Vietnam, Protest, and Counterculture 485The heart of the movement, however, was still in the streets. Demonstrations
in most major cities continued throughout 1966 and 1967, and included mil-
lions of Americans of all age groups, religions, and classes. In April 1967,
between 125,000 and 400,000 (depending on whether police or demonstra-
tors were counting) people protested the war in New York, while at least
75,000 took to the streets in San Francisco. That October, in Washington, over
100,000 demonstrators listened to speakers attack the war, many burned their
draft cards, and others tried to levitate the Pentagon by chanting and meditat-
ing–and many participants to this day claim they saw the building leave the
ground. And, after Tet, the government’s reasons for fighting in Vietnam had
been exposed as unwarranted optimism or lies. Many liberals who had still
supported Johnson felt betrayed by the administration and, maybe most
importantly, Wall Street turned against the war as the economy suffered.
William McChesney Martin, the chair of the Federal Reserve Board, was
alarmed by the continuing costs of military intervention, fearing a repeat of
the depression of 1929 and complaining that “I have been trying for the past
two years to make the point on ‘guns and butter’ and the cost of the Vietnam
FIGuRE 9-14 Anti-War protestors at the March on the Pentagon, 1967