Vietnam Day Committee
The Vietnam Day Committee (VDC) was a coalition of left-wing political groups, student groups, labour organizations, and pacifist religions in the United States of America that opposed the Vietnam War during the counterculture era. It was formed in Berkeley, California in the spring of 1965 by activist Jerry Rubin, and was active through the majority of the Vietnam war, organizing several rallies and marches in California as well as coordinating and sponsoring nationwide protests.
Activities
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/UCBerkeleyCampus.jpg/220px-UCBerkeleyCampus.jpg)
The VDC was formed by Jerry Rubin and Stephen Smale between May 21 and May 22, 1965 during a 35‑hour‑long anti-Vietnam war protest that took place inside and around the University of California, Berkeley and attracted over 35,000 people, including Paul Montauk and Stew Albert. The VDC laid out three main objectives: to achieve national and international solidarity and coordination on action, to take part in militant action, including civil disobedience and to work extensively in the community to develop the movement outside of the university campus.[1] Attending the event were several notable anti-war activists, including Dr. Benjamin Spock, however the State Department declined to send a representative, despite the burning of an effigy of president Lyndon Johnson.
On May 5, 1965, the VDC was involved in a march of several hundred students from campus to the Berkeley Draft Board, where the staff was given a black coffin, and students burned their draft cards.
Later that year, the VDC planned a nationwide protest, the International Days of Protest Against American Military Intervention, which was scheduled between October 15 and October 16. In arranging and coordinating the protest movement, the VDC headquarters in Berkeley communicated with anti-war groups in New York City, Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Portland and Atlanta.[1] The planned movement attracted attention from some newspapers like the National Guardian:
Preparations are being made in about two dozen American cities for coordinated mass protests Oct. 15-16 in opposition to U.S. aggression in Vietnam. Advance information indicates that demonstrations may surpass previous anti-war protests not only in total numbers and intensity of action, but in long-range benefit to the peace movement, for the emphasis of the "national days of protest" is on community organization and education as well as on direct action against the war.[2]
Similar groups began to form outside California, notably in Mexico City and Tokyo. In California, the International Days of Protest were to culminate with a peace march toward the Oakland Army Terminal, where men and materials were sent to Vietnam. On October 15, 1965, the protests took place across the country, with the VDC itself organising a sit-in at San Francisco State College, which saw a performance by Country Joe and the Fish.
The VDC organized another peace march which took place on November 21, 1965, and saw over 10,000 people marching through Oakland.[3] The march was the first of its kind in California and was one of many orchestrated by the VDC from 1965 through 1972; a number of pro-war protesters lined the route holding signs that said, "Stamp out VDC".[4]
By this time, the activities of the VDC had attracted the interest of the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities.
![The 8.5 x 14 inch leaflet lists the names of 21 speakers.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Ucla-vietnam-war-teach-in-1966-03-25.jpg/220px-Ucla-vietnam-war-teach-in-1966-03-25.jpg)
On March 25, 1966, the UCLA VDC, a group not organizationally tied to the Berkeley VDC, sponsored a well-attended, 12-hour 'teach-in' at UCLA.[5] This clashed with a small rally that supported America's involvement in Vietnam. The antiwar event had a number of guest speakers, including Simon Casady, a former president of the California Democratic Council, Dorothy Healy, the Southern California chairman of the Communist Party USA, and the British philosopher Bertrand Russell.
See also
References
- ^ a b Online Archive of California Vietnam Day Committee retrieved on April 5, 2007
- ^ National Guardian September 4, 1965
- ^ Oakland Museum Picture this article, retrieved on April 5, 2007
- ^ Ilka Hartmann photograph retrieved on April 5, 2007
- ^ "UCLA Vietnam Day Committee Planning and Promotional Documents for 25 March 1966 Antiwar Teach-In". 25 March 1966.
- v
- t
- e
- Anti-nuclear organizations
- Anti-war movement
- Anti-war organizations
- Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
- Coalition of Women for Peace
- Code Pink
- Conscientious objectors
- Counterculture
- Culture of Peace
- ECOPEACE Party
- Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
- Iraq War resisters in Canada
- List of pacifist organisations
- List of peace activists
- New Socialist Party of Japan
- Pacifist Socialist Party
- Peace and conflict studies
- Peace camp
- Peace churches
- Peace commission
- Peace conference
- Peace congress
- Peace education
- Peace movement
- Peace psychology
- Peace treaty
- Peaceworker
- React, Include, Recycle
- Social Democratic Party (Japan)
- Unity
- The Women's Peace Crusade
- War resisters
- Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
- Ahimsa
- Anarchism
- Anti-imperialism
- Anti-nuclear movement
- Antimilitarism
- Appeasement
- Christian pacifism
- Deterrence theory
- Direct action
- Finvenkismo
- Green politics
- Hippie
- Isolationism
- Modern-war pacifism
- Non-interventionism
- Nonkilling
- Nonviolence
- Pacificism
- Pacifism
- Peace
- Satyagraha
- Soviet influence on the peace movement
- Testimony of peace
- World peace
- Art
- Books
- Concert Yutel for Peace
- Dances of Universal Peace
- Festival for Peace
- Films
- Imagine Piano Peace Project
- International Day of Non-Violence
- International Day of Peace
- Dialogue Among Civilizations
- List of peace prizes
- List of places named Peace
- Monuments and memorials
- Mother's Day Proclamation
- Nobel Peace Prize Concert
- Museums
- Peace & Love (festival)
- Peace journalism
- Peace One Day
- Plays
- Promoting Enduring Peace
- Show of Peace Concert
- Songs
- Symbols
- The Non-Violence Project
- University for Peace
- World Peace Bell Association
- Women in Black
- World March for Peace and Nonviolence
- Bed-in
- Central Park be-ins
- Civil disobedience
- Conflict resolution
- Counter-recruitment
- De-escalation
- Demilitarisation
- Department of Peace
- Desertion
- Draft evasion
- Die-in
- Economic sanctions
- Flower power
- Global Day of Action on Military Spending
- Human Be-In
- Lesson of Munich
- "Make love, not war"
- Non-aggression principle
- Nonviolent resistance
- Non Violent Resistance (psychological intervention)
- Peace walk
- Peacebuilding
- Refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces
- "Soldiers are murderers"
- Swords to ploughshares
- Teach-in
- "The whole world is watching"
- Third Party Non-violent Intervention
- "Turn the other cheek"
- "Violence begets violence"
- War tax resisters
wars or their aspects
- War of 1812 (UK; US)
- American Civil War
- Second Boer War
- World War I
- World War II
- Vietnam War
- War on Terror
- Iraq War
- Afghanistan War
- Military action in Iran
- Sri Lankan Civil War
- 2011 intervention in Libya
- Anti-war protests in Russia (2014)
- 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Landmines
- Military taxation
- Nuclear disarmament
- Canada
- Costa Rica
- Germany
- Israel
- Japan
- Netherlands
- Spain
- Sudan
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Peacebuilding in Jammu and Kashmir
- Category