Opposition To The Vietnam War

Opposition To The Vietnam War

The movement against the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War began in the U.S. with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The U.S. became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace.

Many in the peace movement were students, mothers, or anti-establishment hippies, but there was also involvement from many other groups, including educators, clergy, academics, journalists, lawyers, physicians (such as Benjamin Spock and Justin Newlan), military veterans, and ordinary Americans. Expressions of opposition events ranged from peaceful nonviolent demonstrations to radical displays of violence.

Read more about Opposition To The Vietnam War:  Public Opinion, Reasons For The Opposition, Polarization, Antiwar Movement, Popular Antiwar Music, Growing Protests, Political Factors, The Draft, Environment, Congressional Hearings, Common Slogans and Chants

Famous quotes containing the words opposition to the, vietnam war, opposition to, opposition, vietnam and/or war:

    “Human life in common is only made possible when a majority comes together which is stronger than any separate individual and which remains united against all separate individuals. The power of this community is then set up as “right” in opposition to the power of the individual, which is condemned as “brute force.””
    —Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

    “No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.”
    —Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)

    “Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature—opposition to it, is [in?] his love of justice.... Repeal the Missouri compromise—repeal all compromises—repeal the declaration of independence—repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man’s heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.”
    —Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    “It is human agitation, with all the vulgarity of needs small and great, with its flagrant disgust for the police who repress it, it is the agitation of all men ... that alone determines revolutionary mental forms, in opposition to bourgeois mental forms.”
    —Georges Bataille (1897–1962)

    “I told them I’m not going to let Vietnam go the way of China. I told them to go back and tell those generals in Saigon that Lyndon Johnson intends to stand by our word, but by God, I want something for my money. I want ‘em to get off their butts and get out in those jungles and whip hell out of some Communists. And then I want ‘em to leave me alone, because I’ve got some bigger things to do right here at home.”
    —Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)

    “‘Yes; quaint and curious war is!
    You shoot a fellow down
    You’d treat if met where any bar is,
    Or help to half-a-crown.’”
    —Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)