1968: The Global Revolutions

At the start of 1965, Students for a Democratic Society organized the first national demonstration to oppose the Vietnam War. In the ensuing months, troop deployments and aerial bombardments surged dramatically, heightening anger and generating excitement for the protest. As a result, turnout on April 17th was higher than anyone had anticipated. More than 20,000 people picketed the White House and rallied at the Washington Monument, making it one of the largest demonstrations in memory against U.S. foreign policy. Among the speeches that day, one would inspire thousands of students around the country to think deeply about the underlying systemic roots of the war. SDS president Paul Potter urged his audience and contemporaries to study, critique, and reform the status quo. “We must name that system,” he concluded. “We must name it, describe it, analyze it, understand it and change it.”