Part 10 (1/2)

”Well, because I choose not to.”

It portended disaster. His forthright honesty was his calling card, his contrast with the wheeler-dealer LBJ and the used-car salesman Nixon, what made him, along with that strong, square chin and silvering hair and popularity with Democrats, look like a contender. But honesty was a dull blade to take into a knife fight with Richard Nixon-who was simply willing to lie.

Nixon let a reporter ride along with him to the airport for a Thanksgiving vacation to Florida and spun him blind with his favored interpretation of the congressional elections. When Nixon returned, old hands started showing up on his doorstep, pledging to help him take the fight to the floundering Romney. Nixon pleaded disingenuously that he was in the middle of a political moratorium and could neither approve nor disapprove of any efforts made on his behalf. The old hands served his purposes admirably by plumping for him independently nonetheless-as he knew they would. The amateur, Romney, went on hanging himself with his own rope, while the professional, Nixon, insisted he wasn't running for anything at all, and the publisher of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat St. Louis Globe-Democrat-crafty Buchanan's old boss-ran a full-page article arguing that Nixon's activities over the last two years ”annihilated the argument that Nixon is a loser, a candidate who can't win.”

Behind closed doors Nixon posted flattering missives (”I have heard a number of very favorable comments from some of the political 'pros' in the New York area with regard to your appearance on 'Issues and Answers,'” he wrote to California's governor-elect), oiled his political machine, sh.o.r.ed up the right flank. He convened another meeting with conservative leaders, this time at the sumptuous Newport mansion of Eisenhower's former chief of protocol. Tom Charles Huston promised the YAFers they'd get jobs in a Nixon White House. Then Nixon had Buckley, Rusher, and the bestselling conservative author Victor Lasky to his town house for the patented foreign policy tour d'horizon. tour d'horizon.

On the first of the year Nixon, Mudge merged with another Wall Street firm, Caldwell, Trimble & Mitch.e.l.l. Their lead partner, John Mitch.e.l.l, was a bald, long-faced, pipe-smoking World War II PT-boat commander, a former semipro hockey player with a bloodl.u.s.t proper to the sport. His legal experience was in putting together munic.i.p.al-bond deals. That gave him just the right political qualifications: intimacy with officeholders around the country, right on down to the precinct level, who owed Mitch.e.l.l as their conduit to Wall Street money. With blinding speed, Nixon promoted him to be his closest strategic confidant-”the heavyweight,” he announced to William Safire.

At the winter Republican National Committee meeting in New Orleans, as Romney's surrogates b.u.t.tered up the press to follow along on the governor's lecture tour, two Southerners shopped around a plan for Republican unity in 1967. Fred LaRue, the Mississippi national committeeman, had been a Goldwater field organizer in 1964. Peter O'Donnell, the chairman of the Texas Republican Party, had chaired Barry Goldwater's legendary nominating organization. They b.u.t.tonholed Republicans and reporters, arguing that the best way to avoid the party-killing rancor their efforts had lamentably produced in 1964 was not for no one to declare his candidacy but for everyone everyone to declare his candidacy. Republicans had such a wealth of talent-Romney of Michigan, Rockefeller to declare his candidacy. Republicans had such a wealth of talent-Romney of Michigan, Rockefeller and and Javits of New York, John Tower of Texas, Rockefeller of Arkansas, Kirk of Florida, Percy of Illinois, Reagan of California, Shaffer of Pennsylvania, etc.-that as many as possible should declare themselves favorite-son presidential candidates, to keep their states' delegations in abeyance until the party could quietly settle on a consensus ticket. Javits of New York, John Tower of Texas, Rockefeller of Arkansas, Kirk of Florida, Percy of Illinois, Reagan of California, Shaffer of Pennsylvania, etc.-that as many as possible should declare themselves favorite-son presidential candidates, to keep their states' delegations in abeyance until the party could quietly settle on a consensus ticket.

They succeeded. Favorite-son boomlets for second-tier officeholders, who, prima donnas to a man, encouraged the attentions, spread from sea to s.h.i.+ning sea.

In New York, Richard Nixon smiled. LaRue and O'Donnell were his secret agents. Sowing a dozen or more presidential ”contenders” starved the five or six who actually were were contenders of attention, leaving Nixon to plot behind the scenes in peace. contenders of attention, leaving Nixon to plot behind the scenes in peace.

LaRue and O'Donnell baited a big fish in New Orleans for Nixon, Dr. g.a.y.l.o.r.d Parkinson, the California Republican chair and San Diego ob-gyn and quite an operator himself. While preaching ”Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican” in 1966, he was working on a $33,000 retainer for Reagan. Romney had unsuccessfully tried to lure him to run his presidential campaign. O'Donnell and LaRue convinced Parkinson to travel to New York to dine with the boss. One tour d'horizon tour d'horizon later, he agreed to head the first aboveboard Nixon for President Committee, whenever that should surface. Hiring ”Parky” was brilliant: he was the best-known apostle of Republican unity, and the best person possible to influence the favorite son Nixon most wanted to keep out of the running-Ronald Wilson Reagan. Romney's people tried to leak the hiring to the press as a violation of Nixon's ”moratorium.” In this they floundered, too. Parkinson said he was just one more concerned private citizen trying to ”convince d.i.c.k that he's got enough delegates so that he ought to run.” later, he agreed to head the first aboveboard Nixon for President Committee, whenever that should surface. Hiring ”Parky” was brilliant: he was the best-known apostle of Republican unity, and the best person possible to influence the favorite son Nixon most wanted to keep out of the running-Ronald Wilson Reagan. Romney's people tried to leak the hiring to the press as a violation of Nixon's ”moratorium.” In this they floundered, too. Parkinson said he was just one more concerned private citizen trying to ”convince d.i.c.k that he's got enough delegates so that he ought to run.”

On January 7, 1967, Nixon met with his delegate-hunting team at the Waldorf. O'Donnell explained how they'd done it for Goldwater: ”Collectin' delegates is just like was.h.i.+n' dirty dishes, you gotta take 'em one by one,” he said, swabbing the air with a make-believe towel. Nixon told them not even to tell their closest friends about the meeting, clinching the plea with Nixonian skill: ”We don't want to hurt the feelings of anybody we've left out,” he said-signifying to those present they were his true true inner circle. (Then he lied to them, saying he thought the Vietnam War would be over by 1968.) He said to pa.s.s the word that he was running, but quietly: ”Don't give out any franchises, but get started contacting the power groups in each state.... Peter O'Donnell is the nonchairman of a nonexistent group.” Someone joked that they were his brain trust, just like FDR's. The boss shot him a dagger-eyed look. ”No help on the issues,” he said sharply. ”That's something else. Stick to politics.” inner circle. (Then he lied to them, saying he thought the Vietnam War would be over by 1968.) He said to pa.s.s the word that he was running, but quietly: ”Don't give out any franchises, but get started contacting the power groups in each state.... Peter O'Donnell is the nonchairman of a nonexistent group.” Someone joked that they were his brain trust, just like FDR's. The boss shot him a dagger-eyed look. ”No help on the issues,” he said sharply. ”That's something else. Stick to politics.”

In the middle of February Nixon denied he was running for president by telling the Sat.u.r.day Evening Post Sat.u.r.day Evening Post that if he was, he'd ”have locked it up by now.” Meanwhile he locked up organizations for his five carefully selected primaries, New Hamps.h.i.+re on March 12, Wisconsin on April 2, Indiana on May 7, Nebraska on May 14, and Oregon on May 28. Then he left for stature-enhancing trips to Europe, South America, and Asia, which would take him through summer. In between calls on Pope Paul, w.i.l.l.y Brandt, and Harold Wilson, he acknowledged to the press that, yes, he had heard g.a.y.l.o.r.d Parkinson had formed some sort of committee back in Was.h.i.+ngton, but that ”I have made no decision with regard to my own political activities.” that if he was, he'd ”have locked it up by now.” Meanwhile he locked up organizations for his five carefully selected primaries, New Hamps.h.i.+re on March 12, Wisconsin on April 2, Indiana on May 7, Nebraska on May 14, and Oregon on May 28. Then he left for stature-enhancing trips to Europe, South America, and Asia, which would take him through summer. In between calls on Pope Paul, w.i.l.l.y Brandt, and Harold Wilson, he acknowledged to the press that, yes, he had heard g.a.y.l.o.r.d Parkinson had formed some sort of committee back in Was.h.i.+ngton, but that ”I have made no decision with regard to my own political activities.”

It hadn't been all work that winter. At the end of December Nixon presented his youngest daughter, Julie, for her debut at the Waldorf-Astoria, escorted by David Eisenhower, the general's grandson. The debutante ball played widely on television: a blus.h.i.+ng David Eisenhower in white tie and tails, a beaming Julie in a floor-length, white gown, the proud parents gazing down lovingly from the balcony as the band played ”America the Beautiful”-a tonic for elders growing dismayingly accustomed to very different images of this generation.

Robert McNamara had visited Harvard. Students lay down before his car, forcing him to escape through a steam tunnel. On the Sunset Strip in Hollywood a teenage riot broke out when the city dared enforce its 10 p.m. curfew. ”The majority of them come from good, solid families with money in the bank, plenty of food on the table, and a bright future ahead of them,” a startled cop observed, baffled. In December thousands of Berkeley students went on strike after demonstrators were arrested while protesting the presence of navy recruiters' tables in the student union. They shouted down the vice chancellor; Ronald Reagan promised that upon his inauguration they ”would be treated like any other person charged with a crime.”

Then, on January 14 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, twenty thousand gyrating young tatterdemalions spouted poetry, chanted mantras, listened to Moby Grape and the Jefferson Airplane, and ingested ten thousand free tablets of now illegal LSD, drawn forth by Day-Glo posters that enjoined, ”Now in the evolving generation of America's young the humanization of the American man and woman can begin in joy and embrace without fear, dogma, suspicion, or dialectical righteousness. A new concept of human relations being developed within the youthful underground must emerge, become conscious, and be shared so that a revolution of form can be filled with a Renaissance of compa.s.sion, awareness, and love in the Revelation of the unity of all mankind.” The ”Human Be-In” made all the news shows, too, just like Julie's deb ball.

They were strange, these hippies, very strange. Beatniks had been flouting the canons of decent civilization for a long time now, but at least they had the decency to do it in dark, dank coffeehouses. Now kids did it out in the open, expected you to congratulate them for it. But in some sense they were only doing what their elders told them to. Time Time's January 6 issue was its annual ”Man of the Year.” They chose ”a generation: the man-and woman-of 25 and under.” The lead article was not dissimilar to ads for the Human Be-In: ”In the closing third of the 20th century, that generation looms larger than all the exponential promises of science or technology.... This is not just a new generation, but a new kind of generation.... He is the man who will land on the moon, cure cancer and the common cold, lay out blight-proof, smog-free cities, enrich the underdeveloped world, and no doubt, write finis finis to poverty and war.... Today's youth appears more deeply committed to the fundamental Western ethos-decency, tolerance, brotherhood-than almost any generation.... In the omphalocentric process of self-construction and discovery, he stalks love like a wary hunter, but has no time or target-not even the mellowing Communists-for hate.” to poverty and war.... Today's youth appears more deeply committed to the fundamental Western ethos-decency, tolerance, brotherhood-than almost any generation.... In the omphalocentric process of self-construction and discovery, he stalks love like a wary hunter, but has no time or target-not even the mellowing Communists-for hate.” Reader's Digest Reader's Digest republished the article as ”Here Comes the republished the article as ”Here Comes the Now Now Generation.” Generation.” Time Time published another essay proclaiming, ”most American youngsters now work harder, think deeper, love more, and even look better than any previous generation.” published another essay proclaiming, ”most American youngsters now work harder, think deeper, love more, and even look better than any previous generation.”

It was as if someone had called to this boom of babies sired by the domesticity-starved veterans of World War II, ”Ye shall be as G.o.ds.” And they believed it. Because they were told it all the time.

”In the sixth decade of the twentieth century, America entered its middle age, and discovered its youth,” as two typical commentators put it. ”And the young people themselves began to develop a sense of their own ident.i.ty and with it a radically critical att.i.tude about the society that their elders had created. They dissented, they dropped out, they said 'No'-and the reverberations of that No are still being heard.”

The new generation's ethos had something to do with JFK, all agreed, and the Bomb, and a celebration of the immediate against their parents' cult of deferred gratification. Their favorite politician, Bobby Kennedy, was like them addicted, Andrew Kopkind of the New Republic New Republic wrote, to ”sudden, spontaneous, half-understood acts of calculated risk.” They reviled a society lost ”among the motorized toothbrushes, tranquilizers, and television commercials” (wrote Kennedy brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, in an article on their signature government program, the Peace Corps). Their radical activists were a ”prophetic minority,” said the wrote, to ”sudden, spontaneous, half-understood acts of calculated risk.” They reviled a society lost ”among the motorized toothbrushes, tranquilizers, and television commercials” (wrote Kennedy brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, in an article on their signature government program, the Peace Corps). Their radical activists were a ”prophetic minority,” said the Village Voice Village Voice's Jack Newfield-building ”a brotherly way of life even in the jaws of the Leviathan,” according to historian Staughton Lynd. Their signature mood was ”taking America's promises seriously,” struggling ”for ident.i.ty in a vast, impersonal education and research factory run by IBM cards.” For them, ”the Death of G.o.d,” a minister wrote, was a ”rallying cry for those who wished to confront head-on the question of the relevance of religion to contemporary life.” ”They don't merely hang out together,” Tom Wolfe observed. ”They establish whole little societies for themselves.”

And here was the thing: they were told told all this, explicitly and incessantly. When they got to college-the research factories run on IBM cards-and took freshman composition cla.s.s, they might receive as their textbook a volume called all this, explicitly and incessantly. When they got to college-the research factories run on IBM cards-and took freshman composition cla.s.s, they might receive as their textbook a volume called The Sense of the Sixties. The Sense of the Sixties. All the quotations from the paragraph above come from this entirely typical production of its age. In a feedback loop, young people taught about young people, a.s.sured they had more to teach the teacher than the teacher had to teach them. ”What we have gathered are of the quanta of contemporary experience,” the editors of the book explained. ”You will very quickly become aware of areas of concern we have missed.” Young people took the glory as offered. ”The outcry of a generation is finally being taken seriously,” ran a letter responding to All the quotations from the paragraph above come from this entirely typical production of its age. In a feedback loop, young people taught about young people, a.s.sured they had more to teach the teacher than the teacher had to teach them. ”What we have gathered are of the quanta of contemporary experience,” the editors of the book explained. ”You will very quickly become aware of areas of concern we have missed.” Young people took the glory as offered. ”The outcry of a generation is finally being taken seriously,” ran a letter responding to Time Time from a Steve Forrer, Gettysburg College, Cla.s.s of '69 ( from a Steve Forrer, Gettysburg College, Cla.s.s of '69 (Time always included young letter-writers' ages). ”We are thinkers, cool guys, picketers, workers, fighters, but most of all we are the future of America-and that doesn't scare us.” always included young letter-writers' ages). ”We are thinkers, cool guys, picketers, workers, fighters, but most of all we are the future of America-and that doesn't scare us.”

Pundits spoke of the 26 million new citizens who would come of voting age by the time the 1972 presidential election rolled around, politics' new X-factor. In ”paisley ghettos” such as Haight-Ashbury and New York's East Village and Old Town in Chicago, teenagers chartered brave new worlds. The manifesto of the first gathering of publishers of the new ”underground” press proclaimed as their purpose, ”To warn the 'civilized world' of its impending collapse,” through ”communications among aware communities outside the establishment.” (San Francisco that summer, the underground paper IVO IVO promised, would be ”the Rome of a future world founded on love.”) Some in the Establishment entertained the possibility. Arnold Toynbee said hippies were ”a red warning light for the American way of life.” Episcopalian bishop James Pike noticed ”something about the temper and quality of these people, a gentleness, an interest-something good.” promised, would be ”the Rome of a future world founded on love.”) Some in the Establishment entertained the possibility. Arnold Toynbee said hippies were ”a red warning light for the American way of life.” Episcopalian bishop James Pike noticed ”something about the temper and quality of these people, a gentleness, an interest-something good.” Time Time observed in a long and respectful cover story in the summer of 1967 that their ”drug use is primarily Eucharistic in nature” and reported on pilgrimages to ”psychadelicatessens” by ”shoppers who intend trying nothing stronger than a b.l.o.o.d.y Mary” such as Jackie Kennedy, a regular knickknack purchaser in the head shops of the East Village. Though a observed in a long and respectful cover story in the summer of 1967 that their ”drug use is primarily Eucharistic in nature” and reported on pilgrimages to ”psychadelicatessens” by ”shoppers who intend trying nothing stronger than a b.l.o.o.d.y Mary” such as Jackie Kennedy, a regular knickknack purchaser in the head shops of the East Village. Though a Time Time letter-writer expressed another proliferating opinion: ”I fail to see much real altruism or idealism in my children or their friends. I see, rather, a perverted, sentimental self-centeredness.” letter-writer expressed another proliferating opinion: ”I fail to see much real altruism or idealism in my children or their friends. I see, rather, a perverted, sentimental self-centeredness.”

In fact, the more attention paid the psychadelicatessens, the more the squares worked at chartering a youth culture of their own. In January of 1966, the names of 477,000 students from 322 colleges who supported the war were presented by student leaders to the White House. Five hundred gathered at a pro-war teach-in at Princeton. The next month fifteen thousand sat in the pouring rain at Atlanta Stadium for an ”Affirmation: Vietnam” rally organized by Emory students. ”The Ballad of the Green Berets” hit number one that March. The far-right Orange County entrepreneur Patrick Frawley underwrote a national ”Moral Re-Armament” movement that gathered students, statesmen, business leaders, scientists, and Olympic champions to a conference on Mackinac Island in Michigan. A ”college coed,” Reader's Digest Reader's Digest reported, stole the show. She stood up and cried indignantly, ”I'm fed up with the image of American youth being created by beatniks, draft-card burners, campus rioters, and protest marchers.” reported, stole the show. She stood up and cried indignantly, ”I'm fed up with the image of American youth being created by beatniks, draft-card burners, campus rioters, and protest marchers.”

”The response from the audience was electric,” said the Digest. Digest. ”High-school and college youth spoke up from all over the a.s.sembly. Said John Everson, a track star from Iowa State University: 'The loudmouthed, pacifist minority scream about what they're against. Why don't we stage a demonstration of what we're ”High-school and college youth spoke up from all over the a.s.sembly. Said John Everson, a track star from Iowa State University: 'The loudmouthed, pacifist minority scream about what they're against. Why don't we stage a demonstration of what we're for for!'

”Richard 'Rusty' Wailes, a 1956 and 1960 Olympic gold medalist in rowing and one of the conference's directors, inadvertently suggested the kind of demonstration needed when he said, 'If we're going to debunk the myth of a soft, indulgent, arrogant American and show the world that we care about tomorrow, we've got to sing out our convictions, loud and strong!'”

It was the genesis of Up with People, a 130-performer musical extravaganza that debuted at the World's Fair in 1965, emceed by Pat Boone. The finale was the rousing ”Freedom Isn't Free,” which eulogized the debauched ancient Romans, ”so busy being merry ones, / That they didn't notice the barbarians!” A 1967 Reader's Digest Reader's Digest article ascribed to the show powers a Red Chinese propaganda sheet might bestow on Chairman Mao. A former Watts rioter saw the show, it was reported, then ”went to stores I'd looted and offered to pay for the things I'd taken.” Naval Academy mids.h.i.+pmen submitted to the performers a ”41-minute salvo of applause.” article ascribed to the show powers a Red Chinese propaganda sheet might bestow on Chairman Mao. A former Watts rioter saw the show, it was reported, then ”went to stores I'd looted and offered to pay for the things I'd taken.” Naval Academy mids.h.i.+pmen submitted to the performers a ”41-minute salvo of applause.”

You could laugh-if you were a Franklin. But you also couldn't find a seat at one of their concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. Something was happening here. What it was wasn't exactly clear.

The antiwar movement grew more militant; Leviathan kept on showing its snarling jaws. McNamara told Congress no ”bombing that I could contemplate in the future would seriously reduce the actual flow of men and materiel to the South”; the bombing continued. In 1967 an average of 150 Americans were dying a week, up 54 from 1966; in the third week of August, 211 died; in the fourth, 274.

Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali-hostile whites and stubborn old-school Negroes still called him by his birth name, Ca.s.sius Clay-refused to be inducted, exhausted his appeals, and was ordered to report on April 11. He said he'd rather die first: ”I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong.” Carrying Quotations from Chairman Mao Quotations from Chairman Mao became a campus fad. In February, Catholic pacifist David Miller, twenty-four, became the first convicted under a new law criminalizing draft-card burning. The Supreme Court refused to review his conviction. The new law's threat of five-year jail sentences only brought more defiance: a way to prove one's manhood by became a campus fad. In February, Catholic pacifist David Miller, twenty-four, became the first convicted under a new law criminalizing draft-card burning. The Supreme Court refused to review his conviction. The new law's threat of five-year jail sentences only brought more defiance: a way to prove one's manhood by refusing refusing to go to war. On March 8, four Palo Alto militants began a national campaign to collect pledges to turn in draft cards-the ”Resistance,” just like the underground insurgency against the n.a.z.is in World War II. The national council of SDS studied the draft laws and adopted a resolution explaining how members would violate each one. to go to war. On March 8, four Palo Alto militants began a national campaign to collect pledges to turn in draft cards-the ”Resistance,” just like the underground insurgency against the n.a.z.is in World War II. The national council of SDS studied the draft laws and adopted a resolution explaining how members would violate each one.

At the beginning of April, David Miller had his sentencing hearing. The judge gave him a chance to repent, then another. His infant began to cry; his wife pulled back her hair and began breast-feeding. The judge p.r.o.nounced sentence-two and a half years-and released him to spend time with his family before surrendering. Instead, Miller sat on the courtroom floor: ”I want to show you it's against my will.” ”Many of our fellows on the campuses and in the community at large,” an SDS flyer announced, were becoming ”moved to action by a fresh instance of that repression which is becoming an increasingly important factor in American life.”

Even worse for the government was a concomitant lack lack of militancy: that antiwar ranks were filling up with responsible grown-ups. ”I expected to see a bunch of crazy-looking beatniks,” a cop said of thirty thousand from the middle-aged, middle-cla.s.s, middle-American peace organization SANE who marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, ”but this is really a respectable-looking group.” On Martha's Vineyard, the McNamaras played tennis only with the Bundys; the rest of the vacationers had organized a boycott. At Aspen, antiwar skiers rocked McNamara's chairlift. The same day that Rusk met with student leaders, 2,400 clergymen marched up Capitol Hill to tell their representatives about their forthcoming antiwar fast. Senator Scoop Jackson of Was.h.i.+ngton State was amazed to learn that eighty-five of his const.i.tuent divines had chartered a plane. Senator Eugene McCarthy, who worried the only Minnesotans who shared his doubts about the war were ”undirected students,” realized it was time to criticize it in public. Twenty-five hundred members of Women Strike for Peace stormed the Pentagon, many with children in tow, carrying blue shopping bags reading of militancy: that antiwar ranks were filling up with responsible grown-ups. ”I expected to see a bunch of crazy-looking beatniks,” a cop said of thirty thousand from the middle-aged, middle-cla.s.s, middle-American peace organization SANE who marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, ”but this is really a respectable-looking group.” On Martha's Vineyard, the McNamaras played tennis only with the Bundys; the rest of the vacationers had organized a boycott. At Aspen, antiwar skiers rocked McNamara's chairlift. The same day that Rusk met with student leaders, 2,400 clergymen marched up Capitol Hill to tell their representatives about their forthcoming antiwar fast. Senator Scoop Jackson of Was.h.i.+ngton State was amazed to learn that eighty-five of his const.i.tuent divines had chartered a plane. Senator Eugene McCarthy, who worried the only Minnesotans who shared his doubts about the war were ”undirected students,” realized it was time to criticize it in public. Twenty-five hundred members of Women Strike for Peace stormed the Pentagon, many with children in tow, carrying blue shopping bags reading MOTHERS SAY STOP THE WAR IN VIETNAM. MOTHERS SAY STOP THE WAR IN VIETNAM. Refused entrance, they banged their shoes on the doors. Establishment insiders, former war supporters such as historian and former Kennedy administration special a.s.sistant Arthur Schlesinger, started joining the antiwar lists. Federal Reserve chairman Mariner Eccles and three hundred business executives took out an antiwar open letter to LBJ in the Refused entrance, they banged their shoes on the doors. Establishment insiders, former war supporters such as historian and former Kennedy administration special a.s.sistant Arthur Schlesinger, started joining the antiwar lists. Federal Reserve chairman Mariner Eccles and three hundred business executives took out an antiwar open letter to LBJ in the Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal.

The risks in speaking out could be considerable. In Houston a professor of medicine working to organize a Christmas vigil outside the LBJ Ranch backed off when Baylor University threatened to fire him; high school teachers were refused tenure, expelled from their unions; students in L.A., Des Moines, and Prince George's County were suspended for wearing antiwar pins; in Honolulu, two citizens were arrested for waving a flag with dollar signs instead of stars. In Durham, New Hamps.h.i.+re, selectmen issued a parade permit to antiwar marchers with the provision that no one be allowed to partic.i.p.ate who'd ever been arrested. Cops stood by studying rap sheets, collaring offenders as they pa.s.sed.

Against the advice of fellow civil rights leaders, the New York Times, New York Times, and the and the Was.h.i.+ngton Post, Was.h.i.+ngton Post, Martin Luther King began marching against the war: the two struggles felt to him one, and silence began to feel to him self-betrayal. He was convinced to take the plunge by the antiwar militant the administration feared most of all: Dr. Benjamin Spock, whose Martin Luther King began marching against the war: the two struggles felt to him one, and silence began to feel to him self-betrayal. He was convinced to take the plunge by the antiwar militant the administration feared most of all: Dr. Benjamin Spock, whose Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care was one of the most influential books in the history of Western civilization, the author a secular saint. He received fan letters by the truckload; a typical one read, ”I feel as if you were talking just to me.” He had cut a commercial for the 1964 Johnson presidential campaign, and there had been talk that LBJ might make him secretary of health, education, and welfare. was one of the most influential books in the history of Western civilization, the author a secular saint. He received fan letters by the truckload; a typical one read, ”I feel as if you were talking just to me.” He had cut a commercial for the 1964 Johnson presidential campaign, and there had been talk that LBJ might make him secretary of health, education, and welfare.

Then Spock started speaking at antiwar demonstrations. Copies of his baby book were returned to him in shreds. He picketed in front of the White House. A teenager shouted, ”Traitor!” ”Traitor!” and hit him with an egg (Spock's wife was just glad it wasn't a bullet). Here was a generation of mothers' security blanket. Now he was taking a security blanket away: the belief that the government was worthy of implicit trust. ”We teach our boys to be men,” a parent wrote him, ”and now you're tearing that down.” He retired from the medical school at Case Western Reserve University in 1967 to work full-time for peace before angry colleagues could push him out. and hit him with an egg (Spock's wife was just glad it wasn't a bullet). Here was a generation of mothers' security blanket. Now he was taking a security blanket away: the belief that the government was worthy of implicit trust. ”We teach our boys to be men,” a parent wrote him, ”and now you're tearing that down.” He retired from the medical school at Case Western Reserve University in 1967 to work full-time for peace before angry colleagues could push him out.

In April he led the largest antiwar march yet, the Spring Mobilization Against the War, in a three-piece suit and a sign reading CHILDREN ARE NOT BORN TO BURN, CHILDREN ARE NOT BORN TO BURN, a kindergartener in tow. A contingent marched after burning their draft cards in a Maxwell House coffee can, and another who pulled down an American flag to burn, and another that flew the flag of the National Liberation Front, the South Vietnamese Communists. ”Va.s.sar girls” marched, Columbia students wore caps and gowns, twenty-four Sioux from South Dakota came and a band of Iroquois, frat boys chanted ”Draft beer, not boys.” Wrote Jimmy Breslin, ”Most were members of nothing...young people in raincoats...out in a parade because they didn't like the war.” Of the 531 who traveled by train from Cleveland, Ohio, 43 percent had never been to a demonstration before. a kindergartener in tow. A contingent marched after burning their draft cards in a Maxwell House coffee can, and another who pulled down an American flag to burn, and another that flew the flag of the National Liberation Front, the South Vietnamese Communists. ”Va.s.sar girls” marched, Columbia students wore caps and gowns, twenty-four Sioux from South Dakota came and a band of Iroquois, frat boys chanted ”Draft beer, not boys.” Wrote Jimmy Breslin, ”Most were members of nothing...young people in raincoats...out in a parade because they didn't like the war.” Of the 531 who traveled by train from Cleveland, Ohio, 43 percent had never been to a demonstration before.

The right was also out in force. They chanted, ”Dr. Spock smokes bananas” (smoking the fibrous insides of ”mellow yellow” was the latest hippie fad), shouted the Pledge of Allegiance, shrieked ”Cossacks!” and ”Commies” at the cops who held them back. Former soldiers marched behind a VETERANS FOR PEACE VETERANS FOR PEACE banner, some in uniform; when they pa.s.sed, counterprotesters paid them a respectful silence. banner, some in uniform; when they pa.s.sed, counterprotesters paid them a respectful silence.

The march concluded at UN Plaza at twilight. Some said there were 125,000, others 400,000. Either way, it exploded what Reader's Digest Reader's Digest subscribers were told a few months earlier: that the New Left was ”surprisingly small-perhaps 5,000, with another 5,000 at its fringes.” Stokely Carmichael, with whom King had once pledged to never again share a podium, spoke, calling Dean Rusk a ”fool” and Lyndon Johnson a ”buffoon.” When King spoke, a chill wind frosted his breath: subscribers were told a few months earlier: that the New Left was ”surprisingly small-perhaps 5,000, with another 5,000 at its fringes.” Stokely Carmichael, with whom King had once pledged to never again share a podium, spoke, calling Dean Rusk a ”fool” and Lyndon Johnson a ”buffoon.” When King spoke, a chill wind frosted his breath: ”Let us save our national honor!-stop the bombing!

”Let us save American lives and Vietnamese lives-stop the bombing.

”Let us take a single instantaneous step to the peace table-stop the bombing.

”Let our voices ring out across the land to say the American people are not vainglorrrrious conquerers-stop the bombing!” conquerers-stop the bombing!”

They began to think: we can end this war.

The White House's response was to drop 1.75 million leaflets on North Vietnam proclaiming that America hadn't lost her will to fight. Hubert Humphrey spoke with tears in his eyes to the League of Jewish Women in Atlanta: ”America needs to tell the world of the lives it is saving.” Dean Rusk went on Meet the Press Meet the Press and said that the ”Communist apparatus” had organized the march. and said that the ”Communist apparatus” had organized the march.