Vietnam War Protests In America Essay

Vietnam Protests in America Vietnam is widely know as one of the most heavily protested wars in history. The public opinion of the war slowly changed from positive to negative throughout the war. This was an era defined by the stark contrast between an intense war in Vietnam and the free love rhetoric in America. Although most people picture the anti war movement as hippie movement it was actually a lot more than that. The anti war movement was seen in academia, civil rights movement, and in different forms of media and art. Although Vietnam caused the largest outcry of public opinion, it was not the first war to be protested. A prominent example would be the Society of Friends protest of the Indian and Mexican wars (Hayden). This group

This group a large part of protests in academia. The group was founded in 1960 and participated heavily in civil rights events. By 1965 SDS began to focus on Vietnam after Johnson escalated the war. They started with many smaller events held by individual chapters. These lead to much support and an increase in funding (Sale). In March of 1965 the University of Michigan held the first Teach-In. A Teach-in is very similar to a seminar expect it has not time frame or strict topic. Famous philosopher Arnold Kaufman help plan the overnight event with twelve other faculty members. They discussed forms of protest and encouraged students to engage in the discussion (Sale). This event sent in motion a new form of protest through academic discussion. The SDS’s first large scale protest was in Washington D.C. It attracted 15-25,000 protestors (Donham). It was held in in April of 1965 and was somewhat widely covered by the media. Critics says this first March lacked the strong dialog and was more focused on having a overwhelming amount of people (Donham).
Students were not the only demographic to organise anti war events. The was also a strong African American, and feminist opposition to the war in