Half a Million March: Vietnam War Protest Fills DC

Between 250,000 and 500,000 people converged on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the largest anti-war demonstration in American history to that point. The November Moratorium march was a peaceful but unmistakable rebuke to President Richard Nixon's Vietnam War policy, and it included a haunting 40-hour "March Against Death" in which individual protesters walked single-file past the White House, each carrying a placard bearing the name of an American killed in Vietnam or a Vietnamese village destroyed. The Moratorium movement represented a shift in the character of anti-war protest. Earlier demonstrations had been dominated by students, radicals, and counterculture figures. By November 1969, the movement had broadened to include suburban parents, clergy, business professionals, and veterans. The October Moratorium a month earlier had drawn millions of participants to events in cities and towns across the country. The November march brought that energy to the capital. Nixon publicly insisted the protests did not affect his policy, telling reporters he had spent the afternoon watching a football game. Privately, the administration was deeply concerned. Nixon had already abandoned plans for a massive escalation, including the possible use of nuclear weapons against North Vietnam, partly because the scale of domestic opposition made such moves politically impossible. The White House mounted a counter-campaign, with Vice President Spiro Agnew attacking protesters as "an effete corps of impudent snobs." The March Against Death began on the evening of November 13 and continued for nearly two days. Each of the 45,000 participants walked four miles from Arlington National Cemetery across Memorial Bridge to the Capitol, pausing at the White House to call out the name on their placard. The placards were then placed in wooden coffins at the foot of the Capitol steps.