Anchor: Welcome back, before the break we talked about raising the stakes which included Lyndon B. Johnson who was the president at the time as well as the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The Gulf of Tonkin was a resolution that allowed the president to have power over Vietnam without congressional approval but with the War Powers act, it turned the Gulf of Tonkin around. Today we will be talking about protests. One of the most famous protests was the Kent State University one because the National guard was called in and then one of the guards shot four people and killed them and injured five more. We also be talking about the Pentagon Papers which when the papers were released, the president tried to block them but that damaged the reputation …show more content…
of many involved in the war and strengthened the demands for peace. The United States of America was shocked when these were released to the public. After the papers were released, Walter Cronkite, a reporter, said, “ The only rational way out, then, will be to negotiate not as victors, but as honorable people who have lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and they did the best they could”. Then we will be talking about draft dodging which was dodging the drafts and the people who did that went to Canada and Mexico. Now to Wesley with a report on peace protests and anti war movement. Wesley: Thank you Lucas, Thank you Lucas, Soon after the start of our involvement in the Vietnam war.
Protests started around America it begun in New York in the early 70’ the protests started out as just students from the the local universities as the protests progressed older generations joined in on the action Later on. Cornell formed the catholic peace fellowship in 1964 in washington DC over 25,000 some of those where socialists and or communists that supported the north people attended but most of the protesters were pacifists who believed that it was wrong morally wrong to kill and have war. Throughout the united states thousands of students became active in the protests against the war in 1965 more than 3000 people attended the “teach in” at university of Michigan starting over 100 more protests across the counter students refused to attend lectures and to leave the university. In 1967 more than 20,000 people attended a rally at the Washington monument the rally was organized by the democratic society the protests became less peaceful shouting ,strikes and speakers were common. ... …show more content…
Lucas Anchor: Thank you Wesley for the report on the peace protests and the anti-war movements. Next we will be talking about Kent State University as well as the Anti Draft movement. Now to Natalie. Natalie: Thank you Lucas As the Vietnam war continued tensions rose in America Once this took place the people and citizens basically divided the country in half.
One side was for the war and one side was against the war. Having the war continuing in Vietnam and America helping South Vietnam out, more men were needed to be drafted from America. The draft was very unpopular, some people would do anything they could to get out of it. This was called the anti-draft movement. Once men were drafted they were served to fight for one year. To get out of the draft many people went to legal and nonlegal actions. For example if your family had money or connections to the government you could get out of the draft. For some illegal actions to get out of the draft people would flee the country, burn their draft card, or just ignore the statement. If you were caught for doing anyone of these actions you could be sent to jail or forced to go to war. Because the draft was very unpopular it led to protests. The protests were not just towards the draft, there were many people in America who highly believed the war was wrong. Some said that it was none of Americas business becoming involved, and some believed that America was fighting the war in all the wrong ways. On April 30, 1970 president Nixon announced on national T.V that America needed to draft 150,000 more soldiers to fight in the invasion of Cambodia. This then caused even more protests in America, especially at Kent State. At this university a huge number
of students gathered to protest against the war. The national guard was then called in to prevent any riots that could accure. The guards then started to move the protesters back when one guard nervously shot his gun causing the rest of the guards to fire. This then resulted in 4 students killed and 9 students injured. This protest at Kent State opened America's eyes to what was happening right in front of them. These two events that took place did not just impact America, but the whole Vietnam War. Back to you Lucas Anchor: Thank you natalie for the report on Kent State University as well as the Anti Draft movement. Have you ever heard of Daniel Ellsberg? I have not. So now to Max for a report on the Pentagon Papers. Max: Thank you Lucas, When the Pentagon Papers were released to the U.S. public in 1971, the whole country was dumbfounded. These classified documents held lots of information detailing the truth about the government’s actions during the Vietnam War, and they weren’t in any means supposed to be released to the public. It all started in 1971 when United States military analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, who while employed at RAND Corporation, created a national political controversy when he decided to release the top-secret Pentagon Papers. These top-secret papers held valuable government information detailing the U.S. Government’s truths about their actions in the Vietnam War. With these papers having been published in The New York Times, the whole U.S. public had their hands on this information. Some of the information included in the papers was that LBJ was committing more troops to the war while stating the opposite, that there was increased involvement in the war before the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and exposed government lies and coverups. This created a huge stir in the anti-war protests, and now everyone knew that getting out of the war was a must. So Nixon knew he needed to try and block the releases of the papers, and even though the papers were released during the Nixon administration, they focused on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. In the end, the case against Ellsberg made it up to the Supreme Court, the final decision was this was infact a legal ruling on the freedom of press. And that’s the story on the Pentagon Papers. Back to you Lucas.
In August of 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the closest thing there was to declaring war on Vietnam. A war that resulted in millions of people dying, and the loss of liberties for a large number of people. The Resolution was passed because the government (and the American people) believed that the Vietnamese had fired torpedoes at a US destroyer on routine patrol in the Tonkin Gulf on August 2, 1964. It was also reported that a second deliberate attack happened against a pair of ships two days later on August 4, 1964. Based on this information, the President in a news conference announced to the U.S. that he was ordering air strikes against North Vietnam in retaliation for the attacks on US ships. But information now leads us to believe that President Johnson had ordered bombers to strike for an attack that never happened. It has even been reported that before the air strikes even began there was reason to believe that the attack on August 4th never happened. There are transmission reports from the commander in the Tonkin Gulf, Captain John J. Herrick stating that there was an overeager sonarman who "was hearing ship's own propeller beat" and freaky weather conditions. Also, Navy pilot, James Stockdale, who was flying in the area that night, stated that "our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets there were no boats there. There was nothing there but black water and American fire power."
James A. Baldwin once said, “The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose” (BrainyQuote.com). In the 1960s, “the man” was youth across the country. The Vietnam war was in full force, and students across the country were in an outrage. Society needed an excuse to rebel against the boring and safe way of life they were used to; Vietnam gave them the excuse they needed. Teenagers from different universities came together and formed various organizations that protested the Vietnam war for many reasons. These reasons included protesting weapons and different tactics used in the war, and the reason the U.S. entered the war in the first place. These get-togethers had such a monumental impact on their way of life that it was famously named the Anti-War Movement. When the Vietnam War ended, The United States did not have a real concrete reason why; there were a bunch of theories about why the war ended. Through negative media attention and rebellious youth culture, the Anti-War Movement made a monumental impact in the ending of the Vietnam War.
Among the riots caused by Nixon’s decision were revolts at many universities, such as Kent State. Young students were upset because they were the ones being drafted and the sooner the war ended the less chance they had of seeing war. On Friday, May 1, 1970 anti-war rallies began to take place at Kent State University. Students gathered and burned a copy of the constitution. Also, many riots broke out in downtown Kent.
This was the time the WWI one had broken out, the government need men to fight. They were short staffed for that to work and they need man to fight this war so the military started selecting citizen randomly to draft. Schenck fought against this draft saying this in a way it was like slavery. When the United States entered WWI in 1917, Congress passed a law called the Espionage Act. The law stated that during wartime obstructing the draft and trying to make soldiers disloyal or disobedient were crimes against the United States (Schenck v. United States).
On August 7th 1964 the United States Congress passed into law the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which, for all intents and purposes, officially brought the United States into the Vietnam War. Following this resolution, a draft was instated to increase the number of men that could be sent to war. Shortly after men started to be signed into conscription for the United States Military, a public outcry started over the use of a draft to increase military size. The draft was found to be unfair to American Citizens because certain groups of men were severely disadvantaged, the draft was illegal in many ways, and veteran’s future lives were harmed, among other reasons.
Due to the volatile conditions of the Vietnam War, the protestors believed that they should not be involved in a war that they cared so little about. Public opinion heavily swayed during the war as only one senator dissented from the overwhelming opinion to fight the war (Amter 45). However, as President Johnson escalated the war and the Draft increased by 25% in 1968, those youths being conscripted were infuriated (Dougan 118). Not only this, the North Vietnamese began a ruthless offensive on American soldiers by merciless attacking our bases. This resulted in US victories, but also US casualties (Dougan 116). Also, the marines stationed at the bases began to use offensive attacks to deter Viet Cong assault against the wishes of General Taylor (Karnov 443). With these new less defensive strategy, Nixon announced plans to start operations in Cambodia, and to increase the bombings overall in Southeast Asia (Dougan 180). Some missions even began t...
Engaging in the war in Vietnam brought a whole different set of "American Views" to the topic of war. This time the country did not support the war like we've seen in the past. Mostly by young people, the war effort was criticized and Americans staged massive protests. The Vietnam War's controversy spurred a great many sources of protest, against our government's use of power, how far we could stretch the rights of free expression, and primarily against the violence of the war itself.
The Vietnam War lasted from the winter of 1956 to the spring of 1975. The Vietnam War was a domesticated civil war between the communist, North Vietnam, and the democratic, South Vietnam. The North was supported by the Chinese communist, and the leader Ho Chi Minh. The Vietnam War introduced the United States to the Vietcong and Guerrilla warfare. During this time, the United States faced our own battles at home between two social groups called the Doves and the Hawks. This war was very divisive. The Doves protested and Hawks shunned them. Young men without money were being drafted while others went to college, got a medical note, or fled the country. Tensions were already high in the United States when Congress passed Public Law 88- 408, also known as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
Many people in the 1960s and early 1970s did not understand why the United States was involved in the Vietnam War. Therefore, they had no desire to be a part of it. The Selective Service System, which was used to conduct the draft, had aspirations of directing people into areas where they were most needed during wartime. However, people took advantage of the draft system’s deferment policies to avoid going to war. Others refused induction or simply did not register. There were also people who left the country to escape the draft. The Vietnam War proved to be an event that many Americans did not agree with, and as a result, citizens took action to elude the draft entirely or to beat the draft system.
In 1968, the United States of America was participating in a violent war that some of the general public greatly disapproved of. Tension between political parties was rising and this did not help efforts with the war. Anti-war sentiment was growing in popularity amongst the younger generation; they wanted to get their voices heard. Protests and riots were occurring more frequently and growing larger in size all throughout the United States. This was the case for eight Chicago men who protested peacefully.
The taxpayers were upset because the cost of war was approximately $100,000,000,000 dollars and the American taxpayers had to pay for it. Students were against the war because of the African Americans. they were the next to be drafted. The students saw the Vietnam War as something they could fight against. They held peaceful Archer 10 demonstrations and protests at universities all across the country.
On August 7th, 1964, the Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting President Johnson a legal guideline for the prosecution of the war. The Constitution establishes the President as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but to balance and check this power the Constitution invests Congress with the power to declare war. Morse disapproved of the open ended nature of the approval and accused Congress for giving the President and the military a “blank check” which would be paid for with taxpayer’s money and citizens’ lives. All other senators, aside from Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening were in favor for the joint resolution that promised “to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia”. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution stated that “Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repeal any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent any further aggression.” Morse was mostly alone in his opposition to President Johnson’s Vietnam policy, as he was a senior member of the
..., the draft ended and the U.S. converted to an All-Volunteer military. Many people were not in high spirits about the Vietnam War, and thought we should not be involved in it. Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, laments “[w]e are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves” (Vietnam-Facts.info). There is a popular picture of a draft protests sign displaying the words “hell no, we won’t go.” I do believe Americans should have a right to choose to go to war or not. Many young men lost their life fighting a battle they didn’t even have faith in. Many soldiers endured personal hardships, loss of income, and leaving family behind. Most of drafted soldiers complied with the draft and served; however, many middle to high-class young men found ways to avoid combat.
The Counterculture movement began in 1964, when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers. President Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam (Vietnam War Protests). A few months later, people began to question the rationale of fighting the war. People questioned joining the war in Vietnam due to our position in the Cold War. Both America and the Soviets had nuclear weapons, but neither country could afford an all out war. By starting another war with Vietnam that would mean placing more stress on the military forces. With two wars going on, that would require more man power. This problem introduced the draft. Many people of the counterculture movement opposed this, because they didn’t believe in fighting in a war that they didn’t support. Young men tore up their draft cards, or signed up as conscientious objectors. A conscientious objector is someone who doesn...
The draft took more and more people in as the years went on, and in1968 it peaked to over 500,000 soldiers involved in Vietnam. The government was so desperate for troops that even men with poor eyesight fought, and no education was needed. The people began to strike out and a revolution took place to restore peace to the nation. Some key ways to get the movement attention included student activism and anti-war messages present in songs and literature.