They don't appear to be policemen, not really. They carry themselves sort of like policemen and they are wearing uniforms.

But their uniforms are plain black and there's a shield on their caps but it's a generic shield. If you squint, it kind of seems like a police thing, but it's not. They're not cops.

One reason you can be sure they're not cops is that when the real cops show up, the real cops kind of freak out.

It's December 1st, 1954, and no one is supposed to be holding loaded revolvers at the doors of the

United States Capitol. But these men are and they are

are there acting on behalf of a new group that is mobilizing and now for some reason brandishing weapons

in defense of their political hero.

One of the most controversial figures ever to appear on this nation's political stage.

These men at the Capitol have unholstered their guns, they're holding them at their sides, as heavy cardboard boxes are loaded out of an armored truck.

The presence of an unexpected, uninvited armored truck at the doors of the US Senate, the presence of these men

with their weapons drawn, it creates some alarm on the Senate floor. Especially when senators learn that one of the armed

men has actually come inside, has entered the Capitol. The Sergeant at Arms is

called to investigate and the Washington Police.

It's a very deliberately choreographed moment.

That's author and historian David Austin Walsh.

It was an attempt to show political strength.

The boxes that are being unloaded from the truck are full of petitions. A new group that didn't even exist a month earlier has hastily

gathered these petitions from all over the country, and now their leader, a controversial

right-wing retired Navy Admiral has ordered a handful of these

guards for the truck to draw their weapons as the petitions are hand delivered

into the Senate.

They were trying to sell this as almost a Hollywood moment,

...