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Opposition to the United States and New Zealand involvement
in Vietnam began in the early 1960s and during 1964 trade unions, churches
and peace organisations made resolutions opposing the war.
In 1965, after a protest against the United States Ambassador to South
Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge, the Committee on Vietnam was formed
that spearheaded the protest movement for the next ten years.
Sixty people started a silent vigil outside Parliament which lasted
17 days, and ended with a rally of 1,000 people whose goal was to stop the
Prime Minister from committing troops to Vietnam.
All visits from top-level American officials including President Johnson
were protested. Visiting American warships were picketed.
In 1968 the Peace Power and Politics conference in Wellington was held
at the same time as the SEATO Council of Ministers meeting.
The protest movement brought together very diverse groups of people
from the youth
movements, politically radical students, communists,
academics, trade unionists, Christian Pacifists and other church members.
They influenced public opinion by mounting hunger strikes, street theatre,
demonstrations, film festivals and teach-ins to highlight information that
had not been presented by the government or media.
A violent and controversial incident
took place outside the Hotel Intercontinental in Auckland on
16 January 1970. Newspaper reports told of police wading into a crowd
of demonstrators who were opposing the visit of American
Vice President Spiro Agnew. This led to an ombudsmen’s report
that contained rules for police response and behaviour at demonstrations.
Citizens who believed the Domino theory and supported the Vietnam War were
upset by these displays of public disloyalty and begun to demonstrate in
support of the war.
Many thousands of people marched through the streets of New Zealand’s main
cities in 1970,1971 and 1972 in nationwide mobilisations to withdraw New
Zealand troops and oppose the war.
This is an abridged report of the Vietnam protest movement
in New Zealand from Long Time Passing by C. Loftus Nelson.
There are always questions about the effectiveness of protests.
Here are some quotes that highlight two roles of protests.
If you look at video footage where Holyoake comes down the steps
of parliament to welcome LBJ he turns to the protesters. He was almost
encouraging them to make a hell of a noise so that LBJ could realise there
was considerable protest within New Zealand about our troops
in Vietnam and it would be very difficult for Holyoake to increase troop
numbers, no matter what LBJ wanted.
Ian Johnston, television interviewer
In New Zealand we spent the better part of a day conferring with the Prime
Minister and his cabinet, while hundreds of students picketed the
Parliament building carrying signs bearing peace slogans. The officials
were courteous and sympathetic, but they made it clear
that any appreciable increase was out of the question ... Our visits
to the allied capitals produced results I had not foreseen.
It was strikingly apparent to me that the other
troop-contributing countries no longer shared our degree
of concern about the war in South Vietnam. I returned
puzzled, troubled, concerned. Was it possible that our assessment
of the danger to the stability of South East
Asia and the Western Pacific was exaggerated?
US Presidential Envoy Clifford Clark 1967.
This material has been produced by UNITEC Institute of Technology
under contract to the Ministry of Education.
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