Convincing the Convinced

First the State Department refused Katanga's President Moise Tshombe a U.S. visa. Then ex-Major General Edwin A. Walker, now a Democratic candidate for Governor of Texas, was disinvited at the demand of Republican Senators Barry Goldwater and John Tower. Connecticut's Democratic Senator Thomas Dodd said he would not come if Walker could not. Columnist David Lawrence wrote that he "doesn't participate in rallies of this kind." Ex-President Herbert Hoover dedined to interrupt a fishing trip to Key Largo. Film Cowboy John Wayne stayed back at the ranch in Hollywood. Young Americans for Freedom had invited them all, but went ahead anyway--and last week packed Manhattan's Madison Square Garden with a crowd of 18,000 at $1 to $25 apiece, who cheered through four hours and 32 speeches at a conservative rally for "World Liberation from Communism." Recipe for Victory. Y.A.F. was founded 19 months ago in Sharon, Conn.

Last year the organization's rally packed the 3,200-seat Manhattan Center and turned several thousand away. Planning for the 1962 encore began seven months ago, and paid off: busloads of well-scrubbed, well-dressed young conservatives poured in from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and New York State --and Y.A.F. grossed $80,000. the net to be used to help finance Y.A.F. for another year's missionary work.

It was just like a political convention.

There were flags in the rafters and a theme song for each speaker. Balloons floated on high, and spotlights picked out the celebrities. Several speakers needled President Kennedy for waiting so long to announce resumption of U.S.

nuclear testing; a spectator's cry of "Down with Kennedy" drew lusty echoes.* L. Brent Bozell--Yale classmate ('50) and brother-in-law of conservative National Review Editor William F. Buckley Jr., intellectual paladin of the Right--listed demands for the U.S. to launch a policy of victory over Communism, and each proposal brought an approving roar from the crowd. Let these orders be issued, said Bozell: "To the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Make the necessary preparations for a landing in Havana." "To our commander in Berlin: Tear down the Wall." "To our chief of mission in the Congo: Change sides." "To the chief of CIA: You are under instructions to encourage liberation movements in every nation of the world under Communist domination--including the Soviet Union itself." Live Hero. Other speakers had diverse conservative messages. Said New York University's Economist Ludwig Von Mises, 80: "Until a few years ago, I thought freedom was dead on the American campus; now I see that you young men will make us free." Said Indianapolis News Editor M. Stanton Evans, 27: "I say the twist was originated in Washington by the Kennedy Administration--a lot of frantic motion with no visible progress." South Carolina's Senator J. Strom Thurmond, 59. combined an attack on the Administration for invoking executive privilege during the continuing Senate investigation of military censorship ("This is nothing more than the executive Fifth Amendment") with a pessimistic appraisal of the cold war ("The evil forces of Communism have continued to move forward as a tide").

Patrick Henry got quite a run; both Indiana's Representative Donald C.

Bruce and Texan John Tower peroratedsternly, "Give me liberty or give me death!" But the live hero of the night was Barry Goldwater,/- who got a five-minute standing ovation complete with waving banners (FOR THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM--GOLDWATER IN '64) and two rousing choruses of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Cried Goldwater: "Conservatism is the wave of the future. It has come of age at a time of need. It has come to life after 30 years of apathy."

What would give any politician pause was the fact that a substantial majority of the conservatives in the Garden were under 30.

* At a hastily called counter-rally that same night, staged by student members of Americans for Democratic Action and attended by 2,500, Kennedy was denounced for his decision to test.

/- Who only trailed New York's Nelson Rockefeller 44% to 45% as a Republican presidential candidate in last week's Gallup poll. Last October Rocky led 51% to 33%.

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