The Vietnam War: The Student For A Democratic Society

The Vietnam War begins in November 1, 1955 and it ended in April 30, 1975. The United States entered the war in March 8, 1965 and throughout those time our lives were deeply affected. Families were separated, american people divided, mistrust in our government, and most importantly how college students stood up against the government. The war showed us how powerful and influential each students could be. Across the nation students banded together, created activist group, and led the way to stop the killing of innocent and overall the war.

While college students were not the only ones who protest, they played a major role in leading anti-war into the public. Student protests against the Vietnam war had become part of university life on college

They were known for arranging resistance against the Vietnam War and the military draft policies. The organization intentions were to protest peacefully and nonviolent civil disobedience, but they become more aggressive and forceful later on as the war escalated. They gained fame and massive supports due to their calls for direct and specific action against the war. With their tremendously improved profile and resources, the Student for a Democratic Society membership expanded. With the tremendous increase in members, it created a crisis within the organization, due to different ideas and directions the SDS should go. In order to resolve the crisis, the SDS holded a conference to discuss what direction they should take, but in the end they were not able to come to an agreement and lost a lot of members. Regardless, the Student for Democratic Society continued to expand. The SDS was able to mobilize over 50,000 active members, attracting widening base of support over the next three

Kent State University was a mid-sized midwestern attended by mostly working and middle class students. On May 1, 1970, a campus wide protest against the war took place at the Common. The protest was not peaceful or nonviolence, instead the students broke storefront windows, vandalism, close to 100 protesters lit bonfire, and when the police arrived the students started to threw beer bottle at them. In response to the violent protest, the Mayor Leroy Satrom asked the Ohio governor James Rhodes for some help and send the National Guard to maintain order. Later that evening on May 2nd, troops arrived and arrested a handful of protesters. Nearly a thousand of National Guard Troops were on campus and the governor stated that protesting would be treated as a crime. The National Guard used tear gas, helicopters, and bayonets to disseminate the protesters, but they injured the students while doing so. It is when on May 4th where everything is turned upside-down, the students planned a rally at the Common and under orders the National Guard started to knelt and a pointed rifles directly at the protestors. As the day went on students started to leave and the National Guard was leaving too, but more than 20 soldiers opened fire. Between sixty-one to sixty-seven shots were fired, killing four students,