Déjà vu Violence

The violence unfolding in America these days recalls the violent period from 1965 to 1975, when political, cultural, and social upheavals rocked our society.

What happened then, and how can we apply that period to what we are experiencing today?

Violence in the late 1960s and early 1970s—particularly in the United States but also across much of the world—was shaped by political, cultural, and social battles. Here’s a breakdown:

1. Political Assassinations and High-Profile Killings
Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy

2. Civil Rights, Black Power, and Urban Unrest
Urban Riots: Widespread uprisings in U.S. cities (Watts 1965, Detroit 1967, after King’s assassination in 1968). Black Panther Party: Advocated self-defense, community programs, and sometimes armed confrontation with police. Police Violence: Clashes between law enforcement and minority communities became frequent and deadly.

3. Anti–Vietnam War Protests
Kent State shootings (1970): The National Guard shot and killed four student protesters. Jackson State (1970): Police killed 2 Black students during protests. Demonstrations sometimes turned violent, either through clashes with authorities or radicalized factions adopting militant tactics.

4. Radical Left Militancy
Weathermen/Weather Underground: Carried out bombings of government buildings in the U.S. to protest Vietnam and racism.

Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA): Notorious for kidnappings and armed robberies (including the Patty Hearst case in 1974). Abroad, groups such as the Red Army Faction (Germany) and the Red Brigades (Italy) followed similar militant paths.

5. Countercultural and Generational Conflict
Student protests often escalated into violent confrontations with police. The cultural divide (older conservative establishment vs. younger anti-establishment movements) produced a climate of tension.

6. General Atmosphere
The late ’60s and early ’70s felt turbulent, with violence seen both as a symptom of injustice (riots, radical activism) and as a tool of repression (police crackdowns, assassinations).

Political trust eroded, and many feared that society was unraveling into chaos.

What ended that violence?

1. The End of the Vietnam War.
The U.S. withdrawal (1973) and the fall of Saigon (1975) removed the central issue that had driven much of the protest movement. Without the draft pulling young people into the war, the urgency of mass demonstrations and radical anti-war violence faded.

2. Political and Legal Reforms
Civil Rights Acts (1964, 1965, 1968) addressed some of the legal bases of racial inequality, reducing (though not ending) the grievances that fueled urban uprisings. Voting rights expansion and increased representation provided marginalized groups with nonviolent avenues to effect change through the political process.

3. State Crackdowns and Policing
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies (the FBI’s COINTELPRO) infiltrated and disrupted radical groups like the Black Panthers and Weather Underground. Many militant organizations collapsed due to arrests, internal splits, or leaders being killed.

4. Dissolution of Radical Groups
Many student radicals aged out of activism as they moved into careers and family life. Groups like the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army imploded under pressure, infighting, or loss of public support.

5. Public Backlash and Fatigue
Ordinary citizens grew tired of chaos—riots, bombings, and assassinations eroded sympathy for radical movements. Politicians like Richard Nixon capitalized on the “law and order” message, which resonated with a public weary of unrest.

6. Shifting Cultural Priorities
By the mid-1970s, the counterculture gave way to new social movements focused on feminism, environmentalism, and consumer rights—generally less violent. The end of the draft, expanded economic opportunities, and cultural shifts calmed some generational tensions.

In short, the violence ebbed because its main fuel sources—Vietnam, disenfranchisement, and revolutionary zeal—either disappeared or were contained by reforms and repression. By the mid-1970s, protest energy had shifted into more institutionalized, less violent forms of activism.

Which of those issues from the 1960s still pertain to American society today?

1. Political Assassinations and High-Profile Killings
Charlie Kirk, John, and Melissa Hortman

2. Radical Left Militancy
Although they operate with significantly lower operational activity, Antifa is more widespread than the tightly knit groups of the earlier period.

Radical left militancy in the 1960s was the last gasp of the global push to implement socialism. Critical Theory replaced the socialist ideology, shifting from an economic class perspective to an identity-based approach. When the socialists in America realized that the USSR and Maoist China were shams rather than successful socialist models, they had only one option left: violence. Since that time, socialism has been operating underground as it marched through American institutions.

3. Countercultural and Generational Conflict
The level of dissatisfaction among young people is greater this time. Gen Z has seen important years taken away from them by the COVID-19 pandemic. They have lived most of their lives with their country in a tribal state. Their psychological well-being has been disrupted by social media, which employs propaganda to influence them.

Universities have become propaganda machines that preach left ideology. Student debt is high, and certain career paths have limited job opportunities available. There is increased interest in socialism these days, as students are being force-fed the failures of capitalism. They embrace socialism because it sounds good and they don’t know any better.

4. General Atmosphere
Today, the American political environment is again turbulent. Tribalism, which didn’t exist in the 1960s, controls practical politics in the United States. The battle lines are drawn between conservatives and the radical left, which has hijacked the Democratic Party.

After World War II, socialism was attacked by most Americans because it was associated with the ideology of the Soviet Union, which had become our enemy. Today, there is no country-wide opposition to the left; only the conservatives and some independents stand against it.

Tribalism will continue to dominate American politics until the left moves more towards the center. Independents and conservatives are not willing to tolerate their current narrative and will keep fighting against it, for as long as it takes. Democrats will have to live with isolation until they can learn to appeal to a broader segment of the American electorate.

Having lived through the 1960s, I can say that the feeling now is similar, with a couple of exceptions. Today’s tribal rhetoric is ubiquitous and unnerving, and the prevalence of in-your-face media, via the internet and cable TV, exacerbates the current conflict, making it seem worse than it really is. Despite this painful reality, I have no doubt that we will persevere through the 2020s, like we did in the 1960s.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.