Charlie Manson and the War in Vietnam

Manson was important because of the Vietnam War. Few talk about this this now, but some in the anti-War Left lionized him as a hero. The idea was, marching against the War and The Establishment etc wasn't enough. You had to go into their mansions and kill the piggies. People actually believed this. If it wasn't for Nam, he'd have just been another criminal gang leader. I've seen a lot of talk about Manson since he died, and no one mentions the Vietnam War. He was the domestic version of fragging your superior officer.

This is a controversial subject because it's been airbrushed out of history. The Left doesn't want this aspect of Manson to be remembered, so he's portrayed today as just another grisly serial killer. But that's far from the way it was. Manson had admirers and supporters on the Left. Because the Left would rather this not be remembered, it's mostly writers on the Right that have written about this.

Here's some examples:

The Los Angeles-based Tuesday’s Child (an underground newspaper) proclaimed, “Manson: Man of the Year” on one cover and depicted Manson as Jesus Christ dying on the cross... on another. Yeah, I know this is Breitbart, but the newspaper really did exist.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2017/11/19/charles-manson-a-villain-in-death-served-as-a-counterculture-hero-in-1969/

Here's an article by another rightie, Ben Shapiro. Rather than looking at what Shapiro says in the article, people dismiss it because it's Ben Shapiro.
The universal hatred of Manson is revisionist history. There was a small but significant element of the radical left — people who are now praised in academia and on the political left — who praised Manson fulsomely. Among them: Bernardine Dohrn, of the Weather Underground. After the Manson family slaughtered fully pregnant Sharon Tate, Dohrn reveled, “Dig it, first they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach. Wild!”
http://www.dailywire.com/news/23800/now-mansons-dead-dont-forget-radical-leftists-who-ben-shapiro#

This is an interesting exhibit. It is a picture of an actual "Free Manson" button issued by an underground newspaper. It says that only 20 were sold, but they might have said this in order to make it sound rare and valuable. I think it's more likely that there were a lot of these.
https://www.beatbooks.com/pages/books/34874/free-charles-manson/?soldItem=true

Here's an article in the National Review. This is the best one that I've found tying the politics of the time to Manson.
Manson’s death, like his life, was wrapped up in the radical politics of the 1960s.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453925/charles-manson-1960s-radicals-loved-him

You didn't have to be far-left to have an opinion on Manson. There were points along the spectrum.

There were those that thought Manson was framed, because he didn't commit the murders himself. This is an interesting aspect of the trial. Let's suppose I tell you to go rob a bank and bring me the money. If you do, should I be put in jail? If you think so, please transfer all your Steem to Roomerkind right now. Don't finish reading this post. Go into your Steem wallet and transfer all your Steem to Roomerkind. Thanks!

Nixon declared Manson guilty during the trial, so there were people who thought this tainted the trial. It's kinda hard to have a fair trial if the president comes out and declares you guilty, wouldn't you say?

There were people who thought that the Bugliosi theory (Helter Skelter, Manson wanted to precipitate a race war, etc) was preposterous. Truman Capote was one.

There was the John Lennon view of Charlie Manson: "I just think a lot of the things he says are true"

The problem with Lennon's statement that Manson was just another barmy fan reading stuff into Beatles songs that wasn't there is that you don't have to have much of an imagination to figure out what The Beatles song "Piggies" is about. The Beatles refused to allow Vincent Bugliosi (prosecutor in the Manson trial), to include the lyrics of Piggies in his book "Helter Skelter". But here's the song on Youtube. Listen to it yourself! Who are the Piggies that need a "damn good whacking"?

In their sties with all their backing
They don't care what goes on around
In their eyes there's something lacking
What they need's a damn good whacking

There was the view held by Family members (and no one knew how many there were, but one thing was certain- many and even most weren't jailed) that Charlie was Jesus. How many were not jailed and what would they do? Well Squeaky went on to attempt to assassinate Gerald Ford. She's now out on parole.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/05/squeaky.fromme.release/

There are STILL people that think Charlie was cool.

Later on, extreme environmentalists took up his cause - ATWA (Air Trees Water Animals). Amazingly, ATWA is now a bona-fide 501(c)3 non-profit. As someone who has tried to get non-profit status for an organization (unsuccessfully), this isn't easy at all. You have to have a lot of help.

We should try to view Charlie Manson in the context of the times. The Kent State shootings were in May 1970. Manson was arrested in July 1970. The rage against the Vietnam War had turned into a civil war. American deaths in Vietnam peaked in 1968 with 16,899 dead. In '67 there were 11,363 deaths, and in '69 there were 11,780 deaths. Manson's arrest was just after the PEAK of American war deaths in 'Nam, which continued for another few years. I'm not saying Charles Manson was a good guy, but let's not erase the politics of the times. There was more to him than just another serial killer.

Images: Charles Manson mugshots. Mugshots are Public Domain.