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8 | NOVEMBER 21 • 2019 

1942 - 2019

Covering and Connecting 
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jn

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How to reach us see page 10

Moratorium March to End the War 
in Vietnam was held in Washington 
D.C., November 1969.

Whatever Happened to Protest Marches?
T

his month marks the 
anniversary of the largest 
political protest in U.S. 
history, a seismic event that 
gripped all of America and 
should be recalled and studied 
during these tur-
bulent and deeply 
polarized times.
Fifty years 
ago, on Nov. 15, 
1969, the mas-
sive Moratorium 
March to End 
the War in 
Vietnam was 
held in Washington, D.C., as 
well as many other cities across 
America and even throughout 
the world. More than 500,000 
people of all ages and ethnicities 
— political leaders, celebrities, 
civil rights icons, veterans, 
students, entertainers, parents 
with young children in tow — 
descended on Capitol Hill to 
demand an end to America’
s 
involvement in Vietnam. Across 

America some 2 million people 
protested. 
By November of 1969, the 
war, which at that point had 
already claimed more than 
45,000 American lives, was 
showing no sign of slowing 
down. Despite President 
Richard Nixon’
s campaign 
pledge a year earlier to de-
escalate America’
s involvement, 
the number of U.S. troops had 
swelled that year to 550,000, an 
all-time high. 
America was angry and 
fiercely divided, and many peo-
ple were in the mood to take 
action to express their outrage. 
In Detroit, the Committee 
to End the War in Vietnam 
organized a city-wide protest in 
which thousands converged on 
Kennedy Square. Wayne State 
University conducted “teach-
ins,
” debates, and featured activ-
ist speakers and films. Many 
other educational and religious 
institutions in Detroit and its 

suburbs coordinated seminars 
to protest the war.
Across America, the 
Moratorium Marches were 
mostly peaceful. In Washington, 
D.C., Coretta Scott King 
led a candlelit vigil down 
Pennsylvania Avenue. Folk 
legend Pete Seeger led the sea 
of protesters in singing John 
Lennon’
s “Give Peace a Chance,
” 
which had become the unof-
ficial anthem of the anti-war 
movement. The trio Peter, 
Paul and Mary came onto the 
stage, along with many other 
performers and activists, and 
joined in as Seeger repeatedly 
interjected “
Are you listening, 
Nixon?” 
Nixon, who was in the White 
House the entire time, was 
indeed listening and quickly 
issued a statement that “under 
no circumstances” would he 
be affected by the protest, stat-
ing that “policy in the streets 
equals anarchy.
” Referring to the 

candlelight vigil led by Coretta 
Scott King, Nixon joked that he 
should “send helicopters out to 
blow out the candles.
”
Vice President Spiro Agnew 
was also listening and charged 
that the protesters were “impu-
dent snobs who characterize 
themselves as intellectuals.
”
Both Nixon and Agnew 
placed the blame at the feet of 
the media, particularly the New 
York Times and the Washington 
Post. The Moratorium March, 
Agnew claimed, was the work 
of the media who were a “small 
and unelected elite that do not 
— I repeat, do not — represent 
the view of America.
” 
Fifty years later, the broader, 
lingering questions remain: 
Did the protests work? Do they 
today? Nathan Heller, a jour-
nalist at the New Yorker, has his 
doubts. “Is protest a productive 
use of our political attention?” 
he asks. “Or is it just a bit of 
social theater we perform to 

Mark 
Jacobs

WIKIPEDIA

essay

continued on page 10

