Oglesby said that American involvement in Vietnam had been caused by liberals. "These men are not immoral monsters," he said. But, he continued, "the U.S. government seems incapable of friendship for any revolution anywhere."
Liberalism was failing, he suggested, because of its marriage to the "corporate system." Pointing to the Dominican crisis. Oglesby ran down a list of U.S. advisers who owned stock in companies with investments in the Dominican Republic--Ellsworth Bunker, Abe Fortas. Adolph Berle, and Averill Harriman's brother.
He concluded his 40-minute speech with a call for a "humanist revolution" to overthrow the corporate system.
About 500 people, older, non-students for the most part, left on ten buses from Freedom Square in front of Lowell House Friday night. They were among an Pickets began to assemble in front of the White House about 11 a.m. By noon there were knots of demonstrators on every sidewalk within two blocks of the White House, and by 1 p.m., a circle of marchers had completely surrounded the ellipse in front of the Washington monument. While pickets marched, a delegation of leaders conferred for 90 minutes with Chester Cooper, an aide to White House advisor McGeorge Bundy. According to Gottlieb, Cooper reiterated an administration suggestion that those who desired peace write letters to North Vietnam and the Viet Cong asking them to agree to unconditional negotiations. Motorcyclists During the speeches, several members of the Pagans, a Washington motorcycle club, climbed into the front rows and began shouting. It was the only attempt at active interference by the 500 counter-demonstrators who showed up. Another incident came when members of the U.S. Committee to Aid the National Liberation Front tried to carry some Viet Cong flags to a spot two blocks from the White House, where they planned to demonstrate. Gottlieb had asked them to keep the flags out of the parade. Possibly trying to avoid his moniters, they inadvertently walked through the crowd of counter-pickets. They were halfway through when a voice cried, "Ready-get 'em." Four counter-pickets grabbed the demonstrators and Eddie Summers, a junior from Temple University, made off with a flag. While passers-by yelled, "Burn it, spit on it," Summers applied a borrowed cigarette lighter to the flag. It wouldn't burn. He tried to tear it. It wouldn't tear. He spat on it. Then police, who broke up the fight and then watched the attempted flag burning, moved in and took the banner away. Three other flags met the same treatment; Nazi party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was arrested in a scuffle over one. Rockwell made a comback hours later when he and his Nazis led a counterrally near the Capitol. Chief attraction was Herb "the Skull" Booker, a representative of California's Hell's Angels motorcycle gang. Booker, who is bald but wears a long beard, declared, "They say we're repulsive. But those peace creeps, they're the ones who are repulsive." He also protested press censorship. "I ran over four peace creeps with my own cycle, and the press didn't say anything about it. If that ain't censorship, I don't know what is.