{"id":409,"date":"2015-08-21T18:06:59","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T18:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/ushistory2os2xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=409"},"modified":"2022-09-28T23:52:11","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T23:52:11","slug":"antiwar-sentiment-in-the-vietnam-era","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/chapter\/antiwar-sentiment-in-the-vietnam-era\/","title":{"raw":"Antiwar Sentiment in the Vietnam Era","rendered":"Antiwar Sentiment in the Vietnam Era"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Explain how the antiwar movement changed during the Nixon administration<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Describe the situation and significance of the shootings at Kent State<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp45451152\">As early as 1967, critics of the war in Vietnam had begun to call for the repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave President Johnson authority to conduct military operations in defense of South Vietnam. Nixon initially opposed the repeal efforts, claiming that the United States would lose its ability to defend its Cold War allies. Nevertheless, by 1969, he was beginning troop withdrawals from Vietnam while simultaneously looking for a \u201cknockout blow\u201d against the North Vietnamese. In sum, the Nixon administration was in need of an exit strategy that avoided the appearance of defeat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"390\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203408\/CNX_History_30_03_Vietnam.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows a group of uniformed U.S. soldiers crouched beside a wall. One soldier is shirtless, with a large bandage wrapped around his chest.\" width=\"390\" height=\"258\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. U.S. soldiers in Hue in 1968 during the Tet Offensive. The frustrating experience of fighting the seemingly unwinnable war left many soldiers, and the public in general, disillusioned with the government.[\/caption]\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp253439056\">The escalation of the war, however, made an easy withdrawal increasingly difficult. Officially, the United States was the ally and partner of the South Vietnamese, whose \u201chearts and minds\u201d it was trying to win through a combination of military assistance and economic development. In reality, U.S. soldiers, who found themselves fighting in an inhospitable environment thousands of miles from home to protect people who often resented their presence and aided their enemies, often came to regard the Vietnamese as backward, duplicitous people, and the government of South Vietnam as hopelessly inefficient and corrupt. Instead of winning \u201chearts and minds,\u201d U.S. warfare in Vietnam cost the lives and limbs of U.S. troops and millions of Vietnamese combatants and civilians.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm87375264\">For their part, the North Vietnamese forces and the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam also used brutal tactics to terrorize and kill their opponents or effectively control their territory. Political assassinations and forced indoctrination were common. Captured U.S. soldiers frequently endured torture and imprisonment.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<section id=\"fs-idp21767024\" data-depth=\"1\">\r\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">My Lai<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp237398624\">Racism on the part of some U.S. soldiers and a desire to retaliate against those they perceived to be responsible for harming U.S. troops affected the conduct of the war. A war correspondent who served in Vietnam noted, \u201cIn motivating the GI to fight by appealing to his racist feelings, the United States military discovered that it had liberated an emotion over which it was to lose control.\u201d It was not unusual for U.S. soldiers to evacuate and burn villages\u00a0merely on the suspicion\u00a0of shielding Viet Cong fighters, both to deprive the enemy of potential support and to enact revenge for enemy brutality. Troops shot at farmers\u2019 water buffalo for target practice. American and South Vietnamese use of napalm, a jellied gasoline that sticks to the objects it burns, was common. Originally developed to burn down structures during World War II, in Vietnam, it was directed against human beings as well, as had occurred during the Korean War.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3>Vietnam Veterans against the War Statement<\/h3>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp345369728\">Many U.S. soldiers disapproved of the actions of their fellow troops. Indeed, a group of<span style=\"color: #333333;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">such<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>veterans formed the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Small at first, it grew to perhaps as many as twenty thousand members. In April 1971, John Kerry, a former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and a member of VVAW (who would later become a Senator and run for President), testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about conditions in Vietnam based on his personal observations:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote id=\"fs-idp297489104\">\r\n<div>\r\n\r\nI would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do.\r\n\r\nThey told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. randomly shot at civilians, razed villages\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\r\n\r\nWe could come back to this country, we could be quiet, we could hold our silence, we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, not the reds [Communists], but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.\r\n\r\n\u2014John Kerry, April 23, 1971\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/blockquote>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp21784704\">In what way did the actions of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam threaten the United States?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"fs-idp195741520\" class=\"history defining-american\" data-type=\"note\" data-label=\"Defining American\">\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp132177664\">On March 16, 1968, men from the U.S. Army\u2019s Twenty-Third Infantry Division committed one of the most notorious atrocities of the war. About one hundred soldiers commanded by Captain Ernest Medina were sent to destroy the village of My Lai, which was suspected of hiding Viet Cong fighters. Although there was later disagreement regarding the captain\u2019s exact words, the platoon leaders believed the order to destroy the enemy included killing women and children.\u00a0A group of seventy to eighty unarmed people, including children and infants, were forced into an irrigation ditch by members of the First Platoon under the command of Lt. William L. Calley, Jr. Despite their proclamations of innocence, the villagers were shot. Houses were set on fire, and as the inhabitants tried to flee, they were killed with rifles, machine guns, and grenades.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_30_03_MyLai\"><\/figure>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp252343664\">The precise number of civilians killed that day is unclear: The numbers range from 347 to 504. None were armed.\u00a0The army first claimed that 150 people, the majority of them Viet Cong, had been killed during a firefight with Charlie Company.<\/p>\r\nBy September 1969, the army, having been tipped off by a whistleblower named Ron Ridenhour,\u00a0charged Lt. Calley with premeditated murder. Many Americans were horrified at the graphic footage of the massacre; the incident confirmed their belief that the war was unjust and not being fought on behalf of the Vietnamese people. However, nearly half of the respondents to a Minnesota poll did not believe that the incident at My Lai had actually happened, refusing to believe that American soldiers could have committed such an atrocity.\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp251172480\">Calley was found guilty in March 1971, and sentenced to life in prison. Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of Americans joined a \u201cFree Calley\u201d campaign, believing the man was unfairly maligned by the war's critics or taking the fall for his superiors. Two days later, President Nixon released him from custody and placed him under him house arrest at Fort Benning, Georgia. In August of that same year, Calley\u2019s sentence was reduced to twenty years, and in September 1974, he was paroled. The only soldier convicted in the massacre, he spent a total of three-and-a-half years under house arrest for his crimes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><section id=\"fs-idp32542800\" data-depth=\"1\">\r\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">Battles at Home<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp122664240\">As the conflict wore on and reports of brutalities increased, the antiwar movement grew in strength. To take the political pressure off himself and his administration, and find a way to exit Vietnam \u201cwith honor,\u201d Nixon began the process of <strong>Vietnamization<\/strong>, turning more responsibility for the war over to South Vietnamese forces by training them and providing American weaponry, while withdrawing U.S. troops from the field. At the same time, however, Nixon authorized the bombing of neighboring Cambodia, which had declared its neutrality, in an effort to destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong bases within that country and cut off supply routes between North and South Vietnam. The bombing was kept secret from both Congress and the American public. In April 1970, Nixon decided to follow up with an invasion of Cambodia.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Kent State<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm5729680\">Unlike the bombing campaign,\u00a0the invasion could not be kept secret.\u00a0When Nixon announced it on television on April 30, 1970,\u00a0the antiwar movement sprang back into action. The most tragic occurred on May 1, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio. Violence erupted in the town of Kent after an initial student demonstration on campus, and the next day, the mayor asked Ohio\u2019s governor to send in the National Guard. Troops were sent to the university\u2019s campus, where students had set fire to the ROTC building and were fighting off firemen and policemen trying to extinguish it. The National Guard used teargas to break up the demonstration, and several students were arrested.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_30_03_KentState\">\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"585\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203411\/CNX_History_30_03_KentState.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph (a) shows Richard Nixon speaking on a stage beside a large map of Southeast Asia; he points to Cambodia with one hand. Photograph (b) shows a National Guard tank at Kent State University. A uniformed National Guardsman stands in front of the tank, holding a rifle; several students are visible in the background.\" width=\"585\" height=\"227\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. On April 30, 1970, Richard Nixon announces plans for the Cambodia Campaign (a), provoking protests on college campuses across the country. Within days, the governor of Ohio had called in the National Guard in response to student demonstrations at Kent State University. Bill Whitbeck, who was a student majoring in photo illustration at Kent State University in May 1970, captured this image (b) on campus on May 3, one day before the shootings that would result in four student deaths. (credit b: modification of work by Bill Whitbeck)[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp135516272\">Tensions came to a head on May 4. Although campus officials had called off a planned demonstration, some fifteen hundred to two thousand students assembled, throwing rocks at a security officer who ordered them to leave. Seventy-seven members of the National Guard, with bayonets attached to their rifles, approached the students. After forcing most of them to retreat, the troops seemed to depart. Then, for reasons that are still unknown, they halted and turned; many began to fire at the students. Nine students were wounded; four were killed. Two of the dead had simply been crossing campus on their way to class.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\r\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\r\nThis video shows some of the footage and reports from the protests at Kent State.\r\n\r\n<center><iframe src=\"\/\/plugin.3playmedia.com\/show?mf=8207364&amp;p3sdk_version=1.10.1&amp;p=20361&amp;pt=375&amp;video_id=Lmd6CHah7Wg&amp;video_target=tpm-plugin-ckuc676x-Lmd6CHah7Wg\" width=\"800px\" height=\"450px\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0px\" marginheight=\"0px\"><\/iframe><\/center><center>You can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/US+history+II\/OnthisdayFourkilledinKentStateshooting.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cOn this day: Four killed in Kent State shooting\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.<\/center><\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm32670880\">News of the Kent State shootings shocked students around the country. Millions refused to attend class, as strikes were held at hundreds of colleges and high schools across the United States. On May 8, an antiwar protest took place in New York City, and the next day, 100,000 protesters assembled in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm30360176\">On May 15, a similar tragedy took place at Jackson State College, an African American college in Jackson, Mississippi. Once again, students gathered on campus to protest the invasion of Cambodia, setting fires and throwing rocks. The police arrived to disperse the protesters, who had gathered outside a women\u2019s dormitory. Shortly after midnight, the police opened fire with shotguns. The dormitory windows shattered, showering people with broken glass. Twelve were wounded, and two young men, one a student at the college and the other a local high school student, were killed. The incident received only the barest attention when compared to the outcry over the shooting at Kent State.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\r\nNote that these protests are some of the more than hundred of protests that took place throughout America and the world against the Vietnam War. In a previous module we learned about the Chicano Moratorium in L.A, but there are many more, which you can find on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_protests_against_the_Vietnam_War\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this Wikipedia page listing the major protests<\/a>. Protestors With no end in sight, protesters burned draft cards, refused to pay income taxes, occupied government buildings, and delayed trains loaded with war materials. By 1967, antiwar demonstrations were drawing hundreds of thousands. In one protest, hundreds were arrested after surrounding the Pentagon.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/cc999696-9535-4d60-bff6-f8993bd25492\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\r\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\r\n<section>According to John Kerry, how did many U.S. soldiers treat Vietnamese civilians?\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"525024\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"525024\"]According to John Kerry\u2019s testimony, Vietnamese civilians were often subjected to shocking violence. Soldiers raped, mutilated, shot at, and brutally murdered civilians. Troops also intentionally destroyed Vietnamese villages, well beyond the destruction typically wrought by war.[\/hidden-answer]<\/section><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\r\n<strong>Vietnamization:\u00a0<\/strong>the Nixon administration\u2019s policy of turning over responsibility for the defense of South Vietnam to Vietnamese forces\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Explain how the antiwar movement changed during the Nixon administration<\/li>\n<li>Describe the situation and significance of the shootings at Kent State<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idp45451152\">As early as 1967, critics of the war in Vietnam had begun to call for the repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave President Johnson authority to conduct military operations in defense of South Vietnam. Nixon initially opposed the repeal efforts, claiming that the United States would lose its ability to defend its Cold War allies. Nevertheless, by 1969, he was beginning troop withdrawals from Vietnam while simultaneously looking for a \u201cknockout blow\u201d against the North Vietnamese. In sum, the Nixon administration was in need of an exit strategy that avoided the appearance of defeat.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203408\/CNX_History_30_03_Vietnam.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows a group of uniformed U.S. soldiers crouched beside a wall. One soldier is shirtless, with a large bandage wrapped around his chest.\" width=\"390\" height=\"258\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. U.S. soldiers in Hue in 1968 during the Tet Offensive. The frustrating experience of fighting the seemingly unwinnable war left many soldiers, and the public in general, disillusioned with the government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idp253439056\">The escalation of the war, however, made an easy withdrawal increasingly difficult. Officially, the United States was the ally and partner of the South Vietnamese, whose \u201chearts and minds\u201d it was trying to win through a combination of military assistance and economic development. In reality, U.S. soldiers, who found themselves fighting in an inhospitable environment thousands of miles from home to protect people who often resented their presence and aided their enemies, often came to regard the Vietnamese as backward, duplicitous people, and the government of South Vietnam as hopelessly inefficient and corrupt. Instead of winning \u201chearts and minds,\u201d U.S. warfare in Vietnam cost the lives and limbs of U.S. troops and millions of Vietnamese combatants and civilians.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm87375264\">For their part, the North Vietnamese forces and the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam also used brutal tactics to terrorize and kill their opponents or effectively control their territory. Political assassinations and forced indoctrination were common. Captured U.S. soldiers frequently endured torture and imprisonment.<\/p>\n<section id=\"fs-idp21767024\" data-depth=\"1\">\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">My Lai<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idp237398624\">Racism on the part of some U.S. soldiers and a desire to retaliate against those they perceived to be responsible for harming U.S. troops affected the conduct of the war. A war correspondent who served in Vietnam noted, \u201cIn motivating the GI to fight by appealing to his racist feelings, the United States military discovered that it had liberated an emotion over which it was to lose control.\u201d It was not unusual for U.S. soldiers to evacuate and burn villages\u00a0merely on the suspicion\u00a0of shielding Viet Cong fighters, both to deprive the enemy of potential support and to enact revenge for enemy brutality. Troops shot at farmers\u2019 water buffalo for target practice. American and South Vietnamese use of napalm, a jellied gasoline that sticks to the objects it burns, was common. Originally developed to burn down structures during World War II, in Vietnam, it was directed against human beings as well, as had occurred during the Korean War.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Vietnam Veterans against the War Statement<\/h3>\n<p id=\"fs-idp345369728\">Many U.S. soldiers disapproved of the actions of their fellow troops. Indeed, a group of<span style=\"color: #333333;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\">such<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>veterans formed the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Small at first, it grew to perhaps as many as twenty thousand members. In April 1971, John Kerry, a former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and a member of VVAW (who would later become a Senator and run for President), testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about conditions in Vietnam based on his personal observations:<\/p>\n<blockquote id=\"fs-idp297489104\">\n<div>\n<p>I would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do.<\/p>\n<p>They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. randomly shot at civilians, razed villages\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.<\/p>\n<p>We could come back to this country, we could be quiet, we could hold our silence, we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, not the reds [Communists], but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014John Kerry, April 23, 1971<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p id=\"fs-idp21784704\">In what way did the actions of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam threaten the United States?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"fs-idp195741520\" class=\"history defining-american\" data-type=\"note\" data-label=\"Defining American\">\n<p id=\"fs-idp132177664\">On March 16, 1968, men from the U.S. Army\u2019s Twenty-Third Infantry Division committed one of the most notorious atrocities of the war. About one hundred soldiers commanded by Captain Ernest Medina were sent to destroy the village of My Lai, which was suspected of hiding Viet Cong fighters. Although there was later disagreement regarding the captain\u2019s exact words, the platoon leaders believed the order to destroy the enemy included killing women and children.\u00a0A group of seventy to eighty unarmed people, including children and infants, were forced into an irrigation ditch by members of the First Platoon under the command of Lt. William L. Calley, Jr. Despite their proclamations of innocence, the villagers were shot. Houses were set on fire, and as the inhabitants tried to flee, they were killed with rifles, machine guns, and grenades.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_30_03_MyLai\"><\/figure>\n<p id=\"fs-idp252343664\">The precise number of civilians killed that day is unclear: The numbers range from 347 to 504. None were armed.\u00a0The army first claimed that 150 people, the majority of them Viet Cong, had been killed during a firefight with Charlie Company.<\/p>\n<p>By September 1969, the army, having been tipped off by a whistleblower named Ron Ridenhour,\u00a0charged Lt. Calley with premeditated murder. Many Americans were horrified at the graphic footage of the massacre; the incident confirmed their belief that the war was unjust and not being fought on behalf of the Vietnamese people. However, nearly half of the respondents to a Minnesota poll did not believe that the incident at My Lai had actually happened, refusing to believe that American soldiers could have committed such an atrocity.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idp251172480\">Calley was found guilty in March 1971, and sentenced to life in prison. Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of Americans joined a \u201cFree Calley\u201d campaign, believing the man was unfairly maligned by the war&#8217;s critics or taking the fall for his superiors. Two days later, President Nixon released him from custody and placed him under him house arrest at Fort Benning, Georgia. In August of that same year, Calley\u2019s sentence was reduced to twenty years, and in September 1974, he was paroled. The only soldier convicted in the massacre, he spent a total of three-and-a-half years under house arrest for his crimes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idp32542800\" data-depth=\"1\">\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">Battles at Home<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idp122664240\">As the conflict wore on and reports of brutalities increased, the antiwar movement grew in strength. To take the political pressure off himself and his administration, and find a way to exit Vietnam \u201cwith honor,\u201d Nixon began the process of <strong>Vietnamization<\/strong>, turning more responsibility for the war over to South Vietnamese forces by training them and providing American weaponry, while withdrawing U.S. troops from the field. At the same time, however, Nixon authorized the bombing of neighboring Cambodia, which had declared its neutrality, in an effort to destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong bases within that country and cut off supply routes between North and South Vietnam. The bombing was kept secret from both Congress and the American public. In April 1970, Nixon decided to follow up with an invasion of Cambodia.<\/p>\n<h2>Kent State<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idm5729680\">Unlike the bombing campaign,\u00a0the invasion could not be kept secret.\u00a0When Nixon announced it on television on April 30, 1970,\u00a0the antiwar movement sprang back into action. The most tragic occurred on May 1, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio. Violence erupted in the town of Kent after an initial student demonstration on campus, and the next day, the mayor asked Ohio\u2019s governor to send in the National Guard. Troops were sent to the university\u2019s campus, where students had set fire to the ROTC building and were fighting off firemen and policemen trying to extinguish it. The National Guard used teargas to break up the demonstration, and several students were arrested.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_30_03_KentState\">\n<div style=\"width: 595px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203411\/CNX_History_30_03_KentState.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph (a) shows Richard Nixon speaking on a stage beside a large map of Southeast Asia; he points to Cambodia with one hand. Photograph (b) shows a National Guard tank at Kent State University. A uniformed National Guardsman stands in front of the tank, holding a rifle; several students are visible in the background.\" width=\"585\" height=\"227\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. On April 30, 1970, Richard Nixon announces plans for the Cambodia Campaign (a), provoking protests on college campuses across the country. Within days, the governor of Ohio had called in the National Guard in response to student demonstrations at Kent State University. Bill Whitbeck, who was a student majoring in photo illustration at Kent State University in May 1970, captured this image (b) on campus on May 3, one day before the shootings that would result in four student deaths. (credit b: modification of work by Bill Whitbeck)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p id=\"fs-idp135516272\">Tensions came to a head on May 4. Although campus officials had called off a planned demonstration, some fifteen hundred to two thousand students assembled, throwing rocks at a security officer who ordered them to leave. Seventy-seven members of the National Guard, with bayonets attached to their rifles, approached the students. After forcing most of them to retreat, the troops seemed to depart. Then, for reasons that are still unknown, they halted and turned; many began to fire at the students. Nine students were wounded; four were killed. Two of the dead had simply been crossing campus on their way to class.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\n<p>This video shows some of the footage and reports from the protests at Kent State.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/plugin.3playmedia.com\/show?mf=8207364&amp;p3sdk_version=1.10.1&amp;p=20361&amp;pt=375&amp;video_id=Lmd6CHah7Wg&amp;video_target=tpm-plugin-ckuc676x-Lmd6CHah7Wg\" width=\"800px\" height=\"450px\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0px\" marginheight=\"0px\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">You can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/US+history+II\/OnthisdayFourkilledinKentStateshooting.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cOn this day: Four killed in Kent State shooting\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm32670880\">News of the Kent State shootings shocked students around the country. Millions refused to attend class, as strikes were held at hundreds of colleges and high schools across the United States. On May 8, an antiwar protest took place in New York City, and the next day, 100,000 protesters assembled in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm30360176\">On May 15, a similar tragedy took place at Jackson State College, an African American college in Jackson, Mississippi. Once again, students gathered on campus to protest the invasion of Cambodia, setting fires and throwing rocks. The police arrived to disperse the protesters, who had gathered outside a women\u2019s dormitory. Shortly after midnight, the police opened fire with shotguns. The dormitory windows shattered, showering people with broken glass. Twelve were wounded, and two young men, one a student at the college and the other a local high school student, were killed. The incident received only the barest attention when compared to the outcry over the shooting at Kent State.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\n<p>Note that these protests are some of the more than hundred of protests that took place throughout America and the world against the Vietnam War. In a previous module we learned about the Chicano Moratorium in L.A, but there are many more, which you can find on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_protests_against_the_Vietnam_War\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this Wikipedia page listing the major protests<\/a>. Protestors With no end in sight, protesters burned draft cards, refused to pay income taxes, occupied government buildings, and delayed trains loaded with war materials. By 1967, antiwar demonstrations were drawing hundreds of thousands. In one protest, hundreds were arrested after surrounding the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_cc999696-9535-4d60-bff6-f8993bd25492\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/cc999696-9535-4d60-bff6-f8993bd25492?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_cc999696-9535-4d60-bff6-f8993bd25492\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\n<section>According to John Kerry, how did many U.S. soldiers treat Vietnamese civilians?<\/p>\n<div class=\"qa-wrapper\" style=\"display: block\"><span class=\"show-answer collapsed\" style=\"cursor: pointer\" data-target=\"q525024\">Show Answer<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"q525024\" class=\"hidden-answer\" style=\"display: none\">According to John Kerry\u2019s testimony, Vietnamese civilians were often subjected to shocking violence. Soldiers raped, mutilated, shot at, and brutally murdered civilians. Troops also intentionally destroyed Vietnamese villages, well beyond the destruction typically wrought by war.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Vietnamization:\u00a0<\/strong>the Nixon administration\u2019s policy of turning over responsibility for the defense of South Vietnam to Vietnamese forces<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-409\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Modification, adaptation, and original content. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Mark Lempke for Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>US History. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: OpenStax. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\">http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction<\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">All rights reserved content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>On this day: Four killed in Kent State shooting. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: CBS Evening News. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Lmd6CHah7Wg\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Lmd6CHah7Wg<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":19,"menu_order":9,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"US History\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"OpenStax\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Modification, adaptation, and original content\",\"author\":\"Mark Lempke for Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"Lumen 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License\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"802c4f16-eeb6-46c1-abf0-84ed6e8408c0,82595f1f-2a16-4882-8253-ac45788d4b40,e46f6c84-decb-426d-9d23-b96206f585f2","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-409","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":389,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9679,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/409\/revisions\/9679"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/389"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/409\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=409"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=409"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}