NEW YORK: Thousands of people with food-laden knapsacks, sleeping bags and anti-war placards left New York for Washington overnight in a scene that was being repeated in dozens of other cities across the country. ... The demonstrators are converging on the capital from as far away as Canada by cars, bus, train and by hitchhiking.

Last night [Nov 14], police tear-gassed several thousand demonstrators who tried to storm the South Viet-Namese Embassy, however, leaders of the ‘March against Death’ repudiated the violence.

Earlier yesterday, telegrams were sent by the American Civil Liberties Union to Attorney-General John Mitchell and F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover, protesting reported intimidation of bus line proprietors. The reports said F.B.I. agents were visiting proprietors, asking to photograph passenger lists and advising them against carrying anti-war protestors.

The exodus of people to Washington followed a day of subdued protest across the nation characterised by marches, rallies, debates and non-violence. Highlight of the protests in New York was a ‘lie in’ symbolising Viet-Nam war dead in Central Park. In Paris, police charged 3,000 young people in a crowded shopping centre today as demonstrators defied a Government ban and marched in protest against the war. More than 15,000 people took part in the march.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2019