MARCHERS PROTEST U.S. ROLE IN VIETNAM
Some 500 demonstrators, protesting U. S. intervention in Vietnam, clashed with the police in Munich May 27.
The protest march was organized by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and scheduled to take place during German-American Friendship Week. POGOe at
The authorities sought to ban the march on the grounds that the Americans at the America House in Munich might take measures of "self-defense."" The case was taken. to court. and a partial legal victory was won, The march was approved but the marchers were forbidden to take a route passing the America Houss. (Since the beginning of May, members of the War Resisters League have held a permanent vigil there against the war in Vietnam. )
The march began after a meeting. Among the speakers was a secretary of the biggest union in the world, the two-million-strong German Metal Workers.
The demonstrators carried placards reading, "Vietnam to the Vietnamese"; "Vietnam -~- Today Bombs and Gas; Tomorrow Atom Bombs?"; "Don't Bomb -- Negotiate!"; "Mr. Erhard, Don't Support U.S. Policies in Vietnam"; "No Vietnam in Germany -- No Emergency Laws}"
The demonstrators chanted, "Ami, Go Home!" and "Amis, Get Out of Vietnam." ["amis" is the German slang for Americans, |
The clashes with the police occurred when some of the demonstrators veered from the prescribed route and headed in the direction of America House, Twenty were arrested. They were released after their names had been taken down. :
The day before the demonstration, U.S. Ambassador George _
McGhee spoke at the. University of Munich on "Atlantic partnership and European unity." One of the students listened to Johnson's envoy attentively but with the precautionary measure of wearing a gas mask,
Others, less respectful, qiterrupted the speaker with shouts of "Santo Domingo" and tvietnam.'
GUBRRILLA WAR