Heads up ole hippies and vets: 40 years ago tomorrow, were you there with the other 200,000?

[Elwood P Dowd]

I was on Saturday and Sunday even though I was in the US Army. Had the weekend off at Ft Myer and went across the river with a couple of my fellow draftees. We looked out of place with our stupid Army haircuts, but these people were smart. Everyone seemed to know that we were just some unlucky draftees wanting that stupid war to end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztWa3QOFELw

[Sonoman]

1. I only wish I had been there.

Instead, I was in The Place Nobody Wanted to Be In.

But, hey, I am here now.

Sonoman

[peacefreak]

2. As a matter of fact, I was.

nt

[L0oniX]

3. Needs to happen again ...and again.

[handmade34]

4. oh, memories

sorry I wasn't in DC, but I was at the capital in Lansing Michigan protesting often

[Fozzledick]

5. Yeah, actually I was there

Then I camped out in West Potomac Park until the May Day civil disobedience a week later that (according to Daniel Ellsberg and Bob Haldeman) "drove Nixon up the wall" and scared him into postponing his plan for a nuclear attack on Vietnam until after the next election, by which time he was too caught up in the Watergate scandal.

According to Haldeman, Nixon dismissed the large scale legal demonstration on April 24th as just "commuters", but he was totally shaken by 10,000 people willing to commit civil disobedience in the streets of Washington the next week.

[crickets]

19. "postponing his plan for a nuclear attack on Vietnam"

Holy crap. What is it with these megalomaniacs and their need for spreading death and ruin?

I was a whippersnapper at the time and have lots of memories of the Vietnam era, but filtered through the lens of a rural childhood. This is the first I can remember hearing of the nuke plan. *googles*

The Nukes of October: Richard Nixon's Secret Plan to Bring Peace to Vietnam
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-03/ff_nuclearwar?currentPage=all

Omigod. "Codenamed Giant Lance" What is it with these megalomaniacs and their penis issues?

Thanks to those of you who protested. I was too young then. We've been doing our best now but it hasn't seemed to do any good.

So far.

Hope is the thing with feathers.

[HockeyMom]

6. I was working at NYU and living in NYC

No, not in DC, but there were a LOT of protests in NYC, as in Central Park, so maybe I was there. I went to a many of them. Too long ago to remember every specific protest. Too many and too much time has passed. Sorry.

[immoderate]

17. I was at the Central Park protest.

I must have seen you. :hippie:

--imm

[Karenina]

29. +1

[oneshooter]

7. I was busy that day. One week platoon sized patrol, n/t

[PCIntern]

8. Yes...with my first real gf...

marvelous scene...not my first DC march/protest, though.

[cliffordu]

9. Not me.....I was finished with my tour of duty and firmly entrenched with Deborah and

her Magic Sister in a living arraingement that to this day is prolly illegal in some jurisdictions......

Ah........memories of youth wasted in all the right ways.......


Although I DID make it to the U of O protests a couple of times.....

[wtmusic]

10. Video of my buddy Fred Herrera playing bass in the first act to go onstage.

Sweetwater

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhuPmc4y_zQ

He has great stories about it. Getting flown in on a helicopter, almost getting in a fistfight with Sly Stone...

[bobbolink]

11. If this is the Moratorium you are talking about, I was in the one in San Francisco.

We were between the doctors and nurses contingent, and the contingent of Vets.

We were on a very wide street, and when we got to the top of a hill, it was people as far as we could see ahead of us, and people as far as we could see behind us.

The entertainers along the way were fantastic, and people hanging huge banners out windows, and all the food and drink.

It was one show of strength and good will.

Our little son was with us, and he enjoyed all the puppet shows along the way, and the entertainment for children.

Those were the days, my friends.

We have forgotten how to come together like that.

[SheilaT]

12. Hmmm. I was living in Alexandra, VA, at the

time, and I can't recall this. And I would have been in town at the time, too. Alas, I was quite disconnected from paying attention to what was going on in the world in those days.

[Elwood P Dowd]

16. I was living in Arlington at Ft Myer. That summer I moved to an apartment just off Columbia Pike.

Do you remember Cameron Station in Alexandra? The only good part about the Army was buying stuff cheap at places like that. There were some great clubs in Georgetown like the Cellar Door. Couldn't afford to go there but once or twice a month, but they really had some great entertainment at times.

It's strange, but I've never been back to the area since my Army time ended in 1972. People tell me I wouldn't like it compared to the way it was back in the day.

[SheilaT]

28. No, I don't recall

Cameron Station. I also didn't have much of a social life, I'm sorry to say.

I lived in the area until the very end of 1981, and I have been back several times since. It has changed a lot. Much more crowded, much more expensive. I still have family and friends there, which is why I get back.

The Metro has made a huge difference. Even then I didn't own a car, because the bus transportation was quite good. If I were to move back -- highly unlikely, but you never know -- I think I would give up having a car and just rent one when I felt I needed one.

[formernaderite]

13. brought tears to my eyes thank you!

I had a buddy who took some 8mm of the protests too, but some how over the years shit gets lost. Think the last time we watched it was at least 35 years ago! But that link made me tear up, hard to believe it's 40 years gone by.

Can you imagine how much easier it would've been to set up these protests if we had the technology they have today?

But then maybe they wouldn't have been so well attended...somehow true human contact gets lost in cyber communications.

[donco]

14. Nope, that was during

my lost year +; I got out of the Marine Corps in July of 1970 and spent the following year and a half …adjusting.

[SteveG]

15. Yuppers, I was there

scary times. I remember the machine gun nests at the capitol.

[femmocrat]

18. I was in DC 40 years ago... but I don't want to click on the link.

What was I doing that day? Thanks.

[EFerrari]

20. Marching against the Viet Nam war. n/t

[Greybnk48]

21. My oldest girl was 2 1/2 months old. I was there in

spirit! My (1st) husband was due to be discharged from the Coast Guard in about three weeks (after a four year stint) and we were really excited about going back home to Wisconsin and starting a "normal" life!

[mulsh]

22. I was at the SF March.

Over 100,000 people marched from the Embarcadero to Geary, out Geary to the Polo Field in Golden Gate Park. I remember one very agitated French woman in Union Square shouting at us marchers. Along Geary a couple of bands set up an played. I remember the bass player with nylon strings playing at the Coronet Theater. I was 13 at the time. It was a great experience. My parents knew I was going to march and even gave me some extra money for donations and food. I made it back to Oakland in time to see the 6 o'clock news which had pretty accurate coverage.

[Drew Richards]

23. I was there in 71 and 73 for yippie smoke-in

71 was frightening but 73 they Fu***** Gassed us with Mustard gas or the early form of CS gas they made...good luck finding film of that..

These are memories truly burned into my soul.

I HATE the Corporate Fascist Oligarchy and it has been publicly in power since they Killed Kennedy.

At least I still believe they planned and executed a presidential assassination...I can't prove it, and you can believe whatever you like on that, but the official story is still unconvincing to me 50 years later...


Mr. Natural

[Elwood P Dowd]

24. Also, DUers remember that the Kent State anniversary comes up in less than two weeks.

When I packed up my car and left DC and the US Army in 1972, I didn't think there could possible be another period of time as bad as the one I just survived. Well, to this old man what we've been though the past few years is ten times worse. It's worse because the corporations now own the media and the politicians. You could have 500,000 demonstrating in DC today, and yet a Tea Party rally of 100 in Boston would bring more media coverage. Oh, and we're still fighting more wars based on lies.

[Drew Richards]

26. God you said it all

Welcome home brother.:cry:

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

25. Slept on the mall that Saturday night.

Was in the Navy stationed in Bethesda.

[Elwood P Dowd]

27. I did too, and it was cold that night -- about 40-45 degrees.

Hard to sleep with everything going on. Some left-handed cigs and cheap wine helped.

[woofless]

30. I was already overseas in the AF.

Got sent to the Pentagon in Summer '72 and lived at Ft, Meyer. Small world.