Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Resist Newsletters Resist Collection 11-20-1968 Resist Newsletter, Nov. 20, 1968 Resist Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter Recommended Citation Resist, "Resist Newsletter, Nov. 20, 1968" (1968). Resist Newsletters. 10. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter/10 THE BUILDZNG OF -COMMUNITIES cont'd ••• D!lAFT TO DOUBLE IN 1969 cont'd ••• domestic colonialism. If we can stand may go a good deal higher. For the together we can build a society that last few years the Army has always offers a meaningful life to all of underestimated its needs, and in its ' citizens. February or Ma~ch we can expect an announcement from General Hershey However, we should realize that we that the calls for the rest of the need personally relevant reasons for spring will be even higher than unity. , We should not let phony emo­ anticipated. tionalism perpetuate our organization­ al hang-ups. We must understand the Meanwhile, to keep the manpower people we hope to recruit, where pipeline filled, the Pentagon has they're at and how to activate them, resorted to a variety of maneuvers. and must discourage those who would Reserves called up during the Pueblo use the movement as a psychological crisis have been kept for Vietnam, balm for past hurts and injustices. and other Reserve and National Guard units have been activated and shipped There has not been enough debate out. Regulations governing attendance on the issue of "where do we go from of individual Reservists at drill have here and how?" Bluntly put, the been tightened, and a significant num­ movement can succeed only if we ber of men have been called to active develop continuity through community. duty. A whole month's worth of draft Without unity we will be dispersed calls was "saved" by returning 24,000 and our effect diluted. Together we men {18,000 in the Army; 6,000 in the can develop active, radical communities Marines) for an involuntary second that last beyond occasional demonstra­ tour of duty in Vietnam. tions. Whether or not we succeed in doing this will be the deciding factor Such policies have been met with in the struggle ahead of us. increasing resistance. A number of Reserve units have sought {so far --Dalton Shipway unsuccessfully) court orders blocking their transfer to Vietnam on increas­ ingly ingenious grounds. A Cleveland group argued that no state of war had been declared and that their call-up was . therefore contrary to their Reserve contracts. The Massachusetts 513th Battalion produced extensive evidence to support their charge that the Army SPEAKERS IN THE EAST had falsified training records and . that they were in fact unprepared for combat. They went anyway. In the The following· people are av&ilable most recent case - 105 National Guards­ as speakers in the East through men from Louisville, Kentucky, attached January: Mitchell Goodman, Denise to the Second Battalion, 138th Artil­ Levertov, Father Blaise-Bonpane, and lery - the Army has had to open a sec­ John Holt. ond front with Mr. Justice Douglas. The men had argued that they are mem­ They can be contacted through bers of a state militia, not a standing Florence Howe, 310 Ridgemede Road, army, and are therefore limited by the Baltimore, Maryland, 21210 (301-243- Constitution to service to "execute the 0543). laws of the Union, supress insurrection and repel invasions." "None of which," Justice Douglas said, "as I understand it, is relevant to service in Vietnam." continued DRAFT TO DOUBLE IN 1969. cont'd ••• Nevertheless, the Army shipped the men Footnote: Shortly after this article out the day before their case was to was written for the Newsletter, the be. discussed (and not taken up for con­ Department of Defense issued a January sideration) by the Supreme Court, pro­ draft call for 26,800 men. This is voking Douglas to charge that they were the highest quota since last May and "spirited out of the country," deprived is more than double that of November. of the "full hearing to which they are It will, according to the Department entitled," and that "no one - not even of Defense, "assure a timely flow of the Department of Justice nor the mil­ replacements for men completing their itary - is above the law. " The case terms of service." was particularly exasperating to Mr. Douglas, perhaps because only a few days earlier the Marines had tried a similar tactic in the case of Private Paul V. Winters; a Douglas order had just managed to rescue him from a Vietnam-bound plane at an airport in Alaska. These tactics have probably done the ACADEMICS IN ENGLISH AND MODERN Administration little political good. MODERN LANGUAGES: PLEASE NOTE It was one thing to quietly dispatch some scattered Reserve units or some delinquent individuals; it is quite Members of the New University Confer­ another to have their court protests ence will organize a radical caucus making headlines and stimulating a at the winter meeting of the Modern Senate Preparedness Subcommittee inves­ Language Association of America tigation. Moreover, the tactics may (Dec. 27-29) at the Hotel Americana have backfired in the Supreme Court. in New York City. The initial meeting The Justices have now heard a case, of the caucus will take place on Thurs­ that of James J. Oestereich, in which day evening, Dec. 26, at Columbia Uni­ even the Solicitor General admitted versity. The purpose of this meeting that the Selective· service's policy of will be to plan programs (resolutions, drafting dissenters may be unconstitu­ a·lternate curricula, discussions, pro­ tional. And on the day they discovered posals for action, etc.) for the next that the 105 Louisville Guardsmen had three days. been shipped off, the Justices reversed themselves, in a very rare action, and The objective of the caucus is to agreed to stay the induction of a Cali­ make the MLA more responsive to the fornia registrant who argued that his vital educational and political demands draft board had violated the law in of our time; to initiate meaningful refusing to grant him conscientious· changes ·in curricula; to give a forum objector status. The 1967 draft law to graduate students and young faculty; expressly prohibits the courts from and to create a radical movement inside reviewing local board decisions except the organization. when the registrant has refused induc­ tion and is faced with a felony charge. If you are interested, write or phone In agreeing to block induction in this RESIST for more information. Please case, the Supreme· Court may have effec­ inform any of your colleagues who might tively nullified that burdensome pro­ be interested. In New York City, call vision of the law and provided a new one of the following numbers: 212-222- handle for the many men who will soon 5621; 212-663-0139; 212-866-5751. be trying to stave off induction. THE MILITARY WAR AGAI.N.S.T. T.HE. WAR The growing organization of the to warrant a court investigation. Bright anti-war movement within the military and Lock were ordered to Utah, but has become evident in recent months. because of pressure brought to bear on Individual protests have congealed into Air Force authorities and the threat of mass resistance, and formerly isolated legal proceedings, their orders were incidents now spark nationwide support. also rescinded·. Locks was subjected to The war against the war has at last additional harrassment when he went to moved into a new arena. The military is Washington, D.C. to see some Congressmen no longer secure against protest, about the march. While he stood in organization, and resistance, and it is uni.form talking to newsmen about the largely because of the new efforts of . events scheduled for October 12, he was the civilian movement and a new taken into custody by military police consciousness among servicemen. When the and detained for 5 hours without being Fort Hood Three refused to go to charged. A Pentagon spokesman later Vietnam in 1966, there were only 20 or said that Locks had been detained to so. known incidents of resistance check the validity of his leave orders. within the military. The two years since Presumably it was determined that Locks then have seen the widespread growth of had to report back to Hamilton AFB by anti-war sentiment, and the subsequent Monday. Since he was detained on a growth of organizations within the ranks Friday afternoon, the five hour detention determined to unite all military was sufficient to prevent him from seeing resisters to each other and to the Congressmen, who are not g&nerally civilian movement. Several recent available on weekends. "incidents" reveal the size and strength of organized military resistance to the Fear over the demonstration was war, and the extent to which it terrifies expressed by top ranking military men the military establishment and as early as August 28, when the Air simultaneously rouses the support of Force communications center at the thousands of peaceful people. Pentagon received an unclassified message from General Estes (Chief of the One of the largest demonstrations of Military Airlift Command) to General GI antiwar feeling took place on October McConnell (Air Force Chief of Staff). It 12 in San Francisco, the "GI and Vets read in part, "Strongly believe this March: for Peace." It is of particular demonstration should be quashed if significance not only because of its possible, because of possible severe approximately 700 active servicemen and impact on military discipline 8000 supporters, but also for the frantic throughout the services. There is no maneuvering it inspired in the highest AFR specifically proscribing this type echelons of the militany hierarchy.