A Year For The Record Books
1971 was an especially turbulent time for America, roiled by cultural and political ferment. A look back:
JAN. 25: Charles Manson is found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
JAN. 31-FEB. 2: John Kerry attends "Winter Soldier" hearings in Detroit, where antiwar vets testify about committing atrocities in Vietnam.
FEBRUARY: U.S.-backed South Vietnamese invade Laos. George H. W. Bush is sworn in as U.N. ambassador.
FEB. 18: At a Vietnam Veterans Against the War meeting, Kerry seeks to bridge the gap between moderates and radicals.
MARCH: Carole King releases Tapestry, one of the decade's most successful albums.
MARCH 10: The 26th Amendment lowers the voting age to 18.
MARCH 29: Lt. William Calley is found guilty of 22 murders in the My Lai massacre; he is later pardoned.
WINTER/SPRING: George W. Bush's application is rejected by the University of Texas Law School. He begins a job as a trainee at Stratford of Texas, an agriculture conglomerate led by a former business associate of his father.
APRIL 18: Kerry appears on Meet the Press with fellow VVAW member Al Hubbard.
APRIL 19: A VVAW-led demonstration in Washington, D.C., begins.
APRIL 22: Kerry tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that U.S. soldiers in Vietnam "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals, and turned up the power . . . "
APRIL 23: Kerry and other vets throw medals and ribbons over a fence at the Capitol.
MAY 3-6: Some 13,000 antiwar demonstrators are arrested in Washington, D.C.
MAY 25: Kerry is profiled by Morley Safer on 60 Minutes.
MAY 26: A Texas Air National Guard evaluation says Bush "has outstanding growth potential and should be promoted well ahead of his contemporaries."
JUNE 4-6: VVAW holds a national meeting in St. Louis, where Kerry is seen as a polarizing figure, praised by moderates but derided by radicals.
JUNE 13: The New York Times publishes the first installment of the Pentagon Papers.
JUNE 15: In a memo to a White House aide, Nixon adviser Charles Colson says, "I think we have Kerry on the run. . . . Let's destroy this young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader."
JUNE 30: John O'Neill, a young prowar vet, debates Kerry on The Dick Cavett Show.
JULY 3: Doors singer Jim Morrison dies of a suspected drug overdose.
SEPTEMBER: The British band T. Rex releases Electric Warrior, featuring "Bang a Gong (Get It On)."
SEPTEMBER 9-13: An uprising at New York's Attica Correctional Facility leaves 43 dead.
OCTOBER: The Houston Post reports Bush is considering a state legislative race.
OCT. 1: Disney World opens in Orlando.
NOVEMBER: At a VVAW meeting, radical vets propose assassinating prowar senators. According to the FBI and former VVAW members, Kerry resigned from the VVAW steering committee at the meeting; Kerry doesn't remember attending.
NOV. 14: Kerry debates William F. Buckley on Firing Line.
WINTER: George W. Bush leaves Stratford of Texas.
DEC. 19: Stanley Kubrick releases the X-rated A Clockwork Orange.
CHRISTMAS: Kerry tells his then wife, Julia, that he's launching a congressional bid in Massachusetts.
1972
MAY 24: Bush requests permission to transfer to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, in order to serve as a political strategist on the Senate campaign of Winton M. "Red" Blount.
JUNE 17: Watergate break-in.
AUG. 21-23: Bush joins his father at the Republican National Convention in Miami.
SEPT. 5: National Guard suspends Bush from flying because he failed to complete an annual medical examination.
SEPT. 15: Bush's transfer to Alabama's 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group is approved.
NOV. 7: Kerry loses his congressional bid in the Massachusetts Fifth District to Republican Paul Cronin, a former state representative. In Alabama, Blount loses in a landslide.
This story appears in the May 3, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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