Reflecting back on one of the greatest protests in America, the Peace Moratorium protest was the largest protest to the Vietnam War. It had originally started in San Francisco on November 15, 1969 and had basically included everyone in the United States, especially in Washington DC. The protest had initially started on a couple of hundred college campuses, but soon the idea of protest the wars had spread across the nation's schools gaining tremendous support. The biggest protest was held in the Boston Common, as there were over 250,00 thousand people present at one point.
Protestors in the Boston Common
This protest, unlike many others, had a larger focus on labor and left-wing protestors. But there were also teachers, engineers, scientist, and a variety of workers all of which who protested the war. However, what most stood out about this protest was that fact that it was one of the first protests that had a large amount of middle class and middle-aged voters. Usually the lower classes of society, including factory workers and laborers would be the only ones to protest, but this time all people, of any background would protest this war. The protests are to have an estimated 2 million protestor, which is definitely indicative of it being one of the largest, if not the largest protest of its time.
Overall the Peace Moratorium had stood its revolt against the war on moral grounds, as they were truly repulsed by the violence and carnage of the war. The spread of live television had most definitely help ignite these protests, and also helped many of the American people see that this war had too many casualties and was going to be too hard to stop. The Peace Moratorium eventually inspired many other protests around the world, one of the most notable ones being in Austria. While the protest was mostly nonviolent, a couple of instances had turned extremely violent and had really displayed the split of the nation during that time.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/15/newsid_2533000/2533131.stm
https://hrmediaarchive.estuarypress.com/november-15-1969-vietnam-war-moratorium/
This post is very interesting, as it's really cool to learn about the groups of participants in these protests. I didn't know that an entire 25 million people were present in the Boston Common for this protest! I found it interesting how the biggest protest occurred after President Johnson lost a lot of public support for his continuation of the war in Vietnam. I suppose this can be an indicator of just how much of a turning point events such as the Tet Offensive represented in terms of public morale.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very well written and researched article. I can't believe I never knew about this protest before now and, just like Daniel said, it's very indicative of how powerful events like the Tet Offensive were in terms of shaping public opinion.
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