OCTOBER 21 -~ MOST THOROUGH PREPARATIONS FOR "URBAN TROUBLE" EVER MADE
Iyndon Johnson has been very free with unsolicited advice to the freedom fighters in Vietnam, warning them to disregard any appearance of division within the U.S. over the war in Vietnam.
He sternly disparages the notion that the 1968 elections will reveal anything but widespread popular support for his war policies. This profession is belied, however, by recent revelations on the extent of military preparations by the administration to "protect" itself from the outpouring of popular sentiment in Washington October 21.
When the mass of demonstrators opposing Johnson's war in Vietnam arrived in the capital there were indications the president was not pleased to see then. The November 21 New York Times reports there were "detailed contingency plans to rush 25,000 or more Army troops to Washington's slums last month" if the demonstration "spilled over into the city."
A major fear of the war makers was the possibility that the demonstration would serve as a catalyst to ignite the smoldering black ghetto which comprises more than half of the nation's capital.
"Advance intelligence reports," the Times continues, "of an attempt to exploit supposed racial tensions during the two-day protest across the Potomac River at the Pentagon so worried senior officials that sizable Army units as far away as Fort Carson, Colo., were alerted for possible movement and airlift plans were made to transport then."
Evidently the Pentagon took the "supposed" racial tensions very seriously. A 2,900-man brigade of the 82d Airborne Division was airlifted from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Andrews Air Force Base in Washington. The Times describes the outfit as "one of the best combat units in the country,” and reports that "Enough helicopters were assembled at the base from posts up and down the Atlantic seaboard to move a battalion at a time into Washington if rioting flared and got out of hand.
"These and similar moves were part of the most comprehensive advance preparations for