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Why Did The Protest Of The Vietnam War

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The Vietnam War began on November 1, 1955. It was a long and costly conflict that brought the North Vietnamese government into conflict with the South. Many Americans opposed the war which in the long term divided them. However, others believed that defending South Vietnam from communists was in the best interest. In this essay we will discuss how the Vietnam War was protested, why some people protested it, and how poetry was used as an anti-war expression. Vietnam War protests were very common throughout the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. There were many ways people chose to protest it in the U.S. Campus protests became very common. In October at least 35,000 demonstrators staged a national protest outside the Pentagon. It was known as the Pentagon riot and occurred on October 21, 1967. There were some who refused to be drafted so they retaliated. They would burn draft cards, flee to other countries, have marches about it or simply enroll in college to avoid the draft. Students for a Democratic Society also known as SDS organized “teach-ins” to express their opposition against the war. Other ways people protested the war involved marches and rallies. …show more content…

Many Americans opposed the war on moral grounds as they were dismayed by the devastation and violence of the war. Although, others claimed the war was going against the independence of Vietnam. Other reasons included the fact of people feeling like it lacked objectives and was unwinnable. However, the antiwar movement grew into an unstoppable force. Many people protested the war by means of persuasion by the “Vietnam Veterans against the War.” They voiced their opposition among returning servicemen and woman. They persuaded people against the war by throwing away medals they had won during the

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Those who abstained from college education were limited to the possibility of drafting or fleeing the nation, with “an estimated 500,000 men [becoming] draft dodgers” (Backderf, 2020, p. 28). Draft evasion, however, was a crime punishable by fines and jail time. In addition to the war, many civil rights issues came to fruition. There were protests for women’s rights, equal rights between blacks and whites, and protests against the Cambodian invasion that led us further into war. Many of these protests were held by students, including Black United Students, World Historians Opposed to Racism and Exploitation, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Youth International Party.

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1) A spate of anti-war activism occurred across the Le Moyne campus during the years of the Vietnam War from the late 1960s into the early 1970s. Such activism included protests against the Kent State shooting and against President Nixon and anti-draft demonstrations. Still, the Le Moyne community wasn’t entire unified behind the anti-war movement. There is a tendency to caricature college campuses during the Vietnam War as having a unified, passionate anti-war movement across the entire campus. In reality, however, not everybody in the Le Moyne community supported the anti-war activism; some viewed the protests as un-patriotic and unnecessarily subversive.

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At this period of the war it was when major protest was going on in Australia. Early 1970s when Australia was disengage from the war at the time of the moratorium marches. Before the war there have been lots of anti war groups most of these groups were unpopular. organizations such as save our sons were against

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Political actions taken by the United States in regards to the Vietnam War caused an uproar of controversy in the 1960’s. The city of Madison, Wisconsin became grounds for mass protests against the Vietnam War. Over one million lives were lost in the 20 years of war. Many protested these tragedies at the Capitol in Madison. While their protests were seemingly peaceful and respectful, the retaliation was not.

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As David Farber illustrates in The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s, “Between the summer of 1964, when the Johnson administration achieved passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and the April 1965 antiwar rally, the American combat role in Vietnam had escalated greatly” (141).   In the mid 1960s, a bloody and violent war was in full swing overseas between Vietnamese and American soldiers. On the American home front though, citizens of the US began to question whether it was wise to remain in the war or pull American troops back home. Two major groups began to spring up: advocates for the war and those against it.

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Anti-war demonstration began in the month between the announcement and the deployment of the troops in Vietnam. Wives of deployed soldiers sent out angry letters, gave angry phone calls and the departure date had to be kept a secret in order to avoid an angry scene or protests. At first there was not much opposition however as the war progressed more people switched from supported the war to opposing

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Margaret Garner, who was she? She was an enslaved African American woman in pre-Civil War America. Her nickname some people called her was called, “Peggy”. She was born into slavery on June 4, 1831, on the Maplewood plantation in Boone County, Kentucky. The Maplewood plantation she was born on was John Pollard Gaines.

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Those still in favor of the war considered it their patriotic duty to enlist and fight for their country, while the opposition came from the lower class groups such as African Americans, “white trash,” Mexican Americans, and other minorities. Because of their lower socio-economic status, they were more often the targets of recruiters and had more difficulty evading the draft. As James Fallows said of his draft experience, “While perhaps four out of five of my friends from Harvard were being deferred, just the opposite was happening to the Chelsea [Boston] Boys.” (Doc 5) Similarly to the civil war era, the majority of the burden of fighting was going to the poor majority as opposed to the privileged few. Other groups, such as the African Americans, were opposed to the draft because of their status at home.

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One of the many protestors, Paul Potter, said "The incredible war in Vietnam has provide the razor, the terrifying sharp cutting edge that has finally severed the las vestige of illusion that morality and democracy are the guiding principle of American foreign policy. (The Incredible War, Potter) The scope of an anti-war movement has never been as big as this one and the disillusionment it caused lead to alot of the voter apathy and less than patriotic views alot people have today. The final thing that the Vietnam War caused was the advancement for and reshaping of the views of the Civil Rights Movement.

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Not as many people are as passionate about peace oppose to war, sad but true. Yet, it is arguable whether or not the AntiWar Protest of 1969 were wrong or right, had a greater impact on American Society than any other movements that have happened. The Vietnam War was a huge part of the 1900s, everyone was in an uproar about it whether they are in it, know someone in it, or know nothing about it. More than 65% of Americans were exceeding distress about the war, thus

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The war in Vietnam to do this day has gone down as one of the influential and controversial wars in United States history. The war lasted from 1955 to 1975.The nation as a whole began to uproar over the war and the major consequences of the war. There were many reasons why so many Americans were against the war. Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam (Wikipedia). Not to mention, many young people protested because they were the ones being drafted while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the counterculture and drug culture in American society and

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While the majority of Americans were sitting at home, young soldiers were fighting a fight they didn’t understand. Many of the young soldiers died while fighting this conflict, some had mental disabilities that ended up taking their life. Because of the magnitude of spending on the war, Great Society social programs such as welfare, housing, and urban renewal had little to no funding. In the late 60’s protesting and protestors became radical, demonstrations went from peaceful to violent almost overnight. The Mayday protest was a series of large-scale demonstrations against the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War (Senina).

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The media strongly influenced the opinion of the people with pictures, articles, and songs protesting the war. Streets were filled with anti war protests carrying signs and speaking their minds about their disapproval of the war. Anti war activists saw returning soldiers as"baby

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Wealthy Americans could obtain deferments or avoid the draft altogether, either by enrolling in college or seeking medical exemptions. This led to resentment among working-class and poor Americans, who were more likely to be drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam. " The Kids(protesters) are putting us in, and the papers are putting us in; Lindsay is out advocating rebellion." Middle class(Vietnam protesters, College students):, Primarily, the middle class led the protests; anti-war protests also revealed class divisions. Many leading anti-war activists were middle-class or upper-middle-class students and intellectuals who could participate in protests and engage in civil disobedience without fear of losing their jobs or going to jail.

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