J Site Kld^g R^ort' jiw-ftuei mm iemit mmciim VIETNAM CHR0W0L06YI mi-fnii is mini itufi m svietui Last patrol Pfc. Clifford Erickson of Cameron Wi$. wades through the brush near the U.S. base at Long Binh in his last day of patrol with his Charlie Company last Nov. 5. AP wirephoto Spring speaker Students gather around one antiwar protester at the corner of Grand blocked the intersection. The demonstration continued for three River Avenue and Abbott Raod as he voices his discontent with days with demonstrators competing with campus, local and state President Nixon's mining of North Vietnamese ports in May 1972. police for the capture of Grand River. State News photo by C.L. Michaels Members of the Coalition to End the War took over Grand River after a rally qt Michigan Bell Telephone in protest of the war tax and March to drums Contrary to marchers in the United States, these soldiers in South Vietnam march out on patrol, in their countryside which has been ravaged by war for more than 20 years. AP wirephoto March to Former MSU president Walter Adams and Rep. Jackie Vaughn, nationwide Vietnam War Moratorium Oct. 15, 1969. It on was the D-Detroit, led a peace march of more than 8,000 students as part of a largest war demonstration in the nation's history. State News photo by Don Gerstner Students withlived war By BILL HOLSTEIN feelings against the war The four major demands resolution to that effect. Other State News Staff Writer The march began with developed more pronouncedly. that developed in the next students, while feeling the need marchers walking tea abreast The campus sprang to life in hectic days were: Support for for some sort of decisive action The Vietnam War. arm - in - arm. They carried many ways, one of which was Kent State students, the to end the War, felt that The words will be spoken signs which read "Choose life, the People's Park. A group of withdrawal of troops from dosing a University would do for many years and wiO legalize peace" and "No, we students began sleeping in tents Indochina, the release of Black nothing toward ending a war. eventually be memorialized in won't be silent." One group of the history books. But to students carried a coffin and living in the quadrangle panther leader Bobby Seale May 4 marked the official area between Wells Hall and and the abolishing of the start of the strike. Thousands students at MSU and other draped with an American flag Erickson Sail. The idea caught Reserve Officers Training of students marched around universities, and millions of with a sign reading, "Isnt others, they have a distinctive on and soon as many as 100 Corps (ROTC) from campus. campus to classrooms and 44,000 enough?" ring because we lived with the The 8,000 demonstrators tents jammed the area and The strike enthused many residence halls seeking to enlist war and were touched by it marched down one side of paintings and slogans adorned students like nothing had more students in the strike. the sidewalks. before and may never again. A Major classroom buildings were The experience of fighting Michigan Avenue between against the war or reconciling The proverbial spark that handful of students stayed up picketed and many picketers police escorts. The day was provoked MSU students to 24 hours, taking only short asked for class time to speak to filled with "good vibrations on the part of demonstrators action once again was Nixon's naps on the tops of desks in students in classes about the and police both, a distinct sending of troops into strike headquarters at Snyder - reasons for a strike. Cambodia on May 1,1970. Phillips Hall, and attempted to One of the most memorable difference from later protests. That night 400 to 500 students organize a campus wide strike. events was a memorial service The marchers sang "Give Peace a Chance" on the way and the gathered at the International Many students felt the for the four students killed at Center to decide what kind of University should suspend Kent State, and a silent march street was lined with curious anti - war action to take. The classes for the duration of the through campus. By the end of onlookers. Many were moved evening was marked by a and the Dept. of the week 136 colleges across by the enthusiasm of the war welter of of conflicting Anthropology actually ] the nation had shut down but marchers and joined in. The peace sign, the two opinions with one impassioned attempts to close MSU were speech after another. Hie basic unsuccessful. One - fifth of the fingers extended, was still in issue was whether to classes normally scheduled vogue and was displayed demonstrate peacefully or not. were cancelled bv their prominently. Once at the Finally, amid rumors that the instructors and one - half of Capitol, there were still more students who normally police were moving in to force speeches and chants. Cries of students from the building, the attended classes did not attend. "peace, peace, peace" echoed off the walls of the Capitol. crowd split in halt, une group That Friday, the University The fight against the of perhaps 200 students suspended classes for a one - Vietnam War flared again marched to the Demonstration day teach in. But it was the briefly one icy night in Hall, chanting "one, two, beginning of the end for the strike from that point on. The Streetcorner February 1970. Hundreds of three, four, we don't want Anti war activities and strike students met at the Union to your fuckin' war." The mood Society performed an efforts continued during the antiwar protest the contempt of court was serious and determined in decision by Judge Juliiis comparison with earlier next week. On May 13, 2,000 demonstration June 1. marchers met at Hoffman against the Chicago 7 marches. Rocks were thrown peace 1972 in front of the and their attorney William and windows were broken. But Beaumont Tower and then our Administration Bldg. naive visions of the United Kuntsler. But an ensuing march the po|jce began to encircle the evolved into a police 3 marched in heavy rain to the Capitol. The march's pitch was confrontation. Rocks were demonstrators when the low with only an occasional States with the horror of the thrown at the police and broke curtains jn one section of the peace chant. The next day, napalm has marked us as a windows in the stores along were set afire. Tear gas and 8,000 marchers again went to generation. The experience has Grand River. confrontations with police the Capitol where Gov. been good in ways but Police clad in riot gear drove cont,inued for hours. Milliken was shouted down as destructive in others. Let us he addressed the crowd, saying students off Grand River across When it was over, two hope that we are safe in West Circle Drive to Beaumont students had been arrested and he had faith that the system speaking and thinking of the tragic war in the past tense. Tower as students ^shouted, there was about $50,000 in was capable of change. During the march, a motorist swerved "Get off our campus. damage to windows of campus One of the first efforts to President Wharton pleaded buildings. The outbreak was an into a crowd of marchers nrotest the war at MSU coincided! with a national through a megaphone with autpouring of emotion with injuring 10 students, 5 of them moratorium on Oct. 15, 1969. protestors to go home and uttle well ■ defined leadership. MSU students, and was think of constructive ways to But a semblance of arrested and charged with President Walter Adams, Gov. help, such as buying television eadership soon emerged and - driving under the influence of Milliken, U.S. Sen. Phil Hart, time to present a dialogue on h e move to call a alchohol. D. — Mich., and Rep. Don what is wrong with American jniversitywide strike was on. A n t i w a r On May 15, 150 anti - Rtegle, R. — Flint, spoke to a ROTC protestors society. \nother event that spurred the demonstrators show were packed auditorium of students, For most, it was their first ttempts to organize was the dispersed by police again with their feelings about calling for an end to the war. taste of confrontation politics ^ent state murders which tear gas. A few days later came the war last Saturday The speeches were followed by the famed "union bust" after and the urgency of protest. ieeply affected students across in Washington, D.C. march down Michigan As spring began to approach, he country. a students gathered in the Union Avenue to the Capitol. Against MSU recruiting Five students protesting military recruitment May 2, 1972 in front of the recruiters. The legal complications involved in the arrests are still the Placement Bureau were arrested during a scuffle with police. The unsettled. students were attempting to block the entrance in an effort to cut off State News photo by Nick Jackson and have felt its effects value. The Brookover pleaded with State Police from the - police harassment and pot - to discuss racism. Students sat apparenUy had not smokin', frisbee - flippin' good demonstrators to disperse. But intersection of Harrison and and debated until after the affected President Nixon Grand River to the intersection times than by serious and because the United States was the demonstrators refused to closing hours of the building. meaningful protest a leave the streets. of Bogue Street and Grand Police surrounded the building still as heavily involved in River. One of the more war thousands of mifa* away. preventing students from Southeast Asia as it had been While police stood nearby, entering or leaving and later before. Moreover, the sense of the demonstrators found significant confrontations centered around the But all this is over — or so moved in and arrested 130 cohesion and solidarity among themselves in undisputed control of Grand River Avenue Administration Building on we hope. Precisely how anti people for loitering students students across the country war efforts at MSU and across from entering or leaving and seemed to be fading. and began to debate upon a course of action. AU semblance May 12 when as many as 1,000 the nation in other universities later moved in and arrested demonstrators swept into the For whatever the reason, of a meaningful protest against affected the outcome of war 130 people for violating state there was little anti war the war slipped away when a building and locked themselves will be a matter for historians trespassing laws and University inside. More confrontations to decide in years hence. But activity at MSU in the next band was brought in to loitering regulations. The two years. There were isolated and speeches followed in the those who participated in the students involved in the Union perform for demonstrators. protests against military days to come. anti war demonstrations and bust were later acquited. The atmosphere was similar to recruiters on campus but that of a party with alcohol protests in the years past are Why the strike fizzled, no But there pervasive justified in feeling today that one knows for certain. Many nothing that matched the and marijuana consumed by was a strike in intensity or duration. feeling among demonstrators in some small way their own students began to feel the aU. that their efforts were useless. voices may have helped to end academic pressures as the term But then in the spring of one of the most painful and During the next few days, Many of the organizers were came closer to an end. The 1972, anti war activities searing experiences in pretesters had intermittent disappointed that the eventful philosophic disagreement over developed again but this time American history. with distinct difference. The confrontations with Michigan days were more marked by anti whether a University should a dose itself down also may have protests were as much against police as they were against the weighed heavily on some. But war. The protests started out the sheer exhaustion of sleepless nights and frantic on May 10 against Nixon's days combined with the lack of mining of ports in North success in mobilizing the entire Vietnam and the heavy campus may have done more bombing of that country. to break the spitir of the strike Thousands of protesters than anything else. battled with state and local After the strike and the police for control of Grand ferment of the spring of 1970, River Avenue at Abbott Road. As evening came, tear gas was some observers felt that the used and the eye - stinging haze backbone of the antiwar movement had been broken. hung over the street and drifted into the University Many students, among them Health Center and other some of the leaders of the protests, began to feel that nearby buildings. Later. East protests and strikes were of no Lansing Mayor Wilbur ■ 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 ■ 11111111111 ■ i ii 44The experience of fighting against the war or reconciling onr naice visions of the United States with the horror of the napalm has marked A big step ns for a generation,M An antiwar demonstrator is chased off the ledge of Administration Building during an attempted takeover of the the illinium iiiimiiiiiii illinium mi iiiiiiiiiiiiii inn mi in building May 11,1972. State News photo by C.L. Miciiaels Grand River gas East Lansing police use pepper gas to disperse antiwar demonstrators nearly three days, during which time most of the main city artery was blocked off. along Grand River last May following the resumption of bombing in North Vietnam and harbor mining. Skirmishes with police lasted for State News photo by C.L. Michaels padsoJidJ ui josdaD owwm Vietnam War (Ernest R. May, former dean of will see the war as gowing out Frenchmen look back on China in over had been." The Vietnam, presidents and Harvard college and now of attitudes that Americans Napoleon II's intervention "Great Society" which he their advisers tended to see the director of the Kennedy held in the 1950s and early in Mexico in the 1860's, envisioned would have gone Vietnam issue as whether or Institute of Politics at Harvard, 1960s, just as they see the wondering how their rulers Mexican War growing out of a—Glimmering. not to use air, sea or ground is a professor of history and could have been so mistaken forces. In this respect, they has written widely on U.S. the "manifest destiny" spirit of about what their nation's In additon, the found themselves in situations foreign policy and diplomacy. the 1840s or the Spanish - power could accomplish in a presidents and presidential advisers of the not unlike those of Kaiser He is co editor of a survey of American War out of the primitive, far-off land. 1960s Wilhelm II and Czar Nicholas II American—East Asian relations protestant - humanitarian were imprisoned by a in 1914. system that had grown up published last year.) imperialist fervor of the 1890s. History teachers in the during the cold war. The U.S. 1990s may find this no easier For United States government had vast networks Thus the U.S. involvement to explain titan we find it By Ernest R. May involvement in Vietnam came of agents abroad in diplomatic, in Vietnam will probably be (C) 1973 Washington Star-News at a time when most Americans today. Probably, they will information, aid, intelligence WASHINGTON - Before point out that presidents and and interpreted as a product of the , saw their country as virtually military missions. These public mood, the historical long, the Vietnam. War will be at war with a presidential advisers of the were closely knit 1960s were captives of their complemented perceptions of men in office, just an episode in history. Our coalition of Communist powers universities, research institutes historical experience. These the extraordinary amount of grandchildren will read about it bent on conquering the world and, above all, the newspaper. in school as young people men tended to see Communist influence exercised in and eventually today read out World War II, imposing their governments in the image of rule on the United States itself. or a middle- Hitler's Germany— immoral, aged people once Opinion polls in the mid—60s read about World War I, or as aggressive, implacable and to repeatedly showed that be checked only be our grandparents once read force or about the Civil War or the the threat of force. Like presidents Polk in 1846 Mexican War. or McKinley in 1893, Kennedy In Kennedy's time, they and Johnson will almost viewed Vietnam In as a the 1990s, what are teachers and textbooks likely certainly be judged as having counterpart to Malaya, the acted in consonance with Philippines, and perhaps to say about this war? How will they explain it? How will prevailing public opinion. Greece in 1947—48. They felt confident that just a little they assess its results? Like those earlier presidents, musde, persistently applied, however, Kennedy and would compel the Communists Of course, not all historians Johnson will probably be also to relent. will be of one mind. They still held at fault for having done An Associated Press photographer snapped differ about the causes and a picture what was popular. In fact, they By Johnson's time, they the moment that a South Vietnamese police chief consequences of he Punic Wars. will probably he held even realized that this assumption But there is apt to be more executed a Viet Cong officer Feb. 1, 1968. more to blame, not only was false. Johnson and his agreement among them than because the Vietnam War was counselors saw Vietnam as among present—day politicians more costly but also because it and commentators. analogous to Korea in the early cannot be measured 1950s. It radio and television media. Washington by foreign leaders, on any was a place where scale as a success. Americans Communists and the militarization of the were testing Most of these agents were or In all likelihood, historians will look back on it as America's strength and U.S. government that had became spokesmen for the purpose. At home, the danger developed in the preceding two was thought to be not so much foreigners with whom they decades. that the people would show were in contact— as a rule, One of the more puzzling lack of will as that they would officials or members of elite facts facing a future demand all—out war, has had groups. They saturated history teacher will be the partisans of Gen. Douglas Washington with advice in the interest of clients who feared prolongation of the war Mac Arthur a decade earlier. lest the United States show the through the first Nixon administration. For by 1969 a Also, they thought that if slightest reluctance to back its alleged friends. public turnaround had become Vietnam fell, the Democrats evident. According to Gallup would be held to account as Polls, more than half the they were for the fall of China Because of the emphasis on population regarded the war as in 1949. Johnson recalls in his military security during the a mistake, while less than a memoirs fearing that a cold war, the United States had third opposed a peace that "divisive debate about 'who enormous capacity for military would leave South Vietnam to lost Vietnam' would be even action. Since the armed fight on its own. The more destructive to our services had more ability than Soviet—Chinese split, coupled national life than the argument other agencies to do something with signs of serious Soviet Protest by fire Bodies of women and children lay in a road leading from the village of My Lai in South Vietnam following the massacre of civilians in March, 1968. Army Lt. William Flames engulfed the body of a Buddhist monk in Calley was eventually convicted of several killings in the incident. June, 1963 in Saigon, after he ignited his AP wirephoto gasoline-soaked garments to protest the alleged persecution of Buddhists by the Vietnamese. appear interest in a detente, had military action in and "Vietnamization." They chose gradual overt aggression Japan or Berlin. against involvement in civil wars and perhaps even from direct government. perceives Already, one changes. The dispelled some of the earlier sense of fear, and Nixon and the second course. Steadily declining public and involvement in any centralization of foreign chief adviser, Henry congressional enthusiasm for counterinsurgency efforts by relations in the Kissinger office his Meanwhile, they put themselves in aid to allies, the maintenance friendly or allied governments. has reduced the influence that Kissinger, were to set their a position in which, if there should come a of troops in Europe, or even They will be nervous about the U.S. diplomats, CIA station sights on a new era of negotiations. Why then did public reaction comparable to the preservation of U.S. possibility of youth taking to chiefs, and military mission the streets much as their heads once exercised. Agencies they not treat Vietnam as the that provoked by Communist military superiority, indicated Democrats' child and orphan success in China, they would a turn against the whole policy predecessors were nervous concerned primarily with it? be the vicims. Hence, fighting of committing U.S. strength to about legionnaires and domestic affairs appear to have Hie answer will probably be and negotiation wore on for an defend the "free world." rightwing groups taking to the higher status and more found in the structure of the extra four years. Almost certainly, the congressional letter box. command of presidential time But what will the teacher of Vietnam War will be viewed But the practical effects of and press attention than at any government that the Nixon as administration inherited. For the 1990s tell his students having influenced thinking in the "lessons" of Vietnam time ance World War n. the advice flowing in from U.S. about the consequences of the the government, for its cannot now be fully advocates for clients in Vietnam War? Obviously, it is presumed lessons will register foretold. If these trends continue, Southeast Asia and elsewhere not easy to forecast now. much as did those of World Possibly, the war will be they will be important, and almost certainly warned of dire War II and Korea. seen in retrospect as Americans looking back may Certainly, it will be said that consequences if the United the war contributed to changes Presidents and their advisers contributing to changes in see them as in part results of States simply in public attitudes. Whereas will shy away from military the character of the the Vietnam War. pulled out. New men, even with self-confidence polls of the early 1960s had such as Nixon's and Kissinger's, shown large majorities in favor could not easily ignore counsel of going to war, if necessary, to from so many alleged experts. prevent Communist take-over HANOI : PEACE TERMS They came to see the issue of any friendly state, a Harris much as it had been seen Survey in May, 1969 found in Johnson's last year: as a only 26-27 per cent still willing CHINA A choice between stepped—up to fight even in response to V Ml'"t " Urtl Vitttia iimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiii ^ Si|i Piscc Afriieeit "fii the 1990\ what are teachers and textbooks likely to say about ©Ceisefire Takes Effect Ii J rut ii a this war? How will they explain it? How will they assess its results."? OPrtpiritiMi Fir (lectins Ii S.Viitiia mi linn iiii iiii i ii i in mi illinium ©1H Ii.. Allied Treeps VitMnvi Ii II lift MVS Ii Ii litirul O CrKiai iiiiicatiM If Rvtl Ul Sutft fiitiia I S. Te Ciitriliti li Rirtfe Yiitua licMSlfKlin Moment of terror The plight of an innocent victim caught in the ravages e ravages of of war was war was the rippini off her burning road after ripping the road clothes, ignited by a misplaced captured in this photo taken June 8 on Routee 11 near near Trang Trang Bang, Bang, napalm strike by napalm strike an aallied plane. by an South Vietnam. The girl, nine year old Phan Thi Kim Phuc ran down AP wirephoto - :s S 2^2 5- HMi Hi JX_ J\ 4But my child is dead!" The body of a child at left, lulled in a battle in South Vietnam in March 1964, is held by his father as South Vietnamese soldiers look on helplessly. The child was killed in a battle when government forces were trying to weed out Viet Cong guerillas in a village near the Cambodian border. This was yet another war that made little distinction between its victims. AP wirephoto Father and son James T. 'Tome" Davis of Livingston, Tenn., was 26 in December 1961 when he was ambushed by the Viet Cong to become the first American soldier killed in Vietnam. His father, Clarence Davis, said he wanted peace as much as anyone but it should be peace with honor. Davis said he doesn't blame anyone is particular for the Vietnam War. AP wirephoto Candlelight vigil About 500 people met for a peace vigil May 14, 1972 at the Peoples' Brookover and city councilman George Colburn joined the crowd in Church and then marched through East Lansing. Mayor Wilbur the vigil. State News photo by Ken Ferguson