11/15/1969: Second Vietnam Moratorium Protest
During the Fall of 1969 a coordinated campaign of anti Vietnam War protests was held across the U.S. The largest were the nation-wide Moratorium Against the Vietnam War on October 15th, and a second Moratorium on November 15th, preceded by the March Against Death on November 13th.
The second Moratorium crowded over half-a-million demonstrators around the Washington Monument in D.C. for the largest political rally in U.S. history. In the White House, only a few hundred yards north of the rally, President Nixon made a point of seeming unaffected by the protests, spending the day watching college football on T.V. However, despite the show of indifference, the demonstrations had impressed upon the Nixon administration the importance of pursuing their policy of Vietnamization and withdrawal, rather than escalation. (See Home to War : A History of the Vietnam Veterans Movement
A variety of different organizations had aligned and coordinated their efforts in order to bring about the massive attendance at the moratorium protests. However, despite the overall success of the demonstrations, the strains of combining the different ideologies was evident. At the San Francisco rally, David Hilliard, the Chief of Staff of the Black Panther Panther Party, made a controversial speech, alienating a large portion of the crowd, and responding angrily when they booed him. A third Moratorium had been intended for December 15th, but the various factions of the peace movement had splintered apart again, and the event never took place. (See Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and Antiwar Movements in the 1960s
(Article for “Vietnam War Timeline” / “Vietnam Timeline” / “Vietnam War History” for November 15 1969)
There were vastly greater numbers in the Nov 15th moratorium in Washington. Official estmates tend to be on the low side anyway. The way they used to arrive at a figure in those days was to fly over the crowd in a helicopter,estimate the are covered,and multipy by x number of people per square unit. But that day It was 15 degrees out,poeple were huddle much closer together than normal american people get in public,It was the densest crowd I ever saw,ad I wa at pretty much every antiwar demonstration in DC.Also every single building downtown with unlocked doors was packed full of people getting out of the cold.
In the march the night before, each person had a candle and the name of an american who died in the war,we walked single file with in silence those candles,each person pronounced the name of the dead erson to the white house,and then everyone put their candles on the wrought iron fence of the Treasury bldg,next door.It was deeply poignant and beautiful.
the violence at Dupont circle was not demonstratorsrs from the moratorium,it was the DC home rule activists -not many people know folks in DC never had a representative in Congress till 76 and still that rep hs no vote,Congress controls DC gov and budget.Citixens never voted for prez till 76 .It was normal for home rule activists and DC police Tac squad-who were all volunteer,(so mostly guys,no women then, who wanted a chance to mix it up.) to get into a dust up after bigger actions ,The press blew that one way out of proportion.