Fort Myer, VA Memories - The March On The Pentagon 1

Fort Myer, VA Memories
Featuring South Post c1940-1970

The Pentagon - March on the Pentagon 1

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ANTI-VIETNAM DEMONSTRATION

Above Photo: The caption on the back of this photo reads "Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (arms folded) watches the crowd of protesters amassed in front of The Pentagon Building. Other military and civilian officials with the Secretary are not identified. Taken October 21, 1967 by SP6 Jimmie Duncan."

This demonstration is more commonly known as "The March on the Pentagon", as several thousand demonstrators walked from downtown DC through the woods near Washington Boulevard to the Pentagon's Mall Entrance. Rumor had it that a million were supposed to show up but the total fell far short of that. Also, a helicopter was supposed to fly over the Pentagon to drop 100,000 daisies, but guess what, they could not get the air space, and instead, the daisies were inserted into the rifle butts of the National Guard. The "March" was organized by several leftover radical Beatniks from a decade earlier, including Allen Ginsberg, and they intended to "levitate" The Pentagon as well. Norman Mailer wrote an entire novel on the March - "Armies of the Night". To the right of McNamara you can see hippies milling around, and above them in the photo is South Post Forty Myer.