Vietnam War Protest-Groups other than Women Strike for Peace
(photos below)
The
Vietnam conflict originated between the formally French-backed Indochina
Bao Dai government in the south of Vietnam and the communist Viet Minh
of the northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam, led by Ho Chi
Minh. The French withdrew from their former colonies in IndoChina
by the mid 1950s. As part of Cold War strategy to control the
spread of communism and Chinese influence in Asia, the United States
began sending aid to South Vietnam in 1955, in support of their
opposition to the North Vietnamese. In 1960, President Kennedy
sent some of the first U.S. troops to South Vietnam, as advisors to the
government in Saigon. U.S. economic and military aid to South
Vietnam increased throughout the War.
Although never officially declared a war by Congress, in reality, U.S.
involvement in Vietnam was recognized internationally as war.
Opposition to U.S. involvement in IndoChina coalesced into a broad
anti-war movement by the mid 1960s. It grew out of a coalition of groups
previously opposed to atmospheric nuclear testing and the growth of
militarism during the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, and
student-led social justice organizations. As U.S. military
commitments increased in Vietnam and spread to Cambodia and Laos, so too
did the anti-war movement gain support across a broader spectrum of the
American public. Objections to the war included moral opposition,
concern for the fate of thousands of young American men killed or
wounded, horror at the killing and maiming of millions of Vietnamese
civilians and ecological destruction of that nation, practical concerns
about the feasibility of defeating the North Vietnamese, and concerns
over increasing international political instability.
Protests against the war included political lobbying,public
demonstrations, destruction of draft and FBI records, and
bombings. These protests ranged in scale from huge national
demonstrations with tens of thousands attending, to a few people
gathered on a corner block. Thousands of protests across the
United States occurred during the decade of 1964 to 1974.
Dorothy Marder’s photography during the period of the early 1960s to mid
1970s documented the “real” anti-war movement, particularly in New York
City. Marder believed that the large news corporations covered
only national demonstrations, distorted the reality of the anti-war
movement, and neglected the small or local protests. Her
photographs in the Vietnam War section document this more local face of
anti-war activism. In addition, there are images of more Vietnam
war era demonstrations on display in the Women Strike for Peace
section.
Literature
Cited
DeBenedetti, Charles and Charles Chatfield. An American
Ordeal. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990.
_______________________________________
Event: Delegation visiting Congressman Peter Peyer
Daily Death
Toll Project
Washington, D.C.
November 11, 1971
Prints D 190-191
7.5” x 9.5”
Event: Daily Death Toll Project
Washington, D.C.
November 11, 1971
Prints D 190-191
6.5” x 9.5”
Event: Daily Death Toll Project
Washington, D.C.
November 11, 1971
Prints D 190-191
7.5” x 9.5”
Event: Daily Death Toll Project
Washington, D.C.
December 17, 1971
Prints D 190-191
7.5” x 9.5”
Event: No War Toys Press Conference
New York, New York
February 26, 1973
Prints D 337 - 338
7.5” x 9.5”
Event: Protesting Tiger Cages, Anti-Thieu Demonstration
Washington DC
April 5, 1973
Prints D 340 - 342
6.5” x 9.5”
Close up
Event: Protesting Tiger Cages, Anti-Thieu Demonstration
Washington DC
April 5, 1973
Prints D 340 - 342
6.5” x 9.5”
Ralph DiGia with child
Event: War Resisters League, Pot-Luck Supper
New York City, New York
March 15, 1973
Prints D 401 - 406
7.5" x
6"
Mildred Scott Olmsted (far right)
Event: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Disarmament Conference
United Nations, New York, New York
May 9, 1975
Prints D 473
6.5” x 9.5”
Pete Seeger
Event: End of War Rally, Central Park
New York, New York
May 11, 1975
Prints D 477 - 482
7.5” x 9.5”
Gloria Emerson
Event: End of War Rally, Central Park
New York, New York
May 11, 1975
Prints D 477 - 482
7.5” x 9.5”
Event: End of War Rally, Central Park
New York , New York
May 11, 1975
Prints D 477 - 482
7.5” x 9.5”
Created 2010-2011 by Elizabeth
Matlock and Wendy Chmielewski
This file was last updated on
February 20, 2015