More Than 1000 From Harvard Lobby in Congress Against War

WASHINGTON. D.C., May 10-More than 1000 Harvard students and Faculty members, and several employees, spent Friday here lobbying with their Senators and Congressmen for an immediate end to the War in Southeast Asia.

During the day, they met with nearly 40 Senators and more than 100 Congressmen, and urged them to vote for upcoming anti-war motions in Congress, including the McGovern-Hatfield amendment to cut off all funds for the war except for those needed to withdraw American troops.

The lobbying effort-organized by Harvard Peace Action Strike-included 800 students from the College and Radcliffe, 150 law students, 200 other graduate students, and some 30 Faculty members. Those lobbying also collected information on their representatives' positions on the war, for use in anti-war organizing campaigns this summer and fall.

Meeting Monday

The exact direction those campaigns will take is not yet certain: the group will meet at 1 p.m. Monday in Burr B to discuss further tactics.

"We hope to co-ordinate both electoral campaigns and non-violent direct political action on the war and the draft," said Charles Schumer '71, a member of the group's steering committee. Christy O'Brien, a Harvard employee and a co-ordinator for Peace Action Strike, said the group would also be helping nationally-based efforts like the referendum on the war.

Peace Action Strike began its day in Washington by picketing the home of presidential aide Henry Kissinger, professor of Government at Harvard. From 7:30 to 8 a.m., 200 pickets circled the house, chanting "Wake up Henry; it's much too late."

Leaning from their windows and wearing red armbands, several neighbors shouted their approval and flashed "V" signs at the pickets. One of the neighbors said Kissinger had left his home before the pickets arrived.

Although Kissinger later offered to meet with some of the demonstrators, the group refused to send a delegation and instead invited him to come to a meeting they held that night at a Washington church. Kissinger did not appear at the meeting.

In mid-morning, the group jammed the Senate Auditorium to listen to five anti-war legislators urge them to begin anti-war organizing campaigns in their homes across the nation.

Sen. Ralph Yarborough (D.-Texas), recently defeated in a primary by a hawkish opponent, said that he would have won if only 10,000 of Texas' 400,000 college students had aided his campaign. "You'd have enough votes to end the war if you'd get out in these campaigns." he said.

Both Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D.-Minn.) and Sen. Harold Hughes (D.-lowa) were optimistic, about the chances of ending the war. "Cambodia, for some strange reason, has brought the country close to the moment of truth." McCarthy said, while Hughes added, "I think that as we move we can appeal to what I believe are the basic decent feelings of most Americans."

When that meeting ended. Peace Action broke up into state delegations to visit Seuators and Congressmen. In the evening, the group met to assess the lobbying work, and individual lobbyists gave the following impressions:

They found many Congressmen surprisingly resentful toward President Nixon: some even called him a liar: Other legislators, however, felt Nixon had information on the war which they lacked.

Many Congressmen said they would not vote against the war unless their constituents were organized against it Groups such as Peace Action Strike had to prove, as one legislator put it, "That not only students but local dentists want the war to end."

Some legislators although saying they were opposed to the war, when pressed admitted that their recent votes on the floor of the Congress had tended to favor the war.

Harvard Professors' Efforts

The Harvard lobbying group was joined at its mid-morning session in the Senate Office Building and at the Cleveland Park Congregational Church meeting Friday evening by several members of a smaller group of Harvard professors who had spent the day meeting with Presidential advisors and Senators to express their personal horror at the escalation of the war.

Adam Yarmolinsky '43, professor of Law, reported to the students and Faculty members at the church on the professors lunch meeting with Kissinger. "It was very painful for everyone involved." Yarmolinsky said. "I hope it did some good."