WHAT THREE PARADES SHOW ON RATING OF VIETNAM WAR
The giant antiwar demonstrations in New York and San Francisco, which brought out at least a half million participants in the largest such mobilization in the history of the United States, is still troubling the Johnson administration.
There is nothing Johnson wants more right now than something to offset it.
Two tries have been made. On April 29, a "Loyalty Day" parade was converted into a counterdemonstration. Its organizers confidently predicted that their parade would bring out many more people than the April 15 Spring Mobilization effort. They forecast 150,000 people, setting their sights on the grossly slashed down "estimate" of 125,000 given by the New York police department for the April 15 march and rally which was actually well above 400,000.
The press, the radio, television and other media did their best to whip up spirit for the parade. The Johnson administration even brought in General Westmoreland from Saigon for a speech in New York on the eve of the demonstration to further inspire patriotic sentiments.
The top count for the "Loyalty Day" parade was 3,717 in Manhattan and 4,473 in Brooklyn. [Apparently supporters in New York's three other boroughs helped swelt the ranks in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The fiasco appears to have been intolerable to the great man in the White House. A new and better organized effort was required.
Another parade was decided on for New York. The date set was May 13.
Credit for initiating it was given to an obscure employee of the New York fire department, who "just thought up” the idea of staging a march to "support our boys in Vietnam."
His idea caught on with singular effectiveness. It was backed by any number of government employees, particularly the New York police department, thousands of whom helped make up a "spontaneous" response.
All the most reactionary organiza-— tions like the American Legion mobilized. Huge, very costly advertisements were placed in the papers. Spot announcements came over radio and television. Stores carried notices in their windows.
Some of the unions whose records include very active cooperation with government witch-hunters in "cleaning out the reds" in their own ranks, put strong pressure on their members to make sure they were seen in the ranks of the paraders.
And once again, General Westmoreland threw his weight into the scales, this time with a stirring message from Saigon on the eve of the operation.
With all this preparation, which obviously involved some very large sums of money, Johnson's lieutenants were able to report a reasonable facsimile of popular support for his war in Vietnan.
The total number of misguided patriots and professional paytrioteers was
around 50,000. This figure was stretched to a generous 70,000 by the New York Times.
Its report on the parade played up all the devices utilized by the sponsors to make the show look colorful -- the majorettes, uniforms, bands and flags. But it was obvious from its handling of the affair that the Times considered the demonstration to have little political weight.
This also seems to have been the estimate of both the Democratic and Republican professionals in New York.
New York's Mayor Lindsay, for instance, who has carefully refrained from any flag-waving in connection with the war in Vietnam, was conspicuously absent.
The truth is that the April 15 demonstration registered the real sentiments of the American people. They are wholly against the war. They want out, and the sooner the better.
Up to now, Johnson has obstinately sought to give the impression that it is quite useless to stage antiwar demonstrations. He will pay no attention to them.
His spokesmen have repeatedly’ said that antiwar demonstrations can only "prolong" the war. They claim that demonstrations merely encourage Hanoi; and, since Johnson will pay no heed to the wishes of the American people, that means prolonging the war.
They overlook an item. By his abuse of power, or exercise of powers that are not legally his under the U.S. constitution, Johnson can prolong the war. There is no doubt about it. But he will end up by considerably shortening the perspectives for the Democratic party remaining in power; in fact he can end up shortening the entire span of time which the twoparty system might still have before exhausting its possibilities.
Time is running out on Johnson. The April 15 antiwar demonstration and the April 29 and May 13 prowar demonstrations testify to this -- each in their own way.