Protests Arise

All around America people are protesting against the Vietnam War. People are getting sick and tired of being lied to by their own government. While students at universities are gathering together to rally their cause by holding up signs that say “Make love, not war”, “Eighteen today, dead tomorrow”, and “Draft Beer, not boys.” Americans even protest by ripping or burning their own draft cards, which is illegal. And people would show their hatred towards the war by calling the veterans “Baby killers” and even abusing several of them. These anti-war protests first started out during the early 60s and have since continued on to now, 1971.

In 1961 President Kennedy sent over “special advisors” to South Vietnam to help train the Vietnamese troops. What the American public didn’t know was that these “special advisors” were sent over to kill people. Then during 1964 an American military ship, called the Maddox, was sent over to North Vietnam to patrol the border. But the Vietnamese saw the ship and fired at it. The Maddox refused to retreat and stayed, a few days later word got back to the American public that the ship was fired at. The general public was furious and wanted revenge, but they didn’t know that the ship was spying on the Vietnamese nor did they know the second time it was a storm that had messed with the ship’s radar, making them misinterpret it as being shot at. Later the American public found out they had been lied to about these events and the people grew angry with the government and started protesting anti-war.

Protests first started at collage campuses where students created the organization Students for a Democratic Society or SDS in 1965. This society moves more towards the left side of the spectrum and has expanded rapidly throughout the sixties. The University of Michigan was the first collage to tech-in against the Vietnam war. For those who don’t know tech-in refers to taking action against a cause by using debates, lectures, movies, and musical events. Once it started at the University of Michigan several more popped up around the nation. Then in 1969 the SDS had there last convention and was classified as a “domestic terrorist group” by the FBI.

One of the most popular anti-war protests so far, occurred in front of the Lincoln Memorial on October 21, 1967, where around 100,000 protesters gathered together to rally behind their cause. There was even a man by the name of Abbie Hoffman who wore a shirt made out of the American flag. Hoffman is a political and social activist who is able to convince many young people to join his cause. He is also the co-founder of the the Youth International Party, more commonly know as the “Yippies”. Later that night some 30,000 protesters traveled towards the pentagon and continued their protests there.

Around November the Vietnam War was causing more American casualties where 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. With more soldiers either getting killed or wounded the draft called for 40,000  healthy young men every month. There were already around 500,000 men in Vietnam by this time. The war was getting more costly and taxpayers were not happy paying for a war that cost about $25 billion per year. With the government creating these actions there was more fuel added to the fire against the war.

Usually when veterans come home from the war they are embraced with open arms and parades. Although with the current war it seems to be the opposite for example, people constantly accuse veterans for being responsible for the war. What the people don’t know is a lot of them didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Americans would go as far to spit on them and even beat them up when they wore their uniforms. Most people don’t even realize that American troops have been over at Vietnam since 1945.

With Americans growing restless with radical ideas and actions it doesn’t look like the protests will slow down. Right now the US is in hostile period of time and the public just wants peace and love.