[2 versions]
Antiwar protest 40 years ago today
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/278867/group/News/
Forty years ago today, antiwar protesters from the University of
North Dakota and throughout the region assembled near Nekoma, N.D.,
site of a planned antiballistic missile defense system, to
demonstrate against the arms race and the war in Vietnam.
By Chuck Haga
May 16 2010
Forty years ago today, antiwar protesters from the University of
North Dakota and throughout the region assembled near Nekoma, N.D.,
site of a planned antiballistic missile defense system, to
demonstrate against the arms race and the war in Vietnam.
Two of the "Chicago Seven," John Froines and Dave Dellinger
defendants in one of the most celebrated antiwar conspiracy trials of
the period spoke on campus the night before and joined the students
and other protesters May 15, 1970, at Nekoma.
It was one of the largest area protests of the Vietnam era, and it
came just a week and a half after four students at Kent State
University were shot and killed by soldiers of the Ohio National
Guard, called to campus to quell antiwar demonstrations there.
In Nekoma, a village of 87 people, students danced, sang and listened
to rock bands on a makeshift stage, and they planted ash trees and
durum seed "to show people," organizers said, "what this land was
meant to hold."
The Safeguard complex in Nekoma was part of a planned national
missile defense system. The only Safeguard unit ever to become
operational, it was shut down less than a year later.
The complex consisted of a missile site radar, four remote Sprint
missile launch sites, and a perimeter acquisition radar, to the north
at Concrete, N.D.
Its development coincided with widespread anger over the U.S.
incursion into Cambodia and the disaster at Kent State. Peace
activists called for an "International ABM Day" across the country,
and the march on Nekoma was organized by North Dakota Clergy and
Laymen Concerned and North Dakota Citizens for a Sane Nuclear Policy.
Estimates of the crowd ranged from 500 to 1,500, and the event came
to be called the Nekoma Festival of Life and Love, according to the
rather disapproving Internet site globalsecurity.org.
"Because Gov. William Guy would not allocate resources to protect
federal property, the Army and the four-company consortium,
Morrison-Knudsen and Associates, established a non-provoking strategy
consisting of removing all mobile equipment, roping off the
excavation and setting up a stage and sanitary accommodations for the
protesters away from the construction," the site says.
"Late in the afternoon, several hundred demonstrators marched toward
the excavation as kazoo players played 'The Battle Hymn of the
Republic.' Upon arrival, the protesters descended into the hole and
performed some symbolic activities, such as planting seedlings.
"Overall, the Army's passive strategy worked, as the day went without
violence or arrests and only minimal vandalism."
Clay Jenkinson, a historian and writer who teaches at Dickinson State
University and Bismarck State College, offers a different take on the
protest and on the role played by Guy, governor from 1961 to 1973,
now 90 and living in Fargo.
On May 12, 1970, "a nervous and hostile U.S. Justice Department sent
out a riot control team to meet with Guy," Jenkinson wrote in a
recent column published in the Bismarck Tribune. "In his calm and
competent way," the governor assured his visitors that appropriate
steps would be taken.
Then Guy addressed the people of North Dakota.
"I do not expect violence in this week's demonstrations," he said
days before Nekoma, "especially by those who point to the destructive
waste of violence and war. Peaceful demonstrations are in the best
tradition of this country's democratic process."
Guy said he would put the North Dakota National Guard on "strategic
weekend drill status," but the soldiers would stay out of sight and
not carry ammunition.
On May 13, Guy flew to Grand Forks and met with faculty members and
students. "The atmosphere was tense and explosive," he wrote in a 1992 memoir.
While he was talking to the students, someone handed him a note. U.S.
Attorney General John Mitchell was calling.
"Mitchell pressured the North Dakota governor to use the North Dakota
National Guard to secure the ABM site," Jenkinson wrote. "Guy flatly
refused. It was a federal, not a state, facility. Besides, he said,
American citizens had a perfect right to engage in peaceful demonstrations."
Mitchell asked Guy if he would be at Nekoma.
-------
A protest for peace
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/161620/
Today marks 40 years since march at Nekoma, N.D., missile site
Forty years ago today, anti-war protesters from UND and throughout
the region assembled near Nekoma, N.D., site of a planned
anti-ballistic missile defense system, to demonstrate against the
arms race and the war in Vietnam.
By: Chuck Haga
May 15 2010
Forty years ago today, anti-war protesters from UND and throughout
the region assembled near Nekoma, N.D., site of a planned
anti-ballistic missile defense system, to demonstrate against the
arms race and the war in Vietnam.
Two of the "Chicago Seven," John Froines and Dave Dellinger
defendants in one of the most celebrated anti-war conspiracy trials
of the period spoke on campus the night before and joined the
students and other protesters May 15, 1970, at Nekoma.
It was one of the largest area protests of the Vietnam era, and it
came just a week and a half after four students at Kent State
University were shot and killed by soldiers of the Ohio National
Guard, called to campus to quell anti-war demonstrations there.
At Nekoma, a village of 87 people, students danced, sang and listened
to rock bands on a makeshift stage, and they planted ash trees and
durum seed "to show people," organizers said, "what this land was
meant to hold."
The Safeguard complex in Nekoma was part of a planned national
missile defense system. The only Safeguard unit ever to become
operational, it was shut down less than a year later.
The complex consisted of a missile site radar, four remote Sprint
missile launch sites, and a perimeter acquisition radar, to the north
at Concrete, N.D.
Its development coincided with widespread anger over the U.S.
incursion into Cambodia and the disaster at Kent State. Peace
activists called for an "International ABM Day" across the country,
and the march on Nekoma was organized by North Dakota Clergy and
Laymen Concerned and North Dakota Citizens for a Sane Nuclear Policy.
Estimates of the crowd ranged from 500 to 1,500, and the event came
to be called the Nekoma Festival of Life and Love, according to the
rather disapproving Internet site globalsecurity.org.
"Because Gov. William Guy would not allocate resources to protect
federal property, the Army and the four-company consortium,
Morrison-Knudsen and Associates, established a non-provoking strategy
consisting of removing all mobile equipment, roping off the
excavation and setting up a stage and sanitary accommodations for the
protesters away from the construction," according to the site.
"Late in the afternoon, several hundred demonstrators marched toward
the excavation as kazoo players played 'The Battle Hymn of the
Republic.' Upon arrival, the protesters descended into the hole and
performed some symbolic activities such as planting seedlings.
"Overall, the Army's passive strategy worked, as the day went without
violence or arrests and only minimal vandalism."
'In best tradition'
Clay Jenkinson, a historian and writer who teaches at Dickinson State
University and Bismarck State College, offers a different take on the
protest and on the role played by Guy, governor from 1961 to 1973,
now 90 and living in Fargo.
On May 12, 1970, "a nervous and hostile U.S. Justice Department sent
out a riot control team to meet with Guy," Jenkinson wrote in a
recent column published in the Bismarck Tribune. "In his calm and
competent way," the governor assured his visitors that appropriate
steps would be taken.
Then, Guy addressed the people of North Dakota.
"I do not expect violence in this week's demonstrations," he said
days before Nekoma, "especially by those who point to the destructive
waste of violence and war." Also, "Peaceful demonstrations are in the
best tradition of this country's democratic process."
Guy said he would put the North Dakota National Guard on "strategic
weekend drill status," but the soldiers would stay out of sight and
not carry ammunition.
On May 13, Guy flew to Grand Forks and met with faculty members and
students. "The atmosphere was tense and explosive," he wrote in a 1992 memoir.
While he was talking to the students, someone handed him a note. U.S.
Attorney General John Mitchell was calling.
"Mitchell pressured the North Dakota governor to use the North Dakota
National Guard to secure the ABM site," Jenkinson wrote. "Guy flatly
refused. It was a federal not a state facility. Besides, he said,
American citizens had a perfect right to engage in peaceful demonstrations."
Mitchell asked Guy if he would be at Nekoma.
"Only if they need one more warm body to swell the crowd," Guy
responded. "You see, I too protest the waste of tax money that the
ABM represents."
According to Guy's recounting of the conversation, the attorney
general swore and hung up on the governor.
Two days later, protesters occupied the site, where they flew kites,
danced, planted their symbolic trees and seeds and denounced the war
and arms race in song, poetry and speeches. State troopers and area
sheriff's deputies assisted student marshals with traffic control,
while the National Guard hunkered down in Lakota, N.D., 40 miles away.
"Nekoma," Jenkinson wrote, "had more in common with Woodstock than Kent State."
ABM treaty
When President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed
the ABM Treaty on May 26, 1972, agreeing to limit each nation to one
site to protect strategic forces and one site to protect the national
command authority, work was about 85 percent complete at Nekoma. The
United States stopped work at a site in Montana.
In spring 1975, the North Dakota ABM site received its complement of
nuclear-tipped Spartan and Sprint missiles, and the site was declared
operational on April 1, 1975, according to globalsecurity.org. "Due
to Congressional action, the Army operated the site for less than a
year (and) the complex was abandoned in February 1976."
--
Reach Haga at (701) 780-1102; (800) 477-6572, ext. 102; or send
e-mail to [email protected].
.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Sixties-L" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
