On April 15, 1967, as many as 400,000 protesters marched from Central Park to the United Nations to demand an end to U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, with Martin Luther King Jr. leading the way. It was the largest antiwar demonstration in U.S. history to date.
April 17. The SDS-organized March Against the Vietnam War onto Washington, D.C. was the largest anti-war demonstration in the U.S. to date with 15,000 to 20,000 people attending. Paul Potter demands a radical change of society.
Protesting the Draft
Demonstrations grew in 1966, spurred by a change in the Selective Service System's draft policy that exposed students in the bottom of half of their classes to the possibility that their deferments would be revoked and they would be drafted.
Democratic president Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam War in 1965 gave SDS a cause of its own, as well as a recruiting boost. SDS leaders opposed the war because they felt it was unjust and feared being drafted. As the war continued to escalate, so did the militancy of anti-war students.
Anti-Vietnam war protesters rallied to Washington on Saturday, October 21,1967, in the first national demonstration against the war. The Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam organized the protest to get national visibility for the anti-war movement.
Late May 1967
In the Central Highlands of South Vietnam, Americans intercept North Vietnamese Army units moving in from Cambodia. Nine days of continuous battles leave hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers dead.
To others, the Vietnam War was a forfeit, a just war needlessly lost by timid policymakers and a biased media. For many who study foreign affairs, the Vietnam War was a tragic mistake brought about by U.S. leaders who exaggerated the influence of communism and underestimated the power of nationalism.
Many Americans opposed the war on moral grounds, appalled by the devastation and violence of the war. Others claimed the conflict was a war against Vietnamese independence, or an intervention in a foreign civil war; others opposed it because they felt it lacked clear objectives and appeared to be unwinnable.
Opposing Perspectives on the Vietnam War
The American public was largely split into two camps: people who wanted to end the war, known as “doves” and people who supported America remaining in the war until it was won, or “hawks.”
Draft Resistance in the Vietnam Era
Draft resisters filed for conscientious objector status, didn't report for induction when called, or attempted to claim disability. Soldiers went AWOL and fled to Canada through underground railroad networks of antiwar supporters.
Those who went abroad faced imprisonment or forced military service if they returned home. In September 1974, President Gerald R. Ford offered an amnesty program for draft dodgers that required them to work in alternative service occupations for periods of six to 24 months.
Support for the war was eroding, especially after the shock of the Tet Offensive the year before. A Gallup poll in 1965 showed that 64 percent of the U.S. public approved of American military involvement in Vietnam. By January 1969, 52 percent of the public believed entering the war was a mistake, according to Gallup.
Claiming conscientious objector status on the basis of sincerely held religious or ethical beliefs. Claiming a student deferment, when one is in school primarily in order to study and learn. Claiming a medical or psychological problem, if the purported health issue is genuine and serious.
Jane Fonda is well known for her litany of colorful films and leotards, but the leggy actress also has an appetite for sticking it to the man. In the 1970s, Fonda was a Vietnam protestor, touring military towns and universities speaking on behalf of the soldiers she felt were wrongly deployed to Vietnam.
On March 29, 1973, the last American combat soldier, Master Sgt. Max Beilke, left Vietnam, completing the American military withdrawal. President Richard Nixon had announced on January 23, 1973 that the United States and North Vietnam had signed an agreement to end the war.
There were more than 300,000 draft evaders in total, of which 209,517 men illegally resisted the draft while some 100,000 deserted. Among them, around 30,000 emigrated to Canada during 1966-72.
Nov 1, 1955 - Apr 30, 1975
It was nominally fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand, and other anti-communist allies.
In the aftermath of the war, General Westmoreland, the primary leader of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) for the majority of the war, put forward the argument that the United States could have easily won had the United States not restrained their means from the offset[25]: this would have been achieved with ...
The Vietnam War was a long, costly, and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States.
The justifications for the Vietnam War were seriously flawed. The Central Intelligence Agency had repeatedly informed the Johnson administration that most Southeast Asian countries were not in danger of falling like dominos to communism, even if North Vietnam won. The credibility theory was also exaggerated.
In 1968 alone, nearly 15,000 U.S. service members were killed in Vietnam. The North Koreans seized the USS Pueblo in international waters and imprisoned its crew. The Vietcong and the North Vietnamese army waged the Tet Offensive.
The heaviest action took place near Dak To, in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum. The presence of the PAVN 1st Division prompted a 22-day battle there and had some of the most intense close-quarters fighting of the entire conflict.
More than 380,000 American troops were in the country, alongside over 730,000 Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) soldiers and some 52,000 soldiers from other allied nations.