[Archive]: Vietnam War Protest Flyers From the First and Second Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam Marches

  • Unbound
  • New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C. , 1969
By
New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C., 1969. Unbound. Very Good. A collection of 62 flyers measuring between 3" x 3.5" and 8" x 11" and three buttons from Vietnam War protests in 1969 all housed in a contemporary binder with "10/15/69 Vietnam" written in black marker on the spine. All items very good or better with some edgewear, tiny tears, and toning.

An archive of flyers, pamphlets, and buttons from Vietnam War protests and anti-war organizations in between June and December 1969. Organizations included Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace, Vietnam Moratorium Committee, The Gay Liberation Front, NY SDS Labor Committee, Computer Professionals for Peace, among others. A majority of the flyers are from the October 15, 1969 Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, The March Against Death, and the November 15, 1969 Moratorium March in Washington, D.C. Although the October protests were country-wide, the flyers seen here are from New York, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. These flyers feature reproduced photographs of soldiers and children, hand drawn maps of marching routes, and anti-war slogans. One flyer reads, "each of us must try to stop the senseless war that has cost 44,700 American lives;" another for the October protest reads, "any important plans for today - more important than ending a war?" They call for work stoppage, wearing black armbands in solidarity, and signing petitions. One typed page with a boilerplate letter to President Nixon is seen here and it enabled the recipient to sign as a "concerned citizen" demanding the end of the war. A flyer from the November march reads, "Fall Offensive Against the War in Vietnam;" another calls for "immediate total withdrawal from Vietnam."

On October 15, 1969 anti-war demonstrators took part in the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. This protest was a country-wide "demonstration and teach-in" against the war in Vietnam. The idea of the demonstrations stemmed from the fact that Nixon had campaigned under the guise of ending the war and less than a year into his term 10,000 men had been killed in action. Seeing this political activist Jerome Grossman called for a strike if the war was still ongoing in October of that year. The October demonstration was a "clear success" with participants not only in the United States but worldwide. A quarter of a million people went to D.C. to participate in the marches led by Coretta Scott King. Speakers at the event included Coretta Scott King, Dr. Benjamin Spock, David Dellinger, W. Averell Harriman, and Arthur Goldberg. The White House responded to the protests in early November with Nixon's "Silent Majority" speech. Nixon's "silent majority" referred to "those Americans who did not join in the large demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time, who did not join in the counterculture, and who did not participate in public discourse." The anti-war movement responded to this speech by having a second Moratorium March on November 15, 1969. According to historian A.J. Lannguth, "the second Moratorium drew an even larger crowd than the first, and it is considered to have been the largest demonstration ever in Washington, D.C."

An extensive collection of flyers from important protests against the Vietnam War.

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