As we gather this week to witness the inauguration of our new president, we find our nation in a state of great political unrest. While certain recent events of violence at the Capitol are no doubt unprecedented, it is certainly not the first time an inauguration in our country has been met with divide.
In 1973, the United States was reaching the concluding stages of our involvement in the Vietnam. And while the war would soon come to an end, the proceeding weeks leading up to the inauguration were met with some of the most intense and deadly bombing campaigns the war had witnessed. The anti-war movement was unhinged. They had marched, they had protest - all to seemingly no avail when it came to changing the foreign policies of Richard Nixon.
So what to do next.... American conductor, Leonard Bernstein, gathered an impromptu orchestra and choir to perform a "Concert for Peace", following his belief that by creating beauty, and by sharing it with as many people as possible, artists had the power to tip the earthly balance in favor of brotherhood and peace.
Special thanks to Michael Chikinda, Alicia Kopfstein, Matt Holsen, and Bernie Swain for sharing their insight and memories of the musical events surrounding Nixon and his second inauguration in 1973.
A Plea for Peace: Leonard Bernstein, Richard Nixon, and the Music of the 1973 Inauguration
ARCHIVAL: Not everybody is here this weekend to celebrate. Thousands of demonstrators are expected. They've spent weeks organizing and are here to protest the war. "This is one anti-war demonstration that Mr. Nixon is not going to avoid. Past demonstrations he has fled town, nobody sees him now. He's never explained to the nation why he ordered these saturation bombing rates on Hanoi and Haiphong, but this is one time he's going to have to be present. We know he's not going to be out of town and we want to be there at the same time."
Alicia Kopfstein (AK): The number of people who were in DC, it was thousands upon thousands. 18,000 were at the cathedral alone. To have the cathedral so full like that... full to the gills. There was no room. It was just overwhelming, to try to find a place to park, of course, but to be with so many like-minded people. Contrasting with so many protests now where there's violence, it was so peaceful. There was such an attitude of goodwill and camaraderie and companionship. That was just incredible. I'm Dr. Alicia Kopfstein, I teach at American University and I'm a contributor and co-editor of a recent collection of essays called Leonard Bernstein and Washington DC. I was a singer in Leonard Bernstein's "Concert for Peace" that happened at the Washington National Cathedral in January of 1973.
ARCHIVAL: Introduction to the three official inaugural concerts tonight. There's a fourth unofficial one. Leonard Bernstein is conducting what is called a "Concert for Peace" at the Washington Cathedral. Admission is free, arrangements have been made to pipe the program outside. It is thought that 10,000 persons might show up, many of them anti-war protesters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ku9HUWZDas
AK: There was hope, there was desire for peace, there was love, but there's also a resignation, a fear because people had done their utmost to try to protest the war and it didn't seem to change anything. Years and years and years of protest still led to the Christmas bombing. So it was just, we're getting desperate. Let's do everything we possibly can.
The Vietnam War went from 1959 to 1975. When Nixon was elected the second time, it was shortly after some more horrors in the Vietnam war. We had Kent State and the Pentagon papers, the My Lai massacres. Films and photographs were available in Time and Look and all the major magazines and newspapers showing women and children and young people just lying d...
