Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War

Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War became very large starting in 1965. Many people in the United States started demonstrating against the country’s growing role in the war. Over the next few years, these demonstrations turned into a social movement that became part of the bigger counterculture of the 1960s.

At first, the peace movement included many students, mothers, and anti-establishment young people. As time went on, leaders and activists from the civil rights, feminist, and Chicano movements joined in, along with workers, teachers, religious leaders, writers, doctors, and even veterans of the military.

Most of the anti-war protests were peaceful and nonviolent. By 1967, more and more Americans thought that the military’s involvement in Vietnam was wrong. Even many years later, important leaders agreed that it had been a mistake.

Background

The United States began sending more troops to Vietnam in 1965, which led many people to protest against the war. These protests grew because many felt the draft, which decided who had to go to war, was unfair. It often affected poorer people and certain groups more than others.

Many people opposed the war for moral reasons. They believed the United States was doing something wrong by being involved in Vietnam. As television brought images of the war into homes, more people saw the suffering and began to question the war. This helped create a big divide in opinions, with some people strongly supporting the war and others strongly opposing it.

History

Early protests

Early protests against the war were small. On May 2, 1964, fewer than eighty people marched near Harvard University.

The first big protest happened in Washington, D.C., on April 17, 1965, organized by Students for a Democratic Society. Over 20,000 people joined.

Protests also focused on the draft, with students at the University of California, Berkeley leading the way. They marched and burned draft cards to show they thought the war was wrong.

Government reactions

Presidents during this time included John Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson, and later Richard Nixon. Johnson believed in supporting the government of South Vietnam. But as more people protested, the government grew worried.

Big protests happened, like one in 1967 where thousands gathered at the US Pentagon. Some even tried to get inside. Police made many arrests, and a few people got hurt.

Shifting opinion

In 1967, a well-known writer named Noam Chomsky said that many smart people were helping the government justify the war. Magazines like Time and Life finally began to question the war too.

Draft protests

The draft, which decided who had to go to war, often picked more Black men and poor people. In 1967, many people turned in their draft cards to protest. By 1970, a lottery system was created to decide who would be called.

Developments in the war

In 1968, a big attack called the Tet Offensive shocked many in the United States. Even though US forces won battles, images of violence on TV changed many people's minds about the war.

1968 presidential election

In 1968, President Johnson tried to be re-elected but faced strong opposition. He decided to leave the race and started peace talks. Other leaders also joined the race with different views on the war.

Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam

In October 1969, huge protests happened across the United States. Millions of people took part, making it one of the biggest protests in history at that time.

Hearts and Minds campaign

The US tried to win the support of Vietnamese people by building schools and helping communities. But other actions during the war, like bombing villages, often made things worse and hurt the effort.

Increasing polarization

While many supported the war, others opposed it for many reasons. Some who had fought in the war themselves also spoke out against it.

Later protests

In 1971, veterans of the war protested by throwing away their medals in front of the US Capitol. Some protests became divisive when people showed support for the other side or clashed with police.

Opposition groups

As the Vietnam War continued to escalate, public opinion turned against it, and many different groups joined together to oppose the war.

African Americans

African-American leaders who had spoken out against unfair treatment in the past also began to speak against the war. Famous figures like Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali shared their views, and later Martin Luther King Jr. and others joined the effort. Many African Americans felt the war was unfair because it took young men from poor families while others avoided service. They formed their own groups to make their voices heard.

Artists

Many artists used their work to show their opposition to the war. Writers, poets, painters, and filmmakers created pieces that reflected their feelings about the conflict. Music also played a big role, with songs that expressed peace and protest becoming popular.

Asian-Americans

Many Asian Americans opposed the war because they felt it targeted people who looked like them. Groups formed to organize protests and raise awareness about the war’s impact on Asian communities. They highlighted issues of racism and unfair treatment linked to the war.

Clergy

Religious leaders also spoke out against the war. Martin Luther King Jr. famously gave a speech calling for an end to the conflict. Clergy members from various faiths joined together to voice their concerns and support peace efforts.

Draft evasion

Some young men chose not to join the military when their names were called in the draft lottery. Others left the country to avoid service. Many questioned the fairness of the draft, feeling it targeted poorer families more than wealthy ones.

Environmentalists

The use of harmful chemicals in the war worried many people who cared about the environment. Books and speeches raised awareness about how the war damaged nature, leading to a growing movement focused on protecting the Earth.

Mexican-Americans

Mexican-Americans were strongly affected by the war because many were sent to fight. A large protest in Los Angeles showed their opposition, bringing together people from different backgrounds to stand against the conflict.

Musicians and songs

Musicians wrote and performed songs that opposed the war. Artists like Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan created music that became anthems for the movement. Their songs helped spread the message of peace and protest.

Military members and veterans

Even some soldiers and veterans began to speak out against the war. They organized within the military to resist unfair orders and unfair treatment, showing their disagreement with the conflict.

Students

Students on college campuses were very active in protesting the war. They organized events, occupied buildings, and demanded change. The movement grew as more students joined, showing their dislike of the war and its impact on their lives.

Women

Women played a big role in the anti-war movement, even though they sometimes faced unfair treatment in the groups. They formed their own organizations to fight for peace and equality, using their roles as mothers and caregivers to argue against the war’s damage. These groups offered advice to young men on how to avoid the draft and held regular protests for peace.

Trade Unionists

While some large labor groups supported the war, many smaller unions protested strongly. Workers joined forces with students and other groups to organize large demonstrations against the conflict, showing their belief in peace and fairness.

Political responses

See also: List of Congressional opponents of the Vietnam War

United Nations intervention

In October 1967, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held meetings about asking President Johnson to call for a special meeting of the United Nations security council. The goal was to discuss ways to end the war.

Dellums (war crimes hearings)

In January 1971, Congressman Ron Dellums started a display in his office showing pictures of serious actions by American soldiers in Vietnam. Soon after, he held four days of meetings to talk about these actions. Dellums wanted official investigations, but Congress did not support these meetings formally. Because of this, the meetings were informal and only shared information. No press or cameras were allowed, but the talks were recorded.

Along with Ron Dellums, 19 other Congressional representatives joined these meetings, including: Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, Patsy Mink, Parren Mitchell, John Conyers, Herman Badillo, James Abourezk, Leo Ryan, Phil Burton, Don Edwards, Pete McCloskey, Ed Koch, John Seiberling, Henry Reuss, Benjamin Stanley Rosenthal, Robert Kastenmeier, and Abner J. Mikva.

The records from these meetings talk about claims of how US soldiers acted in Vietnam. Some actions were described as very harsh, including soldiers taking body parts from dead people to prove they had killed others. There were also claims about soldiers killing people who were not fighting. Some soldiers said they were told to attack villages without checking if there were any soldiers there. Soldiers were reported to have used hurtful words when talking about Vietnamese people.

Witnesses said that while soldiers were taught to follow the rules, some were also taught by other soldiers to act in ways that were not right. One witness talked about places called "free-fire zones," areas where soldiers could shoot anyone they saw after a certain time at night without checking if they were enemies. The meetings talked a lot about claims of soldiers exaggerating how many people they killed, hurting people, and other bad actions, as well as why soldiers and officers might have done these things.

Fulbright (end to war)

Main article: Fulbright Hearing

In April and May 1971, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led by Senator J. William Fulbright, held 22 meetings to talk about ways to end the war. On April 22, 1971, future Senator and 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry became the first Vietnam veteran to speak before Congress against the war. He spoke for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, asking for US forces to leave Vietnam right away. During his talk, Kerry shared details from the Winter Soldier Investigation, where veterans talked about things they did or saw that were very wrong during the war.

Public opinion

As the Vietnam War went on, fewer and fewer Americans supported it. In 1965, only 24% of people thought sending troops to Vietnam was a mistake, but by 1968, more than half—54%—felt it was a mistake.

At first, not many people wanted to join protests about the war. But later, some wished they had done more to show their disagreement. One big reason people became unhappy was the number of soldiers who were hurt or lost during the war. When asked what worried them most, many said they were sad about the young men who were being lost.

As time passed, most people began to think the war would never end. By the late 1960s, many felt the war was not helping their families or jobs, and some blamed rising prices instead. Looking back in the 1990s, about half of adults approved of the protests against the war, while the other half did not.

Further information: Public opinion of militaries

General effects

The opposition to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War had many effects, which helped end the country's role in the conflict. Historians note that this opposition created the largest anti-war movement the nation had ever seen, playing a key role in bringing the war to an end.

One major effect was that fewer soldiers were available for the army. Many people protested the draft and ROTC programs in colleges. For example, students wrote letters refusing to join the military, and many did not show up for induction. This led to a big drop in the number of students enrolled in ROTC programs.

Another effect was that many college campuses shut down because of protests. Students and even some teachers showed their disagreement with the war through demonstrations. These protests caused trouble for the government, which tried to bring things back to normal.

Finally, the opposition also lowered the morale of soldiers in Vietnam. Some soldiers began to question the war and felt remorse for their actions, which added to the growing sense of opposition in the United States.

Timeline

Further information: Lists of protests against the Vietnam War

1964

• May 12 – twelve young men in New York publicly burned their draft cards to protest the war.
• August – Prompted by the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
• December – Joan Baez leads six hundred people in an anti-war demonstration in San Francisco.

1965

• March 24 – organized by professors against the war at the University of Michigan, a teach-in protest was attended by 2,500 participants. This model was to be repeated at 35 campuses across the country.
• March 16 – Alice Herz, an 82-year-old pacifist, set herself on fire in the first known act of self-immolation to protest the Vietnam War.
• April 17 – the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a civil rights activist group, led the first of several anti-war marches in Washington, D.C., with about 25,000 protesters.
• Draft-card burnings took place at University of California, Berkeley at student demonstrations in May organized by a new anti-war group, the Vietnam Day Committee. Events included a teach-in attended by 30,000, and the burning in effigy of president Lyndon B. Johnson.
• May – A Gallup poll showed 48% of US respondents felt the government was handling the war effectively, 28% felt the situation was being handled badly, and the rest had no opinion.
• May – First anti–Vietnam War demonstration in London was staged outside the US embassy.
• June – Protests were held on the steps of the Pentagon
• August – attempts were made by activists at Berkeley to stop the movement of trains carrying troops.
• Late August – A Gallup poll showed that 24% of Americans view sending troops to Vietnam as a mistake versus 60% who do not.
• Mid-October – the anti-war movement had significantly expanded to become a national and even global phenomenon, as anti-war protests drawing 100,000 were held simultaneously in as many as 80 major cities around the US, London, Paris, and Rome.
• October 15 – the first large scale act of civil disobedience in opposition to the Vietnam War occurred when approximately 40 people staged a sit-in at the Ann Arbor, Michigan draft board. They were sentenced to 10 to 15 days in jail.
• November 2 – Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old pacifist, set himself on fire below the third-floor window of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara at the Pentagon, emulating the actions of the Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức.
• November 27 – Coretta Scott King, SDS President Carl Oglesby, and Dr. Benjamin Spock, among others, spoke at an anti-war rally of about 30,000 in Washington, D.C., in the largest demonstration to date. Parallel protests occurred elsewhere around the nation.

1966

• February – a group of about 100 veterans attempted to return their military decorations to the White House in protest of the war, but were turned back.
• March 26 – anti-war demonstrations were held around the country and the world, with 20,000 taking part in New York City.
• April – Gallup poll shows that 59% believe that sending troops to Vietnam was not a mistake. Among the age group of 21–29, 71% believe it was not a mistake compared to 48% of those over 50.
• May 15 – another large demonstration, with 10,000 picketers calling for an end to the war, took place outside the White House and the Washington Monument.
• June – The Gallup poll respondents supporting the US handling of the war slipped to 41%, 37% expressed disapproval, and the rest had no opinion.
• July 3 – A crowd of 4,000 demonstrated against the US war in London and scuffled with police outside the US embassy. 33 protesters were arrested.
• Joan Baez and A. J. Muste organized over 3,000 people across the nation in an antiwar tax protest. Participants refused to pay their taxes or did not pay the amount designated for funding the war.
• Protests, strikes and sit-ins continued at Berkeley and across other campuses throughout the year. Three army privates, known as the "Fort Hood Three", refused to deploy in Vietnam, calling the war "illegal and immoral", and were sentenced to prison terms.
• Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali – formerly known as Cassius Clay – declared himself a conscientious objector and refused to go to war. According to a writer for Sports Illustrated, the governor of Illinois, Otto Kerner, Jr., called Ali "disgusting" and the governor of Maine, John H. Reed, said that Ali "should be held in utter contempt by every patriotic American." In 1967 Ali was sentenced to 5 years in prison for draft evasion, but his conviction was later overturned on appeal. In addition, he was stripped of his title and banned from professional boxing for more than three years.
• June 1966 – American students and others in England meeting at the London School of Economics formed the Stop It Committee. The group was prominent in every major London anti-war demonstration. It remained active until the end of the war in April 1975.

1967

The protest on June 23 in Los Angeles is singularly significant. It was one of the first massive war protests in the United States and the first in Los Angeles. Ending in a clash with riot police, it set a pattern for the massive protests which followed and due to the size and violence of this event, Johnson attempted no further public speeches in venues outside military bases.

• January 14 – 20,000–30,000 people staged a "Human Be-In" in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, near the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood that had become the center of hippie activity.
• February 8 – Another Mother for Peace group founded.
• February – about 2,500 members of Women Strike for Peace (WSP) marched to the Pentagon. This was a peaceful protest that became rowdier when the demonstrators were denied a meeting with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
• February 8 – Christian groups opposed to the war staged a nationwide "Fast for Peace."
• February 23 – The New York Review of Books published "The Responsibility of Intellectuals" by Noam Chomsky as a special supplement.
• March 12 – A three-page anti-war ad appeared in The New York Times bearing the signatures of 6,766 teachers and professors. The advertisement spanned two and a quarter pages in Section 4, The Week in Review. The advertisement itself cost around $16,500 and was sponsored by the Inter-University Committee for Debate on Foreign Policy.
• March 17 – a group of anti-war citizens marched to the Pentagon to protest American involvement in Vietnam.
• March 25 – Martin Luther King Jr., a leader of the civil rights movement, led a march of 5,000 against the war in Chicago.
• April 4 – Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech in New York City. "America rejected Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary government seeking self-determination. ... " (See details here.)
• April 15 – 400,000 people organized by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam marched from Central Park to the UN building in New York City to protest the war, where they were addressed by critics of the war such as Benjamin Spock, Martin Luther King Jr., event initiator and director James Bevel, Harry Belafonte, and Jan Barry Crumb, a veteran of the war. On the same date 100,000, including Coretta Scott King, marched in San Francisco.
• April 24 – Abbie Hoffman led a small group of protesters against both the war and capitalism who interrupted the New York Stock Exchange, causing chaos by throwing fistfuls of both real and fake dollars down from the gallery.
• May 2 – British philosopher Bertrand Russell presided over the "Russell Tribunal" in Stockholm, a mock war crimes tribunal, which ruled that the US and its allies had committed war crimes in Vietnam. The proceedings were criticized as being a "show trial."
• May 22 – the fashionable À L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium burnt down, killing over 300 people amid speculation that the fire was caused by Belgian Maoists against the Vietnam War.
• May 30 – Jan Crumb and ten like-minded men attended a peace demonstration in Washington, D.C.
• June 1 – Vietnam Veterans Against the War was born.
• Summer – Neil Armstrong and various other NASA officials began a tour of South America to raise awareness for space travel. According to First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, a 2005 biography, during the tour, several college students protested the astronaut, and shouted such phrases as "Murderers get out of Vietnam!" and other anti–Vietnam War messages.
• June 23 – President Johnson was met in Los Angeles by a massive anti-war protest on the street outside the hotel where he was speaking at a Democratic fundraiser. Progressive Labor Party and SDS protesters. The Riot Act was read and 51 protesters arrested. This was one of the first massive war protests in the United States and the first in Los Angeles, Ending in a clash with riot police, it set a pattern for the massive protests which followed. The vigor of the response from the LAPD, initially intended to prevent the demonstrators from storming the hotel where Johnson was speaking, was to a certain extent based on exaggerated reports from undercover agents which had infiltrated the organizations sponsoring the protest. "Unresistant demonstrators were beaten – some in front of literally thousands of witnesses – without even the pretext of and attempt to make an arrest." A crowd the Los Angeles Times reports at 10,000 clashed with 500 riot police outside President Johnson's fundraiser at the Century City Plaza Hotel. Expecting only 1,000 or 2,000 protesters, the LAPD field commander later told reporters he had been 'astounded' by the size of the demonstration. "Where did all those people come from? I asked myself." Scores were injured, including many peaceful middle-class protesters. Some sources put the crowd as high as 15,000 and noted that the police attacked the marchers with nightsticks to disperse the crowd. Due to the size and violence of this event, Johnson attempted no further public speeches in venues outside military bases.
• July 30 – Gallup poll reported 52% of Americans disapproved of Johnson's handling of the war, 41% thought the US made a mistake in sending troops, and over 56% thought the US was losing the war or at an impasse.
• August 28 – US Representative Tim Lee Carter (R-KY) stated before congress: "Let us now, while we are yet strong, bring our men home, every man jack of them. The Viet Cong fight fiercely and tenaciously because it is their land and we are foreigners intervening in their civil war. If we must fight, let us fight in defense of our homeland and our own hemisphere."
• September 20 – over one thousand members of WSP rallied at the White House. The police used brutal tactics to try to limit it to 100 people (as per the law) or stop the demonstration, and the event tarnished the wholesome and nonviolent reputation of the WSP.
• October – Stop the Draft Week resulted in major clashes at the Oakland, California military induction center, and saw more than a thousand registrants return their draft cards in events across the country. The cards were delivered to the Justice Department on October 20. Singer/musician-activist Joan Baez, a longtime critic of the war in Vietnam, was among those arrested in the Oakland demonstrations.
• October 18 – 300 students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison attempted to prevent Dow Chemical Company, the maker of napalm, from holding a job fair on campus. The police eventually forced the demonstration to end, but Dow was banned from the campus. Three police officers and 65 students were injured in the event, dubbed "Dow Day".
• October 21 – the March on the Pentagon took place. A large demonstration organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, a crowd of nearly 100,000 met at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and at least 30,000 people then marched to the Pentagon for another rally and an all-night vigil. Some, including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Allen Ginsberg, attempted to "exorcise" and "levitate" the building, while others engaged in civil disobedience on the steps of the Pentagon. These actions were interrupted by clashes with soldiers and police. In all, 647 arrests were made. When a plot to airdrop 10,000 flowers on the Pentagon was foiled by undercover agents, some of these flowers ended up being placed in the barrels of MP's rifles, as seen in famous photographs of the event (such as Flower Power and The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet). Norman Mailer documented the events surrounding the march, and the march on the Pentagon itself, in his non-fiction novel, The Armies of the Night.
• November 1967 – a non-binding referendum was voted on in San Francisco, California which posed the question of whether there should be an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. The vote was 67% against the referendum, which was taken by a Johnson administration official as support for the war.^{[citation needed]}

1968

• January 15 – over five thousand women rallied in D.C. in the Jeannette Rankin Brigade protest. This was the first all-female anti-war protest intended to get Congress to withdrawal troops from Vietnam.
• January 18 – while in the White House for a conference about juvenile delinquency, black singer and entertainer Eartha Kitt yelled at Lady Bird Johnson about the generation of young men dying in the war.
• January 30– Tet Offensive was launched and resulted in much higher casualties and changed perceptions. The optimistic assessments made prior to the offensive by the administration and the Pentagon came under heavy criticism and ridicule as the "credibility gap" that had opened in 1967 widened into a chasm.
• February – Gallup poll showed 35% approved of Johnson's handling of the war; 50% disapproved; the rest, no opinion. In another poll that month, 23% of Americans defined themselves as "doves" and 61% "hawks."
• March 12 – anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy received more votes than expected in the New Hampshire primary, leading to more expressions of opposition against the war. McCarthy urged his supporters to exchange the 'unkempt look' rapidly becoming fashionable among war opponents for a more clean-cut style in order not to scare voters. These were known as "Clean Genes."
• March 16 – Robert F. Kennedy joined the race for the US presidency as an anti-war candidate. He was shot and killed on June 5, the morning after he won a decisive victory over McCarthy in the Democratic primary in California.
• March 17 – Major rally outside the US Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square turned to a riot with 86 people injured and over 200 arrested. Over 10,000 had rallied peacefully in Trafalgar Square but met a police barricade outside the embassy. A UK Foreign Office report claimed that the rioting had been organized by 100 members of the West German SDS who were "acknowledged experts in methods of riot against the police."
• March – Gallup poll reported that 49% of respondents felt involvement in the war was an error.
• April 17 – National media films the anti-war riot that breaks out at Columbia University. The over-reaction by the police at Columbia is shown in Berlin and Paris, sparking reactions in those cities.
• April 26 – a million college and high school students boycotted class to show opposition to the war.
• April 27 – an anti-war march in Chicago organized by Rennie Davis and others ended with police beating many of the marchers, a precursor to the police riots later that year at the Democratic Convention.
• May 17 – the Catonsville Nine activists burned draft files in Maryland.
• July – singer and activist Phil Ochs released "The War Is Over", a song which has been described as "one of the most potent antiwar songs of the 1960s" and Ochs' "greatest act of bravery as a topical songwriter".
• August 26–29 – the 1968 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, anti-war protesters marched and demonstrated throughout the city. Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley brought to bear 23,000 police and National Guardsman upon 10,000 protesters. Tensions between police and protesters quickly escalated, resulting in a "police riot" and the chant by protesters "The whole world is watching". Eight leading anti-war activists were indicted by the US Attorney and prosecuted in 1969 for conspiracy to riot; the 1970 convictions of the Chicago Seven were subsequently overturned on appeal.
• August – Gallup poll shows 53% said it was a mistake to send troops to Vietnam.
• 1968 – Among the academic or scholarly groups was the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, founded in 1968 by graduate students and junior faculty in Asian studies.

1969

• March – polls indicated that 19% of Americans wanted the war to end as soon as possible, 26% wanted South Vietnam to take over responsibility for the war from the US, 19% favored the current policy, and 33% wanted total military victory.
• March – students at SUNY Buffalo destroyed a Themis construction site.
• March 5 – Senator J. William Fulbright was prevented from speaking at the first National Convocation on the Challenge of Building Peace by members of the Veterans and Reservists to End the War in Vietnam.
• April 6 – a spontaneous anti-war rally in Central Park was recorded and later released as Environments 3.
• May 22 – the Canadian government announced that immigration officials would not and could not ask about immigration applicants' military status if they showed up at the border seeking permanent residence in Canada.
• July 16 – activist David Harris was arrested for refusing the draft and would ultimately serve a fifteen-month prison sentence; Harris' wife, prominent musician, pacifist and activist Joan Baez, toured and performed on behalf of her husband, throughout the remainder of 1969, attempting to raise consciousness around the issue of ending the draft.
• July 31 – The New York Times published the results of a Gallup poll showing that 53% of the respondents approved of Nixon's handling of the war, 30% disapproved, and the balance had no opinion.
• August 15–18 – the Woodstock Festival was held at Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York. Peace was a primary theme in this pivotal popular music event.
• October 15 – the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam demonstrations took place. Millions of Americans took the day off from work and school to participate in local demonstrations against the war. These were the first major demonstrations against the Nixon administration's handling of the war.
• October – 58% of Gallup respondents said US entry into the war was a mistake.
• November – Sam Melville, Jane Alpert, and several others bombed several corporate offices and military installations (including the Whitehall Army Induction Center) in and around New York City.
• November 15 – crowds of up to half a million people participated in an anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C., and a similar demonstration was held in San Francisco. These protests were organized by the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (New Mobe) and the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (SMC).
• December 7 – the 5th Dimension performed their song "Declaration" on the Ed Sullivan Show. Consisting of the opening of the Declaration of Independence (through "for their future security"), it suggests that the right and duty of revolting against a tyrannical government is still relevant.
• Late December – the And babies poster is published – "easily the most successful poster to vent the outrage that so many felt about the war in Southeast Asia."
• By end of the year – 69% of students identified themselves as doves.

1970

• March 4 – Antonia Martínez, a 21-year-old student at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras was shot and killed by a policeman while watching and commenting on the anti–Vietnam War and education reform student protests at the University of Puerto Rico.
• March 14 – two merchant seamen, claiming allegiance to the SDS, hijacked the SS Columbia Eagle, a US-flagged merchant vessel under contract with the US government, carrying 10,000 tons of napalm bombs for use by the US Air Force in the Vietnam War. The hijackers forced its master to divert to then-neutral Cambodia (which promptly was taken over by anti-Communists, who eventually returned to the ship to the US).
• April 24 – Taiwanese activist Peter Huang attempted to assassinate Taiwan Vice Premier Chiang Ching-kuo in New York City.^: 59  Huang viewed his actions as part of an anti-imperialist opposition to the war in Vietnam, as he deemed the Taiwan government as an "accomplice of Washington."^: 59 
• Kent State/Cambodia Invasion Protest, Washington, D.C.: After the Kent State shootings, on May 4, 100,000 anti-war demonstrators converged on Washington, D.C., to protest the shooting of the students in Ohio and the Nixon administration's incursion into Cambodia. Even though the demonstration was quickly put together, protesters were still able to bring out thousands to march in the Capital. It was an almost spontaneous response to the events of the previous week. Police ringed the White House with buses to block the demonstrators from getting too close to the executive mansion. Early in the morning before the march, Nixon met with protesters at the Lincoln Memorial but nothing was resolved, and the protest went on as planned.
• May 1–8 – National Student Strike: more than 450 university, college and high school campuses across the country were shut by student strikes and both violent and non-violent protests that involved more than 4 million students, in the only nationwide student strike in US history.
• May – A Gallup poll shows that 56% of the public believed that sending troops to Vietnam was a mistake, 61% of those over 50 expressed that belief compared to 49% of those between the ages of 21–29.
• June 13 – President Nixon established the President's Commission on Campus Unrest. The commission was directed to study the dissent, disorder, and violence breaking out on college and university campuses.
• July 1970 – the award-winning documentary The World of Charlie Company was broadcast. "It showed GIs close to mutiny, balking at orders that seemed to them unreasonable. This was something never seen on television before." The documentary was produced by CBS News.
• August 24 – near 3:40 a.m., a van filled with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil mixture was detonated on the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Sterling Hall bombing. One researcher was killed, and three others were injured.
• August 28 – September 3 – Vortex I: A Biodegradable Festival of Life: To avert potential violence arising from planned anti-war protests, a government-sponsored rock festival was held near Portland, Oregon from August 28 to September 3, attracting 100,000 participants. The festival, arranged by the People's Army Jamboree (an ad hoc group) and Oregon governor Tom McCall, was set up when the FBI told the governor that President Nixon's planned appearance at an American Legion convention in Portland could lead to violence worse than that seen at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
• August 29 – Chicano Moratorium: some 25,000 Mexican-Americans participated in the largest anti-war demonstration in Los Angeles. Police attacked the crowd with billy clubs and tear gas; two people were killed. Immediately after the marchers were dispersed, sheriff's deputies raided a nearby bar, where they shot and killed Rubén Salazar, KMEX news director and Los Angeles Times columnist, with a tear-gas projectile.

1971

• April 23 – Vietnam veterans threw away over 700 medals on the West Steps of the Capitol building. The next day, anti-war organizers claimed that 500,000 people had marched, making this the largest demonstration since the November 1969 march.
• May 5 – 1,146 people were arrested on the Capitol grounds trying to shut down Congress. This brought the total arrested during the 1971 May Day Protests to over 12,000. Abbie Hoffman was arrested on charges of interstate travel to incite a riot and assaulting a police officer.
• August 1971 – the Camden 28 conducted a raid on the Camden, New Jersey draft board offices. The 28 included five or more members of the clergy, as well as a number of local blue-collar workers.
• December 26 – 15 anti-war veterans began to occupy the Statue of Liberty, flying a US flag upside down from her crown. They left on December 28, following issuance of a Federal Court order. Also on December 28, 80 young veterans clashed with police and were arrested while trying to occupy the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1972

• March 29 – 166 people, many of them seminarians, were arrested in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for encircling the Federal Courthouse with a chain, to protest the trial of the Harrisburg Seven.
• April 19 – in response to renewed escalation of bombing, students at many colleges and universities around the country broke into campus buildings and threatened strikes. The following weekend, protests were held in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and elsewhere.
• May 13 – protests again spread across the country in response to President Nixon's decision to mine harbors in North Vietnam and renewed bombing of North Vietnam.
• July 6 – four Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur on a White House Tour stopped and began praying to protest the war. In the next six weeks, such kneel-ins became a popular form of protest and led to over 158 protesters' arrests.

Organizations

Many groups formed to oppose the United States' role in the Vietnam War. These included students, writers, and people from different communities. Some groups focused on peaceful protests, while others worked to support soldiers who were against the war.

Notable organizations were Americans for Democratic Action, American Writers Against the Vietnam War, and Students for Democratic Society. There were also groups like the League of Women Voters, which called for ending the war early on, and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, made up of soldiers who spoke out against the conflict.

Slogans and chants

People who were against the United States being involved in the Vietnam War used many different phrases and chants to show their feelings. Some popular ones included "Hell, no, we won't go!" and "Bring the troops home now!". Students at UCLA and other colleges protested against the Dow Chemical Company by saying "Dow shall not kill" and "Making money burning babies!" because the company made harmful chemicals like napalm and Agent Orange.

Other slogans focused on helping people instead of fighting. "Stop the war, feed the poor" was used to say that money should go to helping struggling Americans. "War is not healthy for children and other living things" became a well-known phrase on posters. Chants like "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnam Cong are gonna win" and "Hey, hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?" showed strong feelings against the war and leaders involved in it.