Christian Doss
English
1100.01 MW
26 September 2018
Anti War Protest
 |
| An anti-war protester places a flower on the barrel of rifles while blocking the Pentagon |
Abbie Hoffman was a political activist that believe in universal health care and the redistribution of wealth in America. Abbie Hoffman would use humor to criticize the government. He had always been protested but in 1968 Abbie Hoffman founded an anti-war organization call the Yippies. The Yippies organized an anti-war protest on the pentagon, but riots ensued and Abbie Hoffman was arrested on the charges of causing riots. Many people started to become very anti war, this was a time where there were civil rights activist and women’s activist then anti war activist began to emerge.Americans started to become more aware of the casualties and cost of the war. Americans grew weary of the idea of going to war to for the sake of stopping communism at the cost of American people. College students opposed the draft because it would send not only the less fortunate to the war but also college students at the age of 19 who could not by law drink but yet could fight in war, not to mention that is seven years younger than the average age of people who fought in world war two. Protesters felt they were being ignored so peaceful protest often turned into riots, when police showed up protests would retaliate, college students would block roads and bridges causing classes to be cancelled and ROTC buildings were burned. Richard Nixon had said he would slowly begin to draw troops out of Vietnam but protesters were not satisfied they wanted an immediate removal of troops from the war. The war caused Americans to become outraged and divided America among the youth.
Word Count: 297
Best source:
http://www.ushistory.org/us/55e.asp
I find it interesting that during the college riots they would burn down the ROTC buildings. On top of that they also blocked roads that ended up having classes cancelled. This just ends up hurting a lot of people who have nothing to do with the protests or war. Also to want immediate retraction of troops from a war is a big goal to be asking for. I do not think the people protesting knew what they situation was.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like Abbie Hoffman really disliked the Vietnam war. I don't agree with rioting for a cause. It's destructive and sends a very negative message. Richard Nixon wanted to extract his troops slowly so that the South Vietnamese army didn't get immediately overwhelmed. Any way that he tried to do it would be scrutinized for either allowing the communists to wipe out South Vietnam or late enough that even more lives are lost. Did you agree with Abbie Hoffman's tactics or should a more peaceful approach had been pursued?
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of protesting is extremely interesting because it offers a huge dilemma for everyone involved. What is the correct response from a law enforcement agency? What is too much riot control and what is not enough? And for the students, do they understand the full repercussions of their actions? A very interesting debate could occur based off of these ideas...
ReplyDeleteI agree that at some point when you are losing so many men in war, you need to take a step back and ask if the goal to stop communism in Vietnam was really worth it. I also think it is interesting that he got charges for starting riots while he was protesting. This seems like a topic that could be debated both ways for whether the charges were appropriate or not.
ReplyDelete