Nixonland. Part 10

"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.

In May the Veterans of Foreign Wars responded with a pro-war march. They predicted a turnout of 150,000. They only got 7,850. A "Support Our Boys in Vietnam" parade down Fifth Avenue two weeks later was bigger-because it was secretly organized out of the White House. "8 Hour Parade Backs GIs," headlined the faraway Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, in Dewey-Beats-Truman-size type. Distinguished politicians were flushed out to pack the reviewing stands ("Where's the mayor?" angry marchers yelled of the absent and left-wing John Lindsay). These marchers burned a flag, too-the Russian one-and threw eggs at the French mission to the United Nations (de Gaulle had criticized the war). Children marched in army uniforms, toting plastic machine guns. A "Flower Brigade" of East Village "freaks" (the self-identification for what the dominant culture called hippies), led by Abbie Hoffman in a psychedelic cape, fell in behind a Boy Scout troop. They were attacked by the Flatbush Conservative Club; a mother pa.s.sed off her baby to a friend to get in a few kicks. in Dewey-Beats-Truman-size type. Distinguished politicians were flushed out to pack the reviewing stands ("Where's the mayor?" angry marchers yelled of the absent and left-wing John Lindsay). These marchers burned a flag, too-the Russian one-and threw eggs at the French mission to the United Nations (de Gaulle had criticized the war). Children marched in army uniforms, toting plastic machine guns. A "Flower Brigade" of East Village "freaks" (the self-identification for what the dominant culture called hippies), led by Abbie Hoffman in a psychedelic cape, fell in behind a Boy Scout troop. They were attacked by the Flatbush Conservative Club; a mother pa.s.sed off her baby to a friend to get in a few kicks.

The portion of Americans who thought the war had been a good idea was now below 40 percent. But between November and March the number of Americans in favor of "total military victory" went from 31 percent to 43. An argument proliferated on the right: that winning would be easy-only, Reader's Digest Reader's Digest argued, "Our government has not permitted it." A woman reading that in a dentist's waiting room might sink down into the chair a confirmed hawk. But if she happened to choose argued, "Our government has not permitted it." A woman reading that in a dentist's waiting room might sink down into the chair a confirmed hawk. But if she happened to choose Ladies' Home Journal Ladies' Home Journal instead, she might read this letter to the editor: "Before I went to Saigon, I had heard and read that napalm melts the flesh, and I thought that's nonsense, because I can put a roast in the oven and the fat will melt but the meat stays there. Well, I went and saw these children burned by napalm and it is absolutely true." That might make you a dove. "It makes you think," a janitor who witnessed the Mobe (National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam) parade on his lunch break told the instead, she might read this letter to the editor: "Before I went to Saigon, I had heard and read that napalm melts the flesh, and I thought that's nonsense, because I can put a roast in the oven and the fat will melt but the meat stays there. Well, I went and saw these children burned by napalm and it is absolutely true." That might make you a dove. "It makes you think," a janitor who witnessed the Mobe (National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam) parade on his lunch break told the Was.h.i.+ngton Post, Was.h.i.+ngton Post, "who is right?" "who is right?"

The unity was only in ambivalence. One result was a surfeit of ritual invocations against ambivalence. "Marine Dies Believing Viet War Is Right," ran a typical headline in the Chicago Tribune. Time Chicago Tribune. Time featured a study by a retired newsman who pored over aerial photographs and decided reporters were doubling and tripling the attendance at peace demonstrations. George Wallace appeared on ABC's featured a study by a retired newsman who pored over aerial photographs and decided reporters were doubling and tripling the attendance at peace demonstrations. George Wallace appeared on ABC's Issues and Answers Issues and Answers on Mother's Day and promised, "I would drag some of these professors by their beards." Doctors King and Spock announced "Vietnam Summer," an organizing drive to train ten thousand antiwar activists across the country. The on Mother's Day and promised, "I would drag some of these professors by their beards." Doctors King and Spock announced "Vietnam Summer," an organizing drive to train ten thousand antiwar activists across the country. The Chicago Trib Chicago Trib responded, "When American soldiers are dying daily in Vietnam, demonstrations that block traffic on busy streets are very likely to lead to violence"-and that this would be the demonstrators' fault. responded, "When American soldiers are dying daily in Vietnam, demonstrations that block traffic on busy streets are very likely to lead to violence"-and that this would be the demonstrators' fault.

Ronald Reagan maneuvered to force Berkeley president Clark Kerr's resignation. Evidence suggests it may have been quid pro quo to J. Edgar Hoover. Reagan's security clearance form as governor required him to answer the question "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of any organization which has been designated by the United States Attorney General under the provisions of Executive Order 10450?" and warned that "any false statement herein may be punished as a felony." Reagan answered no, untruthfully, but the FBI looked the other way. Hoover was like most conservatives: they tended to cut Ronald Reagan slack. Though he had just proposed the largest tax increase in California history, they were promoting him for president. He answered a need: he humiliated the liberals. He would tell young people hara.s.sing him with signs reading MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR that the problem was that they looked incapable of doing either. To him, a hippie was someone "who dresses like Tarzan, has hair like Jane, and smells like Cheetah." His national audience swooned. that the problem was that they looked incapable of doing either. To him, a hippie was someone "who dresses like Tarzan, has hair like Jane, and smells like Cheetah." His national audience swooned.

CHAPTER NINE.

Summer of Love.

WHILE SOME A AMERICANS SWOONED ABOUT R REAGAN, AN ENTIRELY noncontiguous group, which included portions of the national commentariat, were swooning about something called the Summer of Love-in which, a noncontiguous group, which included portions of the national commentariat, were swooning about something called the Summer of Love-in which, a Was.h.i.+ngton Post Was.h.i.+ngton Post reporter sent to its epicenter in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco wrote in his book reporter sent to its epicenter in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco wrote in his book We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us Against, We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us Against, "youth drew attention to itself by cl.u.s.tering in large numbers in most major American cities, where they broke the narcotics laws proudly, publicly, and defiantly. At the same time, they enunciated a different social philosophy and a new politics, and perhaps even mothered into life a subculture that was new to America." Legend had it that one day two freaks started interviewing each other. One was a reporter from "youth drew attention to itself by cl.u.s.tering in large numbers in most major American cities, where they broke the narcotics laws proudly, publicly, and defiantly. At the same time, they enunciated a different social philosophy and a new politics, and perhaps even mothered into life a subculture that was new to America." Legend had it that one day two freaks started interviewing each other. One was a reporter from Newsweek, Newsweek, the other a reporter from the other a reporter from Time. Time.

Love was in the eye of the beholder. At first downtown merchants welcomed the hippie district that sprang up on Plumb Street in Detroit; it was attracting people to their stores. Then they realized that the hippies liked their stores so much because they could panhandle from paying customers ("I wish we could have had the hippies without the dope," said one merchant, after the forty-three shops on Plumb Street had shrunk down to six). A love-in on Belle Isle, organized by a local narcotics enthusiast and rock musician named John Sinclair, descended into a brawl: Sinclair's "TransLove Rangers" promised they'd handle security themselves, perhaps by the power of the paper daisies they handed out; then had to call in the cops when leather-clad bikers started clubbing their way through the crowd.

John Lindsay granted a meeting to a group of white youth and Puerto Ricans seeking to clean up the East Village. A mob of six hundred landlords crashed the gla.s.s front doors of City Hall: "Lindsay sees the hippies," they said, "but he won't see the taxpayers." Paul Fino, the antibusing congressman from Queens, said Lindsay was giving "the city's punks, Vietniks, and banana-sniffers flag-burning rights in Central Park." Lindsay's parks commissioner, August Heckscher, the patrician Republican former head of the charitable foundation the Twentieth Century Fund, replied that the law-and-order types were "scared by the abundance of life."

The month of March came in like a lamb with Frank Sinatra sweeping the Grammy Awards and went out like a lion with Jimmy Hendrix in the hospital after burning himself while immolating his guitar. Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys was arrested by the FBI for refusing his military call-up; Mick Jagger was railroaded for possession of legally bought Benzedrine tablets, and his Rolling Stones band mate Keith Richards was on trial for smoking pot. Hendrix was dropped as the opening act for the Monkees after complaints from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Some suspected this last move was PR-agent cover for a commercial decision; insurrection was now the stuff of which hit records were made.

At the beginning of June an alb.u.m had come out that was more than a record alb.u.m: the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a staging ground for the new kind of cultural war. Critic Kenneth Tynan called it "a decisive moment in the history of Western civilization." Paul McCartney said in an interview in a staging ground for the new kind of cultural war. Critic Kenneth Tynan called it "a decisive moment in the history of Western civilization." Paul McCartney said in an interview in Life Life of LSD: "It opened my eyes. We only use one-tenth of our brains. Just think what we'd accomplish if we could tap that hidden part. There wouldn't be any more war or poverty or famine." People were saying that LSD brought them closer to G.o.d. Then Billy Graham, jealous for his hold over his flock, rebuked that there was only one way to G.o.d and that "LSD should be shunned like the plague by young people." of LSD: "It opened my eyes. We only use one-tenth of our brains. Just think what we'd accomplish if we could tap that hidden part. There wouldn't be any more war or poverty or famine." People were saying that LSD brought them closer to G.o.d. Then Billy Graham, jealous for his hold over his flock, rebuked that there was only one way to G.o.d and that "LSD should be shunned like the plague by young people."

But Sgt. Pepper's Sgt. Pepper's was not merely some marker in a generational war. It was also great art, staging that war within itself. Its most beautiful moment was a song called "She's Leaving Home," a haunting cry of sympathy for the Depression-generation parents who wished nothing more than to love their children, and whose alienated children's thanks was to run away-perhaps to a place like Haight-Ashbury. was not merely some marker in a generational war. It was also great art, staging that war within itself. Its most beautiful moment was a song called "She's Leaving Home," a haunting cry of sympathy for the Depression-generation parents who wished nothing more than to love their children, and whose alienated children's thanks was to run away-perhaps to a place like Haight-Ashbury.

All you need is love: an injunction easier to honor in the breach. Perhaps especially in the midst of a summer of love. For simultaneously, the other abiding media obsession was a hawklike watch over which city would be the first to erupt in a riot. "It would be ironic, indeed," George McGovern said on the Senate floor, "if we devoted so heavy a proportion of our resources to the pacification of Vietnam that we are unable to pacify Los Angeles, Chicago, and Harlem."

Maybe it would be Cleveland.

On May 2 the chief of the city's subversives squad testified to the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee that Cleveland Black Power organizations had merged under the leaders.h.i.+p of a mysterious figure known as Ahmed, who preached the solar eclipse set for May 9 would be the opening of a war between Communist China and the United States and called, the officer said, "for a Negro uprising at a time when such a war will leave local cities helpless before a revolutionary movement."

Or would it be Chicago? On May 4 the sheriff of Cook County, Joseph Woods, accepting an award from the Kiwanis Club, predicted "the longest, hottest summer in history." On the twenty-first, two undercover policemen were chased from a rally to change the name of Was.h.i.+ngton Park to Malcolm X Park. "The crowd rose like a tornado," one of them reported. Sheriff Woods, the brother of Nixon secretary Rose Mary Woods, relished such incidents as opportunities. When black students acted up in the Negro suburb of Maywood, he rushed to the scene with a bullhorn, telling officers to fire upon any rioter who raised his hand above his head, and to shoot carefully because they didn't have extra men to take the wounded to the hospital. "The bystanders got my message," the sheriff proudly told a reporter.

Perhaps it would be Milwaukee, where the inner-city civil rights priest James Groppi was arrested on May 5 for interfering with an officer in the performance of his duty, so his copastor sermonized: "Dig your trenches. Shutter your windows. The harvest is near.... Are we so blind and stupid as not to realize that?"

Or Louisville, where the governor called out the National Guard and the mayor defiantly p.r.o.nounced, "The Kentucky Derby will be run," despite threats by militants to shut it down if an open-housing law wasn't pa.s.sed. Martin Luther King arrived. Heckled by a mob of whites, he had his driver pull to the curb for an impromptu sermon. "G.o.d has given us an opportunity," he began-and was interrupted with the interjection "G.o.d has put a curse on the Negroes!" then saw his car slammed with a rock.

Perhaps down South, in Jackson or Houston, where students at Negro universities exchanged gun salvos with police. Or Birmingham, where Stokely Carmichael visited in June and said when they draft a black man and "tell him to shoot his enemy, and if he don't shoot Lurleen and George and little junior, he's a fool." Or New York, where sixteen members of the Revolutionary Action Movement, including the a.s.sistant princ.i.p.al of P.S. 40 in Queens, were arrested and charged with plotting to kill Whitney Young and Roy Wilkins and with possession of a thousand rounds of ammunition and 275 pounds of heroin. (At the NAACP convention in Boston, one militant leader mocked the news by picketing with a sign reading KILL THE TOMS. KILL THE TOMS.) Or maybe Oakland. That seemed, in fact, quite likely.

A new group had emerged there in the fall of 1966, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Its founders, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, were the sons of among the fifty thousand blacks who had migrated to Oakland during World War II. By 1960, they were a quarter of the population, but a city council election-at-large scheme kept them politically toothless, and the most ferally racist police force outside of Mississippi-from which, in fact, many of the police were recruited-worked to keep them cowed. On Friday nights officers lay in wait outside the bars that served as the ghetto's de facto banks. A factory worker would emerge, find himself arrested for drunkenness, and be robbed of his week's wages on the way to the precinct house. Such was the city in which Seale and Newton grew up.

Since Huey Newton had grown up on the streets sharing a name with Donald Duck's nephew, with a squeaky voice and light skin at that, "throwing hands," preemptively and with the biggest dude he could find became a survival reflex. In 1964 he stabbed a man at a party with a steak knife for calling him Negro Negro instead of instead of black black-Malcolm X's preferred locution. Bobby and Huey began splitting their spare time between burglarizing houses in the Berkeley Hills and discussing Sartre, Camus, and radical African psychoa.n.a.lyst Frantz Fanon. They set out to consolidate their control of the Soul Students Advisory Council at Merritt College by packing a meeting with armed street thugs. Then they retired from campus politics to form an organization of their own. The bourgeois brothers at Merritt were all talk. Their group would be men of action.

On April 1, 1967, in the adjacent, largely black town of Richmond, a child was shot dead by the cops. According to the white press, he was caught in a burglary, fled, and violently resisted; according to his neighbors, he had a hip injury that made the notion of Denzill Dowell "fleeing" a farce. The coroner's report was proved to contain fabrications. The Panthers came up from Oakland to investigate, bearing guns. The locals told them that white teachers slapped their black students. So Panthers in paramilitary uniforms formed armed ranks outside the elementary school while the parents confronted the teachers. ("The Dog Cops made no attempt to break up the meeting like they generally do when Black people get together to sound out their grievances against the white power structure," the mimeographed Black Panther Black Panther newspaper related.) The Panthers demanded a new investigation of Denzill Dowell's death. The county sheriff's response was flippant: "You should go to the legislature." It gave them ideas. newspaper related.) The Panthers demanded a new investigation of Denzill Dowell's death. The county sheriff's response was flippant: "You should go to the legislature." It gave them ideas.

Here was one of the things that made these young men remarkable: beneath their berets and leather jackets, behind their bandoliers, they were also naively earnest. They believed implicitly in the majesty of the law. Revolutionaries in an only-in-America kind of way, they perceived themselves as a fully functioning ghetto counterconstabulary, apparently surprised when the response of the police-whom they called an "army of occupation"-was to wish them dead.

"What are you doing with the guns?" a patrolman would ask them, a little afraid.

"What are you doing with your your gun?" Huey Newton would shoot back, and pull out one of the law books he always carried with him as others stood by with cameras and tape recorders. Huey would step out of his car and snap a live round into his chamber: California law only outlawed the carrying of loaded weapons inside a motor vehicle. The cops would slink; the Panthers would call them "pigs"-another fruit of Newton and Seale's research: it wasn't an obscenity, so you couldn't be arrested for it. The Panthers harvested recruits from the gawking young male bystanders. It was a miracle Bay Area cops and Panthers hadn't shot one another yet. After the riots in San Francisco at the end of October, one precinct had taken to displaying a poster of Klan leader Robert Shelton with the caption "Our Hero." gun?" Huey Newton would shoot back, and pull out one of the law books he always carried with him as others stood by with cameras and tape recorders. Huey would step out of his car and snap a live round into his chamber: California law only outlawed the carrying of loaded weapons inside a motor vehicle. The cops would slink; the Panthers would call them "pigs"-another fruit of Newton and Seale's research: it wasn't an obscenity, so you couldn't be arrested for it. The Panthers harvested recruits from the gawking young male bystanders. It was a miracle Bay Area cops and Panthers hadn't shot one another yet. After the riots in San Francisco at the end of October, one precinct had taken to displaying a poster of Klan leader Robert Shelton with the caption "Our Hero."

The Panthers started patrolling in rich white neighborhoods: let them them find out what it was like to have hostile forces stalking your streets with guns. Which was how they caught the attention of Don Mulford, the a.s.semblyman who had conspired with the FBI to help Reagan get elected. He introduced a bill to ban the carrying of loaded firearms in public places. It was set for its first committee hearing on May 2. find out what it was like to have hostile forces stalking your streets with guns. Which was how they caught the attention of Don Mulford, the a.s.semblyman who had conspired with the FBI to help Reagan get elected. He introduced a bill to ban the carrying of loaded firearms in public places. It was set for its first committee hearing on May 2.

"Gunmen Invade W. Coast Capitol," read the front-page banner in far-off Chicago: "The Negroes, shouting they were members of the Black Panther party, forced their way into the a.s.sembly chamber while the legislators were in session, and scuffled with state highway patrolmen."

Upon their arrest Huey Newton read the Black Panther Executive Mandate No. 1, which called on "Americans and particularly Negroes to take careful note of the racist California legislature which is now considering legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless." For many whites this statement settled it: Black Power Black Power meant arming black people. meant arming black people.

Which only made sense, if you were a Black Panther. A rumor was spreading across America's ghettos: the government was preparing concentration camps for blacks. The Panthers took it for settled fact. Which was why the Executive Mandate continued, "At the same time that the American government is waging a racist war of genocide in Vietnam, the concentration camps in which the j.a.panese Americans were interned during World War II are being renovated and expanded. Since America has historically reserved the most barbaric treatment for nonwhite people we are forced to conclude that the concentration camps are being prepared for black people who are determined to gain their freedom by any means necessary.... The Mulford Act brings the hour of doom one step closer."

In Was.h.i.+ngton that same day, a police official from Ohio told U.S. senators of Black Power militants' plans to take Cleveland by force of arms.

Two scared sides, black and white, each convinced the other was about to fire the first shot. The long, hot summer could not end well. The only question was, where would it begin?

In Newark.

The biggest city in New Jersey was a frighteningly corrupt town. Mayor Hugh Addonizio, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, once explained his career change this way: "There's no money in being a congressman, but you can make a million bucks as mayor of Newark." Its tenements, purchased at fire-sale prices during the Depression, were gold mines for their owners, so long as they didn't sink any money into them. So Newark had the highest percentage of substandard housing of any American city: 7,097 units had no flush toilets; 28,795, no heaters. Twenty-eight babies died in a diarrhea epidemic in 1965, eighteen of them at City Hospital, which was also infested by bats. The city's major industry was illegal gambling. Cops ran heroin rings. Food stores raised prices the day welfare checks arrived. All the same, downtown was filled with construction cranes. "Urban renewal" served Mayor Addonizio's political purpose: by continually scattering Negroes, who were 65 percent of the population, it radically reduced their power.

Wednesday, July 12, 1967, police manhandled a cabdriver during an arrest. He had bushy hair, and they might have thought that made him a Black Muslim, whose lairs they had recently been raiding. A false report got around that he had died in police custody. Angry citizens ma.s.sed at the Fourth Precinct. Shortly before midnight, a Molotov c.o.c.ktail burst against the wall. Police in riot helmets surrounded the protesters. The two sides yelled racial slurs. Kids started throwing rocks. The first liquor-store windows were broken. The looting began; that was always next. Cars with makes.h.i.+ft towlines ripped the iron grates from store windows so their contents could be stripped; junkies cleaned out drugstores; ordinary citizens by the thousands took what they liked from white businesses as fast as they could carry it. Some skipped black-owned stores with SOUL BROTHER SOUL BROTHER signs marking their status like lamb's blood. Others didn't. A disgusted Urban Leaguer rued the "carnival air." Social scientists spoke of "the revolution of rising expectations" as one cause of riots: more and more Great Society abundance all around, success without squalor, beauty without barrenness-just not so much for blacks. Looters, too, took America's promises seriously. signs marking their status like lamb's blood. Others didn't. A disgusted Urban Leaguer rued the "carnival air." Social scientists spoke of "the revolution of rising expectations" as one cause of riots: more and more Great Society abundance all around, success without squalor, beauty without barrenness-just not so much for blacks. Looters, too, took America's promises seriously.

The mayor and the director of police temporized. That made everything worse. Certain dysfunctional civic responses would become a pattern in urban riots. The only preparations Newark officials had made had been orders to street cops for restraint: maybe that would tide things over. But police who perceived they'd been "handcuffed" tended to act in a less, not more, restrained manner. (The hapless cabbie had been kicked so repeatedly in the groin that by the time he had arrived at the precinct house he couldn't walk; that was before he was a.s.saulted with gun b.u.t.ts, nightsticks, and dirty water from the jailhouse toilet.) Police were ordered to avoid arrests for looting, for arrests would be an acknowledgment there was a "riot." Insurance companies didn't cover riots. Maybe it would die out before anyone went on record using the word. "The situation is normal," police director Dominick Spina announced, piles of broken gla.s.s lying at his feet.

A second wave flared, then burned itself out around midnight Thursday. Relieved officials decided the crisis was over. Mayor Addonizio soon had to admit it wasn't. At 2:30 a.m. he called Governor Richard Hughes in a panic to call out the state police and the National Guard. Spina announced over every police radio, "If you have a gun, whether it is a shoulder weapon or whether it is a handgun, use it." The same Governor Hughes who had determinedly refused to interfere with the tenure of the Communist history professor Eugene Genovese during his reelection fight in 1965 announced, "The line between the jungle and the law might as well be drawn here as any place in America." By 4:30 a.m. the first state police had appeared. By 7 a.m. National Guard units had rolled up Springfield Avenue, the Ess.e.x County main drag that started in leafy Short Hills and ended in Newark's heart of darkness. White residents set up shotgun patrols, standing ready for Negroes "to spill over onto white ground." They shouted at the pa.s.sing military trucks, "Go kill them n.i.g.g.e.rs."

And that is what they did. Thus began the second Newark riot: not looting, not arson, but scared offices of the law committing officially sanctioned murder.

Three were dead by daylight Friday. One was Rose Abraham, a forty-five-year-old mother of five, out looking for one of her children. Tedlock Bell Jr., twenty-eight, a father of four, a former basketball star, had just told his companions to submit quietly to the police when he was killed. A young man named James Sanders was shotgunned in the back while running from a liquor store. The commander o