Antiwar GI James Johnson booed at antiwar rally: 1969
Black GI James Johnson, one of the Ft. Hood 3 who refused orders to Vietnam, speaks at the counter-Inaugural tent January 19, 1969 during an anti-Vietnam War protest.
The crowd contained unruly elements who were disrespectful of Johnson. Instead of being honoring Johnson’s courage in standing up against the war and subjecting himself to court martial, these unruly elements called for him to get off the stage.
Johnson finished his speech, but the next speakers—women’s liberation leaders Shulamith Firestone and Marilyn Salzman Webb—were not permitted to finish.
Some in the crowd shouted vile insults at the women while others called out they were ready to march.
To make matters worse, protest leader David Dellinger did not intervene to calm the crowd. Instead, he ordered the women off the stage.
The incident with women and Dellinger’s failure to intervene had consequences for a movement that was already splintering. Relations had been deteriorating, but this incident was the catalyst where radical feminists left the male-dominated movement and struck out on their own.
Fort Hood 3:
The Fort Hood Three were three United States Army soldiers – Private First Class James Johnson, Private David A. Samas, and Private Dennis Mora – who refused to be deployed to fight in the Vietnam War on June 30, 1966. This was the first public refusal of orders to Vietnam, and one of the earliest acts of resistance to the war from within the U.S. military.
Their case became a cause celebre within the antiwar movement and efforts were made to encourage more active duty soldier to participate in antiwar demonstrations and resist orders to Vietnam.
The military court convicted them of insubordination and gave each a dishonorable discharges and forfeiture of pay. Mora was sentenced to three years at hard labor, Samas and Johnson to five.
In July 1967, both Samas and Johnson had their sentences reduced to three years by a military review board.
Impact of Counter-Inaugural activities:
Overall, the counter-Inaugural activities marked a re-grouping of the antiwar movement following a Presidential election where pro-war Lyndon Johnson dropped out, but antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy could not secure enough delegates and Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The nominees—Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat Hubert Humphrey had similar positions on the war—both essentially taking a “peace through strength” approach to ending it.
However, the counter-Inaugural activities--a feminist march confronting Tricia Nixon’s guests, a march of 15,000 loudly denouncing the war, horse excrement thrown at Vice President-elect Spiro Agnew’s guests at a reception the day before he was installed, and a crowd of several thousand lining the parade route with banners against the war and pelting Nixon’s limousine with fruit, rocks and other debris as it passed by—served to re-galvanize the antiwar movement.
The anti-Vietnam War movement would see its largest demonstrations during the Vietnam Moratoriums in October and November 1969, the nation-wide college student strikes in May 1970 and the largest antiwar demonstration in Washington, DC April 24 1971, along with Vietnam veterans throwing their medals and ribbons onto the U.S. Capitol grounds prior to the 1971 march and antiwar demonstrators staging mass civil disobedience against the war over three days in May 1971 that resulted in over 12,000 arrests.
The public opinion die had been cast on the war and Nixon slowly withdrew combat troops while dragging out peace negotiations in Paris. He would see a repeat of antiwar activities at his 1973 Inauguration, including the pelting of his limousine as it drove in the Inaugural parade.
A peace accord was reached shortly afterward in 1973 and in 1975 Vietnamese regular and irregular troops toppled the U.S. backed regime and re-united the country.
For more information and related images for the 1969 Counter Inaugural, see flic.kr/s/aHsjDuSPyF
For a blog post on the 1969 Counter Inaugural activities, see washingtonareaspark.com/2013/01/09/the-1969-nixon-inaugur...
For the 1973 Inaugural activities, see flic.kr/s/aHsjDuVNcT
Photograph by Patrick Frazier. The original is held in the American University Library -- Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_N_0216
Antiwar GI James Johnson booed at antiwar rally: 1969
Black GI James Johnson, one of the Ft. Hood 3 who refused orders to Vietnam, speaks at the counter-Inaugural tent January 19, 1969 during an anti-Vietnam War protest.
The crowd contained unruly elements who were disrespectful of Johnson. Instead of being honoring Johnson’s courage in standing up against the war and subjecting himself to court martial, these unruly elements called for him to get off the stage.
Johnson finished his speech, but the next speakers—women’s liberation leaders Shulamith Firestone and Marilyn Salzman Webb—were not permitted to finish.
Some in the crowd shouted vile insults at the women while others called out they were ready to march.
To make matters worse, protest leader David Dellinger did not intervene to calm the crowd. Instead, he ordered the women off the stage.
The incident with women and Dellinger’s failure to intervene had consequences for a movement that was already splintering. Relations had been deteriorating, but this incident was the catalyst where radical feminists left the male-dominated movement and struck out on their own.
Fort Hood 3:
The Fort Hood Three were three United States Army soldiers – Private First Class James Johnson, Private David A. Samas, and Private Dennis Mora – who refused to be deployed to fight in the Vietnam War on June 30, 1966. This was the first public refusal of orders to Vietnam, and one of the earliest acts of resistance to the war from within the U.S. military.
Their case became a cause celebre within the antiwar movement and efforts were made to encourage more active duty soldier to participate in antiwar demonstrations and resist orders to Vietnam.
The military court convicted them of insubordination and gave each a dishonorable discharges and forfeiture of pay. Mora was sentenced to three years at hard labor, Samas and Johnson to five.
In July 1967, both Samas and Johnson had their sentences reduced to three years by a military review board.
Impact of Counter-Inaugural activities:
Overall, the counter-Inaugural activities marked a re-grouping of the antiwar movement following a Presidential election where pro-war Lyndon Johnson dropped out, but antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy could not secure enough delegates and Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The nominees—Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat Hubert Humphrey had similar positions on the war—both essentially taking a “peace through strength” approach to ending it.
However, the counter-Inaugural activities--a feminist march confronting Tricia Nixon’s guests, a march of 15,000 loudly denouncing the war, horse excrement thrown at Vice President-elect Spiro Agnew’s guests at a reception the day before he was installed, and a crowd of several thousand lining the parade route with banners against the war and pelting Nixon’s limousine with fruit, rocks and other debris as it passed by—served to re-galvanize the antiwar movement.
The anti-Vietnam War movement would see its largest demonstrations during the Vietnam Moratoriums in October and November 1969, the nation-wide college student strikes in May 1970 and the largest antiwar demonstration in Washington, DC April 24 1971, along with Vietnam veterans throwing their medals and ribbons onto the U.S. Capitol grounds prior to the 1971 march and antiwar demonstrators staging mass civil disobedience against the war over three days in May 1971 that resulted in over 12,000 arrests.
The public opinion die had been cast on the war and Nixon slowly withdrew combat troops while dragging out peace negotiations in Paris. He would see a repeat of antiwar activities at his 1973 Inauguration, including the pelting of his limousine as it drove in the Inaugural parade.
A peace accord was reached shortly afterward in 1973 and in 1975 Vietnamese regular and irregular troops toppled the U.S. backed regime and re-united the country.
For more information and related images for the 1969 Counter Inaugural, see flic.kr/s/aHsjDuSPyF
For a blog post on the 1969 Counter Inaugural activities, see washingtonareaspark.com/2013/01/09/the-1969-nixon-inaugur...
For the 1973 Inaugural activities, see flic.kr/s/aHsjDuVNcT
Photograph by Patrick Frazier. The original is held in the American University Library -- Special Collections. Local Identifier SC_Frazier_N_0216