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21-22 October 1967Primary source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The Draft and the Anti-War Movement

As the Selective Service inducts hundreds of thousands a year, resistance to the war grows from teach-ins to the March on the Pentagon.

On the timeline · around 21-22 October 1967 · The American WarThe American WarVietnamization and WithdrawalThe Draft and the Anti-War Movement196719681969

Quick facts

March date
21 October 1967
Estimated crowd
100,000
Arrests
nearly 700
Organizer
National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam

What happened

The Selective Service System inducted rising numbers of young American men every year of the escalation, more than 200,000 in 1966 alone, feeding a war that by the late 1960s consumed hundreds of thousands of troops. Opposition grew alongside it: campus teach-ins, draft card burnings, and conscientious objector filings. On 21 October 1967 an estimated 100,000 demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial and marched on the Pentagon, organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Activists including Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg staged a mock exorcism intended to levitate the building. Nearly seven hundred protesters were arrested and dozens hospitalized in clashes with troops guarding the building. It was the first major national demonstration against the war and the moment images of protest, including a young woman placing a flower in a soldier's rifle barrel, entered the public imagination alongside images of combat.

Why it matters

The march did not end the war, the Pentagon remained standing, but it marked the point at which opposition to Vietnam became a mass national movement rather than a fringe position, feeding directly into the political crisis that would follow Tet four months later.

How we know

Contemporary newsreel coverage and the National Archives' own photographic and film holdings document the march and the arrests; Selective Service records document induction totals by year.

Sources

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Part of a timelineThe Vietnam War24 events · From the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu to the fall of Saigon, America's longest and most divisive war, sourced document by document.View all →