Student Unrest and Its Connection

Student Unrest and Its Connection to the Vietnam War At a time when the United States was experiencing growth, change, and the power of freedom of speech, the war in Vietnam was just gaining attention. The combination of the two would result in an era marked by determination and devastation - in America and abroad. Student protests affected the war in Vietnam because of the growing unpopularity of the war. As the student protested, the country became more critical.

The protests fueled the criticism and, combined the two became a force that the government could not ignore. The situation for student protests to make a difference was ripe I n the country because of the draft. It affected those who were mot likely to go to war and, like anyone else, these young men and women wanted to know if this war was worth fighting. The protest against the Vietnam War came early but gained popularity as the war became more questionable.

It is important to realize that these tow aspects worked with each other. The growing concern of the war coupled with student protests was bound to bring attention to the war. It brought so much attention to the war that it really could not have been predicted. According to David Farber, first significant student protests were in the form of "teach-ins," a movement born in 1965 at the University of Michigan.

According to David Farber, the movement was so popular that by the end of that year it had spread to more than 120 colleges and universities" (Farber). While many students in college do not receive attention, these groups felt compelled to alert the rest of the nation to what was happening in Vietnam. Students wanted to "open up discussion based on their own research and inquiries.

Many students and faculty came away from the teach-in experience with a growing skepticism about the veracity of mainstream perspectives on Vietnam and an increasing distrust of the men who were managing the war" (Farber). The movement became so popular that news about the protests grew nationwide. According to Tina Gianoulis, the movements in the 1960s began with two "radical student organizations that would exemplify major waves of student activity of the era" (Gianoulis). The groups are the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and Students for a Democratic Society.

These teach-ins were not always peaceful and they did not always end in peace. That is particularly why they sparked such an interest in the country. While students initially protested peacefully, growing unrest with their presence became a problem and a threat. The peaceful protests became destructive. Farber notes that students picketed and vandalized military recruitment and ROTC centers. In addition, "war-related faculty research, done at almost every major university in the nation, was condemned, and in some cases literally destroyed, by antiwar students and professors" (Farber).

The ongoing war only incensed protesters and by the 70s, "radical" (Farber) students were "participating in arson attacks, bombings, and the "trashing" of university campuses" (Farber). The line of reasoning behind this behavior was to bring the war home in order to raise awareness. At this point, the protests seemed out of control and the war did as well. However, while things seemed out of control, students could rest assured that they were making their point well-known.

Student protests did influence the war in that the government realized that something needed to be done. Gianoulis notes, "there is no doubt that the idealistic energy of the youth of that period did change history" (Gianoulis). Richard Nixon later admitted that fears of heightened protest limited his escalation of the war in Vietnam" (Gianoulis). Student protests were significant for many reasons. They brought awareness to an issue that seemed distant and almost foreign to a society that lived on the other side of the globe.

According to the University of Michigan, "students, now being called on to kill and die, wanted to know the truth, free of can't, platitudes, and propaganda" (University of Michigan). It only seemed fair for these individuals to know what was going on if they were expected to risk their lives for a particular cause.

While administrations tried to ignore what was happening, it was clear that the "White Houses of both Johnson, and ultimately Nixon and divided a country grown increasingly querulous as our own corpses and maimed returned from the battlefields of Viet Nam" (University of Michigan). The American mindset was changing as a result of everything that was occurring on our own soil. The History Channel reports that by: 1968, a Gallup poll showed only 35% of the population approved of Johnson's handling of the war and 50% disapproved..

Humphrey lost the 1968 presidential election to Richard M. Nixon,.