On October 1967, one of the biggest anti-war demonstrations took place at Lincoln memorial, with 100,000 people attending, many people were arrested during the march. Martin Luther King Jr. was very anti-war, he spoke out about it a lot. Muhammad Ali was also anti-war, refusing to be drafted and speaking out about the issue. A Gallup poll showed that 50% of the country was opposed to Johnson's Tet Offensive, and 35% were in support. Many war veterans who were on crutches or in wheelchairs were part of the organization called Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Their display of throwing away medals on tv won people over to the anti-war cause.
In 1968, Richard Nixon won the presidential election, he wanted the army to remain in Vietnam, which further divided the country. He stated that anti-war protesters unfairly drowned out the "silent majority of opposing opinions. In May 1970, National Guard troops shot into a crowd of anti-war protesters against the invasion of Cambodia, killing four students. The following year, Nixon ended the war involvement in Southeast Asia.
At the start of the war, there was a 61% approval, but near the end, nearly 28% of Americans supported the war, while the rest were in opposition. Many of these protests regarding political issues are still seen today, like the women's march.
Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-protests
http://www.ushistory.org/us/55d.asp
Vey interesting to see the dramatic change in people's attitude towards the war. I remember in class we talked about how Nixon wanted peace and to avoid war yet he was trying to brutally fight the Vietnam war with a lot of violence.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post on the opposition to the Vietnam War. These type of protests were very common to the country during times of war and many strongly believed against the actions of the US intervention. It is important to note that college students were the biggest opposition to the war since they were next in line to be drafted and they would be fighting for the "rich man." A very interesting fact is that the biggest makeup of the protests were college intellects and the biggest makeup of the pro- war were less educated people.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great read! It was interesting to see how the approval rates went down so much, because many had supported the end of communism in Vietnam when the war began. I also liked the fact in the protests about not fighting "another rich man's war", because it showed how many people cared to protest against the war, especially college students. The protests also said a lot about the civil rights movement, as Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali were strongly against the war.
ReplyDeleteIt was really interesting to read and understand just how much controversy the war in Vietnam caused. I liked how you included poll statistics to show how people's attitudes toward the violence changed over the course of time.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It was interesting to see how the protests started and how it spread like wildfire through the nation. It reminds me of movements that have sparked in history before, like the Civil Rights movement. The Vietnam War protests were also spread through student activism, as shown in your example of 4 students killed by the National Guard, which was at Kent State University. The day after, 6000 students attended a strike rally in response. However, the violent nature of this mob should not be condoned.
ReplyDeleteSource:http://depts.washington.edu/antiwar/vietnam_student.shtml
Nice post! I found it very interesting how Nixon's attempts at casting the protesters as the enemy was unsuccessful. Do you think this was because he overestimated the amount of "opposed silent voters"? I found this website that discusses this matter further. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/content/nixon-silentmajority-speech.html
ReplyDeleteNice post! I found it very interesting how Nixon's attempts at casting the protesters as the enemy was unsuccessful. Do you think this was because he overestimated the amount of "opposed silent voters"? I found this website that discusses this matter further. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/content/nixon-silentmajority-speech.html
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post! I like how you included different groups and individuals to demonstrate the public's general disinterest in the later years of the war. What do you think became evident after a few years of fighting that caused the public's approval of the war to drop 33%?
ReplyDelete