Saturday, September 9th 1967.
Footage of a march from London's Hyde Park to the American Embassy in Grovesnor Square by Biafran separatists. The event was billed as a "March of Thanks" to the American government for its apparent stance of neutrality in a conflict in which Federal Nigeria garnered the support of Britain and the Soviet Union.
Source: Reuters News Archive.
Note:
1. The Biafran secessionists hopes of ultimately securing full American backing never came to fruition.
2. President Lyndon Johnson, although disturbed by the images of starvation, confined himself to authorizing humanitarian relief. Johnson is quoted as telling a senior official of the U.S. State Department to "Just get those nigger babies off my TV set.”
3. Hopes were raised the following year when the Republican candidate for the presidency, Richard Nixon, claimed that "genocide" was occurring. In a statement issued in September 1968 entitled “Nixon’s Call for American Action on Biafra,” Nixon demanded that the United States take a leading role in preventing what he described as “the destruction of an entire people"; declaring also that “While America is not the world’s policeman, let us at least act as the world’s conscience in this matter of life and death for millions.” However, once in office, pressing foreign policy issues such as the Vietnam War and the stance of America's British ally in supporting Nigeria meant that Nixon did not spearhead a proactive American government effort aimed at helping Biafra.
