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The "March Against Death," the first antiwar ritual of the week in Washington, began at 6 p.m. Thursday. Disciplined in organization, friendly in mood, it started at Arlington National Cemetery, went past the front of the White House and on to the west side of the Capitol. Walking single file and grouped by states, the protesters carried devotional candles and 24-in. by 8-in. cardboard signs, each bearing the name of a man killed in action or a Vietnamese village destroyed by the war. The candles flickering in the wind, the funereal rolling of drums, the hush over most of the line of march—but above all, the endless recitation of names of dead servicemen and gutted villages as each marcher passed the White House —were impressive drama: "Jay Dee Richter" . . . "Milford Togazzini" . . . "Vinh Linh, North Viet Nam" . . . "Joseph Y. Ramirez." At the Capitol, each sign was solemnly deposited in one of several coffins, later conveyed back up Pennsylvania Avenue in the Saturday march.
Mrs. Judy Droz, 23, of Columbia, Mo., was chosen to walk first in the March Against Death. Her husband, a Navy officer, died in Viet Nam last spring. "I have come to Washington to cry out for liberty, for freedom, for peace," she said. The New Mobe organizers had recruited others who had lost loved ones in the war, but some gold-star families wanted none of it. In Philadelphia and Dallas, groups of mothers and widows of G.I.s killed in combat obtained court orders to bar use of the men's names by the protesters.
No Pesticide. Drums, this time muffled in black crape, also led the second parade Saturday morning, when the full force of demonstrators started from the Capitol on the mile-long walk to the Washington Monument. Despite the confusion and the orders unheard in the din and the cold wind, the crowd was remarkably orderly.
"Peace now!" was the chant heard most often. Some radicals who say that they want a Communist victory in Viet Nam produced Viet Cong flags, and at least 50 portraits of Ho Chi Minh were in evidence. On the other hand. American flags, distributed free, festooned the line of march. The banners, buttons and shouts showed the movement's broad diversity. One contingent followed the cry: "Big firms profit, G.I.s die!"
THE MOVEMENT NEEDS STRONG BODIES and NO PESTICIDES, PURE FOODS read other mottoes. Yet another banner proclaimed: PEACE, PEACE, PEACE, SEND SPIRO BACK TO GREECE.
Despite the militant words, the mood of the crowd was almost uniformly cheerful. Eugene McCarthy had spoken at the assembly point, telling the marchers that their mission was "to light and lift the moral burdens which rest upon every American." Ahead, at the monument, were other heroes, including Rock and Folk Performers Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and some performers from Hair. There, it appeared that Police Chief Jerry Wilson's crowd estimate of 250,000 might be low. A solid, bundled carpet of humanity covered the cold, hard ground. Even at Wilson's figure, it was the biggest turnout of its kind that Washington had ever seen, exceeding even the 1963 civil rights rally, which took place on a pleasant August day.