Student Protest - Chapter 31:iii -

In 1971 The New York Times published classified information about America’s involvement in the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers.

The Pentagon Papers revealed the government had misled the people regarding the level of military aid to France,...

... and waging a covert (undercover) war against North Vietnam.

Students were at the forefront of the antiwar movement.

College enrollment swelled as post- World War II prosperity provided many students with opportunities unknown to previous generations.

The emerging-pop culture indicated that many American youth rejected the values of their parents.

Civil rights activists helped organize Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), whose declaration of principles and goals was enshrined in the Port Huron Statement.

“We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably at the world we inherit. When we were kids the United States was the wealthiest and strongest country in the world.... As we grew, however, our comfort was penetrated by events too troubling to dismiss.... We would replace power rooted in possession, privilege, or circumstance by power and uniqueness rooted in love, reflectiveness, reason, and creativity. As a social system we seek the establishment of a democracy of individual participation.” - Tom Hayden

Protests often turned violent. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) splintered, creating many new groups, including the Weathermen.

The New Left believed problems such as poverty and racism required radical changes.

In September 1964, students at the University of California (Berkeley) protested administration attempts to limit their speech and restrict their political activity.

More than 700 students were arrested after demonstrators occupied Sproul Hall and shut-down the university administration 2 nd December 1964.

In the spring of 1965, students across America demanded greater involvement in the decisions of campus administrators.

During 1965, teach- ins, led by college faculty to educate students about the war, sprang-up around the country. Before long, anti-war voices dominated these sessions. [Image source: 65/Index.html#President%20Johnson]

Anti-war demonstrators would recite chants such as “Hey, hey, LBJ. How many kids have you killed today?”

A growing number of people known as conscientious objectors opposed the war on moral and religious grounds.

Many students attended college in order to obtain a draft deferment, so they could avoid military service.

Some people, as an act of civil disobedience, burned their draft cards.

Others dodged the draft by fleeing to other countries. Over 100,000 Americans ended-up in Canada

President Carter would later make the controversial decision to grant such draft dodgers amnesty.

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Many young people didn’t want to support the war: 1.We killed innocent people. 2.The Vietnamese were not really a serious Communists at heart. 3. The Governmentt had lied to the public about our involvement in The Pentagon Papers (undercover war, aid to France, secret policies)

Kent State 4 th May 1970

Many people became convinced we needed to withdraw from Vietnam following the killings at Kent State.

A Countercultural Revolution is underway because of: 1. The Vietnam War 2. The Civil Rights Movement 3. The Women’s Movement 4. The Latino Movement 5. The Environmental Movement

Did we really learn the lessons of Vietnam?

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