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Most of the audience stuck it out for the full five hours, though few of the speakers seemed to make much of an impression. Coretta King, Goodell and McGovern made thoughtful if somewhat predictable speeches. The afternoon's high point came not from reasoned advocacy but from litany. Pete Seeger, Mitch Miller, and Peter, Paul and Mary led the crowd in chanting a single refrain over and over: "All we are saying is give peace a chance."
The rally in San Francisco was also the biggest demonstration in that city's history. At the end of the sevenmile march from Pier 29 to Golden Gate Park, some 125,000 people had assembled. The day was entirely peaceful, though some of the talk coming from the platform was wild. The most extreme statements came from David Milliard, a Black Panther leader who spouted obscenities and declared: "We will kill Richard Nixon! We will kill any mother —— that stands in the way of our freedom!" This was too much for his listeners, who shouted him down with cries of "No! No! No!" and "Peace! Peace! Peace!" Other speakers who attacked Nixon in less virulent terms won applause. When Ralph Abernathy concluded his speech with the chant "Let there be peace now," the throng joined in.
Patriotic Mass. If Saturday belonged to members of the antiwar forces, the earlier part of the week was far more of a contest. Spurred by the example of the first Moratorium and by Nixon's pleas for support, citizens as tired of protest as they are of the war rallied during the week to the President's side. They did not capture the national imagination—or the numbers—that the antiwar movement did, but they succeeded in showing that there are still two popular sides in the debate.
Regular Veterans Day observances in cities and small towns across the country were turned into support-the-Pres-ident demonstrations. In Birmingham, the observance lasted two days and produced the biggest outpouring of any demonstration in the city's memory. Activities there included a patriotic Roman Catholic Mass, a night rally and a three-mile parade that attracted 41 bands. In Pittsburgh, hundreds of spectators shouting "Hey! Hey! U.S.A.!" joined the line of march. At Phoenix Christian High School, students, alumni, teachers and assorted guests joined in a "run for God and country." For 48 hours, participants trotted around the track in relays, logging a noncoincidental 1,776 laps, or 444 miles.
Few of the demonstrations were large. Nixon's silent Americans seem to lack the verve, organization—and spare time —of his critics. They also lack a national apparatus comparable to the Moratorium Committee and the New Mobe. Said Bob Hope, honorary chairman of National Unity Week: "It's pretty hard for good, nice people to demonstrate." Still, the antidissent faction mustered far more activity and activists than before.