There is a cosmic irony in the role payed by Vietnam in Lyndon Johnson’s career….What increased the irony was that Vietnam turned against him that group in society whose approbation he most desired–the college students. Nothing bewildered him more that the sieges of the White House by half-naked hippies chanting: “Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids have you killed today?”
He thought he had done everything for them–college loans, scholarships, subsidies–and he considered their conduct nothing but the grossest ingratitude. They were not showing the same concern for his problem that he had shown for their problems–or, at least, that was the way he reasoned.
George Reedy, Lyndon B. Johnson: A Memoir, New York: Andrews and McMeel, Inc., 1982, pp 145.
October 22, 1967, Sunday morning. It is the day that the March on the Pentagon protesters’ permit will expire, LBJ and Lady Bird are coming back from church services:
“Lem Johnson reports that when they were almost back to the White House from Church, the President asked Mrs. Johnson if she would like to take a ride over there to the Pentagon and see what they were doing.
At the Lincoln Memorial, it looked like there were about 150 people sitting on the steps – just scattered around the area. We drove around the Memorial one and one-half times –looked at the Mall area and the reflecting pool area.
"Mrs. Johnson particularly noticed the litter and refuse left by those gathered the Memorial yesterday. The President was highly interested in what a hippie looked like, their dress, age groups, and items they carried. ..some were carrying flags, bed rolls, blankets, flight bags, flowers…
"We then drove across Memorial Bridge and turned down Shirley highway–the road was blocked, but we told the Park Policemen we were secret service, and they let us through. We went around the blockade and up the highway, looking to the right up to the line of soldiers guarding the highway. We drove slowly, and looked carefully at the Mall Entrance of the Pentagon – we circled around, crossed the median strip, and then drove back to the White House."
From the President’s Daily Diary. Google map is of their of their approximate route. Photo from NARA’s Online Public Access catalog.
Jail is a goof. Easiest jailing of all time.
Abbie Hoffman, reflecting on his arrest at the March on the Pentagon,. Stephen J. Pollak and the staff of the Justice Dept. Civil Rights Division have evidently succeeded in their mission.
From Revolution for the Hell of It, New York: Simon and Shuster, 1970, p. 50.
Oct 21-22, 1967.
“This exorcism business is getting pretty exciting….The Pentagon happening transcended the issue of the War. The War is Over, sings Phil Ochs, and the protest becomes directed to the entire fabric of a restrictive, dull, brutal society,
"The protesters become total political animals.
"A totality emerges that renders the word political meaningless. ‘The war is over.’ Everyone’s yelling and screaming. Someone writes LBJ loves Ho Cho Minh on the wall.”
Abbie Hoffman, Revolution for the Hell of It, New York: Simon and Shuster, 1970, p 46.
Photo from USMarshalls.gov, which has a very different perspective on the weekend’s events.
Oct. 21, 1967
“In support of civil authority, we have the very delicate and difficult job of upholding constitutional rights of free assembly and expression and protecting government operations and property….We must avoid either overreacting or under-reacting. We must act in a way which holds to the absolute minimum the possibility of bloodshed and injury; which minimizes the need for arrest; which distinguishes to the extent feasible between those who are and are not breaking the law; and which uses the minimum force consistent with the mission of protecting the employees (military and civilian), the operations, and the property of the Government.”
David E. McGiffert, Memorandum to the Chief of Staff, U.S.Army, Oct. 20, 1967, “Anti-Vietnam Demonstrations,” Papers of Warren Christoper, Box 8, LBJ Library. As quoted in Robert S. McNamara with Brian VanDeMark, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, New York: Random House, 1995, p. 303-304.
Photo via National Archives.
October 20, 1967. Across the US people are responding, especially on college campuses, to the escalation of protest and conflict over Vietnam. This clipping from the Austin American-Statesman newspaper was sent to LBJ by old friend–now Congressman–Jake Pickle.
It describes the efforts of eight “long-haired, casually attired” University of Texas students on motorcycles as they attempt to recruit students from Southwest Texas State College (LBJ’s alma mater. now Texas State University). The “UT peaceniks” are turned away by the SWT dean, to the delight of Cong. Pickle, and, presumably, the President.
Note, Jake Pickle to the President, 10/20/67, Ex HU 4, WHCF, Box 60, LBJ Library.
October 1967.
“‘67-68-69-70-’
'What do you guys think you’re doing?’
'Measuring the Pentagon. We have to see how many people we’ll need to form a ring around it.’
'You’re what?’
'It’s very simple. You see, the Pentagon is a symbol of evil in most religions. You’re religious, aren’t you?’
'Unh.’
Well, the only way to to exorcise the evil spirits here is to form a circle around the the Pentagon. 87-88-89….’”
Abbie Hoffman, Revolution for the Hell of It, New York: Simon and Shuster, 1970, p. 47. Image via Wikipedia.
October 1967. A somewhat different take on the planned demonstrations for October 21, from activist Abbie Hoffman:
“Spiritual purification is sought as an antidote to the demons present in all imperialist war machines. On October 21, in the year 19 and 67, we would launch our holy crusade to cast out the evil spirits dwelling in the Pentagon.”
Abbie Hoffman, Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture, New York: Perigree Books, 1980, p 129 Image from the Pentagon web site.
June 1967. While the Summer of Love takes off in Haight-Ashbury, New York’s Lower East Side becomes another center of the burgeoning “hippie” culture. One of the recent transplants is a 31-year-old organizer and civil rights worker named Abbie Hoffman, from Worcester, Massachusetts. Hoffman has just left SNCC, in part to focus more on antiwar activities in NYC. Hoffman later described the scene:
“At 31 I was older than the average runaway by some fifteen years but those who took an interest in building a youth community on the Lower East Side were all over 30. Like myself, they had run away from mainstream life and were eager to pass their insights on to younger kids, An IBM executive moved down from Westchester County and founded "Food,” a commune whose purpose was to pass out free food in Tompkins Square Park. Actors created street theater groups. Lawyers volunteered time for serious busts. Medical students set up a street clinic. Careers had come to be seen as as strait jackets as the sound and smell of liberation filled the air. These were heady times.“
Abbie Hofffman, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture, New York: Perigree Books, 1980, p. 93. Photo is Tompkins Square Park in 1967 from the amazing George Eastman House Collection on Flickr.
January 14, 1967. In January 1967, the underground paper The San Francisco Oracle announced “A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In” at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, located near the Haight-Ashbury area. This gathering precipitated what would come to be known as the “Summer of Love.”
Scan of p.89 of The San Francisco Oracle. The psychedelic newspaper of the Haight-Ashbury (1966-1968). Facsimile edition. (1st ed.), Cohen, Allen (1991), Allen Cohen, ed., Regent Press, ISBN 9780916147112
Material from the S.F. ORACLE provided courtesy of the Estate of Allen Cohen and Regent Press, publishers of the SAN FRANCISCO ORACLE FACSIMILE EDITION
Haight and Ashbury photo from Kmburke.
