Anti War Protest Movement Flashcards
Key Point:
The Tet Offensive led to an expansion and intensification of the anti-war movement in the US.
Explain:
The media coverage of the Tet Offensive led to people questioning what they had been told about the war. Protest had already been happeninh against the war however following Tet the protest weny mainstream to includ a broader range of groups and more aggressive actions.
Points to cover:
- New Groups included in the protest
- New scale to the protests
- New forms of protest
NEW GROUPS INCLUDED IN THE PROTEST (Veterans, Unionw, Civil Rights groups, Middle Americans)
The protests were being led by students and young people who were in danger of being drafted into the war, however, following Tet new groups unittd against the war. This included workers’ unions, Vietnam veterans and civil rights groups. The average middle-class American also was more and more likely to get involved as the war increasingly was being viewed as immoral. Each group had their own perspectives and ideologies, such as the workers’ unions refusing to fight ‘another rich man’s war’ and the civil rights groups calling to end the war as ‘no Vietnamese called me a slur’. This is significant to the consequence as it highlights the mass spike of more diverse groups instead of just students protesting against the war.
NEW SCALE TO PROTESTS (marches, draft dodging, violence at Kent State)
After the Tet Offensive, marches grew to 5 times their previous their previous size, as shown when compating the Moratorium march on Washington with approximately 500,000 attendants to the 100,000 who turned out in the 67’ to protest the war. After the Tet Offensive, the public became much less willing to go, meaning they had to rely more and more on the draft. Draft dodges became more common as people burned their draft cards in protest or fled to Canada and Mexico. Approximately 50 - 60,000 men of draft age escaped to Canada. These protests however were not recieved favourably by Nixon, and at one peaceful protest at Kent State University, on May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on protestors leading to the death of 4 students. This is significant to the anti-war protest movement as it demonstrates how much more popular it was to protest, to the point in which the government was reacting to it and trying to push it down, which in cases leads to unnecessary violence, as seen in the Kent State University.
NEW FORMS OF PROTEST (bombings, operation Dewey Canyon III)
Now at a new height of expansion in protests, extremist groups emerged which used bombings to protest the war. An example of this is the Sterling Hall Bombing at the University of Wisconsin, on August 21st 1970, which protested the university’s research support of the war and led to the death of an innocent citizen. Returned soldiers also found their unique form of protest such as during Operation Dewey Canyon III in April 1971 many Veterans threw the medals they had earnes during the war back at Washington l whilst occupying the national monument. This is significant to the anti-war protest movement as it shows how ith new groups there came new forms of protest, both violent and non-violent.
