Books: One Disappointing Trial

THE TRIAL OF DR. SPOCK, THE REV. WILLIAM SLOANE COFFIN JR., MICHAEL FERBER, MITCHELL GOODMAN, AND MARCUS RASKIN by Jessica Mitford. 272 pages. Knopf. $5.95.

In May 1968, Boston was the scene of a long-awaited confrontation. The Government was pitted against "the peace movement" in open court. The charge was one of conspiring "to unlawfully, knowingly and willfully counsel, aid and abet" draft resistance. To make the conflict sharper still, the five defendants were all extremely reputable, particularly Benjamin Spock, the world's foremost and beloved baby doctor, and William Sloane Coffin, Yale's conscience-driven chaplain. They were, in fact, precisely the kind of...

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