Larry Chartienitz, a 34-year-old veteran of the Vietnam war, said those who fought in Southeast Asia "are often the only ones who can expose young people to a history of Vietnam other than the stilted testimony in textbooks."

The Selective Service System expects about 1.9 million men born in 1962 to register in local post offices by Saturday and another 1.9 million to sign up as they turn 18 during 1981.

Selective Service spokesmen have said that 95 per cent of the 19-and 20-year-olds required to register last July and August have done so.

Although anti-registration groups have accused Selective Service of lying and have set the compliance rate as low as 75 per cent, a recent General Accounting Office survey confirmed the government's statistics.

More to Come

Demonstrators in Boston and other parts of Cambridge yesterday were limited to leafletting and anti-registration counselling, but BAARD spokesmen yesterday confirmed their plans to close down the Harvard Square post office on Saturday morning.

Several of the young men who did register in Central Square yesterday stopped to argue with the demonstrators. "I'm not afraid to fight if they want me to," William Jones of Cambridge said, adding "I bet not one of these people would defend this country; they're all too old anyway."

Those arrested on Monday were released and will face trials before a federal magistrate later this month on charges of obstructing passageways in a government building