American Lives

Pope John Paul II visited Washington, DC, in October 1979, attracting enormous crowds. Only once before had a pope visited the United States, that being Pope Paul VI in 1965. The John Paul II trip came just a year after he became pope. Karol Józef Cardinal Wojtyła, archbishop of Crakow in Poland, was the first Polish pope and first non-Italian pope in four hundred years.

As pope he traveled extensively during his papacy, which lasted until his death in 2005 and which was one of the longest in history. During his visit to the USA as the third trip of his papacy, he also visited New York where he addressed the United Nations general assembly. He was a revered and popular pontiff and was canonized in 2014.

Pope John Paul II was widely photographed during his motorcade through Washington, DC. In the first photo in this sequence he was traveling along 15th Street, across the Mall. While in Washington he stayed at the papal nunciature (embassy) and made several trips to different locations such as St Matthew's Cathedral and the 'National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception'.

In this photo workers are constructing an altar on the Mall which is decorated in yellow and white flowers, in preparation for the pope to celebrate mass. Just to the left of the stage the Smithsonian 'castle' is visible. This was the original building for an institution which now has expanded to many buildings, mostly around the Mall. Some 275,000 attended the mass.

An anti-Vietnam War demonstration was held by an organization called the 'Vietnam Veterans Against the War', in Washington, DC, on 4 July 1974. The war would finally end in 1975, after many years of fighting and some of the most vigorous protests the United States had ever seen.

Officially American participation in Vietnam is considered to have begun in 1959, when President Eisenhower sent military advisors to South Vietnam (now the southern part of a united Vietnam), to combat a communist rebellion which aimed to unite the south with North Vietnam.

The eventual North Vietnamese victory meant the achievement of its aim, but some fifty eight thousand Americans lost their lives in the war.

The United States had in 1973 withdrawn its combat troops but was continuing to provide military and financial assistance to the South Vietnamese government.

Serious protest against the war, especially among college students, began in 1964 and did not relent until the United States was forced to completely evacuate from the country.

College-age students were particularly opposed because they were vulnerable to be drafted into the military to fight in the war. Indeed, sentiment against the military draft, which actually had begun in 1940 in preparation for possible entry into the Second World War, later brought about its end.

Fireworks over the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, on the Fourth of July 1974. That date as the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, is a major holiday in the United States.

Typically in Washington the day is celebrated on the Mall with popular picnicking, performances by famous singers, and a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra, being capped off by a display of fireworks.

For several weeks preceding and following the 'Fourth', the Smithsonian Institution sponsors a Folklife Festival on the Mall which displays arts, crafts, customs, and food from certain states and countries.

President Gerald R Ford speaking at the amphitheater next to the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, on Veterans Day (11 November) 1974.

Ford became the thirty-eighth president of the United States in 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned after the Watergate political scandal (see 'related links', below). Veterans Day originally was called Armistice Day to commemorate the conclusion of the First World War.

Still fresh from the memory of the sacrifice of so many Americans in the Second World War, the US congress in 1954 officially changed the name of the day to honor all veterans of American military service.

President Ford here approaches the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington Cemetery. Presidents and visiting heads of state often visit the tomb to lay a wreath. Presidents particularly like to participate in such wreath-laying ceremonies on Veterans Day and on Memorial Day (the Monday nearest to 30 May).

All photos taken in the 1970s.