PEACE PETITION DEFEATED

The Cambridge Neighborhood Committee on Vietnam's anti-war petition received 39 per cent of the vote in the November 7 election.

A total of 11,349 Cambridge residents voted for the resolution, which called for the "prompt return home of the American soldiers from Vietnam." Voters cast 17,742 "no" ballots. There were 1960 blank ballots. The City had obtained a special legislative act delaying the count until yesterday to allow the counting of late absentee ballots.

The Cambridge vote on the war was only one of two in the nation. Earlier this month, a more strongly-worded petition lost in San Francisco by nearly a 2-1 margin.

Both pro and anti-war forces claimed victory after the Cambridge Election Commission announced the results of the petition vote. Carolyn Carr, CNCV campaign manager said that the group had not expected to gain a majority and that the results were a "remarkable repudiation of the President's policy on Vietnam."

John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, predicted that the anti-war vote "will be a substantial majority" in another few months. "The Administration will make a grave mistake if they assume that this is anything but a vote of non-confidence," Galbraith said.

Intellectuals And Transients

But a leader of the campaign against the petition, Leo F. Malloy, state commander of the American Legion, said that the measure's defeat proved that "the people of Cambridge are really interested in backing our President." Malloy said that "the old neighborhoods of Cambridge" were predominantly against the petition, and the 'yes' vote came from "intellectuals and transients."

The petition carried four of the City's 11 wards. Its strongest showing was in Ward 7, which includes the Radcliffe area. It also carried Ward 8 (the Brattle Street area), Ward 6 (south of Harvard), and Ward 4 (Harvard Square to Central Square). The measure's weakest showings were in Wards 1 and 11 (East and North Cambridge respectively.)

CNCV co-chairman Michael L. Walzer, associate professor of Government, said the group was surprised by the "good spread" of the "yes" votes. "This indicates that there is a basis in every part of Cambridge for anti-war work," he said.

Walzer said that the results fell short of CNCV's expectations in Wards 7 and 8, but surpassed them in most other wards. He said some voters in 7 and 8, even though opposed to the war, may not have agreed with the exact wording of the petition.

He attributed the better-than-expected showings, particularly in Ward 1, to a "silent vote" of residents who did not express their support to CNCV canvassers, but voted yes anyway.

CNCV plans to continue local organizing against the war. Mrs. Carr said they will work to elect delegates pledged to support a peace candidate at the 1968 Republican and Democratic conventions.

Ward  "Yes"  "No"  Per-cent in Favor1  768  2465  242  837  1541  353  727  1541  324  1195  1100  525  927  1660  366  1289  1137  537  1540  1037  608  1557  1191  579  883  1946  3110  903  1683  3511  690  2387  22Absentees        33  56  37Total  11,349  17,742  3