President Trump on Sunday called on Americans to “HOLD THE DATE” for July 4 as his administration would be hosting “one of the biggest gatherings” in the history of Washington, D.C. — an aspiration that recalled the 1970 “Honor America Day” staged by supporters of then-President Richard Nixon.
“It will be called ‘A Salute To America’ and will be held at the Lincoln Memorial. Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!” the president declared in a tweet.
It is unclear whether this would replace the event that is already an annual tradition. For three decades, A Capitol Fourth, which includes fireworks, a parade, and a free concert, has taken place on the National Mall. Its sponsors include the Boeing Company, the National Park Service, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Department of the Army, and PBS.
In 1970, Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam War with the invasion of Cambodia had divided America. Anti-war demonstrations spread across the country and in May student protesters were fired on by National Guardsmen at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine.
Hoping to bolster support for Nixon, supporters organized a huge “pro-America rally” on the Mall on the Fourth of July, naming it “Honor America Day” and predicting it would be “the biggest celebration in America’s history.”
The Reverend Billy Graham led a religious service from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the morning and Bob Hope compered an all-star program of music and comedy at the Washington Monument in the evening. Hope predicted that the event would show the world that “Americans can put aside their differences and rally around the flag to show national unity.”
J. Willard Marriott, the founder of the Marriott hotel chain, was in overall charge. Organizers recruited conservative crowds with White House advance teams bringing 350,000 members of Nixon’s so-called “Silent Majority” to DC, eclipsing the 300,000 who had turned up for the Woodstock music festival the year before. Other celebrities there included Jack Benny, Pat Boone, Glen Campbell,, Dinah Shore, Red Skelton, and Vince Lombardi.
Hippies and left-wing protesters also descended on the nation’s capital, however, and confronted the conservatives. Flower power types converged on the mall for a “marijuana smoke-in,” featuring red, white, and blue joints. A number stripped off and cavorted in the reflecting pool.
The park police tried to maintain a demilitarized zone, “DMZ,” between the main crowd and the fringe protesters, who were heavily outnumbered. But violence erupted, a truck was overturned and as the U.S. Navy Band began the “Star-Spangled Banner,” police fired tear gas at the demonstrators, which then blew back over the celebration itself.
A reporter noted at the time: “To the final strains of the anthem, there was a mass stampede of weeping hippies and Middle Americans away from the fumes.”
With Trump and his 2016 campaign being investigated for possible conspiracy with Russia, parallels with Nixon — who resigned in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal before he could be impeached — have become commonplace.
Bill Kristol, a conservative commentator and relentless “Never Trump” critic of the president said via Twitter: “The last president to try to hijack July 4th was Richard Nixon, who staged Honor America Day on July 4, 1970. It was widely ridiculed. Nixon later left office in disgrace.”
That was mostly true as far as it went, though the 1970 event was praised by many even as elite opinion writers derided it. But before Watergate engulfed his presidency, Nixon went on to win re-election to a second term in November 1972, crushing liberal Democratic nominee George McGovern by 49 states to one.
