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

demonstration might bring. At strategic locations around the Capitol area they positionedMetropolitan, Park, and United States Capitol police, as well as United States marshalsand National Guard troops (Johnson memo, HU4, WHCF, Box 60). Many of the morethan 3,000 military and civil security personnel remained hidden from sight, so as not toinflame the demonstrators. The cost for keeping this security detail on high alert thatweekend reached over $1 million (Califano memo, HU4, WHCF, Box 60). Authoritiesalso issued strict instructions that while the Department of Defense would tolerateprotesters in front of the Pentagon during the weekend, the business of the Pentagon wasnot to be disturbed on Monday. The March permit therefore expired at midnight onSunday (Wilson, “Pentagon” A6). Yet on weekends, only three of the 27,000 thousandwho worked in the building were present (Kenworthy 1). Despite the demonstrators’desire to shut down Pentagon operations and thus thwart, however briefly, the war itself,they had little hope of stopping vital operations even if they did somehow manage to gainaccess to the building. Nevertheless, the crowd was undaunted and enthusiasticallygathered in the morning sun prepared to do battle.Over 50,000 people came to participate in the rally, march, and sit-in at the doorsof Pentagon. They came on trains and riding buses, or hitching their way from the hippieslums of New York’s East Village and the gracious campuses of the nation’s universities.Some paid $8.50 and rode the Mobe-organized charter buses from New York (“Banners”par. 32). They carried banners urging the government to bring the troops home and endthe war. “Che Guevara Lives!” some signs proclaimed, signaling the crowd’s Leftistinclination. Others advised “Dump Johnson” (“Banners” par. 3). Mobe helped to separate58