McIntire, at one point, introduced three Wisconsin Indians to raucous applause, who in support of the march said, “We ask that prayer and the Bible be put back in schools…and get rid of sex education in the lower grades…Scalp the Communists.” ĭemocratic Congressman from Louisiana, John R. Most of the speakers were as unhappy with the anti-war demonstrators as they were with the Nixon administration and what many felt to be poor decision making. The march was followed by speeches by a who’s who of Southern Democrats and critics of the New Left in America. Lester Maddox of Georgia speaks to the rally at the Washington Monument in Washington, Apafter “March for Victory”. While the war was a main point of contention, the masses demonstrated for and against a plethora of other issues including support for prayer in school, to stop bussing programs designed to desegregate schools, and just generally against “secular universities, and hippies and yippies everywhere.” The few African-Americans proceeded awkwardly as “Dixie” was sung by the marchers, as an antagonism to the Civil Rights Movement’s use of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The demonstrators carried signs and banners saying “Nixon is a No-Win Swine,” “In God we Trust,” and “Marxism is Jewish,” as well as Confederate and American flags and many wore “Wallace for President” hats. Rather than the usual college-aged protesters, known for demonstrating against the war, the Victory March’s attendees were largely middle aged and elderly, featuring contingents of World War I, World War II, and Korean War veterans as well as Cuban exiles and members of the National Socialist White People’s Party, formerly the American Nazi Party, who according to The Washington Post did not join the actual march. The march, sponsored by McIntire’s International Council of Christian Churches, was to take place from Capitol Hill, down Pennsylvania Avenue, and end at the base of the Washington Monument. “Millions of people voted for President Nixon, thinking he would seek victory in Vietnam, and now he’s backing out…We should give our generals the green light to win this war,” he added. “We’re going to demonstrate against the President’s policy of Vietnamization, which is a synonym for retreat,” McIntire proclaimed a few days before the march. Many, including fundamentalist, radio-evangelist Reverend Carl McIntire, saw this continuous reduction of American forces as running away from our duty to fight against communism. The “honorable end” Nixon’s campaign had promised included the war’s “Vietnamization” by reducing American forces and training South Vietnamese to maintain their own security and defense planning on the complete withdrawal of American combat troops before 1973. When Nixon was elected to the presidency, in 1968, troop levels in Vietnam had ballooned from around 16,000 in 1963 to over 500,000. The rally marked one instance when the “silent majority” got loud (but it wasn’t exactly pro-Nixon noise). Though anti-war demonstrations are more widely remembered, the March for Victory on Apmarked the era’s largest pro-war demonstration, attracting about 50,000 protesters. Nixon drew a large portion of his support throughout the country, from a supposed “silent majority” of, Archie Bunker-like, blue collar, Americans who simply wanted things to stay the way they were. Some may remember Muhammad Ali's speech at Howard University or the Weather Underground's bombing of the Capitol.īut Richard Nixon’s election in 1968 was, in no small part, a response to that behavior and sentiment. Popular memory of the 1960s and 1970s evokes images of college students protesting on campuses across the country or singing protest songs on the National Mall. Without doubt, the Vietnam War era was one of the most polarizing periods in modern American history. McIntire said his parade was a demonstration for military victory in Vietnam. Carl McIntire and his wife, Fairy McIntire, lead the "March for Victory" on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., April 4, 1970.
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