You say you want a Revolution?
The antiwar movement consisted of a variety of different people with a range of different interests, usually the only one simliar being that the Vietnam War should be stopped immediately.
The Students for A Democratic Society, a branch of the New Left, was an extremely influential factor in the anti-war movement. The SDS organized rallies, protests, and involved some of the nations most renown leaders to join the cause. The SDS knew that in order to make a difference and attract national attention, one needed to obtain powerful allies.
In March 1965, called for a march on Washington to protest the bombing of Northern Vietnam. On 17 April 1965, over 15,000 people congregated at the capital, a turnout that surprised even the organizers.
Confident by the attendance at the Washington march, movement leaders expanded their methods and gained new allies over the next few years. "Vietnam Day," an event held at Berkeley in October 1965, attracted thousands to debate the moral basis of the war. Campus editors formed networks to share information on effective protest methods, and found ingenuitive ways to disperse intelligence. The involvement of the protesters of America rose as rapidly as soldiers in Vietnam were firing their automatic guns. In June, 10,000 students wrote to the Secretary of State asking him to consider developing a program of alternative service for those who opposed violence during the conflict with Vietnam. A two-day march on the Pentagon in October 1967 attracted national media attention, while leaders of the war resistance persuaded young men to turn in their draft cards. The burning of the draft cards was a popular way to show people's abhorrence for the war, and was a method frequently used at such rallies.
Perhaps the most significant development of the period between 1965 and 1968 was the emergence of Civil Rights leaders as active proponents of peace in Vietnam. Martin Luther King, Jr. openly expressed support for the antiwar movement on moral grounds in a Chicago newspaper. King further explained his views in April at the Riverside Church in New York, declaring that the war was depleting much-needed resources from domestic programs that the African Americans needed to pursue their own movement. He also voiced concern about the percentage of African American casualties in relation to the total population in Vietnam. Why were African Americans fighting for a country that didn't even see them as an equal person? King's statements influenced African American activists to join the antiwar cause and established a new layer to the moral objections of the movement.
The Students for A Democratic Society, a branch of the New Left, was an extremely influential factor in the anti-war movement. The SDS organized rallies, protests, and involved some of the nations most renown leaders to join the cause. The SDS knew that in order to make a difference and attract national attention, one needed to obtain powerful allies.
In March 1965, called for a march on Washington to protest the bombing of Northern Vietnam. On 17 April 1965, over 15,000 people congregated at the capital, a turnout that surprised even the organizers.
Confident by the attendance at the Washington march, movement leaders expanded their methods and gained new allies over the next few years. "Vietnam Day," an event held at Berkeley in October 1965, attracted thousands to debate the moral basis of the war. Campus editors formed networks to share information on effective protest methods, and found ingenuitive ways to disperse intelligence. The involvement of the protesters of America rose as rapidly as soldiers in Vietnam were firing their automatic guns. In June, 10,000 students wrote to the Secretary of State asking him to consider developing a program of alternative service for those who opposed violence during the conflict with Vietnam. A two-day march on the Pentagon in October 1967 attracted national media attention, while leaders of the war resistance persuaded young men to turn in their draft cards. The burning of the draft cards was a popular way to show people's abhorrence for the war, and was a method frequently used at such rallies.
Perhaps the most significant development of the period between 1965 and 1968 was the emergence of Civil Rights leaders as active proponents of peace in Vietnam. Martin Luther King, Jr. openly expressed support for the antiwar movement on moral grounds in a Chicago newspaper. King further explained his views in April at the Riverside Church in New York, declaring that the war was depleting much-needed resources from domestic programs that the African Americans needed to pursue their own movement. He also voiced concern about the percentage of African American casualties in relation to the total population in Vietnam. Why were African Americans fighting for a country that didn't even see them as an equal person? King's statements influenced African American activists to join the antiwar cause and established a new layer to the moral objections of the movement.