Protests against the Vietnam War

Protests against the Vietnam War took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The protests were part of a movement in opposition to the Vietnam War and took place mainly in the U.S.

Protests

The very 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 French troops to "subjugate the native population" of Vietnam; these protesters opposed the "recolonization" of Vietnam. [http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i08/08b00701.htm]

1966

*Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) refused to go to war, famously stating that he had "got nothing against no Viet Cong" and that "no Viet Cong ever called me nigger." According to a writer for Sports Illustrated, the governor of Illinois called Ali "disgusting" and the governor of Maine said that Ali "should be held in utter contempt by every patriotic American." [http://www.gale.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/ali_m.htm] In 1967 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but was released on appeal.

1967

*On June 1 Vietnam Veterans Against the War was born. Jan Barry Crumb participated in a protest on April 7 called the "Fifth Avenue Peace Parade" in New York City. On May 30 Crumb and ten like-minded men attended a peace demonstration in Washington D.C.

*In the summer of 1967, Neil Armstrong and various other NASA officials began a tour of South America to raise awareness for space travel. According to "First Man", a biography of Armstrong's life, during the tour, several South American college students protested the astronaut, and shouted such phrases as "Murderers get out of Vietnam!" and other anti-Vietnam War messages.

1970

*Kent State/Cambodia Incursion Protest, Washington, D.C. A week after the Kent State Shootings, on 4 May, 100,000 anti-war demonstrators converged on Washington, D.C. to protest the shooting of the students in Ohio and the Nixon administration's incursion into Cambodia. Even though the demonstration was quickly put together, protestors were still able to bring out thousands to march in the Capital. It was an almost spontaneous response to the events of the previous week. Police ringed the White House with buses to block the demonstrators from getting too close to the executive mansion. Early in the morning before the march, Nixon met with protesters briefly at the Lincoln Memorial but nothing was resolved and the protest went on as planned.

*The Chicano Moratorium: on 29 August, 1970, 25,000 Mexican-Americans participated in the largest antiwar demonstration in Los Angeles. Police attacked with clubs and guns; they killed three people, including Ruben Salazar, a TV news director and "LA Times" reporter.

Common slogans and chants

* The slogan "One, two, three, four! We don't want your fucking war!" was chanted repeatedly at demonstrations throughout the U.S. in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
* "Draft Beer, not boys", "Hell no, we won't go", "Make love, not war" and "Eighteen today, dead tomorrow" were a few of the anti war slogans. "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" Was chanted during LBJ's tenure as President.
* "Love our country", "America, love it or leave it" and "No glory like old glory" are examples of pro-war slogans.There are many other pro- and anti- war slogans, however the mere informational use of those are very small. The group that mostly used the anti-war slogans were called "doves"; those that supported the war were known as "hawks."

Anti-Vietnam War Songs

*"I'm-Fixin'-To-Die-Rag" -Country Joe and the Fish
*"For What It's Worth" - Buffalo Springfield
*"The Unknown Soldier" - The Doors
*"Ohio" - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
*"WAR!" - Edwin Starr
*"Draft Resister" - Steppenwolf
*"Goodnight Saigon" - Billy Joel