On this day fifty years ago—1969—the American movement in opposition to the Vietnam war entered a new and elevated phase. As the troops began to return from the war through rotation and the withdrawal linked to the reduction of our forces in Southeast Asia, they joined the demonstrations against the war. They reinforced with a new vigor an anti-war movement as old as American participation in the fighting in Indochina. The infusion of uniformed Vietnam war combat veterans into the campaign to end American participation in the war came as President Nixon pleaded for patience with the stalled peace talks in Paris. It came at the same time the rolls of the fallen warriors passed 38,000. Support for the President’s handling of the war was at 77% in a Gallup public opinion poll. That support for Nixon and the war would crash shortly after the events of this day fifty years ago…
As American resolve wavered and fell, our enemies took new heart from our disunity, and for the fight, and the war went on for more than three years. Tragically, another 20,000 American men and boys would die on the battlefields, in the jungles, and in the skies of Southeast Asia.
Lest we forget…
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