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These went along another street and we only saw them at a distance.
The rest of the parade was at least semi-civilian though the pervasive
sense of a people organised into a chain of little fighting units existed
for us. There were thousands in "sport clubs" youth organizations
"factory fighting groups" all carrying colorful flags posters pictures
of party heroes etc. - all marching in front of the review stand in stop.
(By this time we had managed to slip with a small crowd of people thru
a gap in police restraining lines and stood in good position at one
corner of the square itself a fine view of the proceedings).

About 10:30 we (Dr. Tarshus (Georges Econ. prof). Dr. Whittaker, Dr.
and Mrs. Zoerner Laurie Hutton and I) worked our way through the
crowds back to the train to go over the west side really, just across
the border between east and west Berlin in the gigantic Platz der Re-
public. This is a huge open space about 1/4 to 1/2 mile each way; there were
an estimated 750000 people there to hear three speeches by west German
and Berlin officials. To get any feeling for the magnitude of the occasion
just try to imagine that many people assembled in one place- Big Game is
100000 and this made that tiny. I was held up briefly to take pictures
and it was an endless sea of faces in every direction. But the tone here
was quite different from that of parade and spectacle in east Berlin.
People were coming and going in steady streams at the ends of the crowd
but there was a large central area where the people stood still watched
and listened. The spirit was generally serious thoughtful people lis-
tening attentively clapping at some points. It was quite and serious
the whole time as though the people appreciated the gravity of the situa-
tion and the importance of their position as an outpost of the free world.
The speeches themselves were generally anti-Communist ("We will not surren-
der our freedom" variety.

As the west rally broke up (it lasted only 1 1/2 hours) we went back to
the east sector and caught the last hour of the parade there (which lasted
five hours) - which was closed by thirty units of polikspolizer (peoples
police) 100 men in each unit. Thus it closed on the same militaristic note
on which it began.

We spent the rest of this afternoon again looking around a couple of book
stores and with the help of Lauries Russian visa I was able to buy a beautiful book on Van Gogh which I had been refused on 5 previous tries.
Cost $2.25 worth $18 in the USA. I have bought several others by now
including two big works by Marx and Engles and Lenin (30 cents each for 500
pages) and four longplay classical records. With the exchanges of east
marks being over 4-1 in west Berlin (this is illegal to the east German)
the prices are ridiculously low;

Tonight I ma staying home partially because I am tired and my feet are all
walked out; But also I have to prepare a short talk for a meeting tomorrow
morning in which we try to pull together our experiences and ovservations
here in Berlin. So I have some reading and thinking to do. Maybe if my
observations end up being organized enough I will write thus down and
send them on to you - for there is surely much to be learned and understood
about Berlin and US and every little knowledge helps.

Tomorrow is then our last day of sightseeing we leave after dinner for
theburg arriving about 1:30 AM.