How the Vietnam War protests shaped public opinion

The Vietnam War protests were demonstrations opposing United States involvement in the Vietnam War, reaching substantial scale in 1965 as the country's role escalated. How did protest and public opinion relate to the war, and what can we understand about their influence on calls for withdrawal? The lessons trace the connections between protest, public opinion, and the war.

2 articles, 1 book · about 1 hr 39 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   the vietnam war protests · Wikipedia · 60+ min read

   The Gallup News Service began asking Americans in August 1965 whether it was a "mistake to send troops to Vietnam." At the time, 24% believed it was a mistake, while 60% believed the opposite. Protests began bringing attention to the draft on May 5, 1965. Student activists at the University of California, Berkeley marched on the Berkeley Draft Board, and forty students staged the first public draft-card burning in the United States. The Vietnam War protests included National Moratorium anti-war demonstrations across the United States on October 15, 1969. About 15 million Americans took part, making it the largest protest in a single day at that point in history.

2. Read
   

   Facts About the Vietnam War, Part III: Peace Marchers Didn't Turn U.S. Policy Around · War on the Rocks · 3 min read

   In February and March 1968, New Hampshire voters told Johnson to "win or get out," while the "Wise Men" concluded that winning was unattainable. Both messages pointed in the same direction as the peace movement's call for a U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, but it is misleading to give anti-war activists primary credit for either one.

3. Book
   

   The Things They Carried · Bookshop.org

   The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is an arc of fictional episodes in characters' childhoods, the jungles of Vietnam, and back home in America two decades later.

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