VPCC came into being in 2014 as a response to the Pentagon's effort to
commemorate its version of the war. A letter of protest drafted by Tom Hayden,
David Cortright and John McAuliff attracted 1529 signers. It was featured in the
New York Times twice, initially as a page 1 story.
This led to a conference in Washington at the end of April 2015, the 40th
anniversary of the end of the war. Some 700 Vietnam activists spend an intense
day and a half together at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church with a
culminating march to the Martin Luther King memorial.
Virtually all aspects of the anti-war movement were reviewed in plenaries,
mini-plenaries and workshops. All of the proceedings were videotaped
professionally or semi-professionally and posted on a VPCC youtube channel here
where they continue to be viewed.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjWWd2MxBTRq6XZTXqzXAeQ/videos
At the memorial for Tom Hayden, VPCC was reborn with an agenda of
highlighting significant aspects and anniversaries of the anti-war movement.
It's goal was to follow-through on the charge sounded by Tom at the 2015
conference.
- The 1965-75 peace movement reached a scale which threatened the foundations
of the American social order, making it an inspirational model for future social
movements and a nightmare which elites ever since have hoped to wipe from
memory. It’s far simpler, after all, to incorporate into the American Story a
chapter about a social movement overcoming discrimination than the saga of a
failed war in which tens of thousands of Americans died while killing
others.
VPCC organized a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on the
Pentagon and of the first mass collections of draft cards in October 20-21,
2017. A vigil at the Pentagon was held and a conference was organized in
Washington that culminated with a walk to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Part
of the conference was shown on C-SPAN and the balance of the program can be seen
on our youtube channel.
VPCC was represented in My Lai on March 17, 2018 for the commemoration of
the 50th anniversary of the massacre and organized a simultaneous vigil at the
White House.
We also began our effort to elevate Martin Luther King's Riverside Church
speech on April 4, 2018, as the visionary link between peace, racial justice and
economic equity.
VPCC honored the 50th anniversary of the Moratorium and Mobilization with a
November 13, 2019 panel at George Washington University and a vigil at the White
House.
Plans to collaborate in observance of the killings at Jackson State were
cancelled because of Covid.
Because of Covid VPCC reoriented itself to the creation of zoom programs, 19
to date. The last four covered the 50th anniversaries of the May Day
Demonstrations and the Release of the Pentagon Papers in May and June of 1971, a
comparison of the end of the Afghanistan intervention with Vietnam and Cambodia
and a discussion of adding women to Selective Service registration. (All are
listed in our latest newsletter https://conta.cc/3Asg9U0 )
The culminating successful stage of the anti-war movement from the fall of
1971 to the end of the war in 1975 may be the least known because its focus and
means of work changed substantially.
From a program perspective, we may be entering a time when in-person events
can be contemplated in addition to the national outreach of zoom.
Left unspoken at the moment is how to address the twenty year period of
post-war work for normalization, remove the UN seat from the Khmer Rouge and
address war legacies.
VPCC is discussing how to focus its work during the last four years of 50th anniversaries, leading to the successful achievement of peace (1975/2025). To contribute to that deliberation, please complete the survey available here or write to director@ffrd.org .
-- John McAuliff Coordinator, VPCC
September 27, 2021 Women and the Draft with Edward Hasbrouck, Robert Levering, Rivera Sun, Kara Dixon Vuic, Lawrence Wilkerson For speaker bios, resources & youtube link, click here
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September 13, 2021 Afghanistan, Vietnam and Cambodia with Bruce Franklin, Doug Hostetter, Arnold Isaacs, Laura Jedeed, Paul Lauter and Ben Kiernan For speaker bios, resources & youtube link, click here.
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June 13, 2021 The 50th anniversary of the Release of the Pentagon Papers Special attention to the contribution of Anthony Russo. Presentations by * Dan Ellsberg * Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman * Gar Alperovitz * Barbara Myers For the program, speaker bios, resources and youtube links, click here |
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April 30, 2021 April 30, 1975: The Day the War Ended Eyewitness accounts with photos from Hanoi by John McAuliff, representing the American Friends Service Committee and the Indochina Peace Campaign, and from Saigon by Nayan Chanda, reporting for the Far Eastern Economic Review, and Claudia Krich, AFSC Resident Co-director Program information and speaker bios here Watch the Youtube video of the zoom by clicking here.
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April 29, 2021 Mayday Then and Now A VPCC webinar with organizers and writers remembering and reflecting on the 50th anniversary of the historic Mayday civil disobedience demonstrations and mass arrests of 12,000. For program, speaker bios, resources and video link, click here Watch the video here. |
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April 26, 2021 The Historic Vietnam Veterans Protest in Washington: Lessons for Today The 50th anniversary of Dewey Canyon III Program link here. Video link here. |
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April 19/20, 2021 Peoples Peace Treaty 2: The Vietnam Dimension Speakers who were part of meetings between Vietnamese and US students in Saigon and Hanoi; previously unknown history. Two country video on youtube here; program and speakers bios here |
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April 4, 2021 Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Beyond Vietnam / Breaking the Silence" - HD video link for international reading of the Riverside Church address and panel on current implications in English and Spanish, coalition updates, click here
- International reading only; on Vimeo, click here
- Reading and panel, original zoom broadcast on VPCC youtube channel, click here
- Bios of panel speakers, click here
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March 22, 2021 "Religious Action for Peace and Justice" on youtube here. Program and bios are here. |
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March 16, 2021 "The Whistleblower of My Lai" on youtube here. Program, bios, resources and a link to watch the film are here. |
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February 27, 2021 Peoples Peace Treaty 1: U.S. organization and implementation on youtube here. Program, bios, Treaty text and other resources are here. |
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| November 20, 2020 "Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8" with film maker Jeremy Kagan. For program, speaker bios, resources and youtube link, click here. |
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| October 23, 2020 "The Trial of the Chicago 7" Defendants and family members speak on the Democratic Convention protest, the trial and the movie by Aaron Sorkin. For program, speaker bios, resources and youtube link, click here. |
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| October 18, 2020 Non-violence and civil disobedience Civil Rights, May Day and anti war movement, Black Lives Matter, Women's issues, Labor, Environment, Post election democracy defense. Click here for program, resources and youtube link |
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July 6, 7 and 13, 2020 Normalization of relations between the US and Vietnam Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of Normalization from the Ground Up in Both Countries, The Contribution of NGOs and Peoples Organizations from 1975 to 1995 For program, speakers and youtube links, click here |
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| May 9 and 16, 2020 50th Anniversaries of the National Student Strike, Kent State, Jackson State and the Chicano Moratorium For the program, speaker bios, resources and youtube links, click here
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November 13, 2019 "The War Comes Home: Moratorium and Mobilization, 1969" A panel at George Washington University on the 50th anniversary of the largest peace demonstration in US history For program, speaker bios, resources and youtube link, click here. |
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"Vietnam: The Power of Protest"
The 2015 VPCC conference in Washington is the only first person broad assessment of the
antiwar movement undertaken to date. Videos can be seen
here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjWWd2MxBTRq6XZTXqzXAeQ
A 50 minute video based on interviews conducted at the 2015 conference was produced by Activist Video Archive. It and the complete interviews of 43 participants can be seen here
The site also includes videos from the October 2017 conference in Washington,
"From Protest to Resistance" on the 50th anniversary of the March on the Pentagon except for the first half which is on C-SPAN for session one
here and session two
here.
