Peter Mc Gregor - Anti-Vietnam War Movement

Anti-Vietnam War Movement

McGregor was initially tentative in his choice of activism. He found he was most tempted by the social injustices that he had become aware of, issues like the horrors of the Vietnam War, the poverty and oppressive conditions of indigenous Australians, and then, amazement at the institutionalised racism of apartheid.

“When initially confronted with the Vietnam War, I was quite immature, though 20 years old, and sat on the fence concerning both conscription and the war in general. Then the good fortune of not having my birth date picked in the conscription lottery of 1967 prompted me to check the war out more thoroughly. My tentative involvement with the anti-war movement began cautiously and indirectly with my joining the humanitarian aid group Australian Committee of Responsibility for the Children of Vietnam (ACORFCOV), founded by the wonderful Sheila Rowley. ACORFCOV was inspired by the (US) Committee of Responsibility (COR) chaired by Dr. Benjamin Spock. Evidence of what was happening being done to Vietnamese civilians and children was enough to move one to joining anti-war actions and then the movement itself."

ACORFCOV supported humanitarian aid for the civilian victims of the war and education on what was happening to civilians as a basis for fundraising to provide medical aid and personnel.

In 1970 McGregor worked for a year as a Maths high-school teacher. Initially he failed his Teachers Certificate because the day the Inspector (who was a member of the Returned Services League – RSL) came to assess his teaching he was demonstrating at one of the Vietnam Moratorium marches, which were against Educational Department Policy.