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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!"