THE PEACE
MOVEMENT
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| "The movement took hold, a revival of social awareness spread across campuses from Cambridge to California. It spilled over the boundaries of the single issue of desegregation and encompassed questions of peace, civil liberties, capital punishment and others." --- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. | ||
| by:
Penny Sidoli
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The Times They Are A Changin'The 1960s Peace Movement became the first successful mass protest that stopped a war. It was characterized by marches, sit-ins, teach-ins and civil disobedience. Its symbols were peace signs and flowers on placards and banners. Popular music on FM radio stations called for an end to war ...the times they were a-changin'. Hawks and doves, bitter divisions within families, uncertainty, war and chaos characterized the era. There was a sharp line drawn between patriotism and dissent. The increasing numbers of protesters included citizens from every walk of life; high school and college students, pacifists, clergy, young professionals, Quakers, trade unionists, Marxists, Communist Party members, and admirers of Mahatma Gandhi, community organizers, Vietnam War veterans, and conscientious objectors. The FBI photographed marchers at every demonstration. By the 1970s the Secret Service list of dangerous people numbered at least 100,000 and included among them popular actors and singers. It became the rage to be radical. As the movement gathered momentum, it successfully pressured the US to withdraw its soldiers from Viet Nam, end the military draft, and vote Lyndon Johnson out of office. With it rose parallel movements seeking an end to social and race segregation --- demanding equal rights and opportunities for blacks, minorities, and women--- and planting the roots of movements seeking equality for gays, the disabled, as well as initiating citizen protest and actions against destruction of the environment. Make Love Not War ~ Ban The BombThe Peace Movement of the 1960s began as a citizen mass protest against aggressive Cold War foreign policy. In 1962, the United States discovered that Russia stocked Communist Cuba with nuclear missiles on launchers aimed at the US. In response, President Kennedy blockaded and threatened to invade Cuba if the missiles were not immediately withdrawn. The world teetered on the brink of of a US-Soviet nuclear war. President Johnson stepped up the US involvement in the Vietnam War and instituted a military draft. By 1965, the Selective Service was calling up 40,000 draftees a month until by mid-1967 there were 448,000 American combat troops in Viet Nam. Many refused to go, resisting (and becoming imprisoned) or leaving the country as draft dodgers hiding in Canada. Television brought the horrible aftermath of war for the first time into the living rooms of ordinary Americans. Protests against the war continued in increasing numbers across the country. Joan Baez toured college campuses to promote teach-ins. A.J. Muste and actress Jane Fonda went to Hanoi with an unsuccessful peace-making agenda. Anti-war radicals included the short-lived Students for Democratic Society (its founding statement was written by Tom Hayden), which later evolved into the militant Weatherman group advocating violent revolution. The FBI placed its members on the the Most Wanted List. Throughout the era the peace movement supported parallel movements for civil rights, fair wages for agricultural workers, and equality for women. Even Vietnam veterans led anti-war rallies in Washington DC. At some demonstrations, American flags and draft cards were burned. The majority of the protests and marches were peaceful; however there were acts of civil disobedience and numerous arrests. At the May 1970 anti-war protest at Kent State University in reaction to President Nixon's announcement of a military offensive into Cambodia, four students were massacred by Ohio National Guard soldiers called in to maintain order. And at the Democratic National Convention in August 1968, riots led to mass arrests, the infamous (mis)trial of the Chicago Seven, as well as, much later, the public examination of police behavior during citizen protest. "And
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