#Domestic deployment of active-duty US military, as is now taking place in #LosAngeles, is both rare & perilous. Not since the 1992 riots in that same city has the country seen such a use of the armed services. But that was a one-off. The more relevant, & worrying, parallel may be the period from 1957 to the end of 1968, when military forces actively patrolled US soil on 8 separate occasions.
The 12 years spanning 1957 to 1968 were a period of great societal tumult & revolution, especially over #race & the #VietnamWar. Of the 8 deployments, 2 were to enforce #desegregation court orders, most famously at #LittleRock, #Arkansas, in 1957. 4 were to quell riots, 3 of which were part of the numerous outbreaks across the country that followed the #assassination of #MartinLutherKingJr in 1968.
And the remaining 2 were in response to #protests: one to #protect a famous 1965 march of #CivilRights activists in #Selma, #Alabama, to push for the #VotingRightsAct, & the other to tamp down a forgotten & chaotic attempt by anti-Vietnam protesters to blockade the Pentagon in 1967.
That 1967 deployment was perhaps the most extraordinary. In a surreal prelude to the confrontation, as the rock band the #Fugs played, #AbbieHoffman & #AllenGinsberg chanted to levitate the building, turn it orange, & exorcise its demons—a ritual humorously sanctioned in the #protest permit.
As pressure mounted, commanders deployed paratroopers from the 1st Battalion, 325th Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, who engaged demonstrators outside the entrance & helped stabilize the scene. By day’s end, 21 civilians were reported injured—7 treated at the scene & 14 hospitalized—but, remarkably, no fatalities had occurred.
Indeed, this absence of lethal force proved typical: The only fatality caused by active-duty #soldiers during this 12-yr period occurred during the 1967 #Detroit riots. The low number of deaths is at least partly why, except for the 101st Airborne’s deployment to #LittleRock, most Americans barely remember these earlier #domestic#military interventions. Even in moments of widespread turbulence, the active-duty military exercised restraint overall.
By contrast, people remember the #KentState#massacre of 1970 because it was a bloody failure by the #NationalGuard, during which 4 #students were #killed. Indeed, during this period, many #police & National Guard units responded to unrest with heavy-handed tactics that resulted in many #civilian injuries & #fatalities.