietnamese into making concessions at the negotiating table. That we can convert by words alone a corrupt Saigon government into a government representative and responsive to the needs of its people. It is a policy that [inaudible] declares

that the outcome of a civil war in Vietnam is vital to the national interests of the United States. It is not vital to the national interests of the United States. It is a policy that assumes the American people will go on supporting the the fighting and dying of Americans in Vietnam well into the 1970s. The American people will not support the fighting and dying of American men well into the 1970s. We are told that if the Untied States pulls out of Vietnam, there will be a bloodbath. This assumes that one million South Vietnamese under arms will collapse in the face of 250,000 VietCong and North Vietnamese. It assumes that the bloodbath that did not occur in 1954 in North Vietnam will occur in South Vietnam. now. But all of us, concerned about bloodbaths of any kind must ask

what in the world has been going on in Vietnam for the last 6½ years if it isn't a bloodbath? We are told that America's credibility will be destroyed if we don't remain in Vietnam. We don't care much for the kind of credibility that comes from slaughtering a people in order to help them. We believe that the credibility of our foreign policy would be far greater today had we spent $60 billion on peace rather than $120 billion on war in Vietnam. We are told that we advocate peace at any price. We do not advocate peace at any price. We are against face saving at any price. We do advocate peace

with pride and honor. The pride and honor that comes when a country has made a mistake, recognizes it, and gets out of that mistake. There are those who say we must not dishonor the 45,000 Americans who have died in Vietnam. We say let us not dishonor 5,000 more Americans by making them die in Vietnam next year. Yesterday at the University of Georgia a gallant mother presented me with the flag the covered the casket on her son's return from Vietnam. In presenting that flag to me, she spoke these eloquent words: "In all hearts, from the ancient Greeks to today, the mother has been depicted in several moods. She tenderly holds her child and smiles, smiles upon the dear part of her flesh and spirit and she is in tears.

For as long as we know, the man-child has been rudely seized from the mother and sent off to war and the crying woman hears of his death. For all these years, woman have asked why? Why? Why, men, must you fight and destroy? Why must destroy those whom we love? What is it for? And we have never received an answer. An answer that makes any sense. I am a mother who lost her boy to that accursed force of men. When my son's lifeless broken body came home the casket was draped with a flag. What a poor and dreadful way for a flag to be used. It should be used to celebrate peace and reason." Those were the words of this gallant mother, mother of a fallen son. May our actions today and our

actions hereafter hasten the time when our flag once again can be used to celebrate peace and reason. Thank you [Commentator] All right, that was Senator Charles Goodell of New York whose presence here and at other rallies has become a major issue in the Senatorial campaign next year in New York, Here's Peter Yarrow and Mary of Peter, Paul, and Mary. [Yarrow] Everybody sit down now. A lot of people standing up. Just sing this song along with us. We came here, just like you did to say we want peace and we want it now. A lot of people say it in a lot of different ways on this stage here and we gotta hear all of the ways because that's the way of democracy. So let's listen to the new times cause they are changing and they must change [singing Times They Are A Changing] [singing]

[singing] [singing] [singing] [inaudible]

[inaudible][singing][Commentator] Ladies and gentlemen, we must apologize right now. We're having technical difficulties with our feed from the stage.[inaudible][singing] [singing][inaudible][singing]

[singing] [singing] [singing] [singing][Yarrow] We'll sing some more as soon as we find our lost child. We apologize Paul's lost. And there's also. So come on up Paul

if you find your way up here. You've got some loving friends waiting for you. Ed Duntee and William Duntee 15 years old and 11 years old. Just tell people, I'll looking for my folks, help me come up forward over here. And when you get here, we'll all be straight, okay? Okay. There's a number for missing persons to call 737-1270. If you are missing or if you are looking for somebody remember this number, 737-1270. But please kids, stick next to your mother. Next is our own Ossie Davis Well, first a few words of appreciation to my fellow [inaudible]. Now we have managed to convert our minority into a majority

but it's gonna cost us some money. And what I would like to tell you right now is that in order to have brought the million people we have gathered around this Washington Monument, it took a great deal of money, a great deal of writing, a great deal of everything and if this is worth it to us, we must be ready to pay the price. Now you've gave me a big problem, because you're packed in so close that the money collectors we had organized can't get between you. Be we got a solution for you. You'll find among you, citizens with cans selling buttons.

Buy those buttons One dollar from everybody here will not only wipe out the debt we have from this march but if we another, it will pay for that one too. Buy the buttons There are 66,000 buttons out there still unbought. Buy them Buy the posters. And if you can't get to somebody with money, pass it forward. If you can't get close to somebody who can take up the money, throw it over the fence. We'll pick it up Do whatever you can, but we need money and we need money bad because we are on the brink of a great victory. And when you see that sign, remember it would be much more effective if you put into those

peace fingers some money. Put a dollar bill into that hand and let it hang out let it all hang out like that. That's the sign for victory Put money into our pockets so we can further our fight for peace. Thank you [Commentator] All right that was Ossie Davis making a plea for funds. We have a report that the District of Columbia police have made an official estimate of 250,000 people. I personally am fairly sure that we have more than that, but that is the official estimate and as I've said before estimates have ranged as high as 600,000 in the press tent. They are continuing with the plea for funds, purchasing the large buttons with the V for Victory sign imposed over the Capitol building. [inaudible]are very colorful [inaudible] at the base of the Washington Monument

it is a very young crowd. Hundreds and hundreds of flags and banners, buttons, decals, bumper stickers and so forth floating around. Here's George Wiley [Wiley] A. man who has spoken up consistently against the war in Vietnam a United States Senator who not only has shown a deep commitment and concernr to ending aggression in the world, but has spoken and has moved for a new set of priorities here at home. The priority of ending hunger and malnutrition in the United States of America. He is Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. Senator McGovern [McGovern]. We meet here today

primarily for one reason and that is because we love America. We love America enough to call her to a higher standard. We love this country enough to call her away from the folly of war into the paths that lead to peace. We also meet today because we love the flag. And we would raise that flag out of despair and division to the higher ground of faith and love and peace. "In peace," the ancient historian wrote, "children bury their parents, but war violates the order of nature and cause parents to bury their children." So we are here today

as American citizens, young and old, to build a country that teaches war no more. We meet today to reaffirm those ageless values that gave us birth life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And we meet to declare peace, to put an end to war not in some distant future, but to put an end to it now. We meet to say to young Americans, 10,000 miles away from this historic place, that we still are our brother's keepers. We meet today to demonstrate that 40,000 of our young citizens did not die for naught. And we are determined to learn and to act on the bitter lessons that were purchased with their blood. We meet to affirm the claims of conscience and of life over the bondage of fear and hate.

I think there is a special burden, a special sorrow in our hearts for those who die in battle, for those who and scarred and wounded, for those who are held prisoner. But in a very real sense, each one of us is a prisoner of war and we long to be free. We meet not in impudence or in violence but in humility and in grace. So what then is the America we seek? We seek an America first of all with the sense of proportion that inaugurated this country. To form a more perfect union, to establish justice, to insure domestic tranquility, to promote the blessings of liberty. And that document should be our constant inspiration whether its freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of speech the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition their government for a redress of grievances. So I would hope that no American would be frightened out of his Constitutional privileges. Let no teacher or student, no politician or preacher, no journalist, no television commentator be silenced by fear

Now let me put this to you as plainly as I can. A dangerous effort is underway in this country to confuse, to divide to intimidate the American people, including the news commentators of our country. When the great television networks and one of our most distinguished senior statesman are assaulted by the very highest executives of our government, then it seems to me that no citizen is safe and liberty itself is in danger. That is not the method of this peaceful assembly. It is not the method of America. So I plead, again to every citizen

and especially to those in the press and in television on whom all of us depend for our information, do not let them scare you into silence. Now what is the America we seek? We seek an America that permits other nations to determine their future. We reject the notion that self-determination for others. others is secured by the intervention of ourselves. We seek in our own country an America that would replace the national budget dominated by war with a budget dominated by the quality of life. We seek an end to the military draft now. We would replace it with the time-honored American practice of volunteerism. We would replace compulsion with a new call for alternative service because we build a new nation that justifies our service. What again is the America we seek? We seek an

America not so concerned with lowering or raising voices as with speaking the truth. We do not make guesses about what the silent majority may be thinking. Rather we heed the words of Emerson, "if a single man plant himself on his instincts and there abide the huge world will come round to him." So we seek an America that understands the power of gentleness. We say to those who would divide Americans against other Americans by appeals to ignorance and fears and passions you do your work and we will do our best. Let me close on that timeless admonition: be strong and of good courage. And let us remember to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to keep silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time

to hate, a time of war and a time of peace. God grant that our efforts here today will help end this time of war and begin a time of peace. Thank you very much. [Speaker 2] We're going to pause 15 seconds for station identification. This is the Eastern Public Radio Network. [Speaker 3] Riverside Radio WRVR New York City. to introduce together and sing together Father Kirkpatrick and Pete Seeger [Commentator] Pete Seeger and Father Kirkpatrick. A group of young radicals attempted to interrupt Senator McGovern's speech a few moments ago, yelling obscenities when he spoke in favor of our Constitutional principles the quiet American way of life. [Seeger] Brother Fred Kirkpatrick an exile from Louisiana and he's going to help me sing a song which we were singing all last summer up and down the Hudson

River. If you agree with it, I hope you'll sing on the chorus. It goes like this [Seeger and Kirkpatrick singing Bring 'Em Home] [singing][Commentator] Peter Seeger and Rev. Kirkpatrick singing 'Bring 'Em Home, Bring 'Em Home] [Seeger] There's many kinds of songs to sing As I was walking from Arlington to the Capitol

today with the name of a dead man on my chest, there was one little phrase which I kept singing over and over and over to

myself and maybe you'd like to sing it once or twice with me and Brother Kirkpatrick because it's something we're gonna have to say to 200 million American people when we get home. And all it is is this: all we are saying, sing it, is give peace a chance. Let me hear it, all we are saying is give peace a [singing][Commentator] All we are saying is give peace a chance.The chant that we hear at quite a few peace rallies. It was sung at Bryant Park in New York. It was sung at rallies all over the United States on Moratorium Pete Seeger and Rev.

Kirkpatrick are waving blankets trying to lead the crowd in singing. The crowd is standing up now and the entire crowd is standing now putting up both hands in the peace sign. This is the first time the crowd has really been together on anything and this particular chant usually becomes one of the most moving events of any rally. [singing] [singing][Commentator]This is a very impressive sight. Probably 400,000 people or more possibly 600,000 all standing and all singing "All we are saying is give peace a chance." The flags are waving, the hands are waving back and forth in rhythm with the song. Everyone on stage even the press bleachers on the other side is full of people standing up singing "all we are saying is give peace a chance" [singing]

[singing][Seeger] Are you listening, Nixon? Are you listening, Agnew? Are you listening in the Pentagon? Are you listening, Nixon? Sing it for Bobby Seale, sing it for Norman Morrison, sing it for the people in Asia, sing it for the people in Africa, sing it for the people in Latin America, sing it for everybody, sing it for you and me [Commentator] All over, the massive

field, acres and acres of people rocking back and forth in rhythm with the song. The American flag, the North Vietnamese flag, the National Liberation Front and Canadian flags all

rocking back and forth together for hundreds and hundreds of yards. I've never seen anything quite like this before but this crowd is definitely together. Peter Seeger and Rev. Kirkpatrick have done a very impressive thing here in getting this chant moving. It's as far as we can see in any direction. Back behind us, over between the rally stage and the Tidal Basin are more people lined up where the buses have parked along the road they're singing, they're rocking back and forth waving the peace signs. Totaling 800,000 peace signs as they finish singing. The entire area has broken into applause. The flags are flying and they're shouting Peace Now, Peace Now which has become the rallying cry at many of these large peace gatherings. I'm going to give you to Bob Carrey. [Carrey] This is Bob Carrey on the roof our mobile unit. Looking back into the crowd now there is smoke which resembles the tear gas we saw last night. We don't know what it is. It's near the base of the Monument. Several clouds of smoke, looks like smoke from here, have gone up. Here is Mrs. Coretta King. [King] My dear peace

loving friends I want to thank you for providing me with one of the most awe-inspiring experiences of my life. There is only one other experience that reminds me of this one today and that was the March on Washington in 1963 [crowd noise] The war in Vietnam has become one of America's largest wars fought against one of the smallest countries in the world. The war with this tiny adversary has damaged our

prestige abroad more profoundly than [inaudible][Speaker2] what the hell is the fire out there?[King][inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] white and black[inaudible] the poor to slums and everyone to live in stagnating cities and towns. [inaudible] fall in Vietnam but they are disintegrating the cities of America. Number three, it has alienated a generation of young

young people, disrupted their lives and stolen their hope. Number four, it has divided the nation in abrasive conflict more severely than any crisis from the founding of the republic to this today. Even in the war for independence of 1776 the intellectual effete snobs who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution enjoyed more national unity than we have today. It takes little wisdom to realize that if it was unwise and inept to have gotten into this war in the first place to steadily persist in staying in it becomes stupid and

evil. We have been told we cannot afford the humiliation of withdrawal. I feel that even less can we afford the humiliation of pursuing a war by ignoble gains. It is ultimately more humiliating to solicit respect for a government in South Vietnam that is flagrantly and arrogantly undemocratic. A government that has only minority support, that suppresses the free press, that throttles free speech, that jails its political opponents and which is rampant with corruption, deceit and guile. The administration now tells us the solution is to turn the war over to this bizarre mockery of a democratic government. And even this curious solution is qualified. If they do not appear able to survive, as if such a government could survive, we propose to come back and resume the war. In a war that was a blunder in the first place, this solution simply compounds our

foolishness and obtuseness. Reflecting on the [inaudible] logic of the administration, it is hard to escape the impression that they are really trying to end the opposition to the war rather than trying to end the war itself. This war is costly materially and morally for everyone, including those who wave flags and intone patriotic platitudes as if a wrong purpose can be made virtuous by an ancient ritual of words. However, though everyone suffered in some degree, one group is most affected: the young people who are so well represented at this assembly. When some older people aggressively ask who is responsible for

young people today, the best response is to guide them to a mirror. In just 10 years, young people have been given a shock treatment of terrifying and terrible reality. In the first half of the decade, men like my husband tore aside the curtain that concealed the hideous racism of this society. Young people, with their inherent decency and sense of fair play, expected, along with blacks, that all available resources would be employed to inaugurate justice. For every wrong, they have been told, there is a remedy. But year after year they witnessed the savage refusal to right wrong. They saw Constitutional law and order arrogantly defied even by state and local government. They saw beatings, jailings, murder and abuse used against black people with slow and half-hearted response from those charged with government. Then as they waited in confusion and with tortured consciences, they found this country turning away from still vast unfulfilled

needs to embark on a foreign adventure. Tens of billions of dollars were suddenly available for a war which had been missing for racial justice. To heighten the tragedy of youth, the war [inaudible] and empty purpose now involved them personally as direct and indirect combatants. The impact of these two traumatic experiences forced them to reexamine the values of a society that seemed so morally blind and so spiritually suffocating. If this administration is now discovering radicals under beds and behind doors, let it realize that its own national policy on racism and war has educated more radicals than could have

a million books and 10,000 trained propagandists. Let them not look for subversives on campuses or on the slum streets. The real subversion is formulated in the [inaudible] halls of government where justice has too often been stifled and strangled. For the moment, the administration has pleased a large number of people by promising peace to the peacemakers, war to the warmakers, and compromise to the moderates. Because it cannot fulfill these easy promises, inevitably a rude awakening will come. Another speech

another gestures will not quiet the distressed millions. Above all, they will not quiet the young people. they have their lives ahead to live and they know they are not being given the society of justice and decency they were promised as their birthright. But they are a new generation and they mean seriously to live in principle, dignity and peace knowing they will inherit everything, the good and the bad. They are here today and on streets around the nation, to warn tired, reactionary men [inaudible] that they will not accept an inheritance of evil. They are saying, as Patrick Henry once said at a little church in Virginia, "if this be treason, make the most of it." [crowd applause] [crowd applause]

As men of affairs speak glibly of the future and the glory of power, they would do well to remember that they are watched critically by the most educated, intelligent and moral young generation this nation has ever known. And beyond their creativity this young generation is courageous. They have little fear of repression or denial because there is so little in this war-ridden and racist society that has appeal for them. Some young people may act in bizarre ways, some conduct can be deplored, but those who write the laws and conduct the affairs of government have used the awesome power of this society more irresponsibly and more immorally than any of the young. If the generation gap is to be narrowed and eliminated, it will come from movements such as this, where people of all ages and races are

agreed that America was founded on a dream of peace and brotherhood and they will settle for no less. [inaudible] 2000 years ago, on a small hill in the Middle East a simple spiritual leader said, "blessed are the peacemakers and the meek for they shall inherit the earth." His voice is still heard over the clamor of battles and today it is louder and stronger than

the thunder of 1000 guns. [Commentator] Mrs. Coretta King Mrs. Martin Luther King speaking there. And as she said, this is one of the most impressive things that she's seen in her life and you can judge from that just how impressive it is because this is a woman who has seen lots. We pause now for 15 seconds for station identification. This is the Eastern Public Radion Network. [Speaker 2] Please do not light fire [Speaker 1]This is Riverside Radio WRVR New York [Speaker 2] Please me each other on the football field [Speaker1] You're listening to all day live coverage of the activities here at the Washington Monument and the mass rally on the Eastern Public Radio Network. Here is Bill Dunlap. [Dunlap] William Sloane Coffin is making routine announcements now. As Mrs. Coretta King was speaking there was a huge picture of her husband up in the front just in front of the dais where she was speaking. And also as she spoke, a large cross with a young black man fastened to it in crucifix form was raised. it was a live young black man and it's just being lowered back into the crowd now Peter Yarrow is leading the cry of 'sit down, sit down' trying to get the crowd seated. And there's a bonfire out in the middle of the crowd up towards the Washington Monument. What we thought originally might have been tear gas turns out to have been smoke

from a bonfire. We don't what it is, but it's probably there just in an effort to keep warm on this very chilly Saturday afternoon. The Rev. Mr. Coffin is continuing with his speech. [inaudible] are trying to keep warm in any number ways, wrapping blankets around them, stomping on their feet. The press [inaudible] fortunately for [inaudible] is heated, but noone else seems to have that particular advantage including the people on the stage most of whom are wearing very heavy jackets. They don't seem to be making any headway in their efforts to get the people seated, but here is Richie Havens, a very popular folk contemporary singer.

[music] [music] [Havens] Hello. Before we [inaudible] came today that we could say a few words about how we particularly feel about what's happening in Vietnam and not only in Vietnam as far as I'm concerned. All over the world, in America, in your neighborhood, on your street, in your house.

If everybody is not together, your house isn't together, your street isn't together, your neighborhood isn't together. Brooklyn, New York, Manhattan, Queens, Syracuse none of it is together. I'd just like to read a few words from one letter [inaudible] Gentlemen, GENTLE-MEN, We have discovered so many laws of nature, so many known facts of truth and they have not yet begun to apply this knowledge to our time. Our time consists of split generations, one violently clinging to the past

and one desperately grasping for the future and the mass is trapped in between with the knowledge of things as they are. To all, there is the problem of their own individual lives whatever they may be. There is the problem of the eternal supposed reality which involves each individual body and mind, that is to say, that which is all outside of our own individual selves which encompasses our environment individually and the situation that our circumstances and that our life condition which is now returning to youth, the introspective turn of mind which has its problems too. There are few people to talk of the caliber necessary for the development of this new breed of living thought. for their problems lie in what to do with old emotions, desires and returning instincts. They cast veils on empty [inaudible]. Group problems are plentiful

Ask any individual, although groups tend to born of a more careful nature in order to eliminate such inner deterioration. Sources must rely on the supply and demand of each individual's energy therefore a group consisting of many intellects, [inaudible] origins, background regions from becoming a group in the first place can never all be satisfied at once, therefore rendering all groups almost impossible to exist in this time. It must be individual involvement must be ourselves Responsibility, any individual or all individuals, responsible for his or her

own life, will probably see here a more possible existence for mankind. And like all human beings have the ability to control his or her very own actions, the sufferings and starving and pain we all have to bear because of the few who hold in [inaudible] positions for reasons other than the whole whether it be the Mickey Mouse Club or NASA or the United States of America, Biafra or Vietnam, we are all subject to any one force supplied by any one of us. Why should the world be in any way, shape or form enthralled in poverty, ignorance, sickness and starvation? They are not all equal. Starvation begets sickness. Ignorance begets poverty. We must find out what the destiny of mankind is and we must do it individually. Therefore we must give it individially, live it individually. [music]

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[music] [music] [music] [music] [singing] Havens:What are you here for? Crowd:FREEDOM! [singing]

[singing] [singing] [singing] says