THREE U.S. SOLDIERS DENOUNCE WAR IN VIETNAM
Three privates | in the U.S. army, on furlough in New York, told a press conference June 30 that they would refuse to board a. troop transport on which they were scheduled to leave for Vietnam. Pvt. Dennis.Mora, 25, read from a prepared statement: "We have. made our decision. We will.not be part.of this unjust, immoral .and illegal war. We want no part of a war of extermination.. We oppose the criminal waste of American lives and resources. We refuse to go to Vietnam. © O oe
Pfc. James A. Johnson, 20, a Negro, said:. "Many brave, loyal, ; black American soldiers who fight and die for their country are hated, despised and cruelly treated in many. sections of this country. The Negro in Vietnam is being called-upon to defend freedom which in many. parts of this country does not exist for him. Just as the Negroes are fighting for absolute freedom and selfdetermination in the United States,.so it is with the Vietnamese in their struggle. against the Americans."
Pvt. David A. Samas said, “America has no role in Vietnam except that of instigator and conqueror. Are we fighting the Fascists, the Communists, or are we killing little brown peasants who in turn are fighting for their freedom?"
The action of the three created a nationwide sensation, being given extensive. coverage on television and the radio as well as in the major newspapers.
The first reaction of the Johnson administration was voiced by Frank A. Bartimo, the Pentagon's assistant general counsel. He said July 2 that the men had exercised their right of free speech and had not -- as.yet -- violated military discipline.
The three. were scheduled to address a meeting under the auspices of the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee at the Community Church in Manhattan July 7. Just before the meeting, they together with a fourth soldier Pvt. Joel Turtel, 22, were arrested | by plainclothesmen, and hustled in handcuffs to Fort Dix, New Jersey.
The. entire audience of some - 500 at the Community Church . responded by marching in a body to..Times Square where they staged a protest demonstration.
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DE TRIBUTE TO PABRICIO OJEDA
By Miguel “Fuente
"I seek, through revolutionaty action, the ‘solution to all our great problems and the achievement of a new life for the people, different from the precarious existence they have experienced for a century and a half in an unjust republic.... We take up arms with faith and optimism, as one. who has found his fatherland of the future. We take up-arms. against violence, against repression, against torture, against graft and corruption. We take up arms against the depravities and the betrayals.... We are fighting so that the dawn of ‘liberty and justice. can Tight up the horizon of our country. we a
‘These were the words which Wabricio ‘Ojeda, member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Venezuelan Congress, addressed to his colleagues in an- open letter on June 3s 1964.
On June 17 of this year he was captured by the SIFA [Servicio de Inteligencia de las Fuerzas Armadas -- Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces] and assassinated within four days.
“Torture and assassination of political prisoners in the style of Batista has been common practice under the Bétancourt-Leoni ; agencies of repression since 1963. But the blatant way in which