Opposition to the Vietnam War

An antiwar movement in the U.S. pitted supporters of the government's war policy against those who opposed it.

Roots of Opposition

• College students create a powerful vocal protest movement

• Free Speech Movement (Berkley)

• Students for a Democratic Society

• U.S. has no business in Vietnam's civil war

• U.S. can't police the entire globe

• South Vietnam's regime is corrupt

• War morally unjust

• Against the draft/selective service

Peaceful Protests Turn Violent...

•1967 protests escalate

•When police came to arrest protestors, crowds retaliated

•Refused to leave buildings - forcing colleges to cancel classes

•Roads blocked

•ROTC buildings burned

• War divides the nation in two by 1967

• Doves: withdraw from Vietnam (28%)

• Hawks: unleash greater military force in Vietnam (56%)

• 70% of Americans believe war protests were "acts of disloyalty"

• Used slogans: "Support our men in Vietnam" & "America-Love it or leave it"

Protest Music of the Vietnam Era

•Wars create antagonists who transformed empathy, anger, frustration into a message, in this era it was popular music...Vietnam War Protest Music

•Some songs were patriotic: Okie From Muskogee

•Many were anti-war songs: Fortunate Son

Tet Offensive

• Jan. 30, 1968

• Vietcong & North Vietnamese army attack +100 South Vietnamese cities during truce

• Vietcong/North Vietnam defeated (lose 32,000)

• War seen by Americans as un-winnable

• TV images portray enemy that is everywhere

• Johnson disapproval rating = 60%

Impact of Tet Offensive

•Johnson criticized by hawks & doves

•Decides not to run again - splits Democratic party

•Riots in Chicago during Democratic Party convention

•Nixon wins 1968 presidential election

•Promises to abolish draft

•End Vietnam war with honorable peace

Nixon & Vietnam

•Nixon adopts Vietnamization Policy to address American causalities

•Train & equip the South Vietnamese to take more responsibility

•Withdraw American troops

•"Peace with honor"

Trouble Continues on Home Front

• August 1969: Nixon announced he would begin withdrawing troops from Vietnam

• November 1969: My Lai Massacre reported by New York Times

• Increases public opposition and weariness to war

• April 1970: announcement that the U.S. had invaded Cambodia

• College students around the nation burst out and protest

• 1.5 million college students strike; closing down 1200 campuses

Kent State Protest

• May 1970: Ohio students @ Kent State University protest & burn ROTC building

• Demonstrators are fired upon by National Guard who were hurling rocks

• 9 protesters wounded, 4 killed

• Similar violence broke out at Jackson State University

• College protests demonstrate the divide in the country over the war

• Many believe the students, "Got what they deserved!"