Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

surround the Pentagon are a long way away from the tropical jungle, and yet, for this oneday—21 October, 1967—the war in Vietnam comes home to the walls of the Pentagon.Tens of thousands of demonstrators swarm the Pentagon’s north parking lot. Theywave signs and banners that call for an end to the draft, and they chant for an end to thewar. The flag of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF) flies above thecrowd. Shouting “make peace, not war,” thousands of hippies clutch the limp flowersthey have liberated from Washington’s public parks. More militant protesters look forgaps in the formidable lines of military police with bayoneted rifles. They are desperateto find a break in the Pentagon’s defenses, determined to shut down the building. One byone, activists step a little too close to the mighty edifice, are summarily arrested, andcarried off to the waiting police vans. And in one corner of the parking lot, a motleycluster of hippies and radicals dressed as gypsies, witches, and patriotic “Uncle Sam”types, begin to chant. “Out demons out!” they cry. Their flamboyant leader invokes apantheon of global deities as the chanting grows louder. Drums throb and cymbals clash.Disregarding the curious reporters and gawkers swarming around them, the resolutegroup focuses all its energy on the exorcism at hand. “Out demons out!” they continue,undeterred that the demons of war have yet to release the Pentagon from their grip, orthat the building refuses to levitate as expected. It is a stalemate: on the one hand, aragged bunch of hippies armed with flowers, musical instruments, and hope; on the otherhand, disciplined lines of gun-toting soldiers keeping them at bay. Yet still the exorcistsshout with glee: “Out demons out!”49