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                      US Anti-War Movement Still Resonates

   by Marianne Brown

   The peace movement of the 1960s and '70s is widely lauded for helping
   end U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. Forty years later,
   Vietnam receives strong criticism for repressing freedom of speech.
   Forty years ago Sunday, delegations representing the United States and
   Vietnam's Communist Party met in Paris to sign a peace deal that would
   culminate five years of negotiations and end U.S. military involvement
   in Vietnam. In Hanoi Friday President Truong Tan Sang addressed
   thousands of people at a ceremony to mark the anniversary.
   He said the Paris Agreement was a milestone in the history of Vietnam.
   He said victory was derived from the resistance of the people led by
   the Communist Party, their determination and sacrifice, and the army on
   the battlefield.
   In the audience was a group of distinguished guests, many of whom were
   making their first trip to Vietnam during peacetime. They took part in
   the peace movement celebrated by many Vietnamese people as the driving
   force in pushing the peace deal.
   Frank Joyce was part of a delegation of anti-war activists who came to
   Vietnam in May 1970. During the trip he heard reports that four U.S.
   students had been shot dead by National Guard troops at an anti-war
   rally at Kent State University in Ohio.
   "Our Vietnamese hosts were visibly upset," he said. "It was of course
   powerful information in its own right, powerful because of the clear
   impact that it had on them and powerful because of the fact that even
   here, or especially here, we could sense this is going to change the
   conversation in the US."
   Joyce said the Kent State shootings helped bring the war home to many
   people and that, combined with other activities, helped create the
   atmosphere that brought the U.S. to the bargaining table that led to
   the Paris Peace Treaty.
   Joyce says at least 200 activists came to Vietnam during the war to
   become a better informed opposition. This, he says, also allowed the
   Vietnamese to use opposition to the war in the U.S. to strengthen their
   cause.
   It is debatable whether the confrontational slogans many people used
   during America's peace movement would be tolerated in modern Vietnam.
   The country has attracted heavy criticism in recent years for its lack
   of media freedom and for increasing arrests of bloggers and activists.
   The country ranks 172 out of 179 in [1]Reporters Without Borders Press
   Freedom index.
   Rennie Davis was one of the peace movement's most high profile leaders
   and visited Paris several times during the negotiations. He was one of
   the organizers of a huge anti-war protest at the Democratic National
   Convention in 1968, and was subsequently indicted and put on trial as
   one of the so-called [2]Chicago Seven.
   "We had a majority of people in our country oppose the war and I would
   say that was our finest hour," said Rennie. "I feel Americans were
   heroes and what happened here 40 years later was really a recognition,
   a tribute really, from the nation of Vietnam certainly to America, but
   to all the countries all over the world that supported them in their
   unbelievable struggle to achieve what they did."
   Rennie says now what Vietnam needs to do is tap the same energy that
   propelled the anti-war movement in the United States and use it to
   tackle contemporary threats, namely climate change. He says looming
   dangers like rising sea levels, pollution and drought are the most
   pressing issues of this generation.
   "The young people that made the anti-war movement possible in the
   United States exist now in a new version called young people right now
   in their twenties. I find that I can talk to them most easily about
   rallying themselves to basically clean up this planet.History will not
   remember the '60s. History will remember what this generation did or
   failed to do," said Rennie.
   When it comes to the U.S. government criticizing Vietnam on its human
   rights record, Joyce says the U.S. should first look closer to home.
   "I've been involved with human rights organizations my whole life, and
   part of what I hope for my country is that we get genuinely serious
   enough human rights that we understand it and support it as something
   other than a propaganda point in argument with some country where we
   want them to do what we want them to do," he said.
   Joyce said he would have an argument about human rights in Vietnam the
   day Bradley Manning is a free man. Former soldier Manning is currently
   awaiting trial for leaking classified documents on to whistle-blower
   website Wikileaks.
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   [3]http://www.voanews.com/content/us-anti-war-movement-still-resonates/
   1591732.html

References

   1. http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Seven
   3. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-anti-war-movement-still-resonates/1591732.html