I learned about the Vietnam War in high school, but before watching this video I didn’t know that much about the resistance taking place in the United States. The beginning of the video talks about how the draft was supposed to be an “equalizer” because all men over 18 were required to be in the draft but the loopholes to get out of the draft, such as getting a deferment to go to college, were more accessible to wealthy people. During a demonstration at an induction center, a protester told men who were there to register for the draft that “if you’re a white, middle-class, Dean’s List kind of guy, you have nothing to worry about.” This really stood out to me because it highlights the inequality in the draft process. A disproportionate number of those sent to Vietnam were black and/or lower income, which I never knew. I also did not know that MLK participated in protests against the Vietnam War, but what he said about how the United States spent $322,000 on each enemy killed in Vietnam but only $53 on each American classified as poor also stood out to me.
Something else that I found interesting about this video was that President Nixon’s response to the anti-war protests was to increase the divide between those who supported the war and those who opposed it. He did this by portraying protesters as unpatriotic and sending in the National Guard to demonstrations on college campuses. This didn’t really make sense to me because one of the ideals of America is that we have the right to express our opinions about what the government is doing, even if we don’t support it.
I agree, I think that Nixon should have done more to neutralize the anti war movement and not deepen the divide of the American people. I found it shocking that Nixon would call people who supported the war “patriots” and that he would call people part of the movements derogatory terms. I think that the whole Vietnam War and the protests could have been handled in a much better way.