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The Ultimate Confrontation

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The iconic image of Kasmir, October 21, 1967

The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet is a photograph of Jan Rose Kasmir (born in 1950), at that time an American high-school student. This iconic photograph was taken by French photographer Marc Riboud.[1] Riboud photographed Kasmir on 21 October 1967 while taking part with over 100,000 anti-war activists in the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam's March on the Pentagon to protest U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Seventeen-year-old Kasmir was shown clasping a chrysanthemum and gazing at bayonet-wielding soldiers. The photo was featured in the December 30, 1969 special edition of Look magazine under the title The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet.[2] The photo was republished world-wide and became a symbol of the flower power movement. Smithsonian magazine later called it "a gauzy juxtaposition of armed force and flower child innocence".[3]

Kasmir graduated in 1986 from the New York College of Health Professions in Manhasset, New York as a massage therapist, and worked in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina until 1991. She then moved to Aarhus, Denmark, with her Danish husband and their daughter.[3] She returned with her daughter to the United States in 2002, and resumed living on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.[4]

In February 2003, Riboud again photographed Kasmir protesting against the Iraq War where she carried a poster-size copy of the 1967 photograph.[3]

In 2010, Kasmir was invited by the Spanish organization Avalon Project Peace NGO to speak during activities for International Peace Day in Seville, Spain.[4][5]

In January 2017, she joined the Women's March in Washington, D.C.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Riboud, Marc. "USA. Washington DC. 1967. An American young girl, Jan Rose." Magnum Photos. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  2. ^ Jan Rose Kasmir. "The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet". www.sixtiessurvivors.com. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c Curry, Andrew (April 2004). "Flower Child". Smithsonian. Vol. 35, no. 1. p. 27. Archived from the original on 2013-03-24. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
  4. ^ a b Paprocki, Justin (October 23, 2010). "Activist celebrates peace day in Spain". The Island Packet. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  5. ^ "Jan Rose Kasmir Peace Now 2010, Paz Ahora". Retrieved 2022-12-06.
  6. ^ Zorthian, Julia (January 21, 2017). "The Subject of an Iconic Protest Photo Returns for the Women's March". TIME. Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
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