Not nostalgic for 1968-1969
And yet here we are.
In some ways it’s better than it was then. For example, the US isn’t actively at war abroad, and young people aren’t subject to the draft to fight in such a war. But in so very many ways it’s worse. The protesting students these days are far more likely to be ignorant and far more motivated by hatred (which is not to say there weren’t ignorant or hateful students back then). The students these days are far more likely to be highly organized and directed (which is not to say there wasn’t such organization and direction back then). And the authorities these days are even more likely to cave in to the students, many of whom are not even students (which isn’t to say there weren’t “outside agitators” back then and plenty of caving by administrations; see all my posts on Cornell in 1969).
I have no nostalgia for the 60s. I was young, and I guess that was nice. I certainly looked better. But the decade seemed to me to be another “low dishonest decade,” although the present time seems lower and even more dishonest. Then again, I wasn’t around in 1939, the decade in which the poem I just linked was written. It was awful, too, although for different reasons.
If you read the news – and just about everybody here does – you can easily see that the current pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic demonstrations are occurring at many many universities and cities, and seem very well-supplied and orchestrated. Authorities differ in their responses depending on their own politics. Ace has several good posts on this; please see this, this, and this, among others.
Last night I was looking at comments at Gerard’s blog, and a commenter there mentioned this post Gerard wrote about the Berkeley riots for the “People’s Park”, and the reaction to them, occurring way back in 1969. Gerard was there at the time, and his piece is entitled “Regarding My ‘Walk-On Part in the War.'” I think it’s well worth reading for “compare and contrast” reasons. Among other things, the Berkeley students and the “outside agitators” weren’t spouting anti-Semitic hatred. Among others, they were up against Ronald Reagan. And something I had forgotten – if I even knew it at the time – was that the police fired buckshot at the students and one student, observing from a roof, was killed by the buckshot. An excerpt from Gerard’s essay:
First, you had the Highway Patrol showing up who were not as gentle as the Berkeley Police. Then you had the Oakland Cops showing up. “Gentle” was not in their instruction manual. Instead, their first move was to open their trunks and take out their street-sweeping shotguns. Then they racked them and opened fire.
This resulted in a lot of loose buckshot wounds with one person blinded for life, and one person killed outright. (James Rector. I remember his name today after fifty years because he was shot on the roof right above me as I was running away from the shotguns at speed.)
I suggest you read the whole thing. It includes many photos, as well as a short news video with a brief cameo appearance by none other than the young (I believe shirtless, if I’m not mistaken) Gerard Vanderleun.
It’s easy to say the kids shouldn’t have been shot. They were only protesting.
I don’t know what difference it would make to consider what would have happened if they’d gotten everything they wanted–it was far more than the end of the war–or what we’d have gotten if what they were doing had been coordinated with other “revolutionary” things going on.
Not bragging but demonstrating my place in what was going on. Did two summers of civil rights in Mississippi. Roomed with a SDS member one summer who was dealing marijuana out of the basement. Went on active duty in Feb of 69, commissioned in the Infantry in December of 69.
Saw a lot from the inside. It was more than just this “damned war”.
So while I’m sorry they were shot….maybe not as sorry as I should be.
Richard Aubrey:
Actually, the kid who was shot and killed at Berkeley was apparently not even protesting. He was observing from a rooftop.
Neo. That’s really awful. Something of the same happened at Kent State, IIRC.
A couple of observations about the latter part of the 60’s, I started a three year tour of duty in West Germany doing morse intercept work in the Army Security Agency which was full of college dropouts like me enlisting for four years to avoid the draft. Not long after I arrived in Germany there was a six day war where Israel went to work winning a war and while we were on stand by packed bags and restricted to quarters, mess hall and operations building ready to go in a couple of hours that did not happen. The Jewish soldiers were told that they could get a seperation from the Army and be sent to Israel at once if they so desired. A good friend of mine spent several hours wondering if he should do that and he decided to wait a few days and things became better. We had a lot of ongoing intelligence and we were keeping track of the war on chalk boards in our ops building. That was my first year overseas.
The second and third years in 68 and 69 we watched and read the news about our nation falling apart with riots and college sit in stuff and we were dismayed about what was happening to our country. I felt secure visiting most all of the large cities of Western Europe with my wife who had joined my and we lived comfortably on her salary as a book keeper for the headquarters of the U.S. PX system and my E4 and later E5 pay, the US dollar was strong in relation to European currencies. We saved our money and traveled as much as possible and those are fond memories of that time while the US was in a bad situation.
We did have a scare in August of 68 when Russia did an excellent job taking over the Czechs with total radio silence until they were on the ground. The Czech we were copying that night were totally puzzeled and sending clear text morse code asking who the hell are these guys. In a fed days we had Russian tanks across border from out outstations on the border and that was a bit tense but not nearly so bad as what we were reading about the U.S. of A.
It kind of all worked out and at the end of May in 1970 when the government sent us home, my wife and me were were sent to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn for me to get my release from the Army. We were afraid to leave the post when we had to wait over the weekend because we knew New York was too dangerous. I acutally had a semi-automatic pistol with me, no ammunition with all of the paper work allowing me to have it, a lot of paperwork but no one seemed to mind that I had it with me including the pilot of the plane when we were finally able to come back to Texas and family. That was in June of 1970.
Year later I was working with a nice woman when I was running some stores in Minnesota and I made a comment about the good old days and college sit ins while I was wearing green clothes in the Army. She was a lovely woman who was in college in Minnesota and she said she had a great time, she said her grades were not too good, she was tired of studying and she did not like young soldiers getting killed every day and seeing it on TV every night so she jumped in and enjoyed taking over the college buildings. Her additional comment was that the weather was great and she went without her bra and had great tits.
I think 2020 was more like 68 and they succeeded in seizing the commanding heights in govt media and education
They managed to silence most opposition with this fake insurection the green fraud the compliant possums this is much worse than 68
Richard Aubrey:
I plan to write a post about Kent State. There’s just so much going on I don’t always end up writing everything I plan.
Born in 1957 I was just 11 years old in 1968 and not the least bit politically aware or engaged. While I am technically a member of the Boomer generation I have never felt even a momentary affiliation with that cohort. By the time I was in college protests were generally over things like tuition increases and such. Most of the men/boys attending these were not focused on the issue, more like trying to meet coeds.
Not judging, just explaining that none of that 1968+ stuff makes any sense to me, politically and socially.
Old Texan I think I was just after you. After ASA , I was STRATCOM Baumholder Ger. Everything you said is exactly right. (ASA assholes sign anything!)
I know my parents came here the following year from cuba my grandfather some years later via spain
He was wise about this crazy world we live in now the one who introduced me to solzhenitsyn and gelman and other philosophers and dissidents
I found few men or women who were wise among my college cohorts a few in academia
Miguel cervantes:
One thing we know is that wisdom isn’t very common in academia, and that’s an understatement.
Mr Rector was shot by Alameda County sheriff’s personnel (“the Blue Meanies”); it appeared to be a mistake…. the shotgun loads were ordered to be first 4 of birdshot, the last 00 buckshot. (00Buck is the standard load for all rounds in police shotguns, or was through 96 when I retired). The shooter loaded in that order, not realizing that with pump shotguns it is “last in, first out”.
The people on roof, some of them anyway, were equipped with short lengths of rebar (6 to 8″) that they threw into the police formations passing below them. That is what brought Mr. Rector to the attention of the deputies. In 1970 I worked with some of those deputies while they were on “house arrest” (inside assignments).
Oakland PD has a long history of “Your best friend or your worst enemy. Your choice” policing.
The music was a whole lot better back then.
I was born in 1959 and by 1969 all I knew was that I have had enough and I never want to be like them. Then along came the Manson family and solidified my values for life, at 10 years old.
Another Mike:
More on Rector and whether there was any aggression coming from that area. It seems not.
Test
Yes, the US is not in direct war but it is in a proxy war
Sam:
Correct. It’s a proxy Forever War™.
Is this Sam the Hamashite troll?
Who is the proxie Sam?
1968 visited dad in Hawaii when he had R&R after Tet. First time on a jet. Then dad came home and we moved to SAC Hq. Offutt had a mini air museum in those days with a B-36, a B-52, a B-29 and a B-17 all parked together. The RAF contingent had a Vulcan bomber there and they drove around in green Land Rovers.
After my freshman year finished in 1969, I hitched out to Berserkeley. I wasn’t there for the People’s Park Riots. But I was there when a song about James Rector came out. Where Have You Been, James Rector . She uses the melody of Lord Randall.
Definitely Berserkeley.
Gerry
In Berserkeley I met the stepmother of Abigail Folger, who was one of the people that Manson’s gang killed. Ditto Peter Folger, her father.
I was not born until 1970, but I watched the news with my dad in the early 70s. I still remember hearing about “guerillas” fighting over somewhere. ( In my child’s mind I thought of the animal.)
Somewhere very early I associated the left with such stupid sayings as “Never trust anyone over 30” and “Die young and leave a beautiful corpse.” I knew I did not want to be like those people.
Nixon had been recently elected, thanks to third party ex-Dem still racist George Wallace winning a few Southern states in the Electoral college. The last non Dem or Rep to win states. My folks were HHH Dems, but got divorced and I went to live with donut shop owning grandparents.
Granny had a simple solution to the Vietnam war: mine Haiphong & nuke Hanoi. That would likely have resulted in a successful split, like Korea, rather than the Fake Peace Accords of 1973.
At 18 I was 30w/33l, tho often 32 l was ok. Last few decades at 34w, and the leeetle belly ain’t going away, so I walk around shirtless w / a belly when there’s sun, like last Monday.
4 dead in Ohio, Neil Young’s song lyric on Kent State, made me not remember any other rioter deaths. Yes, lots of great music, yet Top 10 hit lists of those days reminds me of lots of forgettable hits, too. The 750+ list on YouTube of Emo & Punk Rock has lots of good stuff that doesn’t make to the hit radio playlists, also stuff I don’t like, and a really wide range of different singers with Travis Barker on drums.
The JFK Dems weren’t crazy then. Long ago. Far away.
}}} steve+walsh While I am technically a member of the Boomer generation I have never felt even a momentary affiliation with that cohort.
Yeah, you might be like me, a “bleeding edge Gen-Xer” — I was born in 1959, which nominally puts me 4+ years inside the “boomers”, but, in HS, I took a class in Humanities, and the first half of the year was basically a college BS session — the teacher would throw out a topic and we’d all debate it.
I did not really think about it at the time, but I was the only one consistently arguing from the libertarian-conservative side of things (there were usually a couple others siding with me, but not consistently the same people). Everyone else was on the “liberal government as a solution to everything” side of things.
I was basically Alex P Keaton (though somewhat more libertarian, mind you) years before the character was created. I didn’t dress in a tie or anything, but I did dress well, not “hippie chic”. I don’t think I even owned a pair of jeans for about 10 years, there.
One thing I think I’ve figured out is a much better test for “Boomerism” than the year of one’s birth.
Instead of using the assassination of JFK as a dividing line, instead, ask one simple question:
“What did Watergate teach us?”
If the answer is, ” Don’t trust Republicans “, or its like, you’re a Boomer.
If the answer is, ” Don’t trust government “, or its like, you’re a Gen-Xer.
I’m sure people can come up with incompatible answers, but most will fall into those two categories.
I think from a recommendation here have read Mark Moyar Triumph Forsaken and Triumph Regained, 2 very good books on history of the Vietnam.
Been writing a few places we are reliving the Marxism’s War protests of 1968.
https://pjmedia.com/graysonbakich/2024/05/01/armed-39-year-old-arrested-at-pro-palestine-protest-at-university-of-south-florida-n4928688
But now the students are backing the Nazis.
Peggy Lee’s last hit single hit the charts in 1969.
==
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRZZC-DH7M
Don’t forget 1970, which was a part of the 60s: invasion of Cambodia, riots on college campuses in protest (e.g., Kent State), shutting down of schools in spring semester, the Chicago 7 trial, “Days of Rage,” etc. My school at the time, University of Illinois 69-70) in Chicago, canceled classes and commencement. I think many others did the same.
And yet, it was one of the most fun years of my life. I was living, going to school, and partying in Chicago, which was still very much a great city, a city of white ethnic neighborhoods, very colorful, lots going on. I’d hang out on Lincoln Avenue, going to pubs and blues bars, girls girls girls. Saturday “Ass Mass” at the big Catholic church in Old Town (more girls girls girls, Catholic girls coming up from the South Side to “mate”!), hanging out at the Irish pubs in gloriously Irish South Side neighborhoods . . .
After the shutdown I dropped out of school, calling quits on college, but also just on a whim applied to the University of Colorado. I was gong to join the army or the marines but then got accepted to Colorado U, and so off I went. It was the definitive end of an era for me. It was also a mistake. I should have stayed in Chicago, a city boy in what was then the world’s greatest city IMO.
Regrets, I got a few . . .
@Neo, 9:08pm–
Thanks for that.
The material from the roof spawned the teams of 5 deputies, one with the shotgun after the bombardments from the roofs injured several. At that point, people on roofs meant hazard to those on the street…
Maybe related– “Generations”– born in 1944, my mother called me a “war baby”; my brother was (is) the Boomer. We have a lock on the music.
A lot of interesting memories here. I’ve already written about my 1960s experiences, so won’t plow that ground again.
I’ve noticed that most people, if they live long enough, will be cursed with living in “interesting times.” I look at the phases of my life and see quite a number of “interesting times. The Depression, WWII, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the Cold War, the end of the Cold War, 9/11, the War on Terror, and now a new phase – the struggle to save Western Civilization.
Looking back, I see that from WWII until today, the struggle has been to keep authoritarian government philosophies from spreading and threatening Western Civ. Most people who have lived in the U.S. during those periods have not grasped what was going on because we want to believe that everyone wants to live like we do. And it’s not true.
“As of 2022, the organization Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) classified approximately 88 of the world’s countries as autocracies, home to 70% of the world’s population.”
And now the truth is slowly dawning. The authoritarian governments of the world have been working patiently since 1948 to bring down democracies wherever they can. All the brush-fire wars with Communism and Islamic fundamentalism have only slowed the growth of these ideologies. They are still on the move. This unrest we see in the country now is just the1960s/70s part two. Except that the Marxists have a much stronger footing inside the U.S. than ever before.
We all need to wake up and smell the coffee.
well many of those are in the developing world, but how free is the First World anyways, the velvet hammer has demonstrated itself in Australia Canada, Polivre, (the one with the apples seems promising)then again even Abbott down under fell down on the Job some elements of the UK, federalism prevents the statists to totally dominate this country, but there is a distressing amount of territory, which are enemy domains, most of the west coast, half of the midwest, the entire north east,
is there any leader in power, of the caliber of Reagan Thatcher lets not bring up Pope John Paul, well Orban certainly in some respects, after that the pickings are decidely slim
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/05/obamas-domestic-terror-buddy-bill-ayers-shows-up-to-support-campus-occupiers-at-u-chicago/comment-page-1/#comment-1521787
“ At that point, people on roofs meant hazard to those on the street…”
I guess they never watched Ben-Hur.