The Vietnam War Protests

Secretary of State John Kerry once said “I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service.” The Vietnam War was a conflict that lasted from 1956-1975 which the United States participated in along with the South Vietnamese who fought against the Communist North Vietnamese. Many Americans strongly disapproved of the war which caused many protests and riots. The war lasted 25 years killing many people and eventually the North Vietnamese won. The Vietnam War was important to Americans back home because it tested the citizen’s right to free speech, effected future foreign policy, and created many issues for returning veterans.

Many of the anti-war groups that formed were ones with college students and young adults. One of the largest student anti-war groups was the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The SDS believed that “It is the responsibility of the city administration to see that an effective agency is created to handle the problems of the poor. Such service is becoming increasingly essential to the city of this size [New York].” The Kent State protests, later called the Kent State Massacre, took place on May 4, 1970, “when twenty-eight guardsmen opened fire on a crowd, killing four students and wounding nine… Almost five hundred colleges were shut down or disrupted by protest in result.” The shooting took place during an anti-war rally that was organized in response to President Nixon announcing that the United States had invaded Cambodia, trying to defeat the Viet

The Vietnam War was first derived from the gradual oppression of the communist party of the north over the region of South Vietnam. The North Communist party was supported mainly by China and the Soviet Union whiles the Anti-Communist party of South Vietnam was supported by United States and France. The communist party group, as known as the Viet Cong, was recognized for their guerilla war strategies within the region of South Vietnam, intended to fully expand and unify Vietnam under Communist rule. U.S. involvement with the Vietnam War starting in November 1, 1955, develops from the theory of the domino effect, stating that if one country falls into communism, a threat that can develop into the encouragement and spread of communism throughout the world in the future. It is basically viewed as a potential harm to the welfare of the United Sates. Therefore, due to the conflicting forces of the historical, political, economic and cultural nature of the war itself, it is known to be the longest enduring war in United States history that altered many lives of the Vietnamese and American community, leading to suffrage and acts of courage.

The political instability in Vietnam from 1950 to 1975 between the communist North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam during the Cold War era has led to the United States’ inevitable intervention in Vietnam. The main motivators for the United States’ incremental decision to intervene and commitment in Vietnam can be viewed as an accumulation of socio-political, political and economic catalysts. In recognition that there were many other factors that may have contributed to the U.S’s involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, this essay will largely focus on these three factors. As the cold war resonates, the American’s crusade was propelled by the fears of the domino theory and perception of Communist threat and expansion affected the

On May 4, 1970, Kent State went into history as one of the most powerful single events and images that America would ever witness during the Vietnam era. It would be reminisant of a battle field engagement, as gunfire would fill the Midwest college campus and bring the front lines of America's war over Vietnam. In 13 chaotic seconds, the Ohio National Guard fired their weapons at antiwar demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine. The shootings solidified the antiwar movement not only in America, but worldwide as well. By the next day photographs of the slain students, and the horror that was depicted over every possilbe news media, immortilized the name Kent State and cut through the nation's conscience.

Few Americans that were drafted, however, did attend their injunction. Thomas Yager, Robert Laufer, Mark Gallops, PhD’s in psychiatry, confirmed that men who did attend, experienced several behavioral and emotional problems. Of these that attended, behavioral and emotional problems produced in the men who fought, usually went AWOL (absent without leave) and escaped to Canada through underground railroad tunnels whom were helped by anti-war supporters. Multitudinous amounts of young men attended college to avoid the draft; college students building their future were not permitted to be drafted in the war. Damien de Walque, a Senior Economist in the Development Research Group, believes that, “During the Vietnam War, college attendance provided a strategy to avoid the draft in the 1960’s.” As a result, families that could not afford college, were drafted into the war. College campuses became a crucible for anti-war protests. Students actualized protests against an unjust war at numerous college campuses, conceiving extreme amounts of tension across the nation. Kent State University is the most known anti-war protest college where students set fire to the ROTC building. Several students were killed, even those not involved in the protest. As protests increased, populous amounts of Americans had new judgement to evade the draft. Draft resistance became a day to day thing accumulating the struggle for war to be

On May 1 1970 a massive demonstration was held at Kent State, on the Commons (a grassy area in the center of campus that is used as a gathering place for rallies) and another one was planned for May 4. The students were angry and there were many who were calling to "bring the war home."

During the Vietnam War, approximately 200,000 young men and college age students avoided the draft by fleeing the country, outright ignoring the draft notices or started protests. The most famous protest took place in 1967 at Central Park in New York City. Approximately 500,000 war protesters of varying age and gender showed up and chanted “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” (Tindall 1353). This led to the anti-war protest movement of men burning their draft notices who were supposed to go to war. President Johnson implemented the draft during this time because the United States was in dire need of more troops due to the casualties and injuries suffered in Vietnam (Vietnam).

has adapted to the jungle and the way of life in Vietnam, he would be

Most scholars probably think that the Americans who fled to Canada during the Vietnam war had personal reasons, but according to the latest research, most of the resisters of the Vietnam war were politically motivated. There are different kinds of motives by various resistors who took place during the Vietnam War. First were the Dodgers. These were that kind of people who left America because they did not approve what the government was doing. They resisted through making public claims, trying not to register for the draft, and not taking the oath. The second types of resister were known as the draft resistors, and these were the people who were in the military and refuted their duties. The deserters were also another group of resistors

The anti-war protests of the 1960s was a response of resentment by minorities and young educated college students against the nation’s desire to participate in war against Communism in Vietnam and conduct a military draft. The protests, originally began with peaceful public demonstrations by activists, who were nonviolent; however, the peaceful demonstrators were frequently attacked and victimized by the police and other citizens, who did not share their same opinion. Throughout the peaceful protests the activists suffered many beatings in the hands of the police and as a result, many of the activists claimed the right of self-defense and turned to taking offensive actions against their oppressors including the police and other citizens. Later, the scene of violence and mayhem quickly shifted to college campuses, to which college students began protesting the draft (Gurr, 1989, pp. 183-185). At the time the average age of an American soldier serving in Vietnam was 19 and students quickly rebelled after realizing that young Americans were legally old enough to be drafted to fight and die, but were not yet legally allowed to vote or drink alcohol (UShistory, nd.).

Well-acclaimed author Tim O’Brien once wrote, “Certain blood is being spilled for uncertain reasons,” (O’Brien 40) in response to the American occupation of Vietnam. This concise, yet poignant, quote epitomizes the unsettlement that many Americans felt in regards to the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. After President Nixon announced that the invasion of Cambodia by the United States necessitated the draft of 150,000 more soldiers, the sentiments eventually accumulated into protests on college campuses across America. One of the most famous protests took a violent turn as members of the National Guard shot into the crowd of students at Kent State University. The Kent State Massacre is a tragic and influential moment in the 1960’s that initially caused destruction and chaos in its surrounding communities, but it ultimately helped to perpetuate the anti-war movement in America.

In 1967, 64 percent of all eligible African-Americans were drafted versus only 31 percent of eligible whites (Black 2009). This fact testifies to only a small portion of why nearly all African-Americans found themselves protesting against the Vietnam War. The lack of civil rights in the U.S deterred many blacks from supporting Vietnam, a conflict aimed at liberating the rights of another people. African Americans were frustrated with a country who fought for other citizens and saw no purpose in fighting for a peoples’ freedom but their own. Although African-Americans were specifically discriminated against both in Vietnam and America, they were not alone in their anti-war position. The majority of the American public opposed the Vietnam War. As the war dragged on, people found no reason to fight in Vietnam and believed that the United States should prioritize their own citizens first. Many public figures, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Muhammad Ali, held similar claims. Their opinions aligned with the public’s concern and suggested that the U.S withdraw troops and focus resources on the civil rights issues at home. These public figures fought for a specific minority, but, in light of the entire American population, the majority of people opposed the war.

There were sit-ins and other acts of civil disobedience. It seemed as if the younger generations were trying to be heard by an uncaring government that was sending them overseas to be killed and maimed for a government policy. These young people wanted their share of the American dream too, and it did not involve going to fight in a war on foreign soil. They were revolting against the traditional government, with such slogans as" Don't trust anyone over thirty", coined by Jack Weinberg, an American student activist leader in the 1960s (Deis, 2009). This was construed to mean don't trust the government.

Throughout history, the majority of U.S. citizens have always supported their country’s involvement in wars because it has always benefitted them through economic booms and unifying effects on the nation. However, one of the most important social movements in American history was the Antiwar Movement, which took place from the 1950s to 1970s but mainly during the 1960s when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War (Kowalski). Most protests involved “teach-ins” at universities or draft card burnings (Kowalski). In April of 1967, the Student Mobilization Committee organized a mass card burning in Sheep’s Meadow, NY and in October of 1967, one of the largest antiwar marches took place in Washington D.C. (Galt, “Putting Principles Behind”). The movement was about trying to convince the U.S. government that involvement in the Vietnam War was not worth the deaths of thousands of Americans and to back out of the war (Galt, “A War in Asia”). Mostly college students and middle class white Americans were involved in the antiwar protests (Baron, Scinta). African Americans were also against the war, but were preoccupied with fighting for their own civil rights at the same time (Galt, “Putting Principles Behind Bars”). Those against the war were known as doves for their peaceful nature and those supporting the war, mainly WW2 veterans, were called hawks because of their predatory nature (Galt, “A War in Asia”). Women were also involved, serving as nurses and counselors for veterans and