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Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium / University of Washington

Antiwar and Radical History Project

Introduction: Pacific Northwest Antiwar Movements WW1 Labor and Radicalism WWII Cracks in the Consense Korean war Resistance Vietnam war Anti-nuclear organizing 1970s-80s
Video interview list
Introduction Labor radicalism and Antiwar Activism Reds, Labor, and the Great War
Introduction Student activism Draft resistance May 1970 UW Student Strike Photos and documents
Introduction History Interviews GI underground newspapers Timeline Photos and documents
Introduction Ground Zero history Confronting the Navy at Bangor
Photo and document collections

Vietnam War: Special Section

Student Activism Map 883 campus protests Map major protests 1963-1975 Map SDS chapters
Preview map of 880 major antiwar protests from 1965 to 1975.

See our maps and descriptions of 880 major antiwar protests 1965-1975.

Student protest posters at the University of Washington, 1970.
Student protest posters at the UW, 1970. (Courtesy Museum of History & Industry and UW Digital Collections.)
Copy of Fed Up, an antiwar underground newspaper circulated at Fort Lewis during the Vietnam War. A copy of Fed Up, an antiwar underground newspaper circulated at Fort Lewis. Click the image to go to a special section on the antiwar movement among soldiers.
Anti-ROTC protest at the University of Washington, March 6, 1969.
Anti-ROTC protest at UW, March 6, 1969. (Copyright (c) Steve Ludwig.) Click the image to be taken to a page on student antiwar activism at the UW.

Oral Histories

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Click the image to watch streaming video interviews with antiwar activists from the Northwest, like Steve Ludwig, above.

Demonstrators burning draft cards outside the Selective Service Office in Seattle, circa 1969.
Demonstrators burning draft cards outside the Selective Service Office in Seattle, c. 1969. (Copyright (c) Fred Lonidier.) Click the image to go to a page devoted to draft resistance.

The Vietnam War sparked a mass antiwar movement in the United States, involving students on campuses, soldiers in the military, and civilians marching in the streets. Employing the civil disobedience tactics and grassroots mobilizations of the civil rights struggles, the early movement was also spurred by networks of student protest already formed during the Berkeley Free Speech Movement in 1964 and the founding of Students for a Democratic Society in 1960.

The Pacific Northwest, with its large array of military bases, universities, and history of radicalism, was a flashpoint for the Vietnam antiwar movement. Antiwar GIs at Fort Lewis and students at the University of Washington were some of the first in the country to organize collectively, and inspired activists in larger cities. Draft resistance organizations formed underground railroads to funnel AWOL soldiers and draft resisters to nearby Canada. Students in Seattle went on strike for Black Studies programs and again to protest the war.

This detailed section on the Vietnam War highlights both the often-told histories of student radicalism and draft resistance in the Northwest, and complements another special section devoted to the more hidden history of soldiers and veterans who organized against the war. Bringing together oral histories, movement biographies, and hundreds of photographs and documents, this section provides a vivid picture of the urgency and vibrancy of the anti-Vietnam War movement in the Northwest.


Tour the Vietnam War Special Section

 

Jessie Kindig is the coordinator for this special section.


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Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium, University of Washington