1970's.
1960's.
1968- Following the successful Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese troops, support for the SDS peaked as the war seemingly had no end.
30th April – Nixon announced that the Vietnam War will be expanded into Cambodia. 69% of students across the United States had doubts about Nixon’s decision.
1st May – Thousands of students in Washington peacefully protested through Capitol Hill. Hundreds of other colleges and universities conducted protests.
3rd May – Following a meeting with editors from eleven colleges at Columbia University, a call for a nationwide student strike was announced. Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom outlawed ‘unusual gatherings’.
4th May – At Ohio’s Kent State University, up to 1,100 students protested. The National Guardsmen threw tear gas canisters at the taunting students. The tension escalated, resulting in 4 students being killed and 10 others injured.
5th May - After mounting pressure, President Odegaard of University of Washington sent a telegram to President Nixon: “to recognize the need for strenuous efforts to explain more fully the present policy, to listen to those who object to it, and to develop a foreign policy towards Indochina which has more support from the American people.”
Odegaard stated that he couldn’t promise to keep the National Guard off campus and 6,000 University of Washington students protested on the Interstate 5 freeway heading towards the Federal Court house. Professors cancelled classes in support of the students.
6th May – 15,000 people, a vast majority of which were students, peacefully marched on Seattle Municipal Building and blocked highways.
President Nixon met with a delegation of students demonstrating that he acknowledged the legitimacy of the anti-war student movement. Awareness regarding civil rights and political issues increased dramatically during this period, motivating apathetic people to protest.
Opposition to the vietnam war.