The Anti-Vietnam War Movement

The Anti-Vietnam War Movement in United States was a collection of unrelated groups all opposed to US involvement in the Vietnam War. It began in 1964 with nonviolent demonstrations and protests by college students, but later gained support from hippies, mothers, women’s rights, Black civil rights, the Chicano movement, and even military veterans. There were three main reasons Americans opposed the Vietnam War: the draft, use of caustic herbicides, and the war expenses. By 1975, the war and the federal lost almost all support from its people.

The Vietnam War began as a skirmish between North Vietnam—supported by China and the Soviet Union—and South Vietnam—supported by the United States. North Vietnam was brutally suppressing South Vietnam, trying to impose Communism upon unwilling citizens. The United States—who after World War II made it their duty to protect free peoples against dictatorships—made it a priority to protect South Vietnam from invasion, and supplied them with food and weapons. President Eisenhower hypothesized the Domino Theory, declaring that one Communist state would begin attacking adjacent countries and continue in a domino effect until world domination. Used as justification, the Domino Theory was irrational, because North Vietnam only intended to reunite the country under Communism. Full-scale fighting by the US began in 1964 based on the Anti-Communist hysteria that existed at the time. Disillusioned after two years, the majority of Americans participated in the anti-war movement.

Protesting first began in 1964 by college students, a group affected by the draft. President Kennedy reinstated the draft, but included Selective Service, a law prioritizing who would be drafted first. Single, unmarr...

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...uction toward military equipment rather than consumer goods. US currency lost value, and price inflation and interest rates increased, leading to the economic crisis of the 1970s. War costs were left to taxpayers, which was of course, unfavorable.

The Anti-Vietnam War Movement ended in 1975, the end of the Vietnam War, and a humiliating loss for the United States. The Vietnam War was the longest in US history, the most expensive during the Cold War era, and arguably, one of the least popular wars in America. In culmination with the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate Scandal, the American people had deepened suspicions and mistrust in the federal government. Since then, American’s have never had the same level of faith in the government, and fear that another war like Vietnam will happen—if it hasn’t already. As for the anti-war movement, it no longer exists.