Their protests alerted the rest of the country to their concerns. Chester Cooper writes that our experience in Vietnam "created greater tension in American society than any other event since the Civil War" (Cooper 537). As a result of the protests, the Vietnam War became a household word.
Student protests were incredible in generating awareness of an issue. The government realized that the more attention these protests garnered, the more something in Vietnam needed to be done. Tina Gianoulis writes, "there is no doubt that the idealistic energy of the youth of that period did change history" (Gianoulis). She states that Nixon experienced anxiety over the protests as well as the escalating violence in Vietnam. The student protests were not only raising awareness of Americans across the country, they were raising awareness of the current administration, which knew it could not hide from its responsibility. Approval of the war dropped and the war even became a campaign issue. In short, discussing the war and addressing...
Without the protests, very few would have known was happening in Vietnam. It would have been handled quietly and perhaps under the radar but a small group of individuals felt compelled to know what was going on and opened the eyes of the country. Without the
Internet, they changed a mindset by speaking out, proving the power of the
freedom of
speech.
Works Cited
Cooper, Chester. The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam. Greenwich: Fawcett Premier Books.
1972.
Gianoulis, Tina. "Student Demonstrations." St. James Encyclopedia of
Popular Culture. GALE
History Resource Center. Site Accessed July 18, 2009.
