Operation Dewey Canyon III: Beginning of the 1971 Spring Offensive Against the War

http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=1656

Past Wars and Where Do We Go From Here

https://www.vermontcam.org/show/guest-ron-jacobs

June 1, 1969: John and Yoko Record "Give Peace a Chance"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yU0JuE1jTk

A Narc at the MayDay 1971 Protests

The last week of April 1971 and the first week of May that year saw the streets of Washington, DC filled with antiwar protesters.  From antiwar Democrats like Bella Abzug to Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Mayday Tribe, tens of thousands of protesters kept the heat on the Nixon administration and its apparatchiks.  Cops, narcs and undercover agents from various federal agencies were part of the mix.  This is the story of a former military interrogator/torturer who went undercover for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (the DEA's predecessor).  He thinks he's some kind of hero. He's also wrong about the success of the direct action part of the protest that took place May 4th.  It was not considered a bust.  It may not have succeeded in shutting down the government, but it certainly caused a lot of disruption.  Otherwise, why would the Nixon administration have arrested over 12,000 demonstrators after declaring what was essentially martial law in the District?
https://www.historynet.com/operation-bent-penny-working-undercover-at-the-1971-may-day-protest.htm

February 14, 1970 Chicago 7 Trial Goes to Jury

http://www.famous-trials.com/chicago8

First Bit of Pentagon Papers Published in New York Times June 13, 1971--Nixon Freaks Out

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB48/

Late April 1975--University of Maryland College Park

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EVqaWngWjnyp0ddhSIK8L6GZu6OuAVdB/view?usp=sharing

MayDay 1971

These are photos taken by activists/reporters for the DC area paper Washington Area Spark.  The Mayday protests were part of several days of protests sponsored by various antiwar organizations.  These groups included the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice, Socialist Workers Party, and the Mayday Tribe, whose slogan was "If the government won't stop the war, the people will stop the government."

https://www.flickr.com/photos/washington_area_spark/sets/72157648989188025/

Senator George McGovern Announces Antiwar Run for President

On January 18, 1971 George McGovern announced his candidacy for president.  His campaign was probably the most left-leaning campaign under the flag of one of the two main parties ever (until Bernie Sanders's 2016 campaign, anyhow.)  McGovern promised to withdraw all US forces from Vietnam within sixty days of his inauguration and give amnesty to all draft resisters. He ultimately won the Democratic nomination, despite the best efforts of the centrist/conservative wing of the party.
Here is the text of his announcement:
http://www.4president.org/speeches/mcgovern1972announcement.htm

Unfortunately, he would lose the election to Richard Nixon in November 1972.

Pershing Missiles Deployment Decision

A December 12, 1979 decision by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to station 464 land-based U.S. cruise and Pershing II missiles in Europe prompted a major protest movement across Europe and the United States.  Begun during the Carter administration, the deployment continued under Reagan.  In Britain, where Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, one aspect of the antinuclear movement was an encampment led by women.  "The women’s persistent daily resistance to nuclear arms on English soil. The decision to put a fourth of the weapons at Greenham Common, the women said, had been taken “over our heads and without our knowledge” and over the heads of most elected Members of Parliament."


http://www.lokashakti.org/encyclopedia/groups/671-greenham-common-women-lokashakti-encyclopedia

Doonesbury Comic Goes Nationwide on October 26, 1970

No longer just a comic strip for the Yale newspaper, Doonesbury hit the mainstream newspapers. Not exactly an underground comic, but its leftish political content meant that some newspapers put the trip on the editorial page instead of with the rest of the comics.

Here is that "original" strip

June 13, 1971 Pentagon Papers

The Nixon regime shut the Times down, but was overturned by the courts.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/2011_PENTAGON_PAPERS.html?_r=0

Peace, Love, and Credit Where It’s Due: Women of the Counterculture

Lemke-Santangelo's book was an important reference for the Daydream Sunset chapter on women in the counterculture.

https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/05/17/peace-love-and-credit-where-its-due-women-of-the-counterculture/

War Is Over 1975

May 11, 1975  War is Over concert in Central Park, NYC.  Saigon was liberated days before....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqrkPP_g8Xs

I write about another celebration in College Park, MD...in my book Daydream Sunset...

April 1971--Organizing Against the US War on Vietnam

Spring 1971.  Organizing for a spring offensive against the war in Vietnam was well underway. Hundreds of local and national organizations were planning protests, civil disobedience and direct action.  The largest protests were planned for the belly of the beast--Washington, DC.  Foremost among these were the Dewey Canyon II protests organized by Vietnam Veterans  Against the War, the week of protests and lobbying organized by the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice (a collection of hundreds of antiwar groups), and the MayDay Tribe's call for direct action under the slogan "If the government won't stop the war, the people will stop the government."  The link below connects to a semi-satirical call to action for the protests that was published in Atlanta's underground paper The Great Speckled Bird.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-VVNRbIM3zsTE351rT_nWZZgzyAVMD3A8ZFYPa5mAEXNT-geKFfx95N0J_MMnxKszJmiG3FaYCKGN1mK/view?usp=sharing

March 29, 1971--Two Mass Murderers Convicted

On March 29, 1971, Charles Manson was convicted for his role in the murders of Sharon Tate and six others in 1969 in California.
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/charles-manson-the-incredible-story-of-the-most-dangerous-man-alive-19700625

Lt. William Calley was convicted for his role in the murders of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in 1968 in MyLai, Vietnam.
http://famous-trials.com/mylaicourts/1656-myl-intro

Goodbye to all That

On February 9, 1970, the NYC underground paper RAT published an all-women's issue, the result of a takeover of the paper by is female staff and their supporters.  The highlight of the issue--for its militant separatism, right-on targeting of male chauvinism in the counterculture, and its fiery use of language and imagery was the piece attributed to Robin Morgan titled "Goodbye to all That."  Here is a link to the piece:

http://blog.fair-use.org/2007/09/29/goodbye-to-all-that-by-robin-morgan-1970/

The importance of this piece to the early feminist movement of the late 1960s and the 1970s is reflected in its availability online.  I discuss it in my book on the Weather Underground and in Daydream Sunset.

Winter Soldier Investigation January 31 - February 2, 1971

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Winter_Soldier/WS_entry.html

The Seattle Liberation Front

a short lived but fiery organization

http://www.historylink.org/File/2131

https://radsearem.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/april-16-1970-the-birth-of-the-seattle-seven/

The Christmas Bombings of Vietnam 1972

I was 17 years old in 1972 and I was pissed off.  It was getting near Christmas and every day that I turned the news on the radio I would hear about another flurry of bombing raids on northern Vietnamese cities by hundreds of US bombers.  Hospitals were being bombed.  Civilian neighborhoods were being destroyed and Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and the rest of the war pigs were getting ready for their particular holidays.  I recall going to a protest in downtown Frankfurt against the bombings.  Particularly galling was the targeting of the hospitals.  Indeed, Bach Mai hospital was attacked more than once, killing more than 25 doctors and an unknown number of patients.  Here is a recollection from Vietnam Veteran Against the War Barry Romo, who was in Hanoi during the bombings.
http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=2204