Protests against the Vietnam War

Citation: C N Trueman "Protests Against The Vietnam War"

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Protests against the Vietnam War did not start when America declared her open involvement in the war in 1964.
America rallied to the call of the commander-in-chief and after the Gulf of Tonkinincident it became very
apparent that few would raise protests against the decision to militarily support South Vietnam. America had
been through nearly twenty years of the Cold War and they were told by the government that what was
happening in South Vietnam would happen elsewhere (the Domino Theory) unless America used her military
might to stop it. Involvement in the Vietnam War was very much sold as a patriotic venture so few were
prepared to protest. If there was to be a political protest, it never became apparent in Congress where the entire
House voted to support Johnson and only two Senators voted against US involvement.
The first protests came in October 1965 when the draft was increased. In February 1965, it had only been 3,000
a month but in October it was increased to 33,000 a month. Those who had the necessary pull had the
opportunity to draft-dodge but this was not a luxury open to many poor working class young men. Tearing
up or burning your draft paper became a common occurrence and was seen to be the first of the protests against
the Vietnam War. The most famous person to do this was the world heavyweight-boxing champion Muhammad
Ali. He was punished by having his boxing title taken away from him. However, his very public stance brought
a more worldwide dimension to the problem America was experiencing with the draft.
The war had been sold to the US public as one where a sophisticated and ultra wealthy super-power would have
few problems defeating a Third World nation that North Vietnam seemed to represent. The protests against the
war started to pick up when body bags started to return to America in increasing numbers. The war that had
been sold to the US public as one where victory was guaranteed was in reality taking many young lives. In May
1968, 562 US troops were killed in one week alone. Coupled with these casualty figures were stories that
eventually came out about atrocities committed by US troops against the very people they were meant to be
defending and supporting. The most infamous was the My Lai massacre. This event actually highlighted to the
US public the enormous strain frontline troops were experiencing on a daily basis against a supposedly inferior
enemy. 1968 seems to be the key year for protests. To some, especially the young, America was not only
sacrificing her male youth but the government was also sanctioning the death of children not only in South
Vietnam but also in the North with the blanket bombing raids that were occurring on almost a daily basis. One
cry of the protesters particularly hurt President Johnson:
Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?
However, it would be wrong to assume that everyone protested against the American involvement in South
Vietnam. While there were those who were vociferous in their condemnation of US policy in South Vietnam, a
Gallup poll held in 1968 showed that 46% of Americans approved of Johnsons handling of the war while 50%
believed that it was essential to combat the expansion of communism in Southeast Asia.
International coverage of the protests showed that as the years moved on the protests got larger and more vocal.
In March 1966, 50,000 anti-war protesters took part in a rally in one of Americas most famous cities New
York. With a population that ran into millions, it could be argued that they represented a very small minority of
the city. In 1967, 100,000 took part in a protest rally in Washington DC. In 1971, 300,000 took part in an antiwar demonstration in the same city. This particular protest involved many veterans from the war. When they

publicly threw away their medals and medal ribbons, many in America were shocked that those who had worn
the uniform of the US military had come to think that the only way ahead was to discard the very things that had
been issued to them to represent their bravery their medals. Many veterans used the opportunity to throw their
medals on the steps of the Capitol building.
Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?
However, it would be wrong to assume that everyone protested against the American involvement in South
Vietnam. While there were those who were vociferous in their condemnation of US policy in South Vietnam, a
Gallup poll held in 1968 showed that 46% of Americans approved of Johnsons handling of the war while 50%
believed that it was essential to combat the expansion of communism in Southeast Asia.
The late Sixties and early Seventies were a curious mixture of cultures and this clearly came across in America
at a time when the Vietnam War was at its height. The hippy movement preached love not war. Many young
men and women claimed that they wanted to drop out of society. All of this clashed with any concept that
involved doing the right thing for your nation. The worlds media also played into this. US television could
bring into the homes of all US citizens what the war was actually like. The Vietnam War was the first to actually
receive such broadcasts and they clearly had a marked influence on the American population as a whole. It is
said that two images in particular did a great deal to turn US opinion with regards to was in Vietnam. The first
was film of children running away from their village having been burned by napalm and the second was the
summary execution of a Vietcong suspect by a South Vietnamese police chief on the streets of Saigon in 1968.
These images were published internationally and could do nothing to help the US governments cause,
especially when it became known that the napalm attack was a mistake against the wrong village. It seemed to
the protesters to summarise exactly why America should not be in South Vietnam. If the result of any protest
was to undermine what the American government was seeking to achieve it was the one that took place at Kent
State University, Ohio, in 1970.

The Anti-War Movement in the United States

by Tom Wells

Though the first American protests against U.S. intervention in Vietnam took place in 1963, the antiwar
movement did not begin in earnest until nearly two years later, when President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered
massive U.S. military intervention and the sustained bombing of North Vietnam. In the spring of 1965, "teachins" against the war were held on many college campuses. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized
the first national antiwar demonstration in Washington; 20,000 people, mainly students, attended.
As the war expandedover 400,000 U.S. troops would be in Vietnam by 1967so did the antiwar movement,
attracting growing support off the campuses. The movement was less a unified army than a rich mix of political
notions and visions. The tactics used were diverse: legal demonstrations, grassroots organizing, congressional
lobbying, electoral challenges, civil disobedience, draft resistance, self-immolations, political violence. Some
peace activists traveled to North Vietnam. Quakers and others provided medical aid to Vietnamese civilian
victims of the war. Some G.I.s protested the war.
In March 1967, a national organization of draft resisters was formed; the Resistance would subsequently hold
several national draft card turn-ins. In April 1967, more than 300,000 people demonstrated against the war in
New York. Six months later, 50,000 surrounded the Pentagon, sparking nearly 700 arrests. By now, senior
Johnson administration officials typically encountered demonstrators when speaking in public, forcing them to
restrict their outside appearances. Many also had sons, daughters, or wives who opposed the war, fueling the
sense of besiegement. Prominent participants in the antiwar movement included Dr. Benjamin Spock, Robert
Lowell, Harry Belafonte, and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Encouraged by the movement, Senator Eugene
McCarthy announced in late 1967 that he was challenging Johnson in the 1968 Democratic primaries; his later
strong showing in New Hampshire was seen as a major defeat for Johnson and a repudiation of his war policies.
The Johnson administration took numerous measures to the antiwar movement, most notably undertaking close
surveillance and tarnishing its public image, sending speakers to campuses, and fostering pro-war activity.
Many administration officials felt foreign Communists were aiding and abetting the movement, despite the
failure of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI to uncover such support.
In 1965, a majority of Americans supported U.S. policies in Vietnam; by the fall of 1967, only 35 percent did
so. For the first time, more people thought U.S. intervention in Vietnam had been a mistake than did not. Blacks
and women were the most dovish social groups. Later research found that antiwar sentiment was inversely
correlated with people's socioeconomic level. Many Americans also disliked antiwar protesters, and the
movement was frequently denounced by media commentators, legislators, and other public figures.
By 1968, faced with widespread public opposition to the war and troubling prospects in Vietnam, the Johnson
administration halted the bombing of North Vietnam and stabilized the ground war. This policy reversal was the
major turning point. U.S. troop strength in Vietnam would crest at 543,000.
The antiwar movement reached its zenith under President Richard M. .Nixon. In October 1969, more than 2
million people participated in Vietnam Moratorium protests across the country. The following month, over
500,000 demonstrated in Washington and 150,000 in San Francisco. Militant protest, mainly youthful,
continued to spread, leading many Americans to wonder whether the war was worth a split society. And other
forms of antiwar activity persisted. The Nixon administration took a host of measures to blunt the movement,

mainly mobilizing supporters, smearing the movement, tracking it, withdrawing U.S. troops from Vietnam,
instituting a draft lottery, and eventually ending draft calls.
Two long-standing problems continued to plague the antiwar movement. Many participants questioned its
effectiveness, spawning dropouts, hindering the organization of protests and the maintenance of antiwar groups,
and aggravating dissension over strategies and tactics. And infighting continued to sap energy, alienate activists,
and hamper antiwar planning. The strife was fanned by the U.S. government, but it was largely internally
generated.
In the spring of 1970, President Nixon's invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings (followed by those
at Jackson State) sparked the greatest display of campus protest in U.S. history. A national student strike
completely shut down over 500 colleges and universities. Other Americans protested in cities across the
country; many lobbied White House officials and members of Congress. Over 100,000 demonstrated in
Washington, despite only a week's prior notice. Senators John Sherman Cooper and Frank Church sponsored
legislation (later passed) prohibiting funding of U.S. ground forces and advisers in Cambodia. Many labor
leaders spoke out for the first time, and blue-collar workers joined antiwar activities in unprecedented numbers.
However, construction workers in New York assaulted a group of peaceful student demonstrators, and (with
White House assistance) some union leaders organized pro-administration rallies.
Despite worsening internal divisions and a flagging movement, 500,000 people demonstrated against the war in
Washington in April 1971. Vietnam Veterans Against the War also staged protests, and other demonstrators
engaged in mass civil disobedience, prompting 12,000 arrests. The former Pentagon aide Daniel Ellsberg leaked
the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times. Meanwhile, the morale and discipline of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam
was deteriorating seriously: drug abuse was rampant, combat refusals and racial strife were mounting, and some
soldiers were even murdering their own officers.
With U.S. troops coming home, the antiwar movement gradually declined between 1971 and 1975. The many
remaining activists protested continued U.S. bombing, the plight of South Vietnamese political prisoners, and
U.S. funding of the war.
The American movement against the Vietnam War was the most successful antiwar movement in U.S. history.
During the Johnson administration, it played a significant role in constraining the war and was a major factor in
the administration's policy reversal in 1968. During the Nixon years, it hastened U.S. troop withdrawals,
continued to restrain the war, fed the deterioration in U.S. troop morale and discipline (which provided
additional impetus to U.S. troop withdrawals), and promoted congressional legislation that severed U.S. funds
for the war. The movement also fostered aspects of the Watergate scandal, which ultimately played a significant
role in ending the war by undermining Nixon's authority in Congress and thus his ability to continue the war. It
gave rise to the infamous "Huston Plan"; inspired Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers led to
the formation of the Plumbers; and fed the Nixon administration's paranoia about its political enemies, which
played a major part in concocting the Watergate break-in itself.
from The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Copyright 1999 by Oxford UP.