Karín Aguilar-San Juan - The People Make the Peace: Lessons from the Vietnam Antiwar Movement

The People Make the Peace: Lessons From the Vietnam Antiwar Movement presents an insightful examination of the Vit Nam antiwar movement, with fascinating stories by nine activists who made wartime trips to Vit Nam to establish people-to-people contacts. The book shatters stereotypes of protesters and shows the activists as thoughtful, courageous, and compassionate strategists whose dedication to peaceful diplomacy helped end the war earlier that it would have otherwise. Anyone interested in putting a halt to our current state of perpetual warand stopping future oneswill get inspiration and direction from the lessons so brilliantly conveyed in this book.

MEDEA BENJAMIN

Co-founder of the peace group CODEPINK and the human rights organization Global Exchange

A marvelous collection that comes full circle in understanding America's past and present relationship with Vietnam, and that reminds us of the power and impact of the antiwar movement through the voices of peace advocates from that era who recently returned to Vietnam.

DAVID CORTRIGHT

Director of Policy Studies at Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies

This is a wonderfully moving, inspiring, and instructive collection of autobiographical essays by prominent Vietnam War activists who kept the faith over the decades since they joined in signing an extraordinary treaty of peace between the American and Vietnamese people in 1973. The authors succeed, above all, in making us realize how profoundly wrong it was ever to wage war against this proud people who so often returned our violence with their love. Everyone who cares about this country needs to read this book in a hurry.

RICHARD FALK

Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice, Princeton University

The American movement against the Vietnam War was the largest, most complex, and most effective antiwar movement in history, but neither its scope nor its complexity have gotten their due in the historical record. The essays in this collection help fill in many blanks, adding essential color to the story of this astounding citizens movement, especially the remarkable saga of the 197071 Peoples Peace Treaty. They inspire reflection that America still sorely needs.

TODD GITLIN

Professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University

The People Make the Peace is an invaluable document describing the varied experiences of one significant segment of the movement against the war in Vietnam. Activists who engaged in what Hanoi and the NLF called peoples diplomacy, recall their experiences and place them in the context of a more recent visit to the country as well as current U.S. foreign policy. In addition, five veterans now living and working in Vietnam to alleviate the damage done by the war they fought talk of their past and present experiences. The volume will be of interest to all who cherish peace and work towards achieving it.

MARILYN YOUNG

Professor in the Department of History, New York University

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Copyright 2015 Karn Aguilar-San Juan and Frank Joyce

All other writers in this volume retain copyright to their work, which is used here with their permission and that of previous publishers.

All rights reserved. No part of this book, except brief passages for review purposes, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or exporting from any information storage system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Such permission may be requested via the email or physical address listed at www.justworldbooks.com/contact.

Front cover image is from a vintage antiwar poster by an unknown artist. Courtesy of Lincoln Cushing / Docs Populi.

Cover design and typesetting by Diana Ghazzawi for Just World Publishing, LLC.

Publishers Cataloging in Publication

(Provided by Quality Books, Inc.)

The people make the peace : lessons from the Vietnam antiwar movement / Karn Aguilar-San Juan & Frank Joyce, eds.

pages cm

LCCN 2015947153

ISBN 978-1-935982-59-3

ISBN 978-1-935982-58-6 (ebook)

1. Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements--United States. 2. Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American. I. Aguilar-San Juan, Karin, 1962- editor.

II. Joyce, Frank H., editor.

DS559.62.U6P46 2015

959.70430922

QBI15-600171

To the future peacemakers of the world....

And to Franks grandchildren, Nathan, Luca, and Sofia, in the hope that they will be among the future peacemakers of the world.

Finally, to Fred Branfman, for his lifetime of dedication to the people of Laos and the cause of peace.

EDITORS INTRODUCTION: THE PEOPLE MADE THE PEACE

KARIN AGUILARSAN JUAN AND FRANK JOYCE

Students were shot dead. Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger later said that the antiwar movement rubbed President Nixons rawest nerve.

The fact that a movement against the Vietnam War came into being in the first place is something of a miracle. Majority support for war has been the rule throughout U.S. history; mass opposition to war has been the exception.

To be clear, virtually every U.S. war has faced opposition. But the Vietnam War stands out. What made it different? What forces called an antiwar movement into existence? Did the antiwar movement help to end the War? If so, how? How do the activists who opposed the Vietnam War understand Vietnam today, as an era, a war, a country, and a people?