Perspectives

Perspectives

Personal views on the events of the 1960s vary dramatically. Many of those involved in the antiwar movement, like radical Dr. Benjamin Spock or civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., believed that the Vietnam War was immoral and unnecessary. They wrote speeches condemning the war and the administration. These personalities were very passionate in demanding an end to the Vietnam War, and their outspokenness and fervor were the driving forces behind the antiwar movement.

Even today, some consider the antiwar movement one of the greatest events in the history of our nation, a movement that increased our freedom and expanded our rights as citizens. Through rallies, demonstrations, and civil disobedience, Americans were allowed to assert their voice against an immoral war in Vietnam. In this positive view of the antiwar movement, Americans challenged their rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press, and used civil disobedience to actually influence government decisions. Even now, the antiwar movement is held in fond memory by many of the age's "flower children," as it represented a time during which Americans rallied around the cause of peace.

But at the same time, others believe that the antiwar movement actually hindered the United States during the war and was unhealthy for the nation, thus counterproductive to its own cause. This view considers the radicalism of the movement manifested by the late 1960’s, when opposition to the war in Vietnam came to be associated with rioting, bomb-throwing, drugs, free sex, anti-patriotism, social disunity, and open defiance of the law. The account of Oakland’s "Stop the Draft Week" by former antiwar protestor John Gage is a reflection of this view:

I went to the Stop the Draft Week protests and what I saw there made me convinced that action in the streets of that sort was not going to lead to the kind of change necessary to stop the war. I saw a lot of people from Berkeley tear people’s fences down, fences that belonged to people who probably made five thousand dollars a year, were ripped out and blocked people’s cars…the son of a judge, a well-known would-be radical, let the air out of the tires of the federal district attorneys. This was going to stop the war?

-from "Berkeley in the Sixties" film documentary

Accounts such as John Gage’s suggest that the movement may have actually been counterproductive to the antiwar cause, as it came to be seen as disruptive and un-American in the eyes of the American public.

With regard to Vietnam itself, still others believed that the war in Vietnam was a justified action to take in face of the impending Communist threat. They supported the war's goals of freedom and democracy, and viewed the war as a necessary evil despite the large number of American casualties. Even today, some Americans believe that the United States' decision to enter the war was justified.

As you can see, there is no "right" or "wrong" way to look at the Vietnam War and the movement against it. For each American, the movement represents something different. What do you think? We invite you to read some of the perspectives of those involved in the antiwar movement (at left) and to share your own thoughts in our Discussion Forum.

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