From 1968 to 1974, we were actually on the brink of a civil war.
There were literally thousands of bombings, shootings, assaults, and robberies, at least theoretically in furtherance of trying to start a civil war, and overthrow the government (in actuality a lot of the people had no clue what they were really doing or why... and a large minority of them were just in it for the sex and drugs).
Nixon resigning, ending the draft, and getting out of Viet Nam were the biggest factors in defusing that.
Also most of the people who were deliberately pushing the armed insurrections getting strung out on cocaine and heroin, self absorbed into the me generation sex and drugs and partying culture, arrested and jailed, or killed; was a big part of defusing it.
And finally, the soviets no longer paying for agitators to foment armed revolution, and the FBI stopping their operations paying and instigating agitators to do so; were the last big part of defusing it.
...It sounds insane... Like a conspiracy theory... but it's all true. You can easily confirm it for yourself...
These last few weeks... prelude to a civil war... Ehh... Not so much.
