Peace Now!: American Society and the Ending of the Vietnam WarHow did the protests and support of ordinary American citizens affect their country’s participation in the Vietnam War? This engrossing book focuses on four social groups that achieved political prominence in the 1960s and early 1970s--students, African Americans, women, and labor--and investigates the impact of each on American foreign policy during the war. Drawing on oral histories, personal interviews, and a broad range of archival sources, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones narrates and compares the activities of these groups. He shows that all of them gave the war solid support at its outset and offers a new perspective on this, arguing that these "outsider” social groups were tempted to conform with foreign policy goals as a means to social and political acceptance. But in due course students, African Americans, and then women turned away from temptation and mounted spectacular revolts against the war, with a cumulative effect that sapped the resistance of government policymakers. Organized labor, however, supported the war until almost the end. Jeffreys-Jones shows that this gave President Nixon his opportunity to speak of the "great silent majority” of American citizens who were in favor of the war. Because labor continued to be receptive to overtures from the White House, peace did not come quickly. |
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Peace Now!: American Society and the Ending of the Vietnam War Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones No preview available - 1999 |
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Abzug AFL-CIO African Americans Ameri antiwar movement appeal backlash Bella Abzug Berkeley Bettina Aptheker Black Caucus black soldiers blue-collar workers Buckley California campaign campus candidate civil rights Colson Committee communist Congress Congressional critical defense Democratic demonstrations dent draft resistance Eartha Kitt Ebony election feminists fight folder Vietnam foreign policy George McGovern H. R. Haldeman Haldeman Hanoi hard-hat historian History issue Jeffreys-Jones Johnson administration July June King Kitt liberal McGovern Meany memo ment military minority NAACP Name File National Negro Nixon administration Norman Mailer North Vietnam officers organized labor Party peace percent political poll President Johnson President Nixon presidential protest movement prowar racial radical Rauh Reagan Republican revolt secretary Senator silent majority sixties SMOF SNCC social groups speech student protest tactics tion union United University Press Viet Vietnam War Vietnamese vote Washington WHCF White House Wilkins women workers York
Popular passages
Page 104 - We believe that black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized by the white racist government of America.
Page 239 - Claudia Koonz, Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987...
Page 109 - City in which he declared: the poor of America have not had the opportunity to earn their fair share of this nation's abundance...
Page 88 - And when students on university campuses burn buildings, when they engage in violence, when they break up furniture, when they terrorize their fellow students and terrorize the faculty, then I think "bums" is perhaps too kind a word to apply to that kind of person.
Page 253 - ... (Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, US Senate, 94th Cong., 2nd Sess.
Page 103 - Of the self-reported rioters, 39.4 percent in Detroit and 52.8 percent in Newark shared the view that it was not. By contrast, 15.5 percent of the noninvolved in Detroit and 27.8 percent of the noninvolved in Newark shared this sentiment. Almost none of the self-reported counter-rioters in Detroit — 3.3 percent — agreed with the self-reported rioters. Some comments of interviewees are worthy of note : Not worth fighting for — if Negroes had an equal chance it would be worth fighting for. Not...
Page 102 - Perhaps the most revealing and disturbing measure of the rioters' anger at the social and political system was their response to a question asking whether they thought "the country was worth fighting for in the event of a major world war.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Peace Now!: American Society and the Ending of the Vietnam War |
| Author | Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint, revised |
| Publisher | Yale University Press, 2001 |
| ISBN | 0300089201, 9780300089202 |
| Length | 308 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Military / Vietnam War History / United States / 20th Century |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |