Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

[Peregrine]

1974. Gerald Ford was the President of the United States. The US had “redeployed” from Vietnam the year before, and South Vietnam would fall to the North in April of the year after. The Energy Crisis (and its attendant high fuel costs, made worse by government price controls) was in full swing, as was the 55-mph nationwide speed limit which was promoted as a solution to the Crisis. While this was bad for the suburban commuter, it was nearly deadly for the trucking industry, at the time still predominantly comprised of independent owner-operators, many of the veterans of the recently-abandoned Southeast Asian conflict. Add to this increasingly onerous regulations about driving hours, vehicle weight limits (and weigh ins to enforce them, with waiting lines at the scales), toll roads on key routes… it seemed as if the entire apparatus of government was turning against those who had so recently served their country and were now providing a much needed transportation service.

 

It was the dark of the moon, on the 6th of June

In a Kenworth pulling logs…

 

It started simply enough, as such things often do. A trio of long-haul truckers, east of LA, ran into a California Highway Patrol speed trap while trying to make time overnight. In frustration, the driver of the lead truck of the group, whose radio handle was “Rubber Duck”, announced to his traveling companions that instead of stopping for the authorities he was going to make a run for it. They agreed to do so as well, and thus was born what history simply calls… the Convoy.

 

By the time we got into Tulsa-town

We had 85 trucks in all…

 

As the trucks rolled eastward, the tale of their simple act of civil disobedience spread through the Citizens’ Band airwaves. More trucks joined them, drawn by a shared frustration with the challenges they all faced and by the romance of ‘sticking it to the man’. An attempted roadblock in Tulsa, OK was overwhelmed by the oncoming big rigs, and the word went out to law enforcement across the heart of the nation…

 

By the time we hit that Chi-town

Them bears was a-gettin’ smart…

 

Chicago was intended to be the End of the Line for the ‘Mighty Convoy’. The Illinois governor had called out the National Guard, and armored vehicles reinforced the state and local police. Yet the Convoy had grown to over 1000 trucks and a few hangers-on (foreshadowing what was to come), and the National Guardsmen, most of them also veterans of Vietnam, refused to fire on those whom they learned were their former brethren-at-war…

 

We laid a strip for the Jersey shore

Prepared to cross the line…

 

 

Despite the outcome in Chicago, law enforcement refused to knuckle under to the rebellious truckers and their ‘riff-raff’ allies. One more attempt was made to stop the Convoy, this time at the New Jersey state border. Again, the momentum of the mass of vehicles in the Convoy was too great to bear, and they rolled into New Jersey unimpeded…

 

We’ll catch you on the flip-flop;

This here’s Rubber Duck on the side.

We gone, bye-bye…

 

Even though the man who started it all left the group to make his delivery (and collect his pay), the Convoy had taken on a life of its own. The Convoy had also grown beyond its original long-haul truckers component – other travelers had joined in, whether for short or long distances, using channel 19 on the Citizens’ Band to coordinate themselves. By this time, the Convoy also included a growing number of bikers – another group heavily populated by Vietnam veterans, and one less socially welcome than the truckers – and more openly rebellious. The Convoy turned south, and appeared to be headed for Washington, D.C. Historical memory of the post-WWI Bonus March came to mind, and the example of Chicago, and the failure of the National Guard to stop the Convoy, caused a near-panic in the nation’s Capital.

 

Their fears were well-founded. The frustration of the members of the Convoy at a nation and society that had spurned them, spit on them, and tried to ignore their service and sacrifice came to a head. Only once in the history of the United States had a hostile force entered the capital – before now. This force was no foreign invader, it was a domestic force of the government’s own indirect creation – all of its policies, foreign and domestic, coming home to root, bringing to the politicians the one thing that they fear the most: accountability.

 

The Sack of Washington lasted until the nation’s 198th birthday. On July 4th, 1974, the last President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford, addressed the U.S. Congress. He was in Camp David, Maryland; the Congress was in their meeting chambers while the howling mob raged outside. President Ford admitted that not only could the U.S. government not regain control of the capital, but that the sympathetic riots that had sprung up all over the nation in the past few weeks showed that the rest of the nation was out of control as well. The governors of the various states had already prevailed upon him, and he called upon Congress to formally dissolve the Government of the United States, in order to “allow the several states to reform a government under the Constitution” after the “current crisis” burned itself out. The measure passed with a bare supermajority of both Houses.

[McCoy]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

 

You are aware that "C. W. McCall" made ths up and this is as historically accurate as Smokey and the Bandit? While a lot of truckers did convoy in early '74, it was mostly non-union members watching each other's backs during a Teamster's strike. (IIRC, their fears fortunately turned out to be exaggerated, and no violent incidents related to the strike were reported.

 

 

 

Ah, alternate reality history. I get it now.

 

[Emily Latella] Never mind! [/Emily Latella]

 

[Teflon Billy]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

What did we have then, a battle hardened Army of 20 active duty combat divisions? 20+ more divisions in the Reserves and National Guard?

 

Heh, I could envision a massacre of these Paragons of Pollution that'd make ELF wet themselves in orgasmic glee and MacArthur give top marks in skull cracking.

 

I always hated truckers anyways for ending the preeminence of rail for moving freight. Down with wheels, up with tracks!

 

TB

[Peregrine]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

Oh, the outcome after New Jersey is stretching plausibility, I'm well aware. The only possibility is the Army and National Guard refusing orders to fire until it was too late; it is barely conceivable that orders to fire on Americans (and fellow Vietnam vets, to boot) would have been refused, allowing the Sack of Washington and sympathetic rioting elsewhere.

 

My thoughts on what happened after the U.S. Government was dissolved run toward the balkanization of North America along the lines of Garreau's Nine Nations Theory. As that was initially published in 1980, it is a relevant view of the social fracture lines of the times; the instability of the dissolution of the U.S. govt. would have had to have toppled Canada's govt. as well in order to see the Nine Nations take form as Garreau outlined, perhaps by inspiring the Qubecois separatists. Incorporation of northern Mexico into a nation with the SW US could have been the result of an attempted Reconquista, success or failure thereof being at the individual GMs pleasure.

 

I found the original song to be ... inspirational. Even given the implausibility of my endgame scenario, the potential for the disaffected 'gypsy' groups (truckers and bikers) to unite and create an incident reminiscent of the Bonus March (and even the Whiskey Rebellion) is compelling from an alt.history perspective. With a little more work, I could come up with something less 'abrupt', but still alt.worthy.

[McCoy]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

The only possibility is the Army and National Guard refusing orders to fire until it was too late; it is barely conceivable that orders to fire on Americans (and fellow Vietnam vets' date=' to boot) would have been refused, [/quote']

Just like they were at Kent State?

[Teflon Billy]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

Just like they were at Kent State?

I think the Bonus Army, would have been a better and more apropos example. Kent State has little if anything of value with regards to judging military action in this scenerio.

 

TB

[McCoy]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

I think the Bonus Army, would have been a better and more apropos example. Kent State has little if anything of value with regards to judging military action.

 

TB

Only tiime since the War Between the States that the American military fired on American civilians.

[Peregrine]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

True, but the element of active/NG military firing on ex-military was not present at Kent State. And the fact that Kent State was (relatively) recent to this timeframe might have produced extra caution in this situation.

[zornwil]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

I think this is really neat, thanks. I've used some "Convoy" samples for shows so I guess I find it especially of interest.

[Yansuf]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

Only tiime since the War Between the States that the American military fired on American civilians.

 

Are you serious?

 

The NG has been called out by state governers dozens if not hundreds of times to deal with civil disorder, and shots were fired many times.

This isn't counting the use of state militia by governors in strikes, etc. before the national guard was formed.

[Yansuf]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

What did we have then, a battle hardened Army of 20 active duty combat divisions? 20+ more divisions in the Reserves and National Guard?

 

Heh, I could envision a massacre of these Paragons of Pollution that'd make ELF wet themselves in orgasmic glee and MacArthur give top marks in skull cracking.

 

I always hated truckers anyways for ending the preeminence of rail for moving freight. Down with wheels, up with tracks!

 

TB

 

For the record, I was regular army, in the DC area, at that time. I remember watergate, and betting pools on what units would do what if Nixon tried to close down congress.

Anyone who thinks that the US Military would not shoot at rioters under the circumstances discribed is very sadly mistaken.

[zornwil]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

Let's try to keep it to "Other Genres' and not turn it into a political debate on real world politics (I had to go back and check if we were not in NGD, just so I'm not speaking out of turn!). No problems with any posters at this point, just want to point it out before it gets there. That being said, I respect it's a thin line between political commentary and reasonable opinions on the versimillitude of an alternate history. But, still, let's focus on the fictional that supports the story rather than the nonfictional. Make sense? I'm not trying to stifle discussion, but we know that for a generation Kent State and such issues are genuine hot buttons, so let's be careful. Feel free to PM me as well.

[zornwil]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

(PS - though I must say, the whole spectre of what might have happened, just within an RPG scenario alone, had there been an actual order from the executive branch of the civilian government to support it against another branch of the civilian government is...fascinating...best to state such issues as givens/assumptions rather than attempt to debate what coulda/woulda, I think, if people want to explore that, and not debate the assumptions themselves as much as possible)

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Convoy: The Great Trucker Rebellion (long)

 

I just might have to use that idea for a game in the future.....I love that when I lest expect it, I find stuff to add to my gaming idea's.

 

Repped