Poll Shows Only 49% THE MILITANT Now Give Support to Published in the Interest of the Working People Vol. 30 - No. 10 Monday, March 7, 1966 Price 10c Johnson on Viet War Confession Rocks Malcolm X Trial By Herman Porter NEW YORK, March 1 — The few of the prosecution witnesses. prosecution’s case against two of Dermody asked no questions to try the three men accused of assassin­ to find out from whom Williams ating Malcolm X was severely could have gotten this informa­ shaken Feb. 28 when Talmadge tion. Hayer (also known as Thomas Hayer’s description of how the Hagan), the only defendant to assassination took place is much have been caught at the scene of more credible than the story the the crime, confessed. Hayer not prosecution said it would prove. It only exonerated Norman (3X) contradicts the prosecution’s ver­ Butler and Thomas (15X) John­ sion in ways from which neither son, but he described how the Hayer nor the other defendants crime was committed and in doing benefit, and in ways which make so threw grave doubt on the testi­ mony of most of the prosecution’s iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiti'iiiiniim eyewitnesses. Vincent Dermody, the assistant NEW YORK — Herman Por­ district attorney in charge of the ter will give a firsthand ac­ case, tried to show that Hayer was count of the Malcolm X mur­ lying to save the other two de­ der trial at a meeting of the fendants. M ilitant Labor Forum at 873 Hayer said he had come forward Broadway on Friday evening, to testify as a witness for the de­ March 11. fense and to confess because he wanted the truth to be known: •iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiu iiim iiiu iiiu iiiim iiiK K t that Butler and Johnson did not have anything to do with the much more sense than the prose­ crime. He had not come forward cution’s version. When Dermody sooner because he didn’t want to asked Hayer if the witnesses told confess and had waited until it the truth about him, he responded was clear he needed to in order at one point: “ It’s quite impossible to prevent the conviction of the for the crime to have been com­ NO JOKE. Some people thought maybe it was a joke when the cold warriors at New York’s two innocent men. mitted the way they said it had.” Freedom House gave their annual “freedom award” to Lyndon Johnson. But 5,000 New Yorkers Hayer maintained that he was (See the article on the case in the Feb. 14 M ilita n t for some of turned out to protest this grim joke and to demand a halt to Johnson’s life- and-liberty-destroying not and had never been a member of Elijah Muhammad’s followers— the reasons the prosecution’s story Vietnam war. nor were his accomplices, to his is dubious.) knowledge. None of them had any Hayer said that only one man, By Dick Roberts “During periods of maximum Am erican ru lin g class is racist to personal motive for killing Mal­ not two, had been involved in a combat effort," Topping reveals, the very m arrow of its bones. MARCH 1 — In the last six colm X, but they had been hired diversion just before the shooting, “ it is expected that Am erican cas­ to carry out the assassination. He weeks, national support for Presi­ The reasons why the Johnson and that it had not been himself,! ualties each month w ill average refused to say how much money he dent Johnson’s handling of the adm inistration has determined on as the prosecution alleged. He and' about 400 to 500 dead and about the murderous course that Sey­ had been offered. He said that another accomplice had taken Vietnam w ar has dropped sharply 1,500 wounded.” (Emphasis added) from 63 to 49 percent, according mour Topping describes, were the man who hired him was not seats together in the fro n t row Six months fighting at this height­ a Muslim either. on the left side of the auditorium. to the results of a Louis Harris clearly stated by New York Times ened level, these figures reveal, Hayer refused to identify his A man with a shotgun sat in the poll published in today’s New military specialist Hanson W. would bring more combat deaths accomplices or the one who hired Y ork Post. This decline comes pre­ Baldwin in a highly significant fourth row. Hayer admitted he than in the entire course of the them. He did drop one hint about cisely at a time when the Demo­ article in the Feb. 27 Times maga­ had come armed with a .45 caliber war thus far. cratic administration is speeding zine section entitled “ The Case for who the latter was. In response to automatic and had shot about four But not only has all pretense at a question by Dermody about the times at the prone body of full-scale ahead with plans to turn Escalation.” Mal­ a “middle road” military effort in identity of the man who offered colm X, after Malcolm had the Vietnamese battlefield into a There are three choices con­ been Vietnam been dropped according him money, he said it probably felled by the shotgun blast. bloody slaughter-ground of the fronting Washington in Vietnam His to these sources — so has any ef­ would have been revealed if W il­ main forces of the National Lib­ at the present point, Baldwin companion had fired at Malcolm fort towards a negotiated settle­ liams had been successful in “con­ with a Luger. eration Front and the masses of states, and two of them should be ment of the conflict: tinuing his interrogation.” Wil­ Hayer testified he knew the peasants who support it. rejected. The first course is the “At no stage in the political and Gavin-Ridgway proposal, support- liams is one of Butler’s lawyers man with the shotgun for about According to a highly informa­ m ilita ry program ,” Topping states, (Contiiiued on Page 5) who has cross-examined only a (Continued on Page 4) tive article by New York Times “do American or Vietnamese of­ reporter Seymour Topping, w rit­ ficials in Saigon foresee an opening ten fro m Saigon Feb. 25, U. S. of negotiations with the Vietcong MARCH 25-26 PROTESTS military forces in Vietnam are al­ toward a peace settlement. The ready carrying out the plans of more optimistic of them predict escalation which many Americans that Hanoi, confronted by a m ili­ still think ought to be debated, tary campaign and a successful and which most Americans think pacification program, will halt Antiwar Group Urges Big Turnout still are being debated. But un­ the infiltration to the south and named “senior United States of­ that the Vietcong will gradually The following call in support of powers — against Japan, France, ficials” told Topping, “We have disperse in four to five years.” the International Days of Protest, and the United States. They are north Vietnam and they often at last defined our problem and At this point in the article, Top­ M arch 25-26, against the war in fighting for the right to run their spill over into Cambodia and Laos we have the go-ahead on a pro­ ping alludes to what is apparently Vietnam, has been issued by the own country, the same right that as w ell. O ver 700,000 refugees gram .” an “inside joke,” made either by Supporters of the Bring the the American people fought for in have been left homeless by this “The officials estimate,” accord­ President Johnson himself, or one Troops Home Now Newsletter. 1776. But today the United States destruction. ing to Topping, “that the war will of his close associates. W hatever The Newsletter has been estab­ government stands in opposition President Johnson approves the last from three to seven years.” the source, it betrays the sicken­ lished by members of local in­ to the vast majority of the Viet­ use of the most horrible weapons “Under the new plans,” Topping ing racist mentality of the archi­ dependent anti-Vietnam-war com­ namese people, and to the very of warfare — the indiscriminate continues, “the level of offensive tects of this war of atrocities: mittees across the country who same principles upon which our napalm bombing of the civilian operations is to be raised as the “Even the most optimistic of­ are for the formation of a na­ own country was founded. population, the torture of men, support capability of United States ficials,” Topping comments, “are tional organization of independent President Johnson has landed women, and children, the employ­ forces is expanded through the uneasy about returning to Hono­ committees based on the demand 200,000 Am erican men on V iet­ ment of gas and other chemicals, improvement of port facilities at lulu next June to meet President of imm ediate w ith d ra w a l of U.S. namese soil in order to “settle” and the adoption of a “scorched Saigon and other harbors extend­ Johnson’s demand for a demon­ troops from Vietnam. the affairs of the Vietnamese, earth” policy. A recent AP dis­ ing north to Danang. Additional stration of how many coonskins On M arch 25-26, there will be and his perspective is to double patch headlined “Yanks Scorch troops are to be brought to Viet­ have been nailed to the wall." demonstrations against the war in that number by the end of the Earth to Cripple Viet Foe” nam so that the military comman­ (Emphasis added.) cities across the nation and in year.