ABSTRACT
Just as the 1989-1990 flag desecration controversy would be touched off by a single flag burning, two decades earlier a similar major flag desecration controversy was also essentially sparked by the burning of one flag. This earlier controversy was completely associated with internal American divisions over the Vietnam War. The Vietnam era flag desecration controversy faded away, along with the war, in the mid-1970s, perhaps as many as 1,000 flag desecration arrests had been made, far exceeding the total of such incidents throughout all previous American history. Clearly, the April 15, 1967 Central Park flag burning simply struck the spark on a flag desecration tinder box that was already on the verge of exploding into a national issue. Aside from the fundamental freedom of speech argument, critics of the flag desecration law also attacked it on less central grounds. Several Congressmen ridiculed the definition of "flag" contained in the proposed legislation.
