The Pentagon: A History (80 page)

Several weeks later
Matter, author interview; Ohl,
Supplying the Troops,
260; Styer, Somervell obituary,
Assembly,
October 1955; Delano letter to the editor,
New York Herald-Tribune,
16 Feb. 1955;
NYT, WP,
and
Star,
14 Feb. 1955.

Newspapers were filled
WP,
15 Feb. 1955;
Memphis Commercial Appeal,
Feb. 1955;
Sun,
15 Feb. 1955.

front rank of Allied
Shrader, “World War II Logistics.”

“I would start out”
Marshall, oral history with Pogue, 14 Feb. 1957.

On February 17, 1955
WP,
18 Feb. 1955;
WP,
14 Feb. 1955.

Water flowed like money

Somervell’s folly had
WP,
13 Jan. 1957;
The Pentagon: A Description of the World’s Largest Office Building,
1–9.

“Anyone, from a four-star”
Pawel Monat, with John Dille,
Spy in the U.S.,
91–92.

It was not just spies
Overman, “I Run the World’s Biggest Building” Gabbett, “Gen. Somervell’s ‘Folly’ Proves Itself.”

Building supervisors
Overman, “I Run the World’s Biggest Building”
WP,
29 June 1958;
WP,
14 Apr. 1959.

Three months later
WP,
3 July, 1959;
Star,
3 July, 1959;
WP,
4 Aug. 1959. Among the reporters who covered the fire for the
Post
was Tom Wolfe, then beginning his career as a writer.

I don’t give a damn what John Paul Jones would have done

By October 24, 1962
Henry L. Trewhitt,
McNamara,
107; Dino A. Brugioni,
Eyeball to Eyeball: The Inside Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis,
415, 398; Raymond,
Power at the Pentagon,
10–12.

A private elevator
Ibid.;
Goldberg,
The Pentagon,
144; National Military Command Center System history draft, NMCC, 18 Aug. 1986, OSD HO.

The reality was strange enough
George C. Wilson, “From Strangelovian to Prosaic,”
WP,
10 July 1976; Raymond,
Power at the Pentagon,
10–12.

Yet the National Military
Brugioni,
Eyeball to Eyeball,
399–400.

“It was a means”
Transcript, forum on Fortieth Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, 18 Oct. 2002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government,
www.iop.harvard.edu/pdfs/transcripts/cuban_missile_crisis_10.18.02.pdf
, (hereafter fortieth anniversary transcript, Harvard).

At 9:45 that evening
Elie Abel,
The Missile Crisis,
154; Brugioni,
Eyeball to Eyeball,
384, 416.

Anderson—at fifty-five
Brugioni,
Eyeball to Eyeball,
271.

“Mr. Secretary, the Navy”
Roswell L. Gilpatric, oral history interview, 27 May 1970, 60–61, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library; Abel,
The Missile Crisis,
154–6; fortieth anniversary transcript, Harvard; Lawrence S. Kaplan, Ronald O. Landa, Edward J. Drea,
The McNamara Ascendancy, 1961–1965,
212–13. Anderson later described the incident as less of a confrontation.

McNamara angrily returned
Brugioni, 416.

Navy destroyers continued
Ibid.; Virginian-Pilot,
10 Nov. 2002.

“Maybe the war”
NYT,
14 Oct. 2002.

CHAPTER 18: THE BATTLE OF THE PENTAGON

You had to be scared

Under the cover of darkness
“The Anti-Vietnam War Demonstration at Washington, D.C. 21–22 October 1967, After Action Report,” draft, 7 Nov. 1967, 52, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations, box 3, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH (hereafter Army AAR draft); Phil Entrekin, author interview, Apr. 2006;
NYT,
22 Nov. 1967; “After Action Report, Operation Cabinet Maker,” 13 Nov. 1967, 14, Headquarters Military District of Washington, box 4, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH (hereafter MDW AAR); Nick Adde, “Solving the Puzzle Palace,”
Army Times,
13 Oct. 1986; Allen Woode, “How the Pentagon Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Peace Marchers,”
Ramparts,
Feb. 1968.

Inside the green-carpeted
Army AAR draft, 37, 79, 62–4; Woode, “How the Pentagon Stopped Worrying.” Woode noted that maps of Vietnam remained up elsewhere in the operations center.

All day, minute-by-minute
Army Operations Center log, 20–21 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH (hereafter Army ops log); Paul J. Scheips,
The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1945–1992,
248,255.

As the first demonstrators
Army AAR draft, 52; Office of the Under Secretary of the Army Journal, 21 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH, 5 (hereafter OUSA journal).

Colonel Ernie Graves felt uneasy
Graves, author interviews, 12 Feb. 2004 and 7 Dec. 2005; Scheips,
The Role of Federal Military Forces,
249.

McNamara and Under Secretary
Robert McNamara, author interview, 11 Jan. 2006.

A line of MPs
Army AAR draft, 34, 50; MDW AAR, 14.

A northeast wind
George C. Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege,”
WP,
23 Oct. 1967.

McNamara went to
McNamara, author’s interview; Reis Kash, e-mail to author, 6 Apr. 2006; Reis Kash, author interview 14 Apr. 2006.

“Christ, yes,”
Paul Hendrickson, “McNamara: Specters of Vietnam,”
WP,
10 May 1984; Robert S. McNamara with Brian VanDeMark,
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam,
305.

The true and high church

By October, more than 13,000
Paul Hendrickson,
The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War,
334–5; George C. Herring,
LBJ and Vietnam: A Different Kind of War,
141; Selected Manpower Statistics, FY 1986, DoD.

“were going to face”
Norman Mailer,
The Armies of the Night,
113–4.

There had been previous
Paul Hendrickson, “Daughter of the Flames,”
WP,
2 Dec. 1985; Hendrickson,
The Living and the Dead,
187–91; McNamara,
In Retrospect,
216–217.

By 1967, protests
WP,
16 Feb. 1997; Tom Wells,
The War Within: America’s Battle over Vietnam,
122–3.

The march on the Pentagon
Scheips,
The Role of Federal Military Forces
.

A healthy dose
AP article in
Fayetteville Observer,
15 Oct. 1967; Abbie Hoffman,
Soon to be a Major Motion Picture,
131–2.

Not everyone
Scheips,
The Role of Federal Military Forces,
235; Army AAR draft, 1–2;
NYT,
28 July 1967. The speech was delivered at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church.

“This confrontation”
Ibid.,
foreword.

This “extraordinary”
Herring,
LBJ and Vietnam,
142; Scheips,
The Role of Federal Military Forces,
248; Seymour M. Hersh, “Files Disclose More Army Snooping Under Johnson,”
NYT,
1 Sept. 1972.

In the days before
Army AAR draft, 45–47; Hollis memo, 18 Oct. 1967, box 2, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH; Scheips,
The Role of Federal Military Forces,
251, 255, 258; MDW AAR, 14;
WP,
20 Oct. 1967;
NYT,
22 Nov. 1967; Army ops log, 20–21 Oct. 1967.

For all the extraordinary
McGiffert memo to McNamara, 21 Oct. 1967, box 3, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH.

The zeal to show
MDW AAR, 29; McNamara,
In Retrospect,
303; Army AAR draft, 36–38; Col. George M. Bush memo to McGiffert, “Lessons Learned October 20–22 Demonstration,” 26 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH; McGiffert after action evaluation, 26 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH.

The day before the march
“Orientation of Military Commanders by the Chief of Staff Army,” 20 Oct. 1967, box 3, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH;
WP,
Johnson obituary, 28 Sept. 1983.

The situation became extremely fluid

A vast cross-section
Scheips,
The Role of Federal Military Forces,
255–8;
WP,
29 Oct. 1967; Bruce Jackson, “The Battle of the Pentagon” MDW AAR, annex B-1.

Marching at the front
Scheips,
The Role of Federal Military Forces,
257; Jackson, “The Battle of the Pentagon” Louis Cassels, “Analysis 10/22,” UPI, 22 Oct. 1967.

High on spirit
Mailer,
The Armies of the Night,
106–110, 117.

The route marked by police
Permit issued to demonstrators, MDW AAR, annex E-1; Wells,
The War Within,
189; Woode, “How the Pentagon Stopped Worrying” McGiffert, after-action evaluation, 26 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH.

“No enemy was visible”
Mailer,
The Armies of the Night,
119.

Walter Teague
Teague, author interview, 19 Jan. 2006; Jim Hoagland, “Protest Leaders Faded at Pentagon,”
WP,
23 Oct. 1967; Wells,
The War Within,
196; MDW AAR, 14–15.

It was quickly apparent
Ibid.,
24; Teague, author interview.

O’Malley, the operational
Army AAR draft, 55.

From his office
OUSA journal, 21 Oct. 1967.

The crowd at the Mall
Army AAR draft, 55–57; OUSA journal, 21 Oct. 1967; letter of instruction to O’Malley, 19 Oct. 1967, Anti-War Demonstrations, March on the Pentagon, CMH.

The violence was kept
MDW AAR, 15; McGiffert, after-action evaluation, CMH.

At the rope barriers
James Reston, “Everyone is a Loser,”
NYT,
23 Oct. 1967; Cassels, “Analysis 10/22” MDW AAR, 29, CMH.

Captain Phil Entrekin
Entrekin, author interview.

Ernie Graves
Graves, author interview.

Out, demons, out!

Elsewhere, the crowd
Marty Jezer,
Abbie Hoffman, American Rebel,
118; Hoffman,
Soon to be a Major Motion Picture,
134.

Nearby in the North
“Exorcising the Pentagon,” on the Fugs’ official Web site,
www.thefugs.com/history_fugs.html
; Mailer,
The Armies of the Night,
119.

Hippies danced
Jackson, “The Battle of the Pentagon.”

Some women
Frank Naughton, author interview, April 2006; Woode, “How the Pentagon Stopped Worrying” McNamara,
In Retrospect,
304; Entrekin, author interview.

The holy of holies

The first round of trouble
Army AAR draft, 57.

Frank Naughton
Naughton, author interview.

A platoon of MPs
MDW AAR, 15, 23; Army ops journal, 21 Oct. 1967, CMH;
WP,
22 Oct. 1967; Jackson, “The Battle of the Pentagon.”

The protesters who had reached
Bill Ayers, author interview, 23 Jan. 2006; Bill Ayers,
Fugitive Days,
11.

Inside, McGiffert
Army AAR draft, 57; Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege” MDW AAR, 15, CMH.

It was not enough
Army AAR draft, 59, CMH; Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege” Hoagland, “Protest Leaders Faded at Pentagon” Mailer,
The Armies of the Night,
252.

The “Seventh-Corridor Rush”
Army AAR draft, 59; MDW AAR, 16, CMH; Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege”
NYT,
22 Oct. 1967; Kash, author interview.

The Mall plaza remained
Ayers, author interview; Wilson, “Chronology of Pentagon’s Biggest, Strangest Siege” OUSA Journal, 21 Oct. 1967, CMH.

In the operations
OUSA journal, 21 Oct. 1967, CMH; Army AAR draft, 59–61, CMH.

Most protesters
Carl Bernstein and Robert G. Kaiser, “2000 Protesters Spend Night at Pentagon—Cold, Hopeful,”
WP,
23 Oct. 1967; Mailer,
The Armies of the Night,
268; Army ops log, 21 Oct. 1967, CMH.