She originally wanted to interview me by phone, but to be honest, I felt that I would get caught off guard. It's not like I do a lot of interviews. In fact, I think this is the first one I have given in, um, 32 years!
So, I got her to put it in writing, and I responded in kind. This is the result. I will post her story if she ever publishes it.
Jim
> Jim,
> Would you still do an interview by email? It makes things less flexible, since we have to quote a text, but if that's all you can work into your schedule than I'd still like to interview via computer.
> The questions are simple:
> How are the protests you see building against this war similar to Vietnam? How are they different? What was your experience as a student protester like? Would you do it again? Do you think the students of today care about social issues, get involved, like the students of your time?
> The story is looking at what's going on in the high schools in the Merrimack Valley.
> Look forward to hearing from you,
> Meg
Subject: Re: Vietnam
Hi Meg!
OK, well, simple questions, but maybe not such simple answers!
1.) There are a lot of similarities. The same signs, the same chants, and in many ways, I think, the same feeling of betrayal. Politicians claim to want peace and then go to war. The government seems to be using the same slogans, too. They say that they want to win the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people, but they are using the same old tactics of bombing and coercing them into submission. In Vietnam, the US would "save" a village by burning it down. Here we are again, in a country 10,000 miles away, uninvited and unasked for, trying to "liberate" people against their will. Young people, hell, anyone with a sense of fairness, must feel offended when they are taught the ideals of independence and self determination ("no taxation without representation") and then see their own leaders invading a foreign country and demanding loyalty and payment from the locals.
2.) One big differences between the protests against the war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq is that there is no longer a draft. Today's protesters aren't trying to stop the war out of the same selfish interests that many of us felt, and they don't face the same threat if they fail. In that way, I think the protesters now are a lot more idealistic and honest at the same time.
Also, this antiwar movement grew much faster and more spontaneously. Who are the leaders? There aren't any, at least not in the way there were in the sixties. There's no Abbie Hoffman or Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King (who became very strongly opposed to the war in the last years of his life). The antiwar movement in the sixties took years of organizing to develop. This time, the protests started before the war and have grown steadily. To some extent, this antiwar movement developed out of the anti-globalization movement of the late nineties, but for the most part, it is just the combined outrage of millions of people who are sick of being ignored and lied to.
3.) My experience as a protester was about 50-50, half fun, half terrifying. The antiwar movement of the sixties and early seventies was cultural as well as political, and included things as different as Woodstock and the Marches on Washington. But, locally, I think that most of the people who were strongly against the war felt pretty isolated. Some teachers were sympathetic, but overall, it seemed like most people just wanted us to shut up and cut it out. Sadly for them, that just encouraged some of us!
The strike at Haverhill High in May of 1970 was mostly a response to the shootings at Kent State. I think that even people who supported the war were shocked by that and felt like they had to do or say something and not let the government get the idea that it was OK to shoot protesters. It started as a rally before school out by The Thinker, but when someone pulled a fire alarm, the place emptied out and we marched down to GAR park. I don't think any of us really had a plan, but we just couldn't do nothing. And I have to say that the Mayor, the police and the school administration, for once, saw the wisdom of helping keep things calm, rather than fighting. And there were plenty of students who disagreed with that action and let us know it in no uncertain terms, and I think a lot of other students just called it a day and went home or went to the beach or something. It was pretty exciting for those of us who had been against the war for a while, but it was a unique situation, an outburst of emotion which really didn't carry over to much of anything else.
4.) When you ask "Would I do it again?" do you mean, would I protest against the Vietnam war the way I did then, knowing what I do today? The answer to that is that I would do more. It is hard to gauge just what impact the antiwar movement had on Nixon and his bunch, but having read the memoirs of Robert MacNamara and some of the other people involved in conducting the war, I have no doubt that we were right and that many people in the administration knew it. If we were able to shorten that war by five minutes, then it was worth it.
On the other hand, if you mean, would I protest against this war, the answer is "absolutely." The last protest I was at was at the federal building in Los Angeles to protest the NATO bombing of Serbia (which was also NOT approved by the UN). The invasion of Iraq is totally unjustified and nothing short of a war crime. The claim that Iraq is or was a threat to the United States or Britain or even it's neighbors is ridiculous. Again, I don't know how effective the protests will be in terms of slowing down or stopping the war, but doing nothing is the same as supporting the government.
5.) I think students today are much more socially conscious and involved than they were in "my time" (hey! when did it stop being "my time"?). I don't really know a lot of high school students, but from the little I have seen and heard, they are much more aware of issues related to things like cultural diversity, they volunteer more of their time and energy to the community, and they aren't nearly as grim and about it as we, who became known as the "baby boomers," were. They are much better at being serious and having fun at the same time. Unfortunatley, like us, they have been thrust into the position of making history, whether they want to or not. They are the first generation in 30 years to face these kind of world changing issues. But I think most of them have had a feeling all their lives that something big was coming and they have been getting ready for it.
I think they'll surprise us all.