On April 30, the professional headbusters of the Detroit Police Department turned a love-in into a violent hate-in.
On Sunday, May 22, at a Toledo, Ohio mock war show, several hippies and new leftists tried a reverse procedure. They tried to stage a love-in at the cite where the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and the local military had built a Vietcong village which they planned to destroy as an exercise for Armed Forces Day.
Five Ohioans came to Plum Street and the Artists’ Workshop the day before to pass out invitations to the love-in. Organized support came from a Student for Democratic Society (SDS) chapter in Ann Arbor. However, SDS wanted to defend the village, not love in it.
As the group arrived in Toledo, the show was in progress and was being witnessed by 10,000 spectators.
The loudspeaker announced simulated battle between Vietcong and American troops and began with fighter jets straffing the village, tanks charging into the area and soldiers rushing into battle. A city ordinance prevented the use of napalm in populated (American) cities.
As the crowd whistled Tuli Kupferberg’s “Let the Gook Heads Roll,” seven anti-war protestors entered the arena shouting for an end to the war in Vietnam and in Toledo. The police quickly arrested the seven and later arrested four more demonstrators.
The patriots stopped their whistling long enough to yell “Send them to Vietnam” and “Cut Off their Beards.”
Those arrested included Don Larkin, Jim Russo (busy week for Jim), Mike Meyers, Terry and Myra Daenzer, Ted Steege, Mike Dover, Stan Nadel, Milton Taube, Tina Schrager and Rita Leasure.
The Chamber of Commerce listed the American casualties as light, while the communists suffered 759 killed.
The Chamber denied reports of heavy civilian casualties in the village.