SDS Calls for Washington March Condemning U.S. Vietnam Policy

The national office of the Students for a Democratic Society has issued a call for a massive demonstration in Washington to protest U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Organizers of the march hope that it will attract between 5000 and 10,000 students, rivaling a student peace demonstration in Washington in 1962. The Vietnam protest will be April 17, the day before Easter, but a week after Harvard and Radcliffe's spring vacation.

David M. Kotz '65, president of the Harvard chapter of SDS, said last night that the details about where the demonstrators will march and whether they will contact congressmen have not yet been worked out. He added, however, that Senator Wayne Morse (D-Ore.) and Ernest Gruenning (D-Alaska), both critics of U.S. policy in Vietnam have been invited to speak.

Kotz said that Harvard SDS would hire buses to bring demonstrators from Cambridge to Washington.

Although the demonstrators will probably not propose a specific policy for U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, unofficial position papers are being prepared by Todd Gitlin '63 and Christopher Z. Hobson '63. SDS officials hope local college groups will use these to arouse interest and support for the march.

The whole question of U.S. involvement in Vietnam has come under Congressional scrutiny recently. An Associated Press survey of 83 senators found that 31 believe that the United States should continue the present policy but prepare for future negotiations. Ten senators suggested moving for negotiations now.