Gulf Parade Rejects Bid by Anti-War Activist : Desert Storm: The Hollywood event’s producer says participation by a peace group would offend the veterans who are to be honored.

Anti-war activist Jerry Rubin’s quixotic bid to “give peace a chance” in Hollywood’s upcoming “Welcome Home Desert Storm” parade has been defeated.

Rubin, the Los Angeles director of the Alliance for Survival, has been rejected in his attempt to place a contingent of anti-war activists in the parade, a controversial extravaganza of troops, veterans and military weaponry scheduled May 19 on Sunset and Hollywood boulevards.

But that, apparently, is just fine with veterans and others who vehemently objected to the prospect of war protesters joining in the homecoming parade. Johnny Grant, the parade’s producer, said his office had received “hundreds” of phone calls from angry veterans.

So, on a day when Grant hoped to trumpet the news that Lt. Gen. Calvin A. H. Waller, the deputy commander of U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf War, will serve as grand marshal, he felt obliged to issue this statement:

“We are all for peace. This is a parade to honor the military and veterans who have put their lives on the line countless times to preserve peace and freedom. . . . We will not offend the very people we are trying to honor. Mr. Rubin and his organization will not participate in the parade.”

In interviews, parade officials denied they were keeping the protesters out because of political bias.

“If we wanted to make a political statement, we would have allowed the pro-Gulf War demonstrators in the parade,” said Don Weiss, chairman of the county’s Veterans Advisory Commission and a co-chairman of the parade’s veterans organizing committee.

Those applicants--as well as a contingent of Boy Scouts and an Elks Lodge--were rejected because the parade is intended to honor active-duty troops and their families, as well as veterans of past wars, he said.

Weiss suggested that anti-war activists may not understand the depth of hostility many veterans harbor against them.

“We have some Vietnam veterans who have a great deal of hostility toward the peace movement because of the way they were treated when they got back from Vietnam,” he said. “One motorcycle veterans’ group said put them in front of us. Another veterans group said put them behind us. I think they had an ulterior motive for wanting them close by.”

Last week, parade producer Grant, holder of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s ceremonial “mayor” title, had indicated that Rubin’s group could be accommodated.

Rubin, not to be confused with the Jerry Rubin of “Chicago 7” fame, said he envisioned that the participation of anti-war activists would send a message of “healing,” showing that they supported the troops even as they protested the war.

A meeting Thursday with Weiss, Grant and other parade officials left Rubin discouraged. “It seems like they’re doing everything they can to keep us out entirely,” he said.

Weiss said anti-war veterans groups such as Veterans for Peace or Vietnam Veterans Against the War would have been welcome to participate if they had applied for entry by the April 19 deadline.

Rubin said he hoped such veterans could still be accommodated in the parade’s formal program. Many protesters have voiced concerns that the parade, by displaying warplanes, tanks and other weaponry, will not merely honor troops, but also glorify war.

Waller, who was directly in charge of the Army forces in the Persian Gulf, is the second general to agree to participate in the parade. Retired Gen. William C. Westmoreland has accepted an invitation to lead a group of Vietnam veterans.