The Impact of the Antiwar Movement

For the past 10 years, the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee has organized numerous conferences, vigils and webinars focused on the US wars in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and the actions and events of the largest peace movement in US history. VPCC began in 2015 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of these events (1965-1975) and will conclude in 2025, 50 years after the end of the war.

We have examined, among many others, the initial teach-ins and vigils, March Against the Pentagon, the My Lai Massacre, release of the Pentagon Papers, nationwide Moratorium and Mobilization, invasion of Cambodia, National Guard murders at Kent State University, the disastrous Christmas bombing raids and, finally, financial cutoff to Saigon and the end of the war on April 30, 1975.

But in this webinar we will look at the peace movement more comprehensively. For many people it was the most meaningful times in their lives and fostered continued work for peace and justice. It was both historical and powerful. It kept Johnson from running for President in 1968 and played a major role in the resignation of Nixon in 1974. Many had thought that such a movement should have gained long-term political power and presence somewhat like The Green Party in Germany.

The antiwar movement was not monolithic. Parts were sectarian and parts were militant. But this webinar will look at the broad-based anti-war movement and evaluate it. What were our goals, objectives, strategies and tactics? What worked well? What did not work well? What could or should we have done differently? What impact did it have on the US government and military?

Co-sponsors

Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD)

Brooklyn for Peace

Featuring

Terry Provance, co-moderator, religious and peace activist

Robert Levering, co-moderator, peace activist, film producer

David Cortright, retired Notre Dame University professor, GI peace activist

Morton H Halperin, former Defense Department and National Security Council staff

Carolyn Eisenberg, Hofstra University professor, author

Michael Koncewicz, New York University, Tom Hayden biographer

DAVID CORTRIGHT

David Cortright enlisted in the Army in 1968. After experiencing a crisis of conscience, he organized against the Vietnam War at Ft. Wadsworth, New York, and Ft. Bliss, Texas. While on active duty he filed a federal lawsuit against the Army, Cortright v Resor, to defend GI rights to dissent against unjust war. He was an active member of GIs for Peace at Ft. Bliss and wrote for its paper, The Gigline. Professor Emeritus, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame. Currently Visiting Scholar, Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cornell University. Author of "Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance Against the Vietnam War" (2d edition, Haymarket, 2005). His latest book is "A Peaceful Superpower: Lessons from the World's Largest Antiwar Movement" (New Village Press, 2023).

CAROLYN EISENBERG

Carolyn Rusti Eisenberg is a Professor of US History and American Foreign Policy at Hofstra University. Her new book "Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia" ( Oxford University Press) won the 2024 Bancroft Prize for American History. Her prize-winning book, "Drawing the Line: the American Decision to Divide Germany, 1944-49" (Cambridge University Press) traces the origins of the Cold War in Europe. She is a co-founder of Brooklyn for Peace, and a Legislative Coordinator for Historians for Peace and Democracy.

MORTON HALPERIN

Morton H Halperin worked on Vietnam policy as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Johnson Administration and on the Senior Staff of the National Security Council in the Nixon Administration. He is the author of numerous books and articles including "The Lessons Nixon Learned" in The Vietnam Legacy, Anthony Lake, ed., (New York: New York University Press, 1976), pp 411-429.

MICHAEL KONCEWICZ

Michael Koncewicz is the Associate Director at the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, where he also teaches courses on public history and US presidents. Koncewicz is a political historian who previously worked for the National Archives at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, contributing to the museum's nonpartisan Watergate exhibit. Koncewicz's scholarship focuses on the culture and politics of the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. His first book, They Said "No" to Nixon: Republicans Who Stood Up to the President's Abuses of Power was published by the University of California Press in 2018. He is currently working on an authorized biography of longtime progressive activist Tom Hayden. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Jacobin, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and The Washington Post.

ROBERT LEVERING

Robert Levering is an Executive Producer on two recent films about the antiwar movement: The Boys Who Said NO! a film about draft resistance during the Vietnam era, and The Movement and the Madman about the impact of the 1969 Moratorium and Mobilization demonstrations on Nixon's secret plans to escalate the war. A draft resister himself, Robert was a full-time antiwar organizer for six years during the Vietnam War. A long-time journalist, he has written a number of articles about the war and the protest movement that opposed it.

TERRY PROVANCE

After graduating from college in 1969, Terry Provance became involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement, first organizing locally in Pittsburgh and then eventually with national groups like the Harrisburg Defense Committee for Dan and Phil Berrigan, the Pentagon Papers Trial and Medical Aid for Indochina. In 1973 he started working with the American Friends Service Committee to oppose US nuclear weapons until 1983 when he went to graduate school at UC Berkeley. He received a fellowship and studied two years in South America and worked with human rights groups in Chile. He returned to Pittsburgh where he pastored a local United Church of Christ congregation for 5 years and then worked in the UCC national office on peace and justice issues for 10 years. Following that, he worked for 12 years as Executive Director of Oikocredit, an international anti-poverty organization, until he retired in 2012

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