S Brian Willson

"We can't wait around for another year while a thousand more Nicaraguans are killed," said Charles Liteky, sitting in a wheelchair by the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. "At least we can put our bodies where our mouths are." Liteky's political sentiments echo those of many other activists opposed to U.S. support for the rebels called contra s fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

In a scene reminiscent of Vietnam War protests 20 years ago, an estimated 1,000 demonstrators gathered before dawn at the Pentagon Monday to try to blockade the building and dramatize their demand for an end to U.S. involvement in the El Salvador civil war. The protesters, led by several organizers of the 1960s anti-war movement, disrupted traffic and inconvenienced Pentagon workers but had little other visible effect on operations at the Defense Department.

Encouraged by the public response to their protest of U.S. policies in Central America, the four military veterans who have been fasting on the steps of the U.S. Capitol for weeks said Thursday that they will end their water-only diet at midnight today. "Our fast continues--we are merely changing the mode," they said in a statement read to reporters by Duncan Murphy, 66, the group's oldest member and a World War II veteran from Sulphur Springs, Ark.

Angry demonstrators returned Wednesday to the Concord Naval Weapons Station where a Vietnam veteran protesting U.S. arms shipments to Central America lost both legs a day earlier when he knelt in front of an oncoming munitions train. Standing directly over the blood-spattered rails where the train struck 47-year-old S. Brian Willson, a stream of speakers from activist organizations blasted the Navy and law enforcement authorities for failing to stop the train. "That train that ran into us . . .

With books on Lt. Col. Oliver North reminding us of the glories of war and the excitement of covert operations, "An Outbreak of Peace" and "Troublesome People" are being released at a propitious moment indeed. Against attempts in some quarters to elevate jingoism to a national religion, each of these two new books gives the reader great insights into how thoughtful people come to grips with the issues of war and the often unpopular struggle for peace.

A fledgling national association of former CIA spies, FBI agents and others notoriously disaffected with U.S. covert activities is tapping Los Angeles political progressives for financial and organizational support. The Assn. for Responsible Dissent, whose 30 founding members include such prominent activists as Daniel Ellsberg, John Stockwell and Philip B.F.