Hawk1981
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- Apr 1, 2020
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The Vietnam War continued to rage in the summer and fall of 1969. Newly elected President Nixon had embarked on a multi-pronged approach to extricate the United States from the war, in part by announcing the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam and turning the war effort over to the regime in Saigon and their army; in part by stepping up the concealed war with increased bombings in North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to bring the communists to the negotiation table; and in part by directing a campaign of surveillance, intimidation and infiltration of the anti-war movement coupled with a media effort to create an aura of statesmanship.
The Vice-President, Spiro Agnew was sent out to rally support for the administration and attacking opponents. In a typical speech given in October 1969, he said "If, in challenging, we polarize the American people, I say it is time to rip away the rhetoric and to divide on authentic lines. It is time to discard the fiction that in a country of 200 million people, everyone is qualified to quarterback the government."
The anti-war movement continued to organize demonstrations, continued to march, continued to lobby and write letters and campaign for an immediate end to the war. The war continued and more and more of the movement was becoming frustrated and burned out. The younger, more radical and apocalyptic activists were giving in to bitter-end rage. Among a very few activists a vision was emerging that the imperialist machinery was desperate to continue a war it was losing. Suddenly it seemed that The Revolution might be at hand, and the goal was now not to just end the war, but to defeat the imperialists and win it.
The Students for a Democratic Society had met in their annual convention in June 1969 and in a fight over control of the organization had splintered apart into several factions. The increasingly militant faction presented a position paper titled You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows calling for the creation of a clandestine revolutionary party. This new party would be "akin to the Red Guard in China, based on the full participation and involvement of masses of people in the practice of making revolution; a movement with a full willingness to participate in the violent and illegal struggle."
The new faction adopting the name Weatherman called on radicalized American students to join the revolutionary struggle that would usher in the millennium of world communism. White youth would be radicalized to support black liberation through the example of Weatherman renouncing nonviolence and joining the armed struggle against American imperialism.
Inspired by the success of the demonstrations and rioting the previous year at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Weatherman planned for a no-holds-barred direct action to take place October 8 through 11, 1969, again in Chicago. Hoping to "Bring the War Home" by causing chaos in the streets and jolting the public out of its complacency regarding America's imperialist war in Vietnam, the action was timed to coincide with the ongoing Chicago Conspiracy Trial of the accused from the previous year's riots. The action's organizers and Chicago authorities both expected a huge turnout, perhaps as many as 25,000 demonstrators.
Weatherman's leaders spectacularly misjudged the counterculture’s revolutionary fervor and were embarrassed to find only a few hundred demonstrators for the actions scheduled in October. On the first night the crowd of about 350 demonstrators broke windows and destroyed cars. When confronted by a thousand police, a melee broke out resulting in 6 Weathermen shot and 68 arrested.
Demonstrations and marches were mostly peaceful the next two days, highlighted with a 2,000 person march through a Spanish-speaking part of the city. On October 11, about 300 militant protesters clashed with police in the business district of Chicago smashing store and car windows. Within 15 minutes half of the protesters had been arrested.
In the aftermath of what became known as the "Days of Rage," the city of Chicago and the State of Illinois incurred about $185,000 in costs. Weatherman had 247 members arrested, including most of the leadership, and spent $243,000 to cover bail. Chicago Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, who had a mostly friendly relationship with Weatherman, denounced the group's actions fearing that it would alienate potential allies and escalate tensions with the police. Fred Hampton was killed in a Chicago Police raid three months later.
The Vice-President, Spiro Agnew was sent out to rally support for the administration and attacking opponents. In a typical speech given in October 1969, he said "If, in challenging, we polarize the American people, I say it is time to rip away the rhetoric and to divide on authentic lines. It is time to discard the fiction that in a country of 200 million people, everyone is qualified to quarterback the government."
The anti-war movement continued to organize demonstrations, continued to march, continued to lobby and write letters and campaign for an immediate end to the war. The war continued and more and more of the movement was becoming frustrated and burned out. The younger, more radical and apocalyptic activists were giving in to bitter-end rage. Among a very few activists a vision was emerging that the imperialist machinery was desperate to continue a war it was losing. Suddenly it seemed that The Revolution might be at hand, and the goal was now not to just end the war, but to defeat the imperialists and win it.
The Students for a Democratic Society had met in their annual convention in June 1969 and in a fight over control of the organization had splintered apart into several factions. The increasingly militant faction presented a position paper titled You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows calling for the creation of a clandestine revolutionary party. This new party would be "akin to the Red Guard in China, based on the full participation and involvement of masses of people in the practice of making revolution; a movement with a full willingness to participate in the violent and illegal struggle."
The new faction adopting the name Weatherman called on radicalized American students to join the revolutionary struggle that would usher in the millennium of world communism. White youth would be radicalized to support black liberation through the example of Weatherman renouncing nonviolence and joining the armed struggle against American imperialism.
Inspired by the success of the demonstrations and rioting the previous year at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Weatherman planned for a no-holds-barred direct action to take place October 8 through 11, 1969, again in Chicago. Hoping to "Bring the War Home" by causing chaos in the streets and jolting the public out of its complacency regarding America's imperialist war in Vietnam, the action was timed to coincide with the ongoing Chicago Conspiracy Trial of the accused from the previous year's riots. The action's organizers and Chicago authorities both expected a huge turnout, perhaps as many as 25,000 demonstrators.
Weatherman's leaders spectacularly misjudged the counterculture’s revolutionary fervor and were embarrassed to find only a few hundred demonstrators for the actions scheduled in October. On the first night the crowd of about 350 demonstrators broke windows and destroyed cars. When confronted by a thousand police, a melee broke out resulting in 6 Weathermen shot and 68 arrested.
Demonstrations and marches were mostly peaceful the next two days, highlighted with a 2,000 person march through a Spanish-speaking part of the city. On October 11, about 300 militant protesters clashed with police in the business district of Chicago smashing store and car windows. Within 15 minutes half of the protesters had been arrested.
In the aftermath of what became known as the "Days of Rage," the city of Chicago and the State of Illinois incurred about $185,000 in costs. Weatherman had 247 members arrested, including most of the leadership, and spent $243,000 to cover bail. Chicago Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, who had a mostly friendly relationship with Weatherman, denounced the group's actions fearing that it would alienate potential allies and escalate tensions with the police. Fred Hampton was killed in a Chicago Police raid three months later.