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Student protests, 1969

1969-10-16 Daily Iowan Article: ""University Pauses for Moratorium"" Page 2

"University pauses . . ."  
DI   2 (of 4)

Daily Iowan
the University of Iowa and the People of Iowa City
Associated Press leased Wire and Wirephoto   Iowa City, Iowa 52240—Thursday, October 16, 1969

Pauses for Moratorium
6,000 Take Part
In Candlelit Rally
An eighth of the population of Iowa City marched from College Hill Park to the Pentacrest Wednesday night, then stood shivering in the 40-degree chill beneath a haze created by hundreds of lighted candles.
The 6,000—or maybe more—were gathered as part of a nationwide day of demonstrations for peace in Vietnam. The crowd of University students and Iowa City residents of all ages and walks of life appeared moved—perhaps by its own size, perhaps by the reason for which it was gathered or perhaps by the ambiance created by the candles and by the strains of the Kyrie Eleison sung by the Electric Prune.
The rally opened with invocations by the Rev. James Narveson, president of the United Campus Ministers, and by the Rev. John Smith, of St. Thomas More Catholic Church.
Then came singing. First, a Bob Dylan recording, almost unintelliglble in the open air, and then four guitarists were more successful lin getting the crowd to sing than were the organizers of the march back in the park.
The unity was almost shattered by Ed Hoffmans, former draft counselor and University of Northern Iowa instructor, who received occasional boos for saying he thought it would be the National Liberation Front (NLF) and not the antiwar movement that would get American troops out of Vietnam. He said the purpose of the antiwar movement was to stop the nation's business, stop the draft and its messing up of young men's lives, and stop the "social control which our educational system practices."
After expressing his "gratitude" to the NLF and Hanoi and saying that he hoped the antiwar movement would culminate in revolution, there were some more boos, occasional shouts from the crowd, and Hoffmans left the platform.
Iowa House Minority Leader William Gannon (D-Mingo) spoke of the need for personal opposition to the war that has "destroyed a pattern of life that has existed for centuries by wiping out villages and putting the natives in refugee campus."
He said, "To remain silent in the face of an immoral war is tantamount to a sin."
"Vietnamizing" the war is a cruel hoax because the Saigon government does not have the support of the people and "cannot rule if there is no war and no American presence," Gannon said.
William Cousins Jr., an alderman in Chicago's Eighth Ward, said, "The only thing we should negotiate at the Paris peace talks is how we should make an exit from Vietnam."

More on Moratorium On Inside Pages

"We have been deceived and we have been betrayed" by our government into believing we must be in Vietnam, Cousins said.
"I am one of the majority of Americans that feel we can get out of Vietnam and we can get out now," he added.
Cousins said he thought the United States had entered Vietnam illegally because the Gulf of Tonkin incident on which President Johnson based his stepped-up escalation of the war was more fiction than fact.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred in 1965, when American warships sta-

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"University pauses . . ." DI 2 (of 4) Daily Iowan the University of Iowa and the People of Iowa City Associated Press leased Wire and Wirephoto Iowa City, Iowa 52240—Thursday, October 16, 1969 Pauses for Moratorium 6,000 Take Part In Candlelit Rally An eighth of the population of Iowa City marched from College Hill Park to the Pentacrest Wednesday night, then stood shivering in the 40-degree chill beneath a haze created by hundreds of lighted candles. The 6,000—or maybe more—were gathered as part of a nationwide day of demonstrations for peace in Vietnam. The crowd of University students and Iowa City residents of all ages and walks of life appeared moved—perhaps by its own size, perhaps by the reason for which it was gathered or perhaps by the ambiance created by the candles and by the strains of the Kyrie Eleison sung by the Electric Prune. The rally opened with invocations by the Rev. James Narveson, president of the United Campus Ministers, and by the Rev. John Smith, of St. Thomas More Catholic Church. Then came singing. First, a Bob Dylan recording, almost unintelliglble in the open air, and then four guitarists were more successful lin getting the crowd to sing than were the organizers of the march back in the park. The unity was almost shattered by Ed Hoffmans, former draft counselor and University of Northern Iowa instructor, who received occasional boos for saying he thought it would be the National Liberation Front (NLF) and not the antiwar movement that would get American troops out of Vietnam. He said the purpose of the antiwar movement was to stop the nation's business, stop the draft and its messing up of young men's lives, and stop the "social control which our educational system practices." After expressing his "gratitude" to the NLF and Hanoi and saying that he hoped the antiwar movement would culminate in revolution, there were some more boos, occasional shouts from the crowd, and Hoffmans left the platform. Iowa House Minority Leader William Gannon (D-Mingo) spoke of the need for personal opposition to the war that has "destroyed a pattern of life that has existed for centuries by wiping out villages and putting the natives in refugee campus." He said, "To remain silent in the face of an immoral war is tantamount to a sin." "Vietnamizing" the war is a cruel hoax because the Saigon government does not have the support of the people and "cannot rule if there is no war and no American presence," Gannon said. William Cousins Jr., an alderman in Chicago's Eighth Ward, said, "The only thing we should negotiate at the Paris peace talks is how we should make an exit from Vietnam." More on Moratorium On Inside Pages "We have been deceived and we have been betrayed" by our government into believing we must be in Vietnam, Cousins said. "I am one of the majority of Americans that feel we can get out of Vietnam and we can get out now," he added. Cousins said he thought the United States had entered Vietnam illegally because the Gulf of Tonkin incident on which President Johnson based his stepped-up escalation of the war was more fiction than fact. The Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred in 1965, when American warships sta-