Anti-War Movement

Folk wisdom states that it is too late to lock the stable door after stealing the horse. The United States has participated in several armed conflicts since 1945, such as the Korean War. However, it was not until a war directly affected American citizens with a high death toll that large anti-war protests began. The Vietnam War (1955-1975) anti-war movement in the U.S. was the most significant protest movement in American history, shaping public opinion about wars.

Fig. 1 - Anti-war protest in Washington, D.C., October 1967. Source: Department of Defense, National Archives, Wikipedia Commons (public domain).

Anti-War Movement: Cold War

The American anti-war movement protesting the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (1955-1975) arose out of the broader context of the Cold War.

• The Cold War (1945-1991) described an ideological opposition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Each side became very powerful after World War II, in which they were allied. As a result, the world effectively came to be divided into two opposing camps.
• The United States considered itself a liberal democracy with capitalist economics. The Soviet Union subscribed to the Communist ideology with a socialist counterpart. This division was called bipolarity.
• The term "cold war" refers to the fact that the two superpowers did not engage in confrontation—partly because using nuclear weapons would have been catastrophic.
• However, many armed conflicts during the Cold War arose out of decolonization.

At this time, the United States used a foreign policy called containment. Containment challenged the Soviet Union worldwide wherever the United States perceived a threat from Communist or left-wing movements, sometimes at the expense of weaker countries.

This arrangement worked reasonably well in Europe because that region was split into the American and Soviet spheres of influence through Berlin shortly after 1945.

In other places, like Southeast Asia, the policy of containment was a failure. Like many others in the world, the region was going through decolonization.

Decolonization began after World War I and picked up speed following World War II. Many countries gained independence from the former European colonial powers for different reasons, including:

• the weakness of colonial empires like Britain and France after World War II;
• international pressure from the newly established international peace organization United Nations (1945);
• local, regional, and national independence movements in the former colonies;
• support from the Soviet Union to the former European colonies in line with anti-colonial Marxist tenets.

Vietnam, France's former colony Indochina, became one of the key battlegrounds in a complicated political situation of decolonization, a search for national identity, and Cold War rivalry.

• Indochina was a French colony since the 19th century. It comprised parts of present-day Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and the Chinese Guangzhouwan.
• Much of this region was under Japanese imperial occupation during World War II.
• Decolonization began after World War II.

Anti-War Movement: Vietnam War

The Vietnam War lasted between 1955 and 1975. The operations took place in present-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Fig. 2 - Captured Vietnamese peasants suspected of being Communists by the U.S. Army, 1966. Source: U.S. Army, Library of Congress, Wikipedia Commons (public domain).

The two sides were:

The Vietnam War was very complex. The American involvement went from providing military support and advisors to full-scale land, air, and navy involvement during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon presidencies. Here are some of the key events:

An estimated 58,000 American soldiers were killed in this conflict. For Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, estimates range to three million dead.

Fig. 3 - U.S. soldier treated for wounds, Operation Hue City, February 1968. U.S. Marines, National Archive, Wikipedia Commons (public domain).

Anti-War Movement: Definition

Anti-war movements oppose the involvement of one's country in an armed conflict and share these features:

• promote pacifist ideas;
• challenge the militarist ideology;
• oppose specific policies in their country, such as conscription.

Anti-War Movement: 1960s

As American involvement in Vietnam grew, so did the opposition in the country:

• Protests occurred between 1964 and 1973, peaking in the late 1960s;
• The demonstrations were part of a more significant socio-political paradigm shift within the Civil Rights Movement and counterculture;
• By 1970, most Americans believed the war was a mistake.

People protested for many reasons:

• pacificism;
• left-wing views;
• anti-imperialism;
• to avoid military conscription (draft);
• the rising death toll of the U.S. troops.

Military Draft

From the mid-1960s until the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, the U.S. drafted over 2 million soldiers. Some of them went to and died in Vietnam.

Some dodged the draft or deserted.

Anti-War Movement: Key Events

Anti-War Movement: Leaders and Participants

The anti-war movement was diverse:

• High-school and college students;
• Family members of soldiers;
• Counterculture participants;
• Second-wave feminists;
• Civil Rights movement participants (African Americans, Chicano, the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars et al.);
• labor movements (Catholic Worker Movement et al.)

The movement grew to include intellectuals, journalists, and even veterans (Vietnam Veterans Against the War).

There were many leaders of individual groups and the overall movement.

Activists were from different backgrounds.

Some protested on philosophical grounds:

The counterculture movement inspired other protesters.

Government Response

The government's response to anti-war protests varied:

• Some were investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for disloyalty;
• Riot police clashed with protestors;
• legal cases for inciting riots like the Chicago Seven case;
• However, some political candidates like Robert F. Kennedy ran on anti-war platforms.

Was the Anti-War Movement Successful?

The anti-war movement was successful in two key ways:

• opening a nationwide discussion about the Vietnam War and American wars in general;
• changing public opinion about this war.

Of course, the situation on the ground bore the primary responsibility for the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam after the Paris Peace Accords.

Anti-War Movement: Posters

To raise awareness, some anti-war activists disseminated posters like these.

Fig. 4 - Uncle Sam Bleeds You, by RITA (Resisters Inside The Army), 1970. Source: Wikipedia Commons (public domain).

Fig. 5 - An anti-war poster at the University of San Diego, 1970. Source: Alcalá yearbook, 1971, University of San Diego, Wikipedia Commons (public domain).

Fig. 6 - “Let the People Vote on War,” 1970. [Cambridge: Vietnam Referendum '70?] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015647227/.

21st-century Anti-War Protests

The United States invaded Iraq in 2003. On February 15, 2003, many countries worldwide held anti-war protests, some believed to be the largest single-day protest event in recorded history.