Civic Engagement

When my Dad was about my age he was involved in the tail end of the Vietnam Anti-War movement, the main point of this movement was to end the US involvement in Vietnam and to end the drafting of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers that went over to Vietnam. This movement began out as peaceful protest and largely remained so with the exception of a few moments such as the Kent State Shootings. The rest of the protest consisted of marches/picketing, speeches from veterans, and even the burning of draft cards. Over about a decade the movement gained enough support that the Americans Supporting the War dropped from over 61% to 28% which led to the eventual exit of US forces in Vietnam due to the chaos it was creating on US soil. One of the biggest issues of the Vietnam war was the use of the Selective Service that drafted young men to fight in a war they wanted no part in, but since Vietnam the Selective Service has not held a draft once. The movement also made a lasting statement about the US foreign policy at the time which waged proxy wars in undeveloped countries against the Soviet Union as a statement of communism versus capitalism. This movement was one of the most successful movements made in US history mainly because it not only ended the drafting and the Vietnam War (which the US was winning in terms of body count) but it did so in peaceful protest through the American people. This movement also sparked a whole new generation of culture with musical influence, media influence, and even being called “The Impossible Victory” by Howard Zinn. In a way though, the movement was not successful because they failed to permanently change US foreign policy with military involvement. The whole point of the movement was that the US was in Vietnam for no reason so they should leave. Today the US continues to do the same thing but in areas like Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and now Syria. Today the Vietnam Anti-War movement serves as an example for the US people to rebel against the tyranny of its own elected government. For many of those who lived through the movement, it was a turning point in American History where peaceful protest finally made a difference, it also caused a lot of people to lose faith in the government since it was one if the first times the US had gone to war without the support of its people and one of the first times that its leaders admitted that they were wrong. However, unfortunately to most of my generation it was just the years of classic rock, hippies, and Apocalypse Now.