students Another effect the opposition to the war had was that the American soldiers in Vietnam began to side with the opposition and feel remorse for what they were doing. "[42] Asian American groups realized in order to extinguish racism, they also had to address sexism as well. Students may be suffering from a mix of issues that we explained above. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson began his re-election campaign. The U.S. realized that the South Vietnamese government needed a solid base of popular support if it were to survive the insurgency. Young people from working-class families unable to afford college were more likely to be drafted. Rather, they made pragmatic claims that the war was a mistake. Women's education in the United States - Wikipedia This policy of attempting to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people, however, often was at odds with other aspects of the war which sometimes served to antagonize many Vietnamese civilians and provided ammunition to the anti-war movement. "[99], The first effect the opposition had that led to the end of the war was that fewer soldiers were available for the army. successfully appealed up to the Supreme Court. "[98], An alternative point of view is expressed by Michael Lind. On November 15, crowds of up to half a million people participated in an anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C. and a similar demonstration was held in San Francisco. p. 349. The South Vietnamese government also antagonized many of its citizens with its suppression of political opposition, through such measures as holding large numbers of political prisoners, torturing political opponents, and holding a one-man election for President in 1971. . The student movement arose to demand free speech on college campuses, but as the US involvement in the Vietnam war expanded, the war became the main target of student-led protests. The song known to many as the anthem of the protest movement was The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag first released on an EP in the October 1965 issue of Rag Baby by Country Joe and the Fish,[65] one of the most successful protest bands. [10] Donovan ended his editorial by writing the war was "not worth winning", as South Vietnam was "not absolutely imperative" to maintain American interests in Asia, which made it impossible "to ask young Americans to die for". Still being proactive on their honeymoon, the newlyweds controversially held a sit-in, where they sat in bed for a week answering press questions. They thought education was more important than serving in the military. The prevailing sentiment that the draft was unfairly administered fueled student and blue-collar American opposition to the military draft. Thus, Hendrix's personal views did not coincide perfectly with those of the antiwar protesters; however, his anti-violence outlook was a driving force during the years of the Vietnam War even after his death (1970). Students for a Democratic Society Civil Rights Digital History - UGA "[104] Additionally, "At Boston College, a Catholic institution, six thousand people gathered that evening in the gymnasium to denounce the war. In the mid-1960s, Cornell students were caught up in the cataclysmic movements and events taking over the country, especially the growing resistance movement against the Vietnam War. Bay Area Asian Coalition Against the War (BAACAW), FTA a group whose initials either stand for, Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam (CALCAV), The Student Libertarian Movement Libertarian organization that was formed in 1972. On March 5, Senator J. William Fulbright was prevented from speaking at the first, On April 6, a spontaneous anti-war rally in. "[102] The number of ROTC students in college drastically dropped and the program lost any momentum it once had before the anti-war movement. The majority of respondents, 55%, said that it had had no effect on their lives. As the war continued, and with the new media coverage, the movement snowballed and popular music reflected this. "[93] Positive responses were quite low; not many people wanted to protest anything, and those who did want to show a public demonstration often wanted to demonstrate in support of the Vietnam War. On November 2, 32-year-old Quaker Norman Morrison set himself on fire in front of The Pentagon. [27] King used the statistic that for the 1967 war budget, the U.S. government underestimated the cost by $10 billion, which was five times the poverty budget. [16] A second round of "Moratorium" demonstrations was held on November 15 and attracted more people than the first.[17]. New York: Pantheon Books. Although the media often portrayed the student antiwar movement as aggressive and widespread, only 10% of the 2500 colleges in the United States had violent protests throughout the Vietnam War years. [94], As the war continued, the public became much more opposed to the war, seeing that it was not ending. The protest on June 23 in Los Angeles is singularly significant. [76], College enrollment reached 9 million by the end of the 1960s. [2], Protests bringing attention to "the draft" began on May 5, 1965. Both Boggs and Kochiyama were inspired by the civil rights movement of the 1960s and "a growing number of Asian Americans began to push forward a new era in radical Asian American politics. [citation needed] Many of the environment-oriented demonstrations were inspired by Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring, which warned of the harmful effects of pesticide use on the earth. The Vietnam War on Campus, Revisited. Subsequently, college enrollment swelled, from three million in 1960 to 10 million by 1970. doves,Doves opposed the Vietnam War. They saw the war as being a bigger action of U.S. imperialism and "connected the oppression of the Asians in the United States to the prosecution of the war in Vietnam. It was said that "the happy beat and insouciance of the vocalist are in odd juxtaposition to the lyrics that reinforce the sad fact that the American public was being forced into realizing that Vietnam was no longer a remote place on the other side of the world, and the damage it was doing to the country could no longer be considered collateral, involving someone else. Many in the peace movement within the United States were children, mothers, or anti-establishment youth. Vietnam: The War at Cornell. Brittany Jo Lee, a 33-year-old student at Arapahoe Community College (ACC) in Colorado, gets a grant that covers most of her child care. In their book Manufacturing Consent, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky reject the mainstream view of how the media influenced the war and propose that the media instead censored the more brutal images of the fighting and the death of millions of innocent people. The execution provided an iconic image that helped sway public opinion in the United States against the war. "[43] Some other notable figures were Grace Lee Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama. The main reason some Americans opposed the Vietnam War is that they believed that the. "The folk trio 'A Grain of Sand' [ consisting of the members] JoAnne 'Nobuko' Miyamoto, Chris Iijima, and William 'Charlie' Chin, performed across the nation as traveling troubadours who set the antiracist politics of the Asian American movement to music. 34. Now the news. Of the 45% who indicated the war had affected their lives, 32% listed inflation as the most important factor, while 25% listed casualties inflicted. Some of the differences were how Black Americans rallied behind the banner of "Self-determination for Black America and Vietnam", while whites marched under banners that said, "Support Our GIs, Bring Them Home Now!". The goals of the war were uncertain. King, Martin Luther Jr. "Beyond Vietnam". First, the United States had recently welcomed the largest birth cohort in its history; 76 million people were born during the baby boom from 1946 to 1964. At different times they chose. In the first quarter of 1970 the Selective Service System, for the first time, could not meet its quota."[101]. They held numerous sit-ins, one where they first introduced their song "Give Peace a Chance". [45] In May 1972, Gidra ran on its cover a cartoon of a female Viet Cong guerrilla being faced with an Asian-American soldier who is commanded by his white officer to "Kill that gook, you gook!". They protested the use of napalm, a highly flammable jelly weapon created by the Dow Chemical Company and used as a weapon during the war, by boycotting Saran Wrap, another product made by the company. Bruce Dancis was a freshmen primed for activism as a participant in the 1963 March on Washington. Battle Notes. McCarthy did not win the first primary election in New Hampshire, but he did surprisingly well against an incumbent. Schoenwald Jonathan (2001). How significant was their opposition?, Discuss the American movement to annex Texas between 1820 and 1845. Intellectual growth and gaining a liberal perspective at college caused many students to become active in the antiwar movement. "[36] Groups like the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA), the Bay Area Coalition Against the War (BAACAW), and the Asian Americans for Action (AAA) made opposition to the war their main focus. In February 1967, The New York Review of Books published "The Responsibility of Intellectuals", an essay by Noam Chomsky, one of the leading intellectual opponents of the war. [7] Draft card protests were not aimed so much at the draft as at the immoral conduct of the war.[8]. Protests, strikes and sit-ins continued at Berkeley and across other campuses throughout the year. The Mexican-American War: Arguments for and against Going to War | Unit Overview | Unit Overview Over the course of three lessons the students will analyze two primary source documents that represent two different points of view on the Mexican-American War. [96], When the American public was asked about the Vietnam-era Anti-War movement in the 1990s, 39% of the public said they approved, while 39% said they disapproved. Others involved the killing of civilians. With no clear sign of victory in Vietnam, American military casualties helped stimulate opposition to the war by Americans. [68] While Dylan renounced the idea of subscribing to the ideals of one individual, his feelings of protest towards Vietnam were appropriated by the general movement and they "awaited his gnomic yet oracular pronouncements", which provided a guiding aspect to the movement as a whole. What are some groups who protested against the Vietnam War and why? Doves claimed that the war was wellintentioned but a disastrously wrong mistake in an otherwise benign foreign policy. The Kids Take the Climate Change Fight to Court (2000). "No War, No Welfare, and No Damm Taxation: The Student Libertarian Movement, 19681972", in Gilbert, Marc Jason (ed). Liberal newspapers such as the Washington Post and the New York Times condemned King for his "Beyond Vietnam" speech while the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People disallowed him. "Social Movement Participation: Clergy and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement." Johnson's vice president, Hubert Humphrey, also ran for the nomination, promising to continue to support the South Vietnamese government. Howard Zinn first provides a note written by a student of Boston University on May 1, 1968, which stated to his draft board, "I have absolutely no intention to report for that exam, or for induction, or to aid in any way the American war effort against the people of Vietnam "[100] The opposition to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War had many effects, which led to the eventual end of the involvement of the United States. Protest to American participation in the Vietnam War was a movement that many popular musicians shared in, which was a stark contrast to the pro-war compositions of artists during World War II. To complement "Blowin' in the Wind" Dylan's song "The Times they are A-Changin'" alludes to a new method of governing that is necessary and warns those who currently participate in government that the change is imminent. It wasn't. Anti-war demonstrators picketing in front of the White House on Jan. 19, 1968. David Meyers (2007) also explains how the concept of personal efficacy affects mass movement mobilization. About 15 million Americans took part in the demonstration of October 15, making it the largest protests in a single day up to that point. Members of the organization were vehemently opposed to the US's involvement in the war and the implementation of drafts, and were eager to join in on the anti-war movement. However, military critics of the war pointed out that the Vietnam War was political and that the military mission lacked any clear idea of how to achieve its objectives. By mid-October, the anti-war movement had significantly expanded to become a national and even global phenomenon, as anti-war protests drawing 100,000 were held simultaneously in as many as 80 major cities around the US, London, Paris, and Rome. Student activists at the University of California Berkeley marched on the Berkeley Draft board and forty students staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States. Then, on August 4, 1969, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy began secret peace negotiations at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris. On September 20, over one thousand members of WSP rallied at the White House. Anti-Vietnam War protest. On April 19, 1972, in response to renewed escalation of bombing, students at many colleges and universities around the country broke into campus buildings and threatened strikes. Students and the Anti-War Movement - Bill of Rights Institute [84] Such female antiwar groups often relied on maternalism, the image of women as peaceful caretakers of the world, to express and accomplish their goals. "[106] Four days later, on May 8th, ten (some sources site eleven) people present at a demonstration that was a response to both the war in Vietnam and the Kent State massacre were bayonetted by National Guardsmen at the University of New Mexico. 339. In 1966, 191,749 college students enrolled in ROTC. 2000. "Campus Outbreaks Spread", Martin Arnold. In March, Gallup poll reported that 49% of respondents felt involvement in the war was an error. Colleges and universities in America had more students than ever before, and these institutions often tried to restrict student behavior to maintain order on the campuses. [NYT, 2/14/68] In another poll that month, 23% of Americans defined themselves as "doves" and 61% "hawks. New York: Atria, 2009. Print. Religious leaders, civil rights, activists, teachers, journalists, and college students protested the war for a number of reasons.Many college students were opposed to the mandatory draft, which required young men to serve in the military. [81] Members of Women For Peace showed up at the White House every Sunday for 8 years from 11 to 1 for a peace vigil. [12] Over 210,000 men were accused of draft-related offenses, 25,000 of whom were indicted. The U.S. became polarized over the war. The events of Tet in early 1968 as a whole were also remarkable in shifting public opinion regarding the war. 1. Why were so many college students, like those at Kent State, This brought the total arrested during the. In April 1971, thousands of these veterans converged on the White House in Washington, D.C., and hundreds of them threw their medals and decorations on the steps of the United States Capitol. On April 26, 1968, a million college and high school students boycotted class to show opposition to the war. "[66], Along with singer-songwriter Phil Ochs, who attended and organized anti-war events and wrote such songs as "I Ain't Marching Anymore" and "The War Is Over", another key historical figure of the antiwar movement was Bob Dylan. At an SDS-organized conference at UC Berkeley in October 1966, SNCC Chair Stokely Carmichael challenged the white left to escalate their resistance to the military draft in a manner similar to the black movement. In the 1960s, people across the United States were exposed to the counterculture through mass media. Here is the full excerpts about how the Americans reacted or protested against the participation of Vietnam war during the period. Two weeks later, on May 5, 1971, 1146 people were arrested on the Capitol grounds trying to shut down Congress. In May 1954, preceding the later Quaker protests but "just after the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu, the Service Committee bought a page in The New York Times to protest what seemed to be the tendency of the USA to step into Indo-China as France stepped out. Opposition to the Vietnam war among - JSTOR On January 6, 1966, SNCC issued a statement condemning the Vietnam War, charging that, "the United States government has been deceptive in its claims of concern for the freedom of the Vietnamese people." Many members of state and national government denounced opposition to the war as being "close to treason." Some participants in ghetto rebellions of the era had already associated their actions with opposition to the Vietnam War, and SNCC first disrupted an Atlanta draft board in August 1966. Patsy Chan, a "Third World" activist, said at an antiwar rally in San Francisco, "We, as Third World women [express] our militant solidarity with our brothers and sisters from Indochina. "Veterans Discard Medals In War Protest At Capitol". [20], In March 1965, King first criticized the war during the Selma march when he told a journalist that "millions of dollars can be spent every day to hold troops in South Vietnam and our country cannot protect the rights of Negroes in Selma". [38] The BAACAW members consisted of many Asian-Americans and they were involved in antiwar efforts like marches, study groups, fundraisers, teach-ins and demonstrations. According to historians Joshua Bloom and Waldo Martin, SDS's first Stop the Draft Week of October 1967 was "inspired by Black Power [and] emboldened by the ghetto rebellions." The resulting blow to the Johnson campaign, taken together with other factors, led the President to make a surprise announcement in a March 31 televised speech that he was pulling out of the race. Speaking on behalf of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, he argued for the immediate, unilateral withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam. Many Americans were also concerned about saving face in the event of disengaging from the war or, as President Richard M. Nixon later put it, "achieving Peace with Honor." Their actions consisted mainly of peaceful, nonviolent events; few events were deliberately provocative and violent. The growing anti-war movement alarmed many in the U.S. government. A 1965 Gallup Poll asked the question, "Have you ever felt the urge to organize or join a public demonstration about something? This was followed shortly thereafter by four days of hearings on "war crimes" in Vietnam, which began April 25. As of 1972, an estimated 200,000500,000 people were refusing to pay the excise taxes on their telephone bills, and another 20,000 were resisting part or all of their income tax bills. A Gallup poll in late August showed that 24% of Americans view sending troops to Vietnam as a mistake versus 60% who do not. There were several reasons why many college students were opposed to the Vietnam War: - Fear of being drafted: Many college students were afraid that they would be drafted into the military and forced to fight in Vietnam. In addition, instances of Viet Cong atrocities were widely reported, most notably in an article that appeared in Reader's Digest in 1968 entitled The Blood-Red Hands of Ho Chi Minh. One of the major reasons leading to their significance was that the BAACAW was "highly organized, holding biweekly ninety-minute meetings of the Coordinating Committee at which each regional would submit detailed reports and action plans. Although this song was not on music charts probably because it was too radical, it was performed at many public events including the famous Woodstock music festival (1969). At that time, only a fraction of all men of draft age were actually conscripted, but the Selective Service System office ("Draft Board") in each locality had broad discretion on whom to draft and whom to exempt where there was no clear guideline for exemption. 12. The organization did not take a strong stand on racial issues. Routledge Publishing: September 4, 2012. To pursue this goal of winning the "Hearts and Minds" of the Vietnamese people, units of the United States Army, referred to as "Civil Affairs" units, were used extensively for the first time since World War II. African Americans involved in the antiwar movement often formed their own groups, such as Black Women Enraged, National Black Anti-War Anti-Draft Union, and National Black Draft Counselors. On June 13, President Nixon established the, In July 1970. the award-winning documentary, On August 24, 1970, near 3:40a.m., a van filled with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil mixture was detonated on the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the. April 17 National media films the anti-war riot that breaks out at Columbia University. All of these issues raised concerns about the fairness of who got selected for involuntary service, since it was often the poor or those without connections who were drafted. We, as Third World people know of the struggle the Indochinese are waging against imperialism, because we share that common enemy in the United States. Over 30,000 people left the country and went to Canada, Sweden, and Mexico to avoid the draft. [34], Many Asian-Americans were strongly opposed to the Vietnam War. "[43] This band was so against the imperialistic actions of the United States, that they supported the Vietnamese people vocally through their song 'War of the Flea'. Lennon and Ono's song overshadowed many previous held anthems, as it became known as the ultimate anthem of peace in the 1970s, with their words "all we are saying is give peace a chance" being sung globally. Four Kent State University students were killed and nine were injured on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War. Some of the same racial prejudice that existed in Europe and helped Hitler to power also existed in the United States and there were quite a few people who sympathized with the Nazi leader and had . Newsmen like NBC's Frank McGee stated that the war was all but lost as a "conclusion to be drawn inescapably from the facts. Some saw the conflict as a civil war in which the United States should not interfere. hawks,Hawks supported the Vietnam War. New York: Garland Publishing, David McCarthy, "'The Sun Never Sets on the Activities of the CIA': Project Resistance at William and Mary". [91], The Gallup News Service began asking the American public whether it was a "mistake to send troops to Vietnam" in August 1965. Most of the soldiers were COLLEGE youths The involvement of the clergy did not stop at King though. While composers created pieces affronting the war, they were not limited to their music. The Counterculture Flashcards | Quizlet [10] Contrary to expectations, the issue sold out with many being haunted by the photographs of the ordinary young Americans killed. 1969. Another source, Lift Up Your Voice Like A Trumpet: White Clergy And The Civil Rights And Antiwar Movements, 19541973 explains the story of the entire spectrum of the clergy and their involvement. Howard Zinn provides that piece of evidence to reiterate how all of this destruction and fighting against an enemy that seems to be unknown has been taking a toll on the soldiers and that they began to sense a feeling of opposition as one effect of the opposition occurring in the United States. Opposition to the war arose during a time of unprecedented student activism, which followed the free speech movement and the civil rights movement. The clergy were often forgotten though throughout this opposition. On May 13, 1972, protests again spread across the country in response to President Nixon's decision to mine harbors in North Vietnam. On March 29, 1972, 166 people, many of them seminarians, were arrested in. Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social movement over the ensuing several years. August Gallup poll shows 53% said it was a mistake to send troops to Vietnam. Many interviewees of the Civil Rights History Project recount a long, painful struggle that scarred many students, teachers, and parents. In April and May 1971, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Senator J. William Fulbright, held a series of 22 hearings (referred to as the Fulbright Hearings) on proposals relating to ending the war. Edited by Paige Cowett and Lexie Diao. In the 1960s, which group was the first to protest US involvement in the Vietnam War? "[106] Basically, from all of the evidence here provided by the historians, Zinn and McCarthy, the second effect was very prevalent and it was the uproar at many colleges and universities as an effect of the opposition to the United States' involvement in Vietnam. Anti-war demonstrators disrupted the meeting and 50 were arrested. [56] These musicians included Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Lou Harrison, Gail Kubik, William Mayer, Elie Siegmeister, Robert Fink, David Noon, Richard Wernick, and John W. [4], Another element of the American opposition to the war was the perception that U.S. intervention in Vietnam, which had been argued as acceptable because of the domino theory and the threat of communism, was not legally justifiable. [33] Such concerns often propelled their participation in the antiwar movement and their creation of new opposition groups. [15] The military victories on the battlefields of Tet were obscured by shocking images of violence on television screens, long casualty lists, and a new perception among the American people that the military had been untruthful to them about the success of earlier military operations, and ultimately, the ability to achieve a meaningful military solution in Vietnam. Citing public polling data on protests during the war he claimed that: "The American public turned against the Vietnam War not because it was persuaded by the radical and liberal left that it was unjust, but out of sensitivity to its rising costs. Early organized opposition was led by American Quakers in the 1950s, and by November 1960 eleven hundred Quakers undertook a silent protest vigil the group "ringed the Pentagon for parts of two days".
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