Hey, Hey, LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?

Vietnam anti-war demonstration and march from U.S. Consulate in Sydney, Australia in 1966.

State Library of New South Wales

by: Vineeth Jarabana

"Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"

United States (U.S.) President Lyndon B. Johnson, the most powerful person in the world, would often be taunted by this line at student rallies throughout the 1960s. With growing public frustration at American involvement in the Vietnam War, young people in particular began to join in this frustration. The threat of conscription compelled many students to find their voices at these rallies so that they could express their anger towards a hawkish political establishment. These student protests against the Vietnam War demonstrated the necessity of student activism in a robust democracy.

The Vietnam War began as an armed conflict between the Communist North Vietnam and the U.S.-aligned South Vietnam. Lasting nearly two decades, the Vietnam War represented a proxy war pitting Cold War powers against each other. At first, American involvement was primarily restricted to limited monetary and military support for South Vietnam. Fuelled by Cold War-era concerns of a communist takeover of South Vietnam, the U.S. would eventually expand its involvement to a boots-on-the-ground presence in support of South Vietnam. As American involvement grew, so did the antiwar movement in the U.S. Whether it was the human cost or the lack of transparency from the federal government, Americans found many reasons to be skeptical of their country’s participation in the Vietnam War. Students, in particular, were coalescing against the war due to reasons such as the implementation of conscription based on academic performance.

Protests against the Vietnam War illustrated how student activism strengthened democratic institutions by increasing political participation. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a student activist organization that existed in the 1960s, promoted direct action to end American involvement in the Vietnam War. When reflecting on the impact of SDS, Tom Hayden, former president of the SDS, stated that “any time people feel deeply repressed, when they can’t enact change through politics… then they will resort to participatory democracy as the only way to express themselves." Many students who had long been apolitical were now shocked by the possibility of being conscripted and thus found reason to exercise their democratic freedoms through expressing their views, protesting, and voting. Civic unrest on college campuses across the U.S., in response to the Vietnam War, resulted in greater participation in democratic processes, particularly among young people who have long been disillusioned and disengaged with democratic institutions. In fact, in the decades since the end of the Vietnam War, voter turnout rates among young people and the size of student-led protests have never been able to rival those of the Vietnam War-era.

Opposition to the Vietnam War helped underline the importance of democratic principles by proving that public demonstrations can achieve tangible policy changes. Student participation in the anti- Vietnam War movement played a critical role in the 1968 U.S. presidential election. All the major presidential candidates announced their Vietnam War exit strategies. Once elected, U.S. President Richard Nixon bowed to the pressure from student activists by ending conscription and transitioning the U.S. military to an allvolunteer force. Students no longer worried that their grades would force them to being maimed or even dying in Vietnam for a war they did not believe in. The end of conscription proved that protests, despite the continuous effort and sacrifice that it entails, helps make the government more responsive to the people.

Student-led opposition to the Vietnam War has had reverberating effects as time has passed. The legacy of student protests against the Vietnam War has not only served as a template for future youth movements across the globe, but also emboldened young people to call for action. For example, the first-ever Earth Day was modeled on student protests against the Vietnam War. Today, young people have applied many of the lessons from the anti-Vietnam War movement to their approach to international issues such as the climate crisis and the rise of authoritarianism. The movement against the Vietnam War highlights the essentiality of student-led activism to a healthy democracy. Given that students of today are the leaders of tomorrow, an engaged and informed young population is critical for the long-term preservation of democracy.