Resistance to the Vietnam War

Beginning in 1964, the United States got involved in a war in the small Asian country of Vietnam. Vietnam was split into two halves, north and south, and the northern half had come under the control of communist rule in 1954. At the time, many Americans were afraid of communism – to them, it represented the opposite of freedom. They feared something called the “domino effect”: if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, they believed that the surrounding countries would soon follow. This concern was amplified as the world’s two largest communist countries, China and the USSR, provided military and financial assistance to North Vietnam.  The United States worried that the northern half of Vietnam might spread communism to the southern half (which could eventually spread to other countries), so they intervened in an attempt to defeat the North Vietnamese forces, also known as the “Việt Cộng.”

The Vietnam War turned out to be one of the most unpopular wars in American history. People across the country participated in protests and demonstrations against the war.

Reasons for Protest

Different people had various reasons for hating the war in Vietnam. First, some people believed any U.S. involvement was immoral and unnecessary. They thought South Vietnam could take care of itself, and it was inappropriate for the U.S. to intrude on their country. Other people did not think communism in North Vietnam was a big enough threat to the safety of South Vietnam. For the first time in history, regular people could see video footage of the war on television news. Most families bought TVs for the first time in the 1960s, and when they saw video footage of the brutal fighting, they realized how truly terrible war could be. They could not bring themselves to support a war after actually seeing what it looked like.

Second, a lot of people, especially college students, did not like the draft system the U.S. government used to recruit soldiers. Each man over 18 years old had a “draft card” with a number on it, and when the military needed more troops they would pick the numbers of men who had to go to war—like a lottery or a raffle. Men and women on college campuses did not like the idea that the government could take them away from their education to fight a war they did not like or believe in.

Who Protested?

The most publicized protests happened on college campuses, where young people demonstrated against the draft and in opposition to the war on moral grounds. Nation-wide student groups often led the protests. An example is the group Students for a Democratic Society, which was a radical, politically liberal club. One common practice was draft card burning, where large groups of young men gathered in a public place to burn their government-issued draft cards. This was technically illegal, so sometimes police arrested protesters. Some student protesters became more violent at times, storming school administration buildings or rioting outside military offices on college campuses. Police often had to use force to stop these violent protests. In 1970, a riot at Kent State University in Ohio ended with members of the Ohio National Guard firing their rifles into the crowd of protesters, killing four students and injuring nine others When other students across the country heard about the incident, they only became more passionate about their demonstrations.

Women of all ages also protested the war. Women’s groups, like Women Strike for Peace, were less violent than the college students. They wrote anti-war articles and held peaceful rallies with speeches against the war. Women Strike for Peace held prayer vigils every Sunday on the White House Lawn in Washington, D.C., to pray for the end of the war. Women’s groups broadened their support by appealing to morality; they especially did not like some of the brutal tactics used in the war, such as chemical bombing and napalm.

Results of the Protests

Public opinion polls show that public approval of the war dropped to barely 30% by 1971. News stations and newspapers covered protests very closely, and most coverage of the war itself was very negative. President Lyndon B. Johnson, who originally sent troops to Vietnam, was so discouraged that he did not run for re-election in 1968. Instead, Richard Nixon won the presidency by promising to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam. He pulled the military out of Vietnam slowly, but negative public opinion continued to pressure him. By 1973, U.S. involvement had officially ended. It is likely that if the people had not protested so passionately, U.S. troops would have remained in Vietnam for several more years.