And yet more evidence (as if it were necessary) that nothing in today’s news is new:
In October [1967] the formation of an anti-antiwar group was announced by WWII hero General Omar Bradley and former senator Paul Douglas.[…] [Members of the new Citizens’ Committee for Peace with Freedom in Vietnam] included Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. They said they were speaking “for the great ‘silent center’ of American life.” Douglas said he’d come up with the idea himself and emphasized, “We are not supporters of a president or of an administration.”
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He lied. The committee had been invented by a White House aide, John Roche, who promised in an “EYES ONLY” memo to the president, “I will leave no tracks.”… The ruse succeeded. The media reported the group as spontaneous. Letters to the editor gushed, “The riff-raff have held center stage long enough and the performances grow more sickeningly disgusting with each added publictiy stunt… ” Maybe the letters had been manufactured at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Roche had promised the president “letter-writing squads.”
Shades of No Labels, as well as you-know-which-group(s)!
Not to mention poor dumb George Romney getting assailed by ‘mysterious pamphlets‘ asserting that “Supreme Court Declares Romney Not Qualified Under the Constitution” because he’d been born while his American parents were living in Mexico. Birtherism, a meme to be raised against whatever this election cycle’s variety of “exotic un-Americanism” might be…
What struck you about these ‘new paradigms’? What do you remember from those days?
(Tech note: You can edit your comment by right-clicking on the ‘Edit’ button to open a new tab/window and working from there. Another FYWP glitch… )
NIXONLAND, Week 6: “Cruise Ship” & “Fed-Up-Niks”Post + Comments (142)