70.11

“The Nonviolent Norman Mailer.” Article-interview by Myra MacPherson. Washington Post, 8 May, Sec. B, pp. 1, 2. Recounts Mailer’s final hours in prison serving a 30-day sentence (25 days suspended) for crossing a police line at the 22 October 1967 demonstration at the Pentagon, and a conversation in the offices of his lawyer, Phil Hirschkop. Mailer counsels the anti-war movement to be nonviolent, because “to be violent is to strengthen Nixon’s hand.” He characterizes Nixon’s fears of losing the war as “the babblings of a Chekovian character.” See 68.8, 70.8–70.10.