Vietnam War - Social Movements

The Vietnam War (1965-1975)was fought between the North and South Vietnam. The North was called Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the South was the Republic of Vietnam which was supported by the United States. On August 2nd, 1964 the USS Maddox was on a secret intelligent mission on the North Vietnamese coast where in the Gulf on Tonkin they were attacked by torpedo boats. The USS Turner Joy was attacked in the same area two days later. Due to the second attack Congress declared the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which led to air strikes.In 1959 there were 5,000 guerilla fighters and in 1964 the numbers jumped to 100,000. At Pleiku on March, 1965 U.S Marine barracks were attacked causing the three stage escalation bombing of North Vietnam to begin. The 3 year lasting bombing was used to force North Vietnam to stop supporting the "National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam" by destroying their industrial infrastructure and Vietnam's air defenses. Unfortunately this did not stop the North's support for the NLF. The U.S. Air Force bases were constantly being attacked so the U.S. on March 8, 1965 the 3,500 U.S. Marines was deployed to South Vietnam. At this point in time, the U.S. public supported the dispatch because the Vietnam War had been portrayed to the American people as a war against the spread of Communism. Johnson was president at the time and he kept adding more and more troops as the war went on. As the draft quotas increased, the American public protests started. When Nixon came into presidency his policy towards the Vietnam War was "peace with honor" in other words he wanted to widen the war. After more bombing and fighting, on January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords was signed, restoring peace in Vietnam and U.S. forces pulled out. Nixon stopped all American attacks on Vietnam. The condensed summary of the Vietnam War is to see what presidents were involved in this war (Johnson, and Nixon) and what foreign policies were taken towards Vietnam mostly before the protests began.

Social movements have been a huge influence in shaping U.S. foreign policy. I would like to focus on the Vietnam War and how social protests changed its route. The constant and organized protests done by the American people is definitely a factor that pushed Nixon to take the American troops out of Vietnam, when those weren't his intentions when he was elected for president. There are many social movements in the Vietnam era but I would like to focus mainly on student and community protests.

"California had established a functioning antiwar movement, and one marked by characteristics that would distinguish it till the end of American involvement in the war. It was, first, like its national counterpart, heterogeneous, decentralized, and inclusive. It was guided by no central office, possessed of no single set of leaders, united by no single ideology. It embraced liberals and radicals, secular and religious pacifists, Old and New Left" (University of California press, p.63)

this shows us the way these protests were run mainly in California. The "May 2 Committee" was very active in its anti-war movements; they marched to the United Nations Plaza to hear and support speeches denouncing the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. This demonstration was broken up by police and 50 students were arrested.

On July 3rd, 1964, in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House, "activist Dave Dellinger organized an antiwar demonstration; the group walked to the fence and knelt down in front of the White House." (Davis, p.27) Dellinger stated that this act was supposed to show civil disobedience but no one got arrested.

Four days before 300 more special forces were sent to Vietnam, "a petition