The Case of the Anti-war Army Lieutenant

U.S. Army Lt.Henry Howe, 24 yrs.old, is serving a one-year prison term in the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was convicted by a court-martial last December on two charges: using contemptuous words against the President and conduct unbecoming to an officer and gentleman. He is actually doing time because, opposed to American action in Vietnam, he made his views known by participating in a demonstration against the war held in El Paso, Texas, last Noyember, In civilian clothes and not on duty, he carried a placard which reads "End Johnson's Fascist Aggression in Vietnam" and "Let's have more than a choice between ignorant Fascists in 1968"(He was disgusted at Johnson's about-turn,after his pre-election attacks on Goldwater for promising to continue the war). As the demonstrators dispersed, El Paso police stepped forward and arrested Howe, charging him with 'vagrancy'. They then turned him over to the military police and he was promptly court-martialled, : There was a third, graver, charge: seeking to"promote disloyalty among the troops and civilian population", That charge was dropped when the Presiding Officer decided that Howe's action did not constitute "an abtack on the war aims of the U.S." because the United States is not at present at war. Licutcnant Howe is now confined in virtual isolation at Fort Leavenworth. At the last report there was ohly one other person in the officer's section of the prisons