The Vietnam-era antiwar movement may count as the largest sustained protest movement in the history of the United States. Opposition to US military involvement in Southeast Asia began in the 1950s and started to attract media attention in 1963 as the Kennedy Administration pushed combat troops into Vietnam. Campus protests date from 1965, the year SDS organized several large demonstrations. From then on, the movement grew exponentially and silent vigils turned into massive marches and angry confrontations. In May 1970, news of Nixon's Cambodia invasion and the killings at Kent State triggered the May 1970 student strikes, the largest student protest in US History, involving more than 900 colleges, universities, and high schools.
Here we map and list 884 important protests involving tens of millions Americans. We have categorized the type of event and you can filter by reports of arrests, vandalism, and violence (including five fiery self-immolations). This is only a subset of all the protests in this era. Our data include only the best publicized actions, the ones covered in a selection of major newspapers. Information has been drawn from the New York Tmes,Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Atlanta Constitution,Wall Street Journal, and Seattle Times. We are not including many of the May 1970 strikes and Draft Resistance actions which are examined in other maps in this section. The maps are hosted by Tableau Public and may take a few seconds to respond. If slow, refresh the page. Here are other New Left and Antiwar Movement maps .
Move between several maps, timelines, and charts by selecting tabs below
In Progress: We continue to seek additional data and are eager to correct errors. Please Help. If you know something about the actions and outcomes on particular campuses or location, please share it here.
Methods and sources: These data were developed by searching online newspapers using terms like antiwar demonstration. The following newspapers digitized by ProQuest Historical Newspapers were used: New York Tmes,Washington Post, Los Angeles Times,, Wall Street Journal, and Atlanta Constitution. Addition entries from Seattle Times. Please also see our more complete lists and maps of the May 1970 Student Strike and Draft Resistance actions.
Research and data compilation: Amanda Miller.
Maps: Amanda Miller
Additional Vietnam-era antiwar movement maps and charts
The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was one the most influential radical organizations of the 1960s and remains closely associated with the term "New Left." Founded in 1960, the organization took on a new mission after the Johnson administration escalated the war in Vietnam, launching a campaign of antiwar actions. Here we map the expansion of SDS chapters from 11 in 1962 to more than 300 by early 1969
Millions of young men found ways to avoid conscription during the Vietnam war. Others, women as well as men, committed themselves to openly resisting the draft. They burned or surrendered draft cards, refused induction, and staged disruptive protests at draft boards and induction centers, employing in some cases tactics of peaceful civil disobedience, in other cases damaging property and battling with police. Here we map draft resistance actions that received publicity in major newspapers in the years between 1965 and 1972.
Based on data assembled by James Lewes, these maps and charts locate 768 periodicals associated with the GI antimilitarist movement in the era of Vietnam war. By 1970, antiwar periodicals for GIs were available near most military bases in the US and at bases in Europe and Asia, especially in West Germany and Japan.
Here are five maps and charts showing the year-by year geography of the underground media system, locating the comings and goings of more than 2,600 weeklies and monthies. Filter by state and by categories, including African American, Chicana/o, GI antimilitarist, countercultural, radical left, and other descriptives.
