Look Back Elyria: Days of war and protest

Fifty years ago, on the afternoon of Oct. 15, 1969, the names of 85 Lorain County soldiers who had been killed in the Vietnam War were read aloud in Ely Square. In totality, 98 area men would die in that war, but 13 of them were alive Oct. 15, 1969. Two of the 13, Cpl. Glenn Michael Schroeder and Sgt. Richard Matthew Logan, both of Elyria, both in the Army, would be killed before the month was over. Listening to the recitation of the war dead were retirees and teachers, members of the clergy and doctors, busloads of students from Oberlin College, citizen activists and ordinary citizens. They were among the 450 people who assembled — peacefully but emphatically — in the square to protest the war in Vietnam on what was known as Moratorium Day. They were not alone. Throughout the country, hundreds of thousands of Americans joined in the largest antiwar protest in U.S. history, as the Associated Press reported the following day. There were rallies, parades, candlelight processions and church services held in cities across the country — an effort to mobilize broad-based opposition to the war and maximize public pressure to end it. The moratorium's slogan was: "Bring home the troops. All the troops. Now!" The Lorain County Chapter of the National Democratic Coalition sponsored the Elyria moratorium. Sally Staruch of Lorain, chair of the area coalition, and vice chair Dr. John Katko of Elyria —the local organization's founders — helped to organize the protest. Dr. Katko, who died in 1984, had been a delegate for Eugene McCarthy from the 13th District at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The coalition included members of Citizens for McCarthy groups from across the U.S. and was formed as a result of the violence that unfolded at the convention. Staruch, a young mother at the time, was sitting in her living room in Lorain with her family, watching the news broadcasts from the convention. An example of what she was witnessing can be found on a YouTube video produced by the History Channel. The video's narrator explained that anti-war protesters, including members of the Youth International Party, or "Yippies," descended upon the streets outside the Chicago convention hall "to protest the war, poverty, racism and other social ills. Some of them were also determined to provoke a confrontation — to draw attention from the convention to the streets." "Mayor Richard Daley vowed to keep it peaceful, even if it took force to keep the peace," said the narrator. "He was backed by 12,000 members of the police, 5,000 National Guardsmen and 7,500 regular Army troops." What ensued was inevitable and anything but peaceful. Hundreds of marchers and dozens of policemen were injured, according to the video's narration. "Restraint was absent on both sides. This was later called a police riot." The violent scenes of helmeted police officers with billy clubs clashing with the protesters, striking them and dragging them, were broadcast live on television sets across the country, incendiary scenes that ignited Staruch's activism. Her brother, Martin Ballog, a student at Bowling Green State University at the time, also was active in antiwar efforts on campus. In an October 2017 telephone interview, Staruch explained: "What Mayor Richard Daley's police were doing to our students — kids who were not criminals — catapulted me into the antiwar movement." Staruch showed me the coalition newsletter from Sept. 1, 1969, outlining the issues of paramount importance to the organization: Support the Minority Peace Plank on Vietnam Reorder American goals: stop policing the world and solve our domestic problems Work to end racism Democratize the Democratic Party The newsletter reported what history has since recorded: Supporters of the war were beginning to gradually realize and accept that a military victory in Vietnam was impossible, and any struggle should be continued by the Vietnamese people. An editorial published in the Journal, (now known as "The Morning Journal") on the date of the moratorium supported the peace efforts: ``The Journal has for more than two years been an outspoken advocate of the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. We recognize, however, that there are differing viewpoints on the question.…In accordance with the policy of this newspaper, we have attempted to present both sides.'' The paper published two articles by Lorain ministers representing the pro and con sides of the war issue but reiterated: "As for the stand of the Journal, it remains unchanged." Journal editorial page editor Malcolm D. Hartley wrote, in part: ``American involvement in the Vietnam War is, like the entrance to hell, paved with good intentions. The United States has sacrificed thousands of men and billions of dollars, not for conquest but in an effort to safeguard for the South Vietnamese our concept of freedom. Our purposes, though noble and unselfish, were misguided. Slowly this realization has penetrated the minds of millions.…The still, small voice of conscience has asked: 'Why are we fighting? Why are we continuing to kill and be killed?' The small voice turned outward and multiplied by a thousand times a thousand, has become a thunderous national command: STOP THE WAR. That is the message on this Day of Protest. Those who advocate continuation of the war are now in the minority. This means that the protesters have a new and solemn responsibility. They must move toward the goal of peace without violence, without disruption, without failing our soldiers in the war zone and without tearing our country apart.'' Included among local opinion pieces written during the week of protest were these, which were printed in the Lorain County Times on Oct. 16, 1969: Excerpt of an editorial by Don Barden: "The Moratorium indicates the thinking of today and of the future. The youth of our country have been the losers. There are no winners. The good have died young." Excerpt of an editorial by Ron Nabakowski: "The Moratorium should serve notice to all responsible Americans that democratic government is government subject to continual vigilance of its people.…For democracy does not function under the divine right of kings. Rather, its powers are delegated from the people. Ergo, should the people decide that its government's course of action is wrong, the patriotic thing is emphatically not to give blind support; the patriotic thing to do is to change that course of action from wrong to right. And this is what the Vietnam Moratorium is all about." Sally Staruch told the Chronicle-Telegram's Martha Bergmark that although the Vietnam War and the draft were student concerns, "housewives, businessmen, clergymen, and others are also concerned about the war. We will be passing petitions and distributing leaflets about the war at the vigil." The petition requested that quotas for the county not be met until U.S. troops are withdrawn from Vietnam and was presented to the Lorain County Selective Service following a march by the protesters to the Selective Service offices in the Baker Building on Second Street. There also were speeches at the moratorium, and Staruch gave one of them: Take a look at your son, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Would you let some stranger decide where he will go to college? Or what career he will pursue? Or any other important question about his future? There are strangers who have already decided where he may die.…We must go on insisting that our government measure up to the ideals we teach our children to cherish. Democracy works only when we work at it.…Today we honored those who died in Vietnam, those who went to Vietnam because they believed (as men believed in World War II) that it was their duty to go: they followed their conscience.…similarly other young men are refusing to go to Vietnam because they believe it is their Judeo-Christian duty to refuse to kill. They, too, listen to their conscience.…there are many here at the rally who do not like war—especially the Vietnamese War, but are offended because they feel we are speaking out against the government.…Well, who is the government? You and me. The military and the president work for us. If we are silent on an issue Washington interprets it as approval. On that October day 50 years ago, the Chronicle reported that as a precautionary measure, Elyria Safety-Service Director James T. Tracey had benches removed from Ely Square the previous night "in order to give demonstrators room to move around. This is supposed to be a peaceful demonstration, and I think they're sincere," the city official said. "We're here to help." On the following day, the paper reported that Tracey and Mayor Leonard P. Reichlin had "high praise" for the participants' conduct. "They were polite and courteous and I was impressed with their attitude," Tracey said. "I wish all our crowds were like this." Both men reportedly stopped to talk with a group standing vigil at the courthouse that evening, and Mayor Reichlin described the young participants as "a nice bunch of kids." "It was a good discussion of the war," Tracey told the Chronicle. "They told me how they felt and I told them how I felt." According to the newspaper's report, John Katko was "thrilled by the turnout. It was more than I expected," he said of the 450 persons who gathered in Ely Square. "For Lorain County, this is good, because they're not accustomed to the idea of demonstrations here." Sally Staruch moved to Fairwood Boulevard in Elyria in 1970 and became a precinct committeewoman. In 1972, she and John Katko were delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach. She eventually returned to live on her family homestead in Lorain. Two hundred and one days after the moratorium, on Tuesday, May 4, 1970, four students at Kent State University were killed, and nine were wounded, after the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of demonstrators on campus. One of those killed was William Schroeder of Lorain. On Jan. 27, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon signed the Paris Peace Accords, ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Saigon — the capital of South Vietnam — fell two years later, in April, seized by communist forces. The government of South Vietnam surrendered. More than a thousand American civilians and nearly 7,000 South Vietnamese refugees were evacuated by U.S. Marine and Air Force helicopters in an 18-hour mass evacuation effort. By the end of the Vietnam War, 98 servicemen from Lorain County had been killed. Marci Rich has twice received Excellence in Journalism Awards from the Press Club of Cleveland for "Look Back, Elyria." On Nov. 4, the History Press will publish her first nonfiction book, "Looking Back at Elyria," from which this article was adapted. Contact Marci at marci.keyword@gmail.com.