The Protest Movement As it relates to the Vietnam War

The Protest Movement

As it relates to the Vietnam War

An Era of Protest The idea of civil

disobedience as a form of protest emerges as successful tactic of African American Civil Rights Movement

Mario Savio leads the first college sit-in at UC Berkeley 12/64 protesting campus policies – 800 demonstrators were arrested

Vietnam War mobilizes youth

-Draft 1965: 5000 a month -> 1967: 50,000 a month

-deferments: college students -conscientious objectors -draft dodgers: burning draft

cards

Drafts & Deferments The Draft made all

18+ males eligible Men could defer

based on education or profession

This led to the working-class, poor, and minorities to be more heavily drafted

Ineligible classifications 1-A –O Conscientious objector for

noncombatant service only 2-S Service deferred – enrolled in college 2-A Service deferred – civilian occupation 3-A Service deferred – has children 4-A Exempt – completed military duty 4-F Disqualified – physical or mental reasons

RESISTANCESome became conscientious objectorsSome refused to register for the draftProtesters harassed campus ROTC

recruitersAs draft went from 5000/mo to

50,000/mo, the draft resisters swelled

SDS: Students for a Democratic SocietyApril 1965: 20,000 protests in DCTeachers start protest at Univ. of Mich.1967: 100s of thousands protest in NYC + San Fran. (Doves) April 1968: Columbia Univ. students seize 5 buildings

Who are the protesters? An amalgam University students

Free speech movement at Berkeley and other schools

Rooted in Civil Rights Movement

60’s Youth Reject parents’ culture Leave it to Beaver-culture is

viewed as: sexist, racist, conformist, restrictive

Poor Draft rules call up

disproportionate numbers of black, Latino, poor white and Native American boys – high school dropouts by far the most likely to serve and die in Vietnam

Vietnam Veterans

-70% of American believe protests are “acts of disloyalty”

-Jan 1968: Hawks: 62%, Doves: 22%

-March 1968: Hawks: 41%, Doves: 42%

Democratic Convention - 1968

A series of battles between protestors and Chicago police

598 arrests, 119 police injured, 100 police injured

1970 -- protests erupt at Kent State: Burn down ROTC building

Governor calls in National Guard, students ordered to disperse

Protestors throw stones, sticks at soldiersSoldiers open fire -- 4 students killed

Kent State

Their parents: WWII, Great Depression, trust in govt., New Deal

Them: nuclear war, Vietnam, affluence, comfortable, rock music, energetic

Generation gap

-Hippies: rejection of conservative values-drug use (LSD)-chaste v. free love, hardworking v. unemployedmaterialistic v. inward looking, sober v. drugs, homes v. crash pads, sedate v. vibrant

Media’s impact on attitudes Media becomes

increasingly critical after Tet Offensive

Cronkite in ’68: “not closer to victory”

June 1968: Life publishes photos of 242 Americans killed in Vietnam in one week

Implications? Increased uneasiness in the U.S. Greater division between “Hawks” and

“Doves” Increasing numbers consider themselves

“Doves” Also fueled growing Conservatism as a

reaction to the New Left Greater political pressure to get out of

Vietnam