WASHINGTON: Youthful protests in America, Europe and Asia have denounced American Government’s Indo-China policy. In Washington, some 100,000 youths held a noisy but peaceful rally near the White House yesterday [May 9] that went off without any serious incident. Only at one point the Police fired a small number of teargas shells to disperse a group which was trying to break the barrier near the White House. …

The day of dissent climaxed a week of campus unrest caused by Mr Nixon’s decision to send US troops into Cambodia and the subsequent killing of four Kent State University students by fire from National Guardsmen in Ohio State. Many of the protesters wore black armbands in mourning.

President Nixon, who emphasised he is standing firm on Cambodia while seeking conciliation with his critics, spent the day working in his office within sight and sound of the rally. … When the rally broke off, a dozen pallbearers lifted five symbolic coffins and led a march towards the White House gates in an attempt to place them on Nixon’s doorsteps.

The coffins, draped in black, symbolised the four deaths at Kent State as well as American, Viet-Namese and Laotian deaths in the war, and oppression of Black Panthers and starving Americans.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2020