Little was the "hobo agitator", fighting for freedom of speech and catching trains to flashpoints in Washington, California, New Mexico, anywhere where he could stir things up.
One popular tourist attraction is the Troubles Tour, in which ex-combatant cabdrivers guide visitors to flashpoints from the bad years, decoding the ubiquitous murals that conjure famous battles, martyrs, and gunmen.
Mr Allawi wants to deploy most of them on Iraq's porous borders but is also setting up a "special task force" division, 10,000-strong, that could be sent to flashpoints such as Najaf, to keep Americans out of the fray.But Mr Allawi and the new interior minister, Samir Sumaidy, are struggling with the divided loyalties of many Iraqis, especially those serving in the revamped army and police.
South Africa's army was deployed to flashpoints on Monday to prevent further violence.
Unlike the last uprising, triggered by a visit by Israel's then opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, to the flashpoint Jerusalem religious site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews as the Temple Mount, recent violence has remained largely sporadic, characterised not by suicide bombings but by "lone wolf" attacks.
If the visitors hoped to force a flashpoint to give them hope they were disappointed.
And, despite the efforts of Löw, the Germany manager, or Didier Deschamps, his France counterpart, to consign the flashpoint to history, there is little doubt that it has framed the meeting at the Maracanã.
The trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said he hoped to run Flashpoint in the Florida Derby and then perhaps the Kentucky Derby.
But the swift intervention of team-mates who were close to the flashpoint stopped things from escalating.
The history of golf is recorded wherever you walk, each step tied to a flashpoint in history: The par-5 15th hole, where Gene Sarazen hit "the shot heard 'round the world" to win the 1935 Masters.
