History Vault Students for a Democratic Society, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement

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ProQuest History Vault
Students for a Democratic Society, Vietnam Veterans
Against the War, and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement
Source Institution: Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS)
Compiled by
Kathy Hua, Content Ingest Developer
Daniel Lewis, Product Manager
Record ID: 201748-033-001

STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY, VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR, AND THE ANTI-VIETNAM WAR MOVEMENT
INTRODUCTION
1
Students for a Democratic Society, Vietnam Veterans Against
the War, and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, in ProQuest
History Vault, consists of 14 collections representing 12
different anti-Vietnam War organizations.
The organizations represented in this module are
• AMEX-Canada
• Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars
• Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee
• Indochina Peace Campaign
• National Peace Action Coalition
• New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
• Paris American Committee to Stop War
• Students for a Democratic Society
• Student Peace Union
• Teachers Committee for Peace in Vietnam
• Vietnam Moratorium Committee
• Vietnam Veterans Against the War
All 14 collections come from the holdings of the Wisconsin
Historical Society. ProQuest is honored to have worked with
the Wisconsin Historical Society on the digitization of these
important collections.
The two largest collections are the records of Students for a
Democratic Society and Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY:
PORT HURON STATEMENT
2
Record ID: 201772-038-1229
Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS) was
established in 1960, but
its birth as an organization
in many ways dates to
June 1962, when Tom
Hayden presented his
draft of a statement of
the values of the
organization at SDS’s
national convention in
Port Huron, Michigan.
The Port Huron statement
has been labeled as the
“the most ambitious, the
most specific, and the
most eloquent manifesto
in the history of the
American Left.” (Michael
Kazin, Dissent Magazine,
Spring 2012)
“We are people of this generation, bred in at least
modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking
uncomfortably to the world we inherit”

1965 ANTI-VIETNAM WAR DEMONSTRATION
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is one of
the most well-known radical organizations of the
1960s. Inspired, in part, by the civil rights
movement, and especially by the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in its
early years, SDS emphasized participatory
democracy, community building, and creating a
political movement of impoverished people. As
U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War escalated in
the mid-1960s, SDS became involved in the anti-
Vietnam War movement.
On April 17, 1965, SDS organized a March on
Washington to protest the Vietnam War. The
demonstration was the first major demonstration
in Washington, D.C. against the Vietnam War.
After the march, SDS was recognized as one of
the primary organizations of the New Left.
Although SDS did not take a direct leadership role
in the anti-Vietnam War movement, by 1967
many local SDS chapters and members came to
lead militant student protests.
3
Record ID: 201772-006-0507

ERAP NEWSLETTER
4
Record ID: 201772-034-0370
During the summer of 1963, SDS obtained a grant of $5000 from the United Auto Workers Union. With part of this money, they
established the Economic Research and Action Project (ERAP). From engaging in research into poverty, ERAP sought during 1964-
1965 to build a radical political movement of the impoverished. People from neighborhoods would be organized on issues like
better schools or garbage removal, and through their struggle learn how power operates in our society. This program, led by
Rennie Davis, broadened the insights of ERAP workers but failed to either alter the condition of the poor or to organize them. The
Cleveland report above comes from the ERAP Project Report for July 1-10, 1964. The page on the right is the first page of the ERAP
newsletter for October 12-19, 1964.

MEMBERSHIP BULLETIN
SDS published a membership bulletin that it sent to its chapters in
the United States. Most issues included stories on important
national political developments as well as summaries of SDS
chapter activities. The SDS collection includes a series of SDS
Bulletins from 1962-1965.
From the April 1964 Bulletin: Get the U.S. Out of Vietnam! This
demand – for immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops and
military aid from Vietnam – will be the main thrust of a
demonstration to be held in at least three places across the
country on May 2.
5
Record ID: 201772-035-0334

PAMPHLETS
The documents shown here
come from the pamphlet series
in the SDS collection. There are
over 400 pamphlets prepared
by or about SDS.
6
Record ID: 201772-037-0076
The report on the left by Tom Hayden, “Revolution in Mississippi” is indicative of the influence of
the civil rights movement, especially the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, on SDS in
its early years. Tom Hayden was one of several SDS leaders who participated in Mississippi
Freedom Summer and other civil rights initiatives.
Record ID: 201772-038-0856Record ID: 201772-037-0494

PAMPHLETS
7
SDS Pamphlet, “Don’t Mourn, Don’t Mourn, Organize,
Organize” published in 1968.
Record ID: 201772-038-1103

1969 CONVENTION AND WEATHERMEN SPLIT
SDS found itself harassed
from without and
fragmented from within
during the 1968-1969
school year. These
pressures surfaced with a
vengeance at the June
1969 National Convention
at which SDS split into
approximately
three factions: PL,
Weathermen, and RYM II.
This latter group,
composed of diverse,
moderate SDSers, collapsed
within a year due to its
inability to develop a
coherent, activist program.
8
Record ID: 201772-041-0295
The Weathermen, who included many of the national leaders and staff members, sought to initiate an
immediate revolution; within six months, the organization had gone underground and its leaders were wanted in
connection with mob violence and bombing. The first page of the Weathermen’s political manifesto “You don’t
need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” is shown on the right

VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR:
COLLECTION INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW
9
Vietnam Veterans Against the War Records, 1967-2006, contains correspondence,
press releases, news clippings, meeting minutes, leaflets, flyers, and newsletters of
the VVAW, a national organization formed in 1967 by Vietnam veterans advocating
military withdrawal from Vietnam. After the war, VVAW worked for improved
services and benefits for Vietnam veterans.
Researchers will discover records of the national office, in New York City and then
Chicago, documenting national programs and activities, especially participation in
antiwar demonstrations and the Winter Soldier war crimes investigation, as well as
support for the rights of active-duty G.I.s around the world and political prisoners
like the Gainesville Eight, Gary Lawton, Ashby Leach, and the Leavenworth Brothers.
Three local chapters are also included: Brooklyn-Northern New Jersey (later
Clarence Fitch), Madison, and Milwaukee, focusing on the post-Vietnam War period
and documenting Agent Orange work and involvement in the peace movement
during the 1980s and 1990s.

WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION
VVAW was founded in 1967 by six veterans who had met at the
Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. Opposition to
the Vietnam War increased, especially after 1968, and in 1971,
the organization launched the “Winter Soldier Investigation,” an
inquiry into U.S. War Crimes in Indochina, “to widen the circle of
responsibility for war crimes to the top levels of society – and
then to draw it tight. We intend to indict, to accuse, to hold
responsible our nation’s military and military policy leaders.”
10
Record ID: 201748-018-0037
Record ID: 201748-002-0031

WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION
11
TESTIMONY OF LIEUTENANT JOHN KERRY
BEFORE THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 22, 1971
“We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel that we
have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country, we could be
quiet, we could our silence, we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel
because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds
and not redcoat, but the crimes we are committing which threaten it, that we have
Record ID: 201748-033-0011
to speak out […] In our opinion,
and from our experiences, there is
nothing in South Vietnam, nothing
which could happen that
realistically threatens the United
States of America. And to attempt
to justify the loss of one American
life in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos,
by linking such loss to the
preservation of freedom, which
those misfits supposedly abuse, is
to us the height of criminal
hypocrisy. It is that kind of
hypocrisy which we feel has torn
this country apart.”
Record ID: 201748-004-0030

PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS & THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
With its foundations rooted in protest, a
central priority of VVAW was to organize
major national demonstrations, notably
Operation Rapid American Withdrawal (RAW),
Operation Last Patrol, the Winter Soldier
Investigation, and Operation Dewey Canyon
III.
This collection features a number of
administrative materials produced by the
national office to aid local chapters in these
efforts, including this organizers’ pamphlet,
“a basic organizing tool that will enable
people to form new chapters, strengthen
older ones, and at the same time increase
and improve relations with other
organizations.”
12
Record ID: 201748-003-0007

PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS & THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
OPERATION DEWEY CANYON III, THE FIRST NATIONAL ANTI-WAR
DEMONSTRATION ORGANIZED BY THE VVAW, NAMED AFTER TWO
MILITARY INVASIONS OF LAOS, TOOK PLACE ON APRIL 18-23, 1971 IN
WASHINGTON, D.C.
13
Record ID: 201748-008-0012 Record ID: 201748-008-0012
OPERATION DEWEY CANYON III
TIMELINE
• April 18: Veterans gather in West Potomac
Park
• April 19: Led by Gold Star Mothers, over a
thousand veterans cross the Lincoln
Memorial Bridge to Arlington Cemetery to
place wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier. The march continues to the Capitol
Building, where Jan Crumb presents sixteen
demands to Congress. Veterans establish a
campsite on the National Mall.
• April 20: Senate Foreign relations
Committee hearings on proposals to end the
war
• April 21: Fifty veterans march to the
Pentagon to turn themselves in as war
criminals.
• April 22: Veterans march to the steps of the
Supreme Court to demand it rule the war
unconstitutional. John Kerry testifies before
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
• April 23: Veterans throw their medals and
ribbons on the steps of the Capitol.

VETERANS BENEFITS, HEALTH, AND REHABILITATION
Many soldiers came back from the Vietnam War with physical and mental health problems, and VVAW devoted significant resources to
gathering and analyzing research on veterans health issues. The collection includes a number of scientific and medical materials, like this
report on the health effects of herbicide exposure on Air Force veterans, as well as materials on initiatives like Operation County Fair (OCF),
a VVAW National Project to support the Martin Luther King, Jr. Clinic in Bogue Chitto, Louisiana.
14
“The purposes of the OCF
are to provide a needed
service to the people of
Bogue Chitto, while at
the same time educating
the public about two
important problems that
face us today in the
United States. The first is
racism, and the second is
inadequate, expensive
and discriminatory
health care.”

15
Record ID: 201748-001-0027
VVAW pamphlet on PVS (Post-
Vietnam Syndrome), to
“encourage the formation of
veterans’ rap groups for vets who
need help. Since 1970, we have
helped in forming PVS rap groups
in New York City, San Francisco,
Waupun State Prison (Wisconsin)
and Milwaukee. We have
compiled an extensive library of
writings on PVS by professional
and lay people, and this
information, compiled by our PVS
Clearinghouse, has raised the
awareness of people all over the
world.”
Record ID: 201748-001-0027
“Because of the inadequacy of health and educational services provided to Vietnam veterans, VVAW […] gradually turned to providing
direct services to veterans and active-duty soldiers. VVAW chapters sponsored rehabilitation farms, halfway houses, and psychotherapy
programs, pushed for better conditions in Veterans’ Administration hospitals, and lobbied for legislation favorable to veterans […] In
addition to continuing their political and education activities, VVAW initiated rap sessions to help Vietnam veterans readjust
psychologically.” (Wisconsin Historical Society)

16
Record ID: 201748-008-0039Record ID: 201748-018-0007
VVAW also focused on employment and federal education
assistance for veterans. Reports and correspondence document the
organization’s efforts to lobby members of Congress in support of
these programs, including tuition assistance (G.I. Bill), scholarships,
high school and college equivalency courses in Veterans
Administration hospitals, work-study and employment programs.

17
Record ID: 201748-008-0028Record ID: 201748-008-0028Record ID: 201748-001-0027
Black Panther Party pamphlet on drug
addiction in black communities, referring to
VVAW and CAMP (Chicago Area Military
Project) as part of a nationwide network of
support groups for “GIs, servicewomen,
and veterans who are at odds with the
military, the government, drugs, or any
other oppressive force.”
Article by Fred Ferreti on federal response
to drug addiction among servicemen: “If
the Defense Department went beyond its
stereotypes and its funny numbers, it
would have to admit that there was
widespread addiction among freshly
discharged troops. This would unsettle
the belly of the country.”
VVAW six-month Drug Rehabilitation
Program at the VA Hospital in Bedford,
Massachusetts: “To stop using alcohol,
dope or any other means is not enough: it
is just a beginning. You have come to us
because you are at your wit’s end. Your
life has been miserable and you need to
change.”

“[Amnesty] is recognition of the price that the American
people have paid in order to oppose the war. Amnesty does
not ignore the fact that thousands of American young men
were killed or wounded in Indochina. It puts that fact into
perspective regarding the price that the Indochinese people
have paid. It also forces the realization that Americans should
never have been sent to fight the Indochinese in the first place
[…] amnesty is of direct personal importance to hundreds of
thousands of Americans whose sons, friends, and neighbors
are exiles, fugitives, imprisoned, or unemployed because of
the consequences of opposition to the war. It is perhaps the
only anti-war issue that the government is powerless to quiet
down with its propaganda regarding the war as being over
[…] it makes the connection between the GI movement and
the civilian movement clear by recognizing the magnitude of
the GI struggle.”
18
Record ID: 201748-001-0029

COUNTER-RECRUITMENT ACTIVITIES
19
Record ID: 201748-001-0027
“I want to tell people from my
wheelchair, Don’t use me as a rallying
cry to continue this war for a just peace.
To throw more guys and more of my
friends and brothers into the hopper of
this war machine, to justify my loss. If I
can recognize my loss is a waste, why
can’t you?”

RACISM IN THE MILITARY
20
Record ID: 201748-004-0001
VVAW pamphlet:
“The military
claims that it is
trying to eliminate
racism. They have
established
ineffective race
relation programs,
done a lot of
talking out of both
sides of their
mouths, and tried
to get black, or
other third world, and white people to compete for
petty privileges. Some people believe blacks get
special privileges, some people believe the military is
as racist as ever.”

CONTEMPORARY ACTIVITIES
21
Record ID: 201748-030-0001 Record ID: 201748-030-0005 Record ID: 201748-030-0011
“Despite a much-reduced membership, VVAW was able to survive the end of the Vietnam War by continuing to focus on veterans’
benefits […] Eventually, VVAW emerged as a small general veterans’ peace organization.”
(Wisconsin Historical Society)
Lastly, this collection also features VVAW’s organizational documents beyond the Vietnam War and
through the present era, including official statements protesting the U.S. Navy’s presence and
weapons testing on Vieques Island in Puerto Rico, the September 11th, 2001 attacks and the
aftermath, and the Iraq War in 2003.

NEW MOBILIZATION COMMITTEE TO END THE WAR IN VIETNAM:
STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
The New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, or New Mobe, was formed during an anti-war conference in 1969.
Its goal was limited and very specific: to organize and plan anti-war marches in November 1969. During an anti-war conference in
Cleveland, Ohio, over the Fourth of July weekend in 1969, plans were made for the anti-war movement's fall offensive,
culminating in two marches to be held November 13-15, 1969, in Washington, D.C., and secondarily in San Francisco, California.
The first, and main march on the 13th, would eventually be called The March Against Death; the secondary march was scheduled
for the 15th. New Mobe, an ad hoc coalition of organizations and individuals, was tasked with organizing and planning these
events. The documents on this slide are the Steering Committee Meeting Minutes from a meeting in Chicago on July 30-31, 1969.
22
Record ID: 201742-001-0001

PARIS AMERICAN COMMITTEE TO STOP WAR:
PACS NEWS AND WHAT IS PACS
The Paris American Committee to Stop War (PACS) was a non-denominational, politically unaffiliated organization consisting of
Americans living in Paris, France, and was dedicated to promoting peace, particularly putting pressure on the U.S. government to
end the war in Vietnam. Through its twice-monthly meetings that included talks by national and international specialists
regarding the imperialist policies of the U.S. government, PACS members tried to keep informed and to inform others throughout
the world. In addition, PACS sponsored film showings, leafletting, and "special events" to coincide with demonstrations and
actions of U.S. peace groups. There are two different PACS collections in this module: Paris American Committee to Stop War
Records, 1961-1975 and Paris American Committee to Stop War Records: Maria Jolas Papers, 1941-1987.
25
Record ID: 201748_018_0037_0026
Record ID: 201748_002_0031_0002
Record ID: 201748_018_0037_0026 Record ID: 201748_018_0037_0026

VIETNAM MORATORIUM COMMITTEE:
CORRESPONDENCE AND PROTEST ACTIONS
Vietnam Moratorium Committee Records, 1969-1970 consists of nearly 5,000 pages of correspondence, subject files, and
visual materials (photographs and posters). The Moratorium was formed to continue protesting U.S. involvement in Vietnam
following the election of Richard Nixon. Founded by Sam Brown, David Hawk, and David Mixner, activists who had been
involved in Democratic hopeful George McGovern's campaign, the Moratorium planned multiple moratorium protests
throughout 1969 but ultimately disbanded one year later. On the left is a letter to the Vietnam Moratorium Committee from
Representative Richard L. Ottinger of New York. In the center is an advertisement for a nationwide tax protest on April 15,
1969. The document on the right is a poster for the October 15, 1969 Vietnam Moratorium demonstration.
26
Record ID: 201745-002-0003 Record ID: 201745-005-0205 Record ID: 201745-005-0205

INDOCHINA PEACE CAMPAIGN:
CALL FOR A NATIONAL PLANNING CONFERENCE
Founded in 1972, the Indochina Peace
Campaign (IPC) was one of the few national
groups to continue anti-Vietnam War
activities after the signing of the peace
accords in January 1973. Largely because of
its formation in the later stages of the anti-
war movement, the IPC emphasized a
strategy of broad-based public education
rather than the civil disobedience and mass
actions which had characterized many
earlier coalitions.
FINALLY, TO END THE WAR: A NATIONAL
PLANNING CONFERENCE
OCTOBER 26-28, Detroit, Michigan
Initiated by the Indochina Peace
Campaign …
We continue to make ending the war in
Indochina a major priority for our
organizations because
-- The war continues. Combat occurs
constantly in Cambodia and South
Vietnam.
-- For the people of the cities of South
Vietnam the war has intensified …
We are optimistic that the dominant mood
among the American people is to really
bring the war to an end.
27
Record ID: 201740-006-0002

NATIONAL PEACE ACTION COALITION:
NATIONAL CONVENTION, DECEMBER 4-6, 1970
The National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC) was an
umbrella organization composed of many local and
national groups that opposed U.S. involvement in the
Vietnam War. It combined with the Student
Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
to organize students for the anti-war cause. Founded
at the National Emergency Conference in Cleveland
on June 19-20, 1970, NPAC acknowledged the
growing divide between various anti-war groups,
however, NPAC held to the principle of non-
exclusion, welcoming all opponents of the war
regardless of political ideology. NPAC was committed
to peaceful mass action, which set it apart from
groups that condoned confrontation tactics. The
policy and tactics of the group were determined at
biannual conventions.
National Peace Action Coalition Records, 1970-1973,
cover national and local conferences of the peace
movement, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations
planned by the coalition, fundraising, relationships
with other anti-war organizations, and educational
materials about the war in Vietnam.
23
Record ID: 201741_004_0308

NATIONAL PEACE ACTION COALITION:
PRESS RELEASES
24

STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY, VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR, AND THE ANTI-VIETNAM WAR MOVEMENT:
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
28
ProQuest History Vault Collections cited in this presentation:
• Vietnam Veterans Against the War Records, 1967-2006
• Students for a Democratic Society Papers 1958-1970
• National Peace Action Coalition Records, 1970-1973
• New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam Records, 1969-1970
• Vietnam Moratorium Committee Records, 1969-1970
• Paris American Committee to Stop War
Other collections in this module not cited in the presentation:
• Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars Records, 1968-1996
• Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee Records, 1965-1971
• Fred Halstead Papers,
• Student Peace Union Records, 1958-1964
• Teachers Committee for Peace in Vietnam Records, 1963-1980
• AMEX/Canada Records, 1968-1977
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Record ID: 201748_033_0009
Record ID: 201748_001_0029

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History Vault Students for a Democratic Society, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement