Transcripts For CSPAN3 October 1967 March On The Pentagon 20

CSPAN3 October 1967 March On The Pentagon November 11, 2017

Wrote one of our newsletters and it suddenly occurred to me that for people ,ow who are our age then vietnam is to them, chronologically, what world war i was for us. But not know about you, world war i did not weigh heavily on my imagination at all. The question is, why is vietnam still weighing on our imaginations . It is not so hard to understand. Faults of the ken did touch on it the fact that it is an unresolved question in this society. Hopefully when we have that discussion later this afternoon ,e will talk about the ways intentionally or not, it has opened the door for far more discussion. First, the editor of the vietnam 1967 series. [applause] thank you so much and thanks to i believe there are a few people who contributed here in the audience to our project. In a truncated version in the paper tomorrow, and oral history of the march on the pentagon. Obviously i was not there. Maybe it is obvious. [laughter] my job is to give the blueprint so that for those of you who were not there or forget, anything that is said afterwards falls into that context. I want to keep this brief because you are not here to hear me, you are here to hear the people who can testify to what happened. Are going to be photographs that support some of what i am talking about. If we go to the first slide, the march on the pentagon was not the first protest, and we have heard earlier, actions had been going on since the beginning of the war effort. Ramped up as the war ramped up. Here we have almost exactly two years earlier, a scene from the Oakland Army Terminal where theres a protest against the shipping of troops and materials right as johnson is announcing the war to begin. People are aware of what is going on and taking action against it. At the same time, it was not penetrating the mainstream, and the same way the war was not penetrating the mainstream and the sense of being a tragic stalemate situation. California being the center of a lot of activism, the bay area, feeding off the free speech movement, a lot of people were predisposed to be cheated to what was going on and because the oakland terminal was there, transmissiono much of men and material and weapons to vietnam was going out right from their. It made sense that was the center of activism. There were other people there were other places, cambridge and college towns. It was in april of 1967 that the antiwar effort came to a head as something the mainstream needed to Pay Attention to. Two things happen in that month, the first is we heard earlier about Martin Luther king speech at Riverside Church on april 4. First of all it was a statement by king, this immense moral figure of antiwar opposition. Peoplealso a signal to who were primarily concerned in their activism about civil rights, who were concerned about social justice, it was a signal to them that they need to Pay Attention to the war. Not that no one was doing that, but Martin Luther king gave license to people who might have said i am for civil rights and johnson is for civil rights, so i cannot oppose johnson. King was coming out and saying you have to oppose both of these things. You have to be for civil rights and oppose the president on the war. Two weeks later, there was a massive march in new york city. He we have a photo of Martin Luther king and dr. Spock and others marching down fifth avenue. Before that there is been a large gathering in the sheeps meadow in central park where there is one of the first spontaneous, but also well attended draft card burnings. This is another thing that came into the public conscious. This is a way of opposing the war, this is how you can take action if you are the young man of draft age. One thing that happened with this march, here is a picture of some of the men spontaneously burning their draft cards. House jan was found in a garbage can because it was not something people had planned. It came out that let us burn these things. An enterprising gentleman found it in the garbage can and said lets burn them. One thing that happened at that was one of the main leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, sort of a lieutenant to dr. Martin luther king, he said the next time we do this, it is going to be bigger and it is going to be in washington. It was not something that was necessarily planned, but it was immediately grabbed onto by the organizers of this march, centered around the National Mobilization to end the war. Organization. Ella was led by a longtime antiwar activist and they immediately said that is a great idea, how do we do that . The mindsthat was on of a lot of these organizers was how to we get young people out this . Involved in there is this counterculture that is evolving that is political but not necessarily antiwar, how do we bring those people in . They reached out to the young counterculture leaders and said we want to bring you in to help organize this. All through the summer and into organizingere was around the country, conversations, conferences trying to put this together. It was a wellplanned event the weekend of october 21. Disagreement, not disagreement, but some sense that different people had different ideas. Some of the older participants wanted a very organized rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and leave it at that. Some of the younger people said we need to march on the pentagon, we need to take on the war machine where it lives. , ok, we will do that. There was some nervousness about what that would lead to. Up to the march itself that weekend, there were , aer of of vents number of events, related or unrelated actions around the country. There was a sense that the movement was building, and not necessarily because of abbie hoffman, but people were coming out to say this is a war that i oppose. The couple ofe in weeks before that event, there were protests on the west coast, this is at the Arlington Church in cambridge where people got together and gather draft cards, we heard about the Justice Department action, this is one of the places where they were collected. The draft cards that were turned in at the Justice Department were both intact and in a can. Day is the centerpiece of what happened. Beginning at the Lincoln Memorial, we have about 75 to 100,000 people. There is no great estimate of exactly how many. Some people say it is more than that, some people say up to 200,000, probably around 80,000 or 90,000. Lets leave it at that. Atmosphere, as lot of people were reported dancing, people playing music, but also paying a lot of attention to what was being said on the stage. There was music by peter, paul, and mary, speeches by dillinger and dr. Spock. At one point a nazi counterprotesters torrent of the stage. A member of the British Labour party was speaking. Alle were counterprotesters along the way. A lot were extremists who work who were nazis. In some ways it gave a heightened sense of moral authority to the marchers. They were not only opposing the pentagon but they were opposed by some of the real scum of american society. One thing that was not clear was what with the march entail . When with the march happened . It was in a lot of ways spontaneous, although it had been negotiated and thoroughly discussed with the army. Where could they the general idea was that they would march across the bridge down jeff davis highway. Things dont change. They gather in the north parking lot and that is where they would be restricted. Then they would be the opportunity to make spontaneous or symbolic steps across the police line to be arrested. That is what would happen that afternoon. Would people want to do that . At the Lincoln Memorial were not sure what would happen. The speeches started to come to an end and there were trumpets blown and we heard about the spanish civil war veterans. They got up and started marching. Pretty soon the time just turned. This is a great scene. People just started marching. Well over half of the people in attendance started marching across the bridge. Also aspects of the organizing groups. He has fought and dillinger and Robert Lowell and also young people. You had people who were there to see what was going on. They fell in with the crowd. Forook about 2. 5 hours everyone to get to the north parking lot. Chomsky and mailer and lowell gave more speeches, this is when a separate Group Without ginsburg and the thugs started their 10th two levitate the pentagon and that had been some disagreement about what protesters could do as an organized group. A lot of people wanted to circle the pentagon. Not to encroach on it but to circle it. That had been shot down by the army. There were a lot of people who arrived and said i am not going to just do this. Lets see what happens. Pretty quickly there was pressure from the crowd pushing against the first skirmish in line of military police. You had military police lines interspersed with federal marshals. What i heard from people on the army side was that they were there and they were of different opinions. The marshals were the one to were really angry. There was once doing the bidding as the day went on. It was really the marshals that were pushing to arrest and pushed the army forward. All of the sudden there was a breakout of a couple dozen doing an end run around the defensive line. Coming to the steps of the mall, tearing down some temporary fencing and some got into the pentagon. Point things started to lose their coherence. The Government Forces started arresting people en masse. They were not really willing to go all out in what stopping what was going on. Troops had bayonets, ammunition nearby, tear gas. There were some disputes about whether the tear gas was set off accidentally. It was not widespread use of tear gas but there was tear gas being used. Eventually it settled into a stalemate right in front of them all. Also, the northeastern curve of the pentagon. That is where the great iconic pictures come from. That is with a blunt here guide with the chunky sweater started putting the flowers into the rivals of soldiers. That is more or less the way that things stay through the evening and they would be occasional skirmishes, occasional outbursts of arrest. A number of people who had been arrested early like chomsky and mailer were being processed on the south side of the pentagon and those two were taken to other people were let go after paying the fine. That is how things ended for the day. Several hundred protesters stayed. They sat facetoface with the army. They were doing a spontaneous mass teaching and trying to persuade them. One person wrote for us said it is like trying to persuade russian soldiers. Come over to our side. Every now and then someone would. What is interesting is this all violated the agreement of what had been set up earlier. The military was not willing to shut it all down. This speaks to the power of the event. This was speaking truth to power they did not decide to pull out of the web but they said we will let you speak. You can occupy a portion of the pentagon grounds. The next morning around 6 00 and started to fall apart, thats roots. Most of the protesters had left. The statement had been made and the world was watching. That iss that quite striking is the amount of photography and video you can find for an event back then. Hows interesting to see different news sources portrayed this. It is worth going back and reading some of our coverage. That is the coverage and what the colonists were writing. James reston was adamant that there had been spending on soldiers. As far as the reporting goes, that did not happen. Say they wereers some bad eczema crowd but ggs in the crowd. There are people trying to win over soldiers and speak to the government, not against the people who were there. A lot of the signs you saw being carried through the march were bring the boys home, bring the soldiers home. That is a distinction that was often covered over in the press covers, they made it out to sound like it was antitroop, antisoldier when in fact it was more nuanced. I probably have run through well over my time right now. I hope this gives you some idea. I dont want to draw conclusions waso anything to say this successful or not. I think everybody here has their opinion and what we will hear from Going Forward is a panel of experiences. I hope it brings back a lot of memories for people but also gives us more food for thought for the weekend. Thank you. Suzanne jackson wheres our for my . I want to use the floor mic when we get to the individual testimonials. Thank you. A special thanks to terry, john and others who organized this 50th year memorization of the 1967 pentagon demonstration, immobilization also known as the march on the pentagon. For the many who participated in the october 20 21st action. We must remember and recognize the vietnamese people and people who served in the military and their family. Many of us face buried degrees of risks, challenges and too often devastating outcomes. At that time, the 1967 pentagon demonstration was considered an immense turning point in the struggle to end the vietnam war. It was sponsored by the National Mobilization committee to end the war in vietnam. The modehat we call for short. Our own diverse path as activists, demonstrators and resistors. My path began when i was just a kindergartner. We resented the pledge daily, drilling in our minds and spirits with liberty and justice for all. Only as i grew older in detroit, that was not what was happening. They were in equities and injustices and in school in college and in our neighborhoods. During and after high school and college in michigan and the midwest ndc, i worked on peace and justice issues including antiapartheid organizing and vietnam. Because of this work i was asked to be the doozy for nader of the pentagon demonstration. That included local communications, networking and media housing, transportation, dealing with various to our operations, negotiations with police and working with women and children to facilitate their dissipation. We gathered an extraordinary coalition of people and groups committed to various lifestyles and organizing strategies. This group was united through its collective determination to mobilize enough activists to end u. S. Involvement in vietnam. Do hold us together was a Monumental Task daily. This was a consequential, grabbing groundbreaking concept. Being tolerant enough to allow people to use different approaches in the same mobilization. The resistors, the approach to the absurdities and horrors of our realities and the mark valley demonstration approaches. On ontariod worked street. Jerry rubin, project director and the Youth International party leader would stay at the house when he came to deceive. This is what i also attended. Jerry would insist on smoking marijuana. Its aroma filling the house. Anylaimed using marijuana antiwar work for the same struggle. I would argue with him on every visit to no avail that he was risking the demonstration being shut down for something less critical at that time. We are still fighting about marijuana. Reporters including Carl Bernstein were dropping by the house asking whether the yippies were really going to turn this as they had both pronounced. The more critical question of why they would consider painting the potomac read. Jerry, heavy and all of us were concerned about the blood. These were the numbers benefiting an immensely limited in the pentagon. The media was so shallow that we decide we should start our own news network. This is especially for colleges. Stone would teach us how to read between the lines of the Washington Post and the new york times. He had long ago been banned from the pentagon as a pacifist, his ideas were becoming too popular. Read byoo well influential individuals and herbs. His arguments and information were very persuasive. He reminded us that there were no secrets, not toplevel or any other kind. You can find everything you ever want to know by reading between the lines and reading carefully what was said and what was left unsaid. Organized at the house trying to communicate we would get lots of static on the rotary dial phone line. One day was so bad that i called the operator and said to her we know our lines are tapped but neither the tabs nor any of us can hear it. Please clear up the line. Minute or so they did. The voices were suddenly clearly audible. They stayed that way through october. Andever really know who which intelligence agencies were monitoring our preparation. One day, in a small and darkened room, a young man sat across from me and suggested we kidnap kissinger. At the time i really didnt even know who kissinger was. I politely responded that kidnapping this was not my style. Sometimes agent provocateurs would try to get you in smiled in outrageous games to land you in jail or get you and possibly others killed. We had to be cautious and focused. We were getting reports that groups and individuals were having difficulty booking buses, trains and planes to get to deceive. Some said they were being stopped or delayed in their travels. Most about the government intelligence agencies were creating the blockages. Thankfully we had teams of lawyers, law students, actors and journalists who have worked with us on previous actions and were prepared to support Community People in case urban uprising occurred. During the various marches and events they had all gotten quite mobile. They were making house calls and street calls wherever they were needed. They were during their best to counter the suppressive, regressive and oppressive storylines of mainstream journalists. Some of the dots is related to the medical community for human rights who had been supported in civil rights action. Mobile leaders were meeting with the government to work at details of the march rally, demonstration and even the resistance. The Women Leaders were especially concerned that our children might be shot or tear gassed. Always responses to demonstrations had escalated, it had been extremely violent in the south for civil rights demonstrations. And as a part of daily life. For the newer reality mostly white antiwar activists. Were less white folks used to Police Violence against themselves and their children. Birmingham had already

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