The plan
The demonstration of 21-22 October 1967 was organised by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the successor to the spring coalition, with Dave Dellinger as one of its leading figures. The plan had two parts: a large rally in Washington, followed by a march across the Potomac to the Pentagon, where some participants intended to practise civil disobedience by trying to block entrances. The organisers deliberately aimed to move beyond another peaceful parade.
Saturday: the Lincoln Memorial
On Saturday 21 October, crowds gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. Estimates of the turnout vary. Figures of about 100,000 for the rally are commonly mentioned, and fewer, perhaps around 50,000, are usually said to have then walked across the Arlington Memorial Bridge toward the Pentagon, though no precise count exists. The crowd included students, clergy, veterans, pacifists, housewives and the more radical New Left. Speeches were given by Dellinger and others, including Benjamin Spock, who had by then become a prominent opponent of the war.
The writers Norman Mailer, Robert Lowell, Dwight Macdonald and Paul Goodman were among those present, and their presence added to the literary record of the day.
The Pentagon grounds
At the Pentagon, the first group settled on a parking lot that officials had allowed for the rally. A larger confrontation took place at the building’s north side, near the entrance steps. Troops and federal marshals formed lines in front of the building. Reports mention several thousand soldiers, including units from the 82nd Airborne Division, although exact deployment numbers are uncertain.
Some of the imagery is famous. The Washington Star photographer Bernie Boston took a picture of a young man placing a carnation into the barrel of a soldier’s rifle; the photograph, often called “Flower Power,” became one of the best-known pictures of the era. Other protesters talked to the soldiers or tried to persuade them to put down their weapons. Some in the crowd hurled insults or objects, and the mood changed as the afternoon went on.
The Hoffman idea
Abbie Hoffman, then a New York activist and not yet famous, proposed that the Pentagon be “exorcised” and levitated. He and his friends, among them Jerry Rubin and the poet Allen Ginsberg, announced that they would encircle the building and raise it into the air to drive out the evil spirits, reportedly saying the building would rise 300 feet; later, in negotiations with officials over a permit, the figure was reportedly reduced. The idea was a deliberate joke and a media stunt, and it succeeded as one. It also pointed toward the Yippies, a group that Hoffman and Rubin helped found in December 1967 and that later took a role in the 1968 Chicago protests.
Night and arrests
Saturday evening brought the sharpest confrontations. Some protesters broke through the police lines and reached the building’s doors or the steps, where they were pushed back or arrested. As darkness came, many of the crowd left, but a few thousand remained through the night. In the early hours of Sunday 22 October, soldiers and marshals moved against the sitting demonstrators, and there were complaints of beatings and clubbing. Journalists and later participants disagreed about how much force was used and on whom.
The total number of arrests is usually given as roughly 680 to 700 over the two days, though numbers differ between sources. Most of the charges were for trespass, disorderly conduct or similar offences. Among those arrested was Norman Mailer, who was held overnight.
The Mailer account
Mailer later turned his experience into a book, The Armies of the Night, published in 1968. He wrote about himself in the third person, calling himself “Mailer” and treating himself as a character, partly ridiculous and partly brave. The book is a mixture of reportage and novelistic technique, and it is regarded as a landmark of the New Journalism. It describes the evening before the march, the rally, his arrest and a night in custody. It won major literary prizes in 1969, which helped the Pentagon story reach readers who never took part in a demonstration.
Aftermath
The immediate effect on policy was small. The Johnson administration continued its approach, and the press coverage was mixed, with some papers highlighting violence and the radical fringe. Yet the event had a lasting effect on the movement’s self-image. Organisers and participants came away with a sense of having stood up to the military state, and others, including some moderates, were disturbed by the behaviour of both sides. The confrontation is now remembered as a symbolic moment: the first time antiwar protesters directly challenged the headquarters of the war itself.