of Pennsylvania Avenue.
People started gathering there as early as
9 am (the parade began about 1 pm) and by the
time the head of the paradepassed that point, they
were ten to twenty deep in some places and numbered
in the thousands.
"V
As the time for Nixon to pass drew closer
and the shouting and surging of the crowd became
more intense, extra secret servicemen and police
were brought in to beef up defenses. But still,
when Nixon rolled into view—standing up in the
open-topped limousine, smiling, and waving to
the crowd—he was greeted at first with a massive
chant of "Nixon you liar, sign the cease fire,"
that soon gave way to enraged screams like "fuck
you, you murderer."
Apples, oranges, and eggs started to fly,
forcing the secret service men running and leaping into the air to deflect the garbage.
Throughout it all, Nixon continued smiling
and waving at the crowd—and at the TV cameras —
as if the people were hurling rose petals and
words of praise, Agnew,and other dignitaries riding
in the cars that followed, were not so skilled
at ignoring the assault. Most sat still in their
cars, refusing to stand and expose themselves.
Their facial expressions ranged from fear and
shock- to rage.
Once Nixon's car had moved far enough down the
street, a high school band from Florida, standing
on the corner where most of the demonstrators had
gathered, struck up a rousing number and the cops
moved in to clear people cut. Despite the fact
that police used clubs to rougly push the crowd
back, people were right back on the curb of
Pennsylvania Avenue at the first opportunity,
greeting each segment of the parade with appropriate
chants and yells,
There was plenty to complain about, White
people dressed as day-glo Native Americans war-
danced down Pennsylvania Avenue. Very few blacks
could be seen on the floats in theparade, which
was supposed to illustrate the "Spirit of '[19]76."
Most of the worneVi on the floats wore short skirts
or less in the freezing weather. They smiled and
waved at the crowd and the president, who was delighted with ail; that passed before him,
Most appalling, perhaps, were the floats
intended as monuments to Nixon. Nixon's passion
to be acknowledged by history as a great leader
was clearly in the design of all the inaugural
events.
One huge float labeled " A Generation of Peace"
had huge photos showing Nixon as the "Great Diplomat" (with Chou-En Lai and Leonid Ereshnev),
the "Friend of Young People" (pointing out the
18 year old vote), and Nixon, the ecologically
concerned (simply a picture of a mountain with
the caption "Environment"),
At the same time that the thousands of demonstrators were jeering Nixon's parade, close
to 100,000 people were marching to Washington
Monument in a demonstration sponsored jointly by
In his speech at the Washington rally, PCPJ
spokesman Sid Peck said that the Vietnamese had
sent various messages expressing solidarity with
the demonstrators. The following message comes
from Ly Van Sau, spokesman for the Paris delegation of the Provisional Revolutionary Government
of South Vietnam.
"We would like to express our warmest greetings and our deepest gratitude to all you people
who are staging today demonstrations for the end
of U.S. aggression in Vietnam, for the recognition of the national, fundamental rights of the
Vietnamese people.
"You all know that the policy of armed forces followed by the American administration for
T.a,ny years has been unable to bring our people
to their knees and you may be sure that the
Vietnamese people will continue their just struggle till they reach independence and freedom.
"Now there are still two" possibilities:
war or peace depends fully on the attitude of
the U.S. administration. In case of a peace
treaty acceptable to all sides, the questions
of the execution of that treaty, the strict observation of that treaty, will also be a very
important problem.
"That is why I would like to ask all Americans of goodwill to all be very vigilant, to
be always side by side with the Vietnamese
people in their just struggle and you may be
sure that the Vietnamese people appreciate very
much your courageous struggle.
"And I would like to repeat once more our
warmest congratulations and our deepest gratitude to you all. Thank you."
the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ)
and the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC).
Earlier in the day over 2500 members of the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) had marched with as many supporters from the gates of Arlington Cemetery to the War Memorial in Washington
where they heard brief speeches by WAW member
Barry Romo, recently returned from a trip to
Hanoi, and Tran Than Tuygt, a Vietnamese woman who
lives in Washington, At the War Memorial, the vets
held a ceremonial signing of the 9 Point Peace
Treaty and hundreds lined up add their names after
a disabled vet in a wheelchair had signed first.
The fact that there was such a massive turnout
in Washington after a solid week of peace rumors
seemed to say that people didn't trust the president
to follow through on his promises of peace. And,
judging from the variety of signs and chants-- attacking Nixon's policies on the media, welfare, the
economy, etc,--the war wasn't the only issue at
hand. Even if Nixon had signed the cease-fire agreement before the inauguration, chances are that
there still would have been plenty of people demonstrating in Washington on the twentieth.
In terms of number and spirit the day belonged
to the demonstrators, not to Nixon. Though the
Page 3
LIBERATION News Service
(#496)
January 24, 1973
more,