May 30, 2019
Prepare for the 50th of the
Moratorium and Mobilization
In less than five months we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam Moratorium, the largest nationwide peace demonstration in US history. A month later the March Against Death and Mobilization marches were held in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.

The urgency for recognizing the significance of these events has only grown with rumbling rumors of war against Iran and Venezuela/Cuba.

The power of the Vietnam Moratorium came from its creative, political and geographic diversity. More than two million people took part in October and over half a million demonstrated in November.

Below are updates and ideas. We look forward to learning about your plans.
Getting it together for October 15th
Whether small and invitational or more ambitious and public, making something happen where you live is invaluable and entirely in your hands.

Become part of this effort by clicking here.

Following are a few ideas to start your creative juices flowing:

1) Inspire and assist local media and institutions to recall what happened in your community and campuses. Bring local history to life from interviews and digging into archives.

2) Sponsor a film series.

3) Create a symposium or conference that learns from and links opposition to past, present and prospective wars. Partner with Veterans for Peace, Vietnam Veterans of America, peace and social justice organizations as well as academic institutions.

4) Organize a vigil to commemorate all those who died, were injured or were imprisoned in, or to protest against. past wars in Indochina and Iraq; or today in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen; or tomorrow in Iran and Venezuela.

5) Find common cause with opponents of domestic violence by mass shootings or police injustices.

More and expanded suggestions are posted here.
Why it mattered
The BBC reported , "The Peace Moratorium is believed to have been the largest demonstration in US history with an estimated two million people involved.In towns and cities throughout the US. Students, working men and women, school children, the young and the old, took part in religious services, school seminars, street rallies and meetings."

Church and school bells rang; black armbands were worn; candlelight vigils were held; films were shown; neighborhoods were canvassed; names of war dead were read; groups of business people, professionals and government workers participated; more than 1,000 high schools joined in. Several cities witnessed demonstrations of thousands, most notably 50,000 in Washington and 100,000 in Boston. Forty members of the House and Senate endorsed the action. 

Rick Perlstein's summary from his book "Nixonland" can be read here. There is also a good description in the invaluable reference book for the anti-war movement "The War Within" by Tom Wells, available used on Amazon.

A good example of what took place at many non-elite schools is North Carolina State University as documented in 2011 by its library (click here) A Google search is likely to quickly turn up similar accounts from where you lived then or your home now.

A month later some schools and communities carried on the Moratorium's goal of monthly grassroots action, but most energy and media attention went to the Mobilization, the largest anti-war demonstration until then. It brought as many as 500,000 people to Washington and 150,000 to San Francisco, including for the first time organized active duty GIs and Vietnam veterans.  

The Mobilization was preceded by the 40 hour March Against Death.  Contingents carried on individual placards the names of Americans from their own state who had been killed, totaling 38,000 at that time, as well as of destroyed villages. They paused and proclaimined each name in front of the White House and deposited them in coffins (pictured below).  
November 15th Conference in Washington

Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia (PISA) at George Washington University is planning a conference that will focus on the role of opposition to the war by active duty military and veterans and on legacies of war affecting both Americans and Vietnamese. Collaborators include David Cortight of Notre Dame University, Susan Hammond of the War Legacies Project and Susan Schnell of Veterans for Peace. It will conclude a week long presentation of the exhibit Waging Peace created by Ron Carver. For more information, contact Linda Yarr <linda.yarr@gmail.com>. VPCC is considering a walk to the White House and a vigil honoring and updating the March Against Death. 
The film by and about us
"The Boys Who Said No, Draft Resistance and the Vietnam War"

The first documentary film about how nonviolent draft resistance helped stop the Vietnam War and ended the draft is moving toward completion. A short clip can be seen on their web site. They are raising funds for final production costs, including rights to music of the era. Prospective supporters (individual tax deductible donations or foundation grants) can see a fine cut of about 50% of the 90 minute film by clicking here, password boys2 <ccoloradojones@yahoo.com>
New Resources


Tom Hayden on Social Movements, consisting of four unpublished talks and an interview by Rolling Stone from 1972 – 1977.Available on Amazon on Kindle and paperback


Thank You for Your Service: Collected Poems by W.D. Ehrhart order directly from the publisher McFarland & Company


"The MLK Speech We Need Today Is Not the One We Remember Most", an essay by Viet Thanh Nguyen in Time Magazine on the relevance of the Riverside Church sermon to today "King’s prophecy connects the war in Vietnam with our forever wars today, spread across multiple countries and continents, waged without end from global military bases numbering around 800. Some of the strategy for our forever war comes directly from lessons that the American military learned in Vietnam: drone strikes instead of mass bombing; volunteer soldiers instead of draftees; censorship of gruesome images from the battlefronts; and encouraging the reverence of soldiers.”


"Exceptional Victims" an essay by Christian Appy in the Boston Review linked to King's speech "The resistance to the Vietnam War was the most diverse and dynamic antiwar movement in U.S. history. We have all but forgotten it today."


"Overcoming War Legacies: The Road to Reconciliation and Future Cooperation Between the United States and Vietnam", a remarkable March 26 conference at the US Institute of Peace featuring high level representatives of both countries' foreign and defense ministries and of the US Senate and NGOs; sessions available on-line


'VASS and SSRC Sign Memorandum of Understanding 30 Years after First MOU", recognition of the longest cooperation between Vietnamese and US academic institutions, the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and the Social Science Research Council, summarized here


Vietnam’s Sad Hunt: 300,000 Missing Souls byJoseph Babcock, an op ed in the New York Times "Decades after the war with America ended, Vietnamese families continue to search for the remains of their kin who are still missing in action."


"This Social Scientist’s Verdict on the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick Vietnam War Documentary" a retrospective review by James Russell for the History News Network.


Don't Burn is the only available film that portrays the war from a Vietnamese perspective; made by Dang Nhat Minh about the journal of a young woman doctor serving in the south that was found by an American soldier and returned to her family in Hanoi decades later; in Vietnamese on youtube ; English subtitled DVD available in appreciation of donations of at least $15, contact director@ffrd.org


Competing with Giants : How One Family-Owned Company Took On the Multinationals and Won by Phuong Uyen Tran describes the post-war creation of Vietnam's largest beverage company and its refusal to be taken over by Coca Cola.


"Mayday 1971 Raw" (1971/2017, 66 minutes). www.Vimeo.com/ondemand/MAYDAY1971RAW "The fervor of 1970s utopian activism! Captures the largest civil disobedience peace protest against the war in Vietnam from inside. Recorded by 25 pioneer indy filmmakers with the first video cameras". 
Notes from FFRD

Vietnam trip Our next program for former activists and their families will be in April 2020 to participate in events celebrating the 45th anniversary of the end of the war. Pre-trip sightseeing option to Ha Long Bay, etc.; potential post-trip extension to Cambodia and Laos. Send a note to director@ffrd.org to receive updates

Cuba trip to Santiago and Guantanamo for culture (annual carnival), history and policy (future of the base) is July 20-28, details here . Option to visit Havana and Camaguey in advance and Holguin and Baracoa afterwards. More information about threats to travel in our latest Cuba newsletter .
Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee

* Sally Benson * David Cortright * Ann Gallivan * Susan Hammond * Rick Hind * Doug Hostetter
* Susanne Jackson * Frank Joyce * Steven Ladd * Paul Lauter * John McAuliff * Terry Provance * Brewster Rhoads * Nancy Jane Woodside