By that point, more than 1.5 million young men had already been drafted into the military, and nearly 50,000 Americans had died in the war.
In Kent, protests in response to the Cambodia announcement led to vandalism and prompted Republican Gov. James Rhodes to deploy National Guard troops. A protest on campus on May 4 was ordered to disperse, with demonstrators refusing and some throwing rocks at the troops.
Some members of the National Guard then fired on the protesters. Four were killed — an event now known as the Kent State massacre. At the time, though, views of the situation were less sympathetic to the protesters. A poll conducted after the shootings found that about a third of Americans didn’t know who bore more blame for the students’ deaths. About 1 in 10 blamed the National Guard.
A majority of respondents blamed the students.
It’s interesting to consider that response at this moment, given the protests at Columbia University in New York — also the site of large protests during the Vietnam War — and on other college campuses. Views of the protests on campuses and elsewhere vary widely, often depending on opinions of the Israeli military operations in Gaza that triggered the demonstrations.
If we look back at the demonstrations during the Vietnam War, though — protests focused on opposition to a military engagement now broadly regarded as a mistake — we see widespread hostility to the protesters, particularly college students.
Consider polling conducted by Harris & Associates in 1968, unearthed using the database of historical poll results collected by Cornell University’s Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. That Harris Poll asked Americans about their sympathy for various protest tactics and issues, including one that has emerged in response to Gaza: blocking traffic.
In October 1968, nearly all respondents to the Harris Poll opposed blocking traffic to protest the war in Vietnam. Asked how they might respond, two-thirds of respondents said that, if nothing else worked, they might participate in a physical assault or armed action over the tactic.
That same poll found that fewer than half of respondents agreed that “the police are wrong to beat up unarmed protesters, even when these people are rude and call them names.”
A poll conducted by NORC that April evaluated how much support anti-Vietnam protests had. It determined that 7 in 10 Americans thought the country “would be better off if there were less protest and dissatisfaction coming from college campuses.” Asked if the college protests were a “healthy sign” for America, 6 in 10 said they weren’t.
In November 1969, a CBS News poll asked Americans if they approved of public protests against the war. Three-quarters said they did not. Six in 10 indicated that they believed the protests “hurt our chances of reaching a peace settlement with North Vietnam.”
In May 1970, Harris asked Americans if they were more likely to sympathize with or condemn the protests. One-third third sympathized. More than half condemned. More than a third said they thought antiwar protests should be declared illegal.
That August, Harris asked whether Americans agreed with the aim of the protests on college campuses and the tactics used to achieve those aims. About two-thirds of respondents opposed the aims of the protests. Eight in 10 opposed the tactics.
Another Harris Poll, conducted in October 1970, evaluated why Americans thought there was so much discord on college campuses. Most respondents said the war was a major reason, with three-quarters saying it was at least a minor cause of the protests. It was more common for respondents to blame student radicals, troublemakers, and college administrators and faculty than to blame the war itself.
A poll the following month from Harris found that respondents were more supportive of cracking down on student protesters (65 percent) than getting troops out of Vietnam (61 percent).
In April 1971, Gallup asked Americans whether they were more likely to agree that political protesters were not being dealt with strongly enough or that the rights of political protesters were not being respected. Respondents were twice as likely to say that protesters weren’t being dealt with strongly enough.
ORC asked Americans that same month if they supported planned antiwar demonstrations. Respondents were twice as likely to oppose the demonstrations as support them.
A poll from the Response Analysis Corporation that October found similar opposition when it asked Americans if they generally approved of young people taking part in protests and demonstrations. A Harris Poll, conducted on behalf of Virginia Slims cigarettes that month, asked American women if they thought picketing or protesting was “undignified and unwomanly.” Six in 10 said it was.
By the end of March 1973, all U.S. combat troops had been pulled out of Vietnam. That August, Harris asked Americans whether more harm or good was done by “student demonstrators who engage in protest activities” or “college presidents who are lenient with student protesters,” among other groups. Half the respondents in each case said the students or presidents did more harm than good.
There is no guarantee that history will eventually vindicate the positions of protesters. But it does seem safe to assume that the positions, not the protests, are what will be remembered.
Apsny News English
