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Issue: December, 1996

Republicans in Miami - Flashback 1972

by Steve Hassna

. . .Remember to keep your eye on current events as they unfold. I hear the U.S. military has opened up a new live fire test range for their missiles. It's call Iraq. Is there anyone down range?!

LISTEN UP, TROOPS!

IT'S AN ELECTION YEAR, and I want you to remember the old Chicago political rule: "Vote early and vote often!"

Speaking of Chicago, how about those Democrats, was that inspiring or what? And San Diego, what show. The Republicans really know how to get people going. I was overwhelmed with disinterest. But lest I digress, this is a history column after all, and that wasn't happening in either San Diego or Chi-town. So let's move on or move back as the case may be. I sometimes feel like Mr. Peabody standing before the "way back" machine with his boy Sherman looking on wondering where to this time. Or do any of you remember Mr. Peabody? There will be a quiz later on.

The year is 1972, the Republicans are going to party in Miami, Fla. U.S. involvement in Vietnam is winding down after screwing up in the region since the end of W.W. II. Nixon was using up as much old ordnance (bombs) as he could while trying to steal the election. But then he was not a crook, he just had crooks working for him. Oh yeah, the country was ripped apart along almost every line you could think of. The political differences were so wide you could drive a fleet of Mack trucks side by side through them, and the feces material was about to hit the air circulating device.

A call went out through the left and anti-war communities: "Meet in Miami." Chicago in '68 had been so much fun why not give the Republicans a shot. I had just joined V.V.A.W. (Vietnam Veterans Against the War) in San Francisco. V.V.A.W. organized "The Last Patrol" nationwide and planned to go to Miami in mass. Three convoys of up to 60 vehicles each were heading for Florida. They came from the East Coast, West Coast and Midwest. A total of about 1,200 Nam vets were headed for Miami.

Having just joined V.V.A.W., I learned about the convoy as it was about to leave. I looked at my 1946 Ford pick-up and realized that distance would kill it. So I stayed in S.F. at the office and, along with several other members, manned the phones taking Sit. Reps. (situation reports) from our convoy as they came in. I was a newbie so I watched a lot. A very interesting picture began to unfold as the convoy moved East. All the convoys were moving towards Gainesville, Fla. They would link up there and move en masse to Miami. Spirits were high and trouble very little. Even the cops, for the most part, just left V.V.A.W. alone.

One day before the convoys reached Gainesville, the whole scene turned ugly. The F.B.I. swooped down on the V.V.A.W. chapter in Gainesville and arrested everyone. The charges were conspiracy to attack the Republican convention with automatic weapons, wrist rockets and fire bombs; incite to riot; and murder and mayhem. The going idea was, "Hey they're 'Nam vets, killers, they're young and pissed off". The Feds hoped the bullshit charges would fly. Eighteen months later it came out that the person talking all that shoot-em-up stuff was a card carrying F.B.I. agent sent in to infiltrate the Gainesville office and advocate violence. That was happening everywhere in the anti-war community.

So much for freedom to organize and express grievance.

V.V.A.W. at no time ever advocated such ideas, no time, no way. We were pissed, yes, but not stupid. It's not a good idea to go to war with the U.S. government. The Feds also hoped the arrests would demoralize and confuse the convoy members and V.V.A.W. would go home. Wrong! They were dealing with vets, a majority were grunts. O.K., the C.P. (command post) has been overrun, regroup, form up and move out. That's what V.V.A.W. did. Formed up and went straight past Gainesville to Miami.

On to Miami where the mood was everything from circus to sullen. Everyone was there, the yippies, the hips, the trippers and every form of commie alive, Trots, Maoists, Stalinist, Marxist/Leninists, more socialists and a good sprinkling of anarchists. Oh yeah, also the National Guard, a whole bunch of police and units of the 82nd Airborne Division. This was the scene V.V.A.W. drove into, took one look, formed a perimeter in Flamingo Park and watched the festivities. There was an impromptu parade with people shouting and carrying signs, with the police in buses following, banging their riot batons on the floor. Quite a Zoo, you might say. One thing V.V.A. did was go out to the area where the National Guard and 82nd troops were billeted and talked to them stating that the vets had no beef with them and did not want to fight them. The vets also told the soldiers that they were being used by the powers that be to fight U.S. Citizens. Which, of course, was true. Also, if they wanted to, they could join the party; well come on down.

Towards the end of the convention, a huge demonstration took place right in front of the Fountainbleu Hotel. The demo was festive and loud on both rides. People in the street were shouting to end the war, no more Nixon, etc. Police shouting back about commies, people's sexual preferences and lineage, etc. All was normal by the blue Atlantic waters. In the rear were several hundred members of V.V.A.W., just one banner, not shouting, silent march. As they approached the hotel, the police got quiet also. The vets formed a semi-circle in front of the entrance and said, "we want to come in." That was when Ron Kovick was allowed in to speak to the floor of the convention. The floor is what he got. He was treated with as much disrespect as the Republicans could muster towards someone in a wheelchair, finally being thrown from his chair as he left.

With the convention over, everyone headed for home tired, but feeling good for having gone and said what had to be said. Another piece of American history that neither the U.S. government nor the Republican party wished to remember or speak of came to an end.

Well troops, that's about it. Remember to keep your eye on current events as they unfold. I hear the U.S. military has opened up a new live fire test range for their missiles, it's call Iraq. Is there anyone down range?!

See you around the base camp.
Drill Sgt. Hassna

copyright Steve Hassna, 1998

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