The U.S. Bicentennial - When Americans Rallied Together

In 1976, Americans came together after years of war, civil strife and overall bad times. As we approach our 250th independence anniversary, will we be able to do it again?

In 1976, America celebrated its 200th birthday — two years after Watergate, one year after the fall of Saigon, emerging from a deep economic recession. The loss of 58,220 compatriots killed in the Vietnam War was still raw and the shame of defeat stark. The war and Watergate instilled an enduring mistrust in government. Citizens were reeling from years of rising inflation, civil rights unrest that left American cities smouldering, assassinations of political leaders and anti-war protests and generational anger that had people at each other’s throats. Radical left terrorist groups set off 2500 bombs in one 18-month period in 1971-1972.

By the time the Bicentennial rolled around, Americans were more than ready for stability and the healing of societal wounds. The federal government wisely chose to disperse and support celebrations nationwide — fostering the sense of a grand festivity of the broader American family. At a re-enactment of the “shot heard around the world” skirmish between colonials and British troops at Concord, Massachusetts, President Ford requested attendees “to place the hand of healing over the heart of America.”

Festivities included dazzling fireworks in major cities. “Operation Sail” had an international fleet of tall-masted ships sailing in formation in New York Harbor on Independence Day and in Boston a week later. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip paid a state visit during which they gifted a reproduction of the Liberty Bell, engraved with “For the People of the United States of America from the People of Britain 4 July 1976 LET FREEDOM RING.” Americans again proudly displayed, wore and merchandised Old Glory.

In honoring the Declaration of Independence and the foundations of our freedom, the 1976 Bicentennial activities harkened to a mythologized and nostalgic past when most Americans rallied together around a common cause: the struggle for freedom. The celebrations “provided the opportunity to proclaim a declaration of independence from themselves; or at least from their recent past,” according to one writer.

The Washington Post reported: “It could have been 200 years ago. One marcher, Bob Peloquin, from Springfield, Massachusetts said, ‘This has rejuvenated my faith in America.’ The computer specialist continued: ‘After Vietnam and Watergate, people were afraid to wave the flag. Maybe with the Bicentennial, people can come out of their shell and say, ‘We’ve made some mistakes, but let’s go on from here.”’

Newsweek said that “the high hopes and wishful idealism with which the American nation had been born had not been destroyed, but they had been chastened by the failure of America to work its will in Indochina.”

A popular rock hit at the time, “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who captured the popular spirit:

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again

A change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
’Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

In these poisoned times, when Americans are again divided and at each other’s throats, it would do us good to look back at a similarly troubled period within living memory and remind ourselves, “We’ve been here before and pulled ourselves through it.” Hopefully, by our Semiquincentennial, we’ll do it once more. But if we succeed, can we reassure ourselves this time that we won’t get fooled again?