"Don't Let the Bow-tie Fool Ya."

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the students posting. As such, this writing reflects their perspective alone; historical errors or discrepancies are also their own. The director of this blog does not necessarily agree with the views and/or opinions expressed below. Names have been shortened or changed to protect individual privacy where necessary. 

Hello, our names are Carly, Jordan, and Matt. For our oral history project we interviewed Richard who was part of the anti- war movement which occurred in the 1960’s. His journey began with, of course, a woman who sparked his particular interest; she got him involved with volunteer work which consisted of working with other ethnics groups. Doing so, cause him to look at the world differently and he became engulfed with expanding his knowledge. Also contributing to this was the fact that he was attending George Washington College in Washington D.C.; the center of political and protestor conflicts. Richard expanded his knowledge by attending teach-ins and reading books on the war, the past, and how war impacts home life. As he began to speak more of the anti- war movement with his family conflicts sprouted between him and his father as a result of his father being a War World Two Veteran. What his father did not understand was that being a part of the anti-war movement did not mean that he was anti- solider, movement participants were pro- solider they just wanted them to come home.

Richard’s first large demonstration was the March on the Pentagon which was said to have had somewhere between 50,000- 100,000 people involved. During these times people would knock on his door and state that they were involve with the movement and ask “Can we stay in your room?” he would reply yes. Everyone would then throw money into a hat and they would order pizza or some other kind of takeout, which was a bonding experience. 

Unfortunately, the anti- war movement took a dark turn in 1968 and assassinations such as Martin Luther and Robert Kennedy occurred. After Nixon’s inauguration more demonstrations transpired, both peaceful and violent. A peaceful example, as seen in the picture, is when protestors would put flowers into rifles. Violent examples consist of the police throwing gas canisters into the crowd and then the crowds retaliating and throwing them back at the police. Also after the police would break up the demonstrations, people would continue to act violent by vandalizing things such as throwing bricks through windows. In response to these brutal acts, Richard would sit in the shower for long periods of time meditating. He sat in there for so long for two reasons: the first is that he had to wash the gas off of him and the second is that he would feel emotionally dirty for having participated in such aggressive demonstrations.

In 1969, Richard was drafted. He knew the draft laws due to his previous experiences as a draft counselor and therefore was aware of the three options he had: he could go to jail, flee to Canada, or go to the front line. Richard visited a “friendly physician,” a doctor who is against the war and is also seen in the picture, who discovered a polinidal cyst in his lower spine. He became ecstatic with joy because this random cyst that had never bothered him before might just be the thing that saved him from going overseas.  While he was waiting to have his physical, he decided that he really wanted these people to see the ugliness of this cyst. Remember now, this was pre- AIDS days, Richard took a q-tip from a random garbage can and irritated it to the point where it started to bleed. When he went in there and showed his cyst to the doctors he heard one man go “EWWW.” Richard kept thinking “Yes! Yes! Yes!” and later received a 1- H. A 1-H meant that he was not to go overseas right now but in the case of a nuclear attack, they would call him. After a year, Richard was never bothered by the cyst and he was never called to go to war.

Years later, Richard was teaching in North Carolina when he and a few others from the history department decided to take their students for a trip to Washington D.C. On their last night there, they visited the Vietnam Wall where Richard then began to stroke the engraved names. He became engulfed with emotion repeating “Damn…Damn…” and then started to sob. Surrounding students became frightened and went to fetch other teachers but Richard was not paying attention to them, he could not shake the thoughts and flashbacks of our loss and the loss of the Vietnamese people. 

 As you can see, the anti- war movement had a huge impact on Richards’ life and it formed many views that still stick with him today. The movement had its ups and its downs but in the end he was happy to have participated in it, it just goes to show you that “the littlest things can mean a lot.”