Memories of sabotage and provocateurs at 1972 RNC protests and why this matters in 2020

by Deb Spilko 8/26/2020

So on August 19, 1972, the four of us crammed into a Cricket sedan, leaving from Albany and heading to Miami Beach. About 1500 miles. To Florida. In August. In a Cricket. 

Not only that, I-95 was undergoing on-and-off construction all the way down, meaning that we would be regularly leaving the Interstate for detours that took us deeper into the Deep South. Not the most inviting prospect for carload of humidity-frizzie hippies with Jewish surnames and New York license plates.

You might reasonably ask what we were thinking.

Well, like thousands of others, we were making the trek to take a stand against the Vietnam War. The Republican National Convention was being held August 21-23, and Nixon would be nominated for another term. Nixon, who had once run on a stop-the-war pledge and then turned the war into a bigger horror, who expanded the war into two other countries. 

So as far as we were concerned, there would be no Nixon festivities this week while that atrocity was still going on. 

I'm sure that no group was more committed to sending this message than the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) contingent. By 1972, Vietnam veterans and active personnel had become the most important part of the movement to end the war. Their presence at the convention protests promised to be devastating to those who wanted to keep the war going. Members of the VVAW had found itself added to Nixon's paranoid "enemies list," but the group had also suffered government attacks. Among them: J. Edgar Hoover had called for one of its leaders to be "neutralized;" the leader was indeed shot and did survive an assassination attempt (verified).

When we arrived at the permitted protest campground, a guy from the official protest organizers group told us to be careful because there were provocateurs. What an understatement that turned out to be. 

As I recall, the protest was nonviolent till the last evening. I was participating at a "die-in" by the convention hall, and then suddenly it turned into a riot, and I was being truncheon-shoved by a cop with a phalanx of troopers behind him herding us toward the campground. Tear gas filled the air. 

Back at our tent we seethed against the immature movement "assholes" we saw as responsible for turning it into a riot. We were quite sure the assholes were certain young guys who just wanted a street fighting adventure. To be sure, movement assholes were not in short supply.  However...

We would later learn the extent to which the protests had been infiltrated and disrupted by provocateurs. The antiwar vets suffered the worst. "Their plans for a peaceful, anti-war demonstration at the 1972 RNC were disrupted by law enforcement agents—from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on down to the Dade County Public Safety Department—who infiltrated the group and attempted to sway VVAW toward a more violent approach." (Gainesville Iguana 9/21/2013). Eight VVAW members would be indicted on charges of disrupting the convention. It took the jury less than four hours to acquit. 

I didn't actually write this as a trip down memory lane. But violent and bizarre incidents at the ongoing 2020 racial equality protests have from the start made me wonder how much was being provoked by those who aren't there to support the cause. The subjects of sabotage and provocateurs are unfortunately still very timely, and it's worth sharing some of the history of these tactics. 

In 1972, those participating in these particular behaviors were connected to government, law enforcement, and people who wanted Nixon re-elected. Today's provocateurs have been proven to include right wing extremists, Russian disruption entities, and people who want Trump re-elected. It might sound like an outlandish spy novel but it's all too real. Be aware. 

Please check out some of the stories in the links below. 

LINKS ABOUT SABOTAGE OF 1972 PROTESTS

"Ex‐Operative Says He Worked for F.B.I. to Disrupt Political Activities Up to '74" (NY Times February 24, 1975)
"Agents Infiltrated Convention Protests" (Miami Herald May 11, 1973) "half of them were cops" "police infiltrators tried to get him to meet with Cuban exiles for the purpose of purchasing weapons." 

Gainesville Eight Wikipedia entry This is actually a pretty quick overview of the indictment against VVAW members 
"Resistance and Liberation: The Gainesville 8 Scott Camil" Presentation by the VVAW leader who survived an assassination attempt. Long but very informative lecture on the government harassment of the antiwar vets group. 
"Recollections of Gainesville"    (By Bill Shunas, The Veteran, Fall 2008)

Manual for RNC protesters put together by the organizers of the protest, laying out the need for nonviolence and respect. Retrieved by Occupy Miami 1972 jmknapp Daily KOS Tuesday October 18, 2011 

SABOTAGE OF DEM PARTY...

FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats, ( Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward Washington Post) October 10, 1972 "Following members of Democratic candidates' families and assembling dossiers on their personal lives; forging letters and distributing them under the candidates' letterheads; leaking false and manufactured items to the press; throwing campaign schedules into disarray; seizing confidential campaign files; and investigating the lives of dozens of Democratic campaign workers."
Sabotaging the G.O.P.'s Rivals: Story of a $100,000 Operation By John M. Crewdson NY Times July 9, 1973 

Vietnam Veterans Against the War at 1972 Republican National Convention.

Photo: Tony Schweikle 1972/Public Domain