Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s book, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, on the 1972 protests: “There is no anti-war or even anti-establishment group in America with the psychic leverage of the VVAW [Vietnam Veterans Against the War]. Not even those decadent swine on the foredeck of the Wild Rose can ignore the dues Ron Kovic and his buddies have paid. They are golems, come back to haunt us all…”
In August 1972 I hitchhiked from the outskirts of St. Louis, MO to Miami Beach, FL for my first professional photography assignment – to cover the anti-war protests during the Republican National Convention. I was shooting for a semi-underground newspaper, “The St. Louis Outlaw.”
Photographs from the 1972 Republican National Convention illustrate the resistance against the Nixon Administration’s war in Vietnam and the gap between a radical youth movement and the Establishment. Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) played a major role in the demonstrations.
The fighting claimed nearly 60,000 U.S. lives with more than 200,000 U.S. casualties along with more than 3,000,000 people from Indochina who were killed in the war. It is estimated that more than 100,000 U.S. Vietnam veterans committed suicide after the war officially ended. Toxic chemicals like Agent Orange, used during the war, continue to have tragic health effects on people in Vietnam as well as U.S. soldiers who served there.
These photos from my first assignment reflect a place and time that can feel oddly contemporary yet unique in American history. As today we see the country split down the middle, my photos from 1972 reflect a very similar, yet also very different schism. In the 60s and 70s we saw a rising up of a radical left youth movement, not just in the US but around the world. Today we see communities split due to rhetoric by politicians and their pundits. In a time of climate
crisis that seems absurd to me.
August 2022 marked the 50th anniversary of the Miami Beach protests and of the photos I took there.
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s book, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, on the 1972 protests: “There is no anti-war or even anti-establishment group in America with the psychic leverage of the VVAW [Vietnam Veterans Against the War]. Not even those decadent swine on the foredeck of the Wild Rose can ignore the dues Ron Kovic and his buddies have paid. They are golems, come back to haunt us all…”
In August 1972 I hitchhiked from the outskirts of St. Louis, MO to Miami Beach, FL for my first professional photography assignment – to cover the anti-war protests during the Republican National Convention. I was shooting for a semi-underground newspaper, “The St. Louis Outlaw.”
Photographs from the 1972 Republican National Convention illustrate the resistance against the Nixon Administration’s war in Vietnam and the gap between a radical youth movement and the Establishment. Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) played a major role in the demonstrations.
The fighting claimed nearly 60,000 U.S. lives with more than 200,000 U.S. casualties along with more than 3,000,000 people from Indochina who were killed in the war. It is estimated that more than 100,000 U.S. Vietnam veterans committed suicide after the war officially ended. Toxic chemicals like Agent Orange, used during the war, continue to have tragic health effects on people in Vietnam as well as U.S. soldiers who served there.
These photos from my first assignment reflect a place and time that can feel oddly contemporary yet unique in American history. As today we see the country split down the middle, my photos from 1972 reflect a very similar, yet also very different schism. In the 60s and 70s we saw a rising up of a radical left youth movement, not just in the US but around the world. Today we see communities split due to rhetoric by politicians and their pundits. In a time of climate
crisis that seems absurd to me.
August 2022 marked the 50th anniversary of the Miami Beach protests and of the photos I took there.
