100,000s veterans protested Vietnam War

[LynnTheDem]

Which is EXACTLY why Nixon sicced Colson sicced O'Neill onto Kerry in the first place. Nixon called Kerry a "popular" and a "credible" man.

It wasn't just a handful of Vietnam veterans who spoke out with Kerry.

Col. David Hackworth, the highest-decorated living American soldier;

"The muckrakers, such as John O’Neill and his Swiftboat snipers, are now coming off like eyewitnesses when in fact not one of their testimonies would hold up in a court of law. A judge would call these men liars and disallow their biased statements.

I suspect the decades-long fury is still fueled by Kerry’s high-profile anti-war stance when he returned home. That was a position that was taken by hundreds of thousands of other Viet vets, including myself in 1971 – which, according to Joe Califono's recent book, Inside: A Public Life, almost cost me my life."

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=85&rnd=468.4749926128955

The number of draft evaders and resisters was dwarfed by the number of deserters from the active-duty armed forces. During the 1971 fiscal year alone, 98,324 servicemen deserted, an astonishing rate of 142.2 for every 1,000 men on duty.

According to the Department of Defense, there were 503,926 "incidents of desertion" between July 1, 1966, and December 31, 1973. From 1963 through 1973.

Thousands of veterans who had fought in Vietnam moved to the forefront of the antiwar movement after they returned to the United States, and they--together with thousands of active-duty G.I.'s--soon began to play a crucial role in the domestic movement.

THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT initiated back in 1945 by those hundreds of merchant seamen protesting U.S. participation in the French attempt to reconquer Vietnam was thus consummated in a movement of tens of millions of ordinary American citizens spearheaded by soldiers, sailors, fliers, and veterans, which finally ended the war with a recognition that Vietnam could be neither divided nor conquered by the United States.

http://www.geocities.com/elethinker/RG/forget.htm

On October 15, 1969, citizens across the United States participated in The Moratorium, the largest one-day demonstration against the war. Millions of people stayed home from work to mark their opposition to the war; college and high school students demonstrated on hundreds of campuses. A Baltimore judge even interrupted court proceedings for a moment of reflection on the war. In Vietnam, troops wore black armbands in honor of the home-front protest.

http://encarta.msn.com/text_761552642___34/Vietnam_War.html

I found this blurb, but they don't give an actual figure, grrrr:

California led the nation in having the largest anti-war protestors within the military. Soldiers staged protest actions in San Francisco and San Diego on ships bound for Vietnam.

http://www.museumca.org/picturethis/5_3.html

If anyone has or comes across links talking about the 100,000s of active duty & veterans who protested I'd LOVE to see them *beg*. :)

[DeepModem Mom]

1. Not a vet, but was around - eventually, that war had very little support

from anybody, it seemed to me. You woke up each day with the horror that it was still going on, and, unlike Iraq, we saw it on our TV screens, and the press reported it. Opposition to the war was very widespread, and came not just from protesters, Democrats, liberals. I think most everyone wanted us to get us out of there, and our young people home.

Not much help, but just adding my personal memory of that time, which supports your point that Kerry was not alone in any way, or even, I don't believe, out of the "mainstream." His statement about asking someone to be the last man to die in Vietnam was made to a great U.S. Senator, J. William Fulbright, who was both supportive, and from the state of Arkansas.

[JI7]

2. it's a powerful site, seeing those in uniform marching for peace

[LynnTheDem]

3. Which site?

Is there a site for the DCIII? I'll go google.

I have a rightwingnutter that is very slowly coming around to realizing she's not had the facts for a long time. She thinks it was just Kerry and a handful of vets that protested, but 500,000 soldiers deserted; that alone shoulda clued her in, lol!

[Keirsey]

4. Ron Kovic

Where is he now? Kovic participated in the S.F. anti-war rally.

Capital protest

In Washington, demonstrators bundled up in heavy coats, scarves and knit caps to listen to speeches by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, actress Jessica Lange and Ron Kovic, the Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist whose life story was depicted in the movie "Born on the Fourth of July."

Kovic, whose injuries as a soldier in Vietnam 35 years ago left him paralyzed from the chest down, reminded the crowd that protests had helped to stop the Vietnam War and could do the same to prevent another war in Iraq.

"This fight will be won in the end by you - by nonviolence, by compassion," Kovic said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/01/19/MN196663.DTL

More from the same article:

Bush spent the weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer made clear last week that the president does not see the growing protests as evidence that support is fading for his policy toward Iraq.

500,000 protestors in Washington, and * doesn't see that as evidence?

[LynnTheDem]

5. bush is an idiot, don't forget

And very, very stupid, as most bully belligerant cowardly thugs generally are.

Largest worldwide simultaneous protest in human history; "focus groups"

Largest worldwide protests in human history; "focus groups".

Largest US protests in US history; "focus groups".

Not one single nation of the 196 nations in the world had a pro-war majority; "coalition of many".

And these aren't "opinions", if any RWWs are lurking. Those are FACTS. You of course don't know these FACTS, coz your bushCartel lied to you & they're still lying to you.

Rightwing Education point:

"I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action,"

That's especially true in view of the fact that the attack was initiated "without a broad and engaged international coalition," the 1st District congressman said.

Republican Rep. Doug Bereuter, senior member of the House International Relations Committee and vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Too bad nobody bothered telling bush, instead of letting him go on for 18 months making a total fool of himself with his "coalition" talk.