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Anti-War Movement. Student Activism Media Coverage The draft Lack of censorship. Immoral War?. Two anti-war activists set themselves on fire in November 32 year old Norman Morrison at the Pentagon 22 year old Roger Allen LaPorte at the UN headquarters in NYC.
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Student Activism • Media Coverage • The draft • Lack of censorship
Immoral War? • Two anti-war activists set themselves on fire in November • 32 year old Norman Morrison at the Pentagon • 22 year old Roger Allen LaPorte at the UN headquarters in NYC
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.
Executions • On February 1, 1968, a suspected NLF officer was summarily executed by General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. Loan shot the suspect in the head on a public street in front of journalists
Public Sympathy • The execution was filmed and photographed and provided another iconic image that helped sway public opinion in the United States against the war.
On October 15, 1969, hundreds of thousands of people took part in National Moratorium anti-war demonstrations across the United States; the demonstrations prompted many workers to call in sick from their jobs and adolescents nationwide engaged in truancy from school. However, the proportion of individuals doing either who actually participated in the demonstrations is uncertain
My Lai Massacre • Over 300 civilians killed by US special soldiers • The explosive news of the massacre fuelled the outrage of the antiwar movement, which demanded the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. It also led more potential draftees to file for conscientious objector status. Those who had always argued against the war felt vindicated; those on the fringes of the movement became more vocal.
Many Americans opposed the war on moral grounds, horrified by the devastation it was wreaking on ordinary Vietnamese civilians
Unwinnable War? • Many anti-war activists were themselves Vietnam veterans, as evidenced by the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In April 1971, thousands of these veterans converged on the White House in Washington D.C., and hundreds of them threw their medals and decorations on the steps of the United States Capitol.
The Draft • The large cohort of Baby Boomers who became eligible for military service during the Vietnam War also meant a steep increase in the number of exemptions and deferments, especially for college and graduate students
Poor go to War • This was the source of considerable resentment among poor and working class young men, who could not afford a college education
Draft card burnings • In late July 1965, Johnson doubled the number of young men to be drafted per month from 17,000 to 35,000, and on August 31, signed a law making it a crime to burn a draft card. • On October 15, 1965 the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam in New York staged the first draft card burning to result in an arrest under the new law
In 1967, the continued operation of a seemingly unfair draft system then calling as many as 40,000 men for induction each month fuelled a burgeoning draft resistance movement.
Anti-War Slogans • Common slogans and chants • "Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?" • The chant "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", "Eighteen today, dead tomorrow",
and "LBJ – pull out like your old man should have!" were a few of the anti-war slogans. • "Fight the VD, Not the VC!" displayed sentiments to concentrate more on the familiar problem of venereal diseases than the foreign group, the Vietcong. • "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-War Songs • "Imagine" - John Lennon (1971) • War" - The Temptations, later covered by Edwin Starr (1970) • "The Unknown Soldier" - The Doors (1968) • "What's Going On" - Marvin Gaye (1971)