The Long, Hot Summer of 1967 was the peak of urban unrest and rioting in the United States in the lead up to the 1968 election. While there are certainly a number of key differences, there are also a number of striking parallels that make the topic worthy of discussion and examination.
The long-term impact of the urban unrest of the summer of 2020 is unclear, but the long-term impact of the Long, Hot Summer of 1967 and related urban rioting was a victory for Richard Nixon in 1968, and a landslide re-election in 1972. One must resist the temptation to make mechanistic comparisons between the two, and we will refrain from doing so here. But the reader is encouraged to look for connections between these events and more recent ones.
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I don't remember much of this, if any at all. I was only 8 years old and in Germany at the time so I was kinda insulated from it.
This happened a good 5 years before the grad party i was conceived at. So no i don't remember it other than reading about it.
ReplyDeleteExile1981
I remember it well. The shit today is a rerun. The main difference is that the media and government ignored the flu pandemic back then.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. That was the Hong Kong flu and it proved to be as deadly if not worse than the Covid. Yet nothing shut down, schools continued teaching their propaganda, and no o0ne had to wear masks or distance themselves.
DeleteI live in Michigan, and I remember not the riots of 67, but the next year, 1968, when the Detroit Tigers won the World Series, and in a way, helped to calm a city that only a year ago had been in flames. I remember that series because it was actually played the way that baseball is meant to be played. Daytime games were played during the day, not wait until the prime time television coverage, in order to make a bundle of money on advertising.
ReplyDeleteI was 12 in 1972, and remember a bit more of that election. The Democrats held their convention in Chicago, and unlike the Republican convention, which had been planned, and orchestrated to a t, with every single fart accounted for, the Democrats had a free for all, with riots, fighting over who could come in and who couldn't, the background of the Vietnam war and it's winding down, and Nixon's negotiating with China to normalize relations with them, it was a mess.
I remember George McGovern saying before he died, that he had said jokingly that he wanted to run for president in the worst way, and by golly, he did.
The thing is, the Democrats didn't really learn much from that election. Oh, sure, they won the next one, with Jimmy Carter defeating Jerry Ford, who was actually not given a chance at doing the job. I read Ford's reasoning for pardoning Nixon, and I don't believe that the fix was in, or that his nomination for VP was dependent upon him promising to pardon Nixon. I actually think that Ford was a man of honor, and he did what he thought was best for the nation, and was trying to kickstart healing, by getting the country over Nixon, and trying to get the economy back on track.
Ford had gotten a bad rap for his gaffs like falling down a lot, but he was one of the last true public servants who was president. And in a different set of circumstances,he might have been a better president. But with the public anger, over both Nixon,and over Vietnam, Ford didn't have a chance. That is the only way that the Democrats got away with running Jimmy Carter and winning with him.
Jimmy Carter, perhaps one of the top 5 nicest presidents,and definitely in the top 5 most honorable, was big on dreams,but short on the ability to read the wind, and suffered from part of the same thing that Trump is suffering from. An ingrained group of bureaucrats that did not want him to succeed. Carter has accomplished more as a former president than as a president.
Actually, Richard Nixon did have some positives that came from his presidency, but he was an SOB. The biggest thing that I can point to on his resume is that he stepped in and was the one who acted as a judge during the Major League Baseball umpires strike of 1985.
pigpen51
I spent all of '67 in Vietnam. Too damn busy to notice what was happening in the States. Came home in March '68 thinking we had just won the war at Tet. Boy was I shocked.
ReplyDeleteI was in high school. Pepperidge Farm ain't the only one who remembers.
ReplyDeleteIn 1967 I was in the 10th grade. I don't remember a thing about any of this. I was busy that summer working on a pig farm and on weekends running around spending my money.
ReplyDeleteI'm a detroiter, graduated high school in 67, a small catholic high school down in Detroit on 12th street just up the street from where the riots started the next month. Detroit tearing itself apart was difficult for me to understand. Joined the AF june of 68 so a lot of the crazy stuff passed me by for the next few years. Living in the military community, wife, kids didn't feel real connected with a lot of civilian goings on. Do remember watching Neil Armstrong walking on the moon from the day room of my barracks.
ReplyDeleteNew filed under-😂😂😂WTF is that!!!
ReplyDeleteAt least the hippies weren’t this delusional...
Scroll on down
You’ll seeeeee😂😂😂
https://mobile.twitter.com/mrandyngo
I was 9 when the riots hit, and lived two blocks from the border. A couple miles from the riots, but we could see the smoke. I remember my Mom being worried that things would spill over, but it never came close. We went downtown soon after the riots were over, and I remember the soldiers patrolling the streets. That was a big deal to me and gave me a sense of security. I also remember that that was a fucking riot. Raging guns battles, dozens killed and scores were settled. What is going on today is a carnival compared to that. And the lasting affect beside initiating white flight and starting on the glide path to bankruptcy? Twelfth street that Tsgt Joe referenced was renamed Rosa Parks Blvd. Just like taking down Confederate statues it was tokenism and changed nothing.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahlb68geHyw
I missed all that by being in the other war, but five months after coming home I did make the April 1968 burning of part of DC. Another Blackhorse soldier said he got home, had his 30 days leave, signed in with 6th Armored Cav at Fort Meade, and about a week later was on the streets of DC. Welcome home, Brother.
ReplyDeleteDad few into DCA (Reagan National Airport for you youngins) and saw the smoke rising from various points in DC. He turned to his seatmate and asked "Is this why we went to 'Nam?" The '68 riots were worse. There are STILL parts of DC that look like Beirut some 52 years later.
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