SDS members led by undergraduate Mark Rudd voiced their opposition to the school’s involvement with the Institute for Defense Analysis and weapons research for the military, while also fighting the school over the construction of a new gym that they complained offered discriminatory access to Harlem neighborhood residents. As America’s military presence grew, so did the parallel battle for peace. This was encouraged by the Johnson administration’s decision to abolish draft deferments for most graduate students, a move that affected some 650,000 men. “To the Johnsons’ credit, their family had put their money where their commander in chief’s mouth was,” historian Mark Updegrove tells LIFE. You can unsubscribe at any time. “There aren’t enough walls to isolate you from that,” Lyndon Johnson’s younger daughter, Luci, later recalled of the constant refrains of “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”, Soon the voices of protest reached inside the White House’s staterooms, too. Even so, says Updegrove, the President deeply believed that he had to keep his nation fighting, because “sometimes you have to take a stand, that you cannot take liberty for granted.”. A group that became know as the Milwaukee 14 broke into that city’s Selective Service office and took 4,000 class 1-A draft cards, dragging them out in sacks and burning them in a park across the street. And at Columbia, 3,500 students and 1,000 faculty members boycotted classes in protest. The Johnson administration responded by launching a vigorous propaganda campaign to restore public confidence in its handling of the war. Fairfax remembers the demonstration 50 years on. British Pathé Peace Talks Students at many universities also opposed recruitment by firms profiting from the war and protested their universities’ investments in companies such as Dow Chemical, which made napalm, a jelly gasoline that was used in Vietnam in firebombs and flamethrowers. Civil rights groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Free Speech Movement had held teach-ins and marched in Washington and elsewhere. March 17, 1968: Vietnam War comes to London as demonstration turns violent Scores of protesters were injured after British police attempted to disperse an anti-Vietnam War rally taking place outside the US embassy in London. All Rights Reserved. The effort was somewhat successful in tempering criticisms of the war. Luci’s husband, Patrick Nugent, served in the Air National Guard, and Lynda’s husband, Captain Charles Robb, commanded a Marine rifle company. By Dylan Matthews Jun 2, 2020, 1:30pm EDT The one everyone thought was the real deal for the first few years. Our Country Lied to the American people. By 1968, over 500,000 forces were serving in Vietnam. In 1968 Melbourne was the scene of a violent and bloody protest against Australia's role in the Vietnam War. That’s what gave rise to the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War and what inspired Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to congress, to lead 5,000 women in a march to the Capitol. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! © 2020 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Protestors massed outside the White House at all hours. An excerpt from Chicago '68 by David Farber. Muhammad Ali, who had been banned from boxing because he refused the draft, toured campuses, giving hundreds of speeches. Eugene McCarthy’s entry into the 1968 presidential race gave a huge boost to the antiwar movement, and the battles of Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive changed the minds of … Anti-war demonstrators picketing in front of the White House on Jan. 19, 1968. In Spring 1968, the Morningside Heights campus was rocked by a series of protests, much like those taking place across the country and world. While a March 1967 poll had shown that more than half of Americans supported the way Johnson was handling the war, by early 1968 that proportion was down to about a third. Both of his daughters’ husbands were serving there. In Washington, D.C. nearly 100,000 people gather to protest the American war effort in Vietnam. Polls taken in the summer of 1967 revealed that, for the first time, American support for the war had fallen below 50 percent. “They rebel in the streets. The youth movement's demonstrations soon merged with the protests of students who opposed the Vietnam War. London - Anti-Vietnam Demonstrations AKA Mothering Sunday Brings More Protests For Peace In Vietnam (1968) Anti-Vietnam protests: peaceful demo by mothers and CND demo in Trafalgar Square. The effort was somewhat successful in tempering criticisms of the war. There were three arson attacks at Southern Illinois University by those opposing the war. When 1,000 New York policemen descended on Columbia’s campus to clear out the protesters, that response resulted in many injuries and 700 arrests. Because of his pivotal role in the Chicago protests, Hoffman was among the "Chicago 7" rounded up and arrested months later. A Catholic priest named Philip Berrigan made his … Protests spread, and schools served as major centers of agitation. Many people were against it because there was no sense that the United States could win. Political activism and protests spread to other campuses in the 1960s. The peace movement began to push harder for an end to the war—the march on Washington was the most powerful sign of their commitment to this cause. They don’t want to go to school because they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.”, While personally affronted that Kitt would so publicly criticize him in the White House, Johnson knew why people protested. Protest signs adorn fencing outside the White House on … Read more in LIFE’s new special edition, 1968: The Year That Changed the World, available in the TIME Shop, on Amazon and at retailers everywhere. Stop comparing today’s protests to 1968 History rhymes, but it doesn’t repeat. By the spring of 1968, student protests had reached hundreds of campuses. Anywhere from 70,000 to 300,000 Vietnam veterans committed suicide Students there, as well as at Radcliffe and Boston University, took part in a four-day hunger strike against the war. The protest was also important in suggesting that the domestic Cold War consensus was beginning to fracture. More than 50,000 of the protesters marched to the Pentagon to ask for an end to the conflict. Flashback: Vietnam War protests … The following is an excerpt from LIFE’s new special edition, 1968: The Year That Changed the World, available in the TIME Shop, on Amazon and at retailers everywhere. At sea, Lord Nelson and the Royal Navy consistently thwarted Napoleon Bonaparte, ...read more, On October 21, 1959, on New York City’s Fifth Avenue, thousands of people line up outside a bizarrely shaped white concrete building that resembled a giant upside-down cupcake. Again the VSC took the lead and they convened a meeting on 13 J… See more ideas about Vietnam, Vietnam protests, War. From the archive, 18 March 1968: 300 arrested after Vietnam protest This article is more than 10 years old Originally published in the Guardian on 18 March 1968 … Public opinion turned and protests broke out across campuses and cities in the US, culminating in protests outside the Transcript for ARCHIVAL VIDEO: Protests Turn Violent at the 1968 Democratic National Convention 40000 members of the youth international party defeats they … Although his administration was much maligned ...read more, In one of the most decisive naval battles in history, a British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off the coast of Spain. In Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Oslo, Munich, Frankfurt, and many other cities participants protested against the bombing campaign of North Vietnam. When the singer and Batman star Eartha Kitt attended a White House luncheon at which Johnson spoke, she stood up and scolded the commander in chief. Doves clashed with police and the National Guard in August 1968, when antiwar demonstrators flocked to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to prevent the nomination of a prowar candidate. However, the Tet Offensive of early 1968 destroyed much of the Johnson Administration’s credibility concerning the Vietnam War. Hoffman and Rubin decided to stage a counter-convention to protest the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which culminated with the nomination of Pigasus, a pig, as a presidential candidate. Their chanting was so loud that they could be heard inside the executive mansion. Mar 28, 2019 - Protesting the War we were lied into. Vietnam War Protests at the Disapproval of the Nebraska Legislature Madeline Brown, History 250: The Historian Craft, Fall 2019 The Vietnam War era created a highly contentious time in the United States, particularly among college students. This was also located on the main road from northern South Vietnam into the country of Laos. It wasn’t just leftist students and hippies who opposed the war. Many of the protesters were not simply questioning America’s conduct in Vietnam, but very basis of the nation’s Cold War foreign policy. By signing up you are agreeing to our, What to Know About India's Farmer Protests, The 5 Books Bill Gates Recommends This Year, Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know now on politics, health and more, © 2020 TIME USA, LLC. Although the … 3 In May of that year, Johnson announced that the U.S. government would participate in formal peace talks in Paris. The high profile protest of March, along with the May 1968 events in France, brought considerable attention to the next major event planned by the Vietnam Solidarity Group, a protest in October 1968, named ‘The Autumn Offensive’. How today’s protests compare to 1968, explained by a historian Heather Ann Thompson explains what’s changed and what has stayed the same. It was opening day at the new Guggenheim Museum, home to one of the world’s top collections of ...read more, On October 21, 1941, German soldiers go on a rampage, killing thousands of Yugoslavian civilians, including whole classes of schoolboys. They also took over school buildings and occupied the president’s office. They circled alongside the fence, carrying signs reading “Stop the War,” “Bring the GIs Home Now,” and “We Mourn Our Soldiers, They Are Dying in Vain.” As the protesters walked, some handed out flyers, flashed peace signs, and held candles. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Demonstrations and protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. READ MORE: How the Vietnam War Empowered the Hippie Movement, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thousands-protest-the-war-in-vietnam. Globally, 1968 was a turbulent year in politics: the Vietnam war raged on and became increasingly deadly. The Vietnam War would kill nearly 60,000 Americans, wound more than 150,000 Americans, and leave more than 23,000 U.S. soldiers permanently disabled. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Students protesting outside the White House, 1965. He knew why they begged for their fathers, sons, brothers, and boyfriends to come home from Vietnam. The protest was the most dramatic sign of waning U.S. support for President Lyndon Johnson’s war in Vietnam. Father Daniel Berrigan and eight other members of the Catholic Church entered the Selective Service office in Catonsville, Maryland, and seized hundreds of draft files. All Rights Reserved. Despite attempts to maintain neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, Yugoslavia finally succumbed to signing a “friendship treaty” with ...read more. A Milwaukee Journal survey found that 75 percent of students supported organized protest as a “legitimate means of expressing student grievances.” And some abandoned the Gandhian principles of nonviolence championed by Martin Luther King Jr. Massive gatherings of anti-war demonstrators helped bring attention to the public resentment of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Stop comparing today’s protests to 1968 There are superficial similarities, but what we’re seeing now is something completely new. Young men publicly burned their draft cards. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Behind the Anti-War Protests That Swept America in 1968. • The first protests against U.S. involvement in Vietnam were in 1945, when United States Merchant Marine sailors condemned the U.S. government for the use of U.S. merchant ships to transport European troops to "subjugate the native population" of Vietnam. How the Vietnam War Empowered the Hippie Movement. The Vietnam War rallies and protests started on college campuses and became a massive movement that helped shape public opinion and government policy. There were numerous protests, including a march and rally on April 26, 1969, in Bushnell Park in Hartford.. The antiwar movement became more grounded in political analysis than in the starry-eyed assurance of earlier protesters, Anthony DeCurtis tells LIFE. At Harvard Law School, professor Alan Dershowitz taught a class on legal ways to resist the draft. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. The protests grow more violent. When the Johnson administration announced that it would ask for a 10 percent increase in taxes to fund the war, the public’s skepticism increased. Moving forward, an exhausted president, a heightened presence, and protests happening all over the country led us to 1968. Some think that the war is ending. At Columbia, the events were ostensibly triggered by the planned construction of a gymnasium in Morningside Park following decades of neighborhood neglect on the part of the university. The New Left dubbed the United States “Amerika,” and the underground press disseminated antiwar information through their own news services. “It was about capitalism and about something that needed to be overthrown,” he says, “and not by consciousness.”. 1968 January 30-31: Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces launch the Tet offensive, a massive series of attacks across South Vietnam. In 1968, the country was torn apart by an ill-conceived war fought in the cities and jungles of far-off Vietnam. 1969: The Vietnam Moratorium As the war continued, the Connecticut movement expanded beyond its campus base. Media and politicians went overboard, concerned that riots similar to those in France would be seen on British streets, and the press spoke of bombs and violence, which in turn only generated further interest. On October 21, 1967, some 35,000 anti-war protesters organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, gathered for a demonstration at the Pentagon (the "March on the Pentagon"), where they were confronted by some 2,500 armed soldiers. An excerpt from No One Was Killed: The Democratic National Convention, August 1968 by John Schultz . Late 1968: After the 1968 Democratic National Convention, many members of anti war groups feel they’ve lost the rationale for their protests. The president even went so far as to call General William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, back to the United States to address Congress and the public. A financial brokerage house, Paine Webber, Jackson & Curtis, went so far as to run an ad saying that peace in Vietnam would be “the most bullish thing that could happen to the stock market.”, Eugene McCarthy’s entry into the 1968 presidential race gave a huge boost to the antiwar movement, and the battles of Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive changed the minds of many, as Americans came to the realization that the North Vietnamese refused to be worn down. On January 21, the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) began an artillery bombardment of the U.S. Marine garrison at Khe Sanh. Eartha Kitt (right) at the White House with Lady Bird Johnson (center) in 1968. 1968: Police clash with anti-war protesters Trouble has flared in Grosvenor Square, London, after an estimated 6,000 marchers faced up to police outside the United States Embassy. Some of those opposed to the war raided draft offices. On October 21, 1921, President Warren G. Harding delivers a speech in Alabama in which he condemns lynchings—extrajudicial murders (usually hangings) committed primarily by white supremacists against Black Americans in the Deep South. Oct. 23, 1967 - Protests all over the world occurred on the October 21-22 weekend against the American war in Vietnam. Vietnam War protest, 1968. However, the Tet Offensive of early 1968 destroyed much of the Johnson Administration’s credibility concerning the Vietnam … Outside, they doused the cards with their own homemade napalm. The protests continued to intensify in 1967, as the number of American troops in Vietnam peaked at 450,000. It had been growing since the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and Johnson’s subsequent call for the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign. Agitation spread to hundreds of schools. “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed,” Kitt said. 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