The Jeremiad Over Journalism

displeasure with American involvement in Vietnam demonstrated, in Denmark, the so-called
American counter-culture, comprised of young people ―angry at the political direction of
America‖ 342 also served as an important inspiration for Danish protest-movements. 343
Few venues served as a better location for anti-American protest that the annual Rebild Festival on
the American Independence Day. Year after year prominent Americans arrived in the area around
Aalborg and gave their latest take on Danish-American relations. Richard M. Nixon came in 1962;
Hubert H. Humphrey, Nixon‘s main rival in the 1968 presidential race, was there in 1969, the
influential Michigan politician, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, George Romney
visited in 1970; and Ronald Reagan, the governor of California, spoke in 1972.
Many of the Rebild Festivals in the late 1960s and early 1970s attracted anti-American protests. 344
As Sørensen has shown the theatre group ―Solvognen‖ received a lot of publicity during the bi-
centennial of the United States in 1976, when they staged an illegal happening dressed as Native
Americans. The police clashed with the demonstrators and the images were broadcast on national
television in Denmark and even the United States. 345
To improve understanding of the United States, the American embassy continually sponsored
seminars aimed primarily at teachers but also, as we have seen in the previous chapter, politicians,
journalists, and academics. These seminars were described by Public Affairs Officer Brooks
McClure in 1970 as just what the Americans needed to create a more positive image of the United
States in Denmark.
342
Chafe, "The Unfinished Journey: America since World War II." Page 326. Chafe writes, ―[t]o those who felt angry at
the political direction of America and frustrated by middle-class respectability and the conformity of their elders, it
became important to fashion ways of expressing alternative values and attitudes through the rituals of daily life (…) if
individualism, competition, and careerism characterized the dominant culture, the young would embrace communalism,
sharing, and harmony. If wearing a three-piece Brooks Brothers suit and living in suburbia were badges of membership
in corporate America, wearing faded blue jeans, endorsing free love, and living on a commune would serve equally well
as symbols for those estranged from corporate America.‖
343
Sørensen, "Er Vi Blevet Ameridanere? Om Amerikaniseringsprocesser Gennem 200 År [Have We Become Ameri-
Danes? On Americanization Processes through 200 Years]." Page 22.
344
Jr Guilford Dudley, "July 4 Celebration in Denmark an Unquestionable Succes," (National Archives. RG 59. General
Records of the Deparment of State. Subject Numeric Files 1970-1973. Culture and Information. CUL - CHILE. Box
369. July 12, 1972). Dudley in his report noted that, ―for the first time in five years, there were no anti-Vietnam
demonstrations.‖
345
Nils Arne Sørensen, "Fyrre Indianere På Smukke Hesterygge [Forty Indians on Beautiful Horsebacks]," 2009, no.
June (2009),
http://www.sdu.dk/~/media/Files/Om_SDU/Institutter/Ihks/Projekter/Amerikansk%20paa%20dansk/m_ARTIKEL/Fyrr
e_indianere.ashx. Page 1. Accessed December 28, 2010.
104