Resources
HISTORY ARTICLES
Learn more about the little-known story captured in the film in these articles by historians and journalists.
How Anti-Vietnam War Protests Thwarted Nixon’s Plans and Saved Lives
By Robert Levering, November 12, 2019
How the antiwar movement overcame internal disarray to mount the epic Moratorium and Mobilization demonstrations in 1969.
Nixon, Kissinger, and the Madman Strategy during Vietnam War
By William Burr and Jeffrey P. Kimball, May 29, 2015
Historians Burr and Kimball unravel the intricate story of Nixon’s October 1969 nuclear alert in these excerpts from their book.
The Moratorium and the New Mobe (PDF)
By Francine Du Plessix Gray, New Yorker, January 3, 1970
The inside story of the two groups that organized the massive protests in the fall of 1969.
Washington Action, November 13-15, 1969: A Report and Comments from the Viewpoint of a Practical Organizer
By Bradford Lyttle, February 10, 1970
A 63-page report describing behind-the-scenes details from one of the key organizers of the Mobilization demonstration
BOOKS
Learn more about the history of the Vietnam War and the antiwar movement through these books.
By Historians Interviewed for the Film
Appy, Christian. American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity. New York: Viking, 2015.
Appy, Christian, Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides.New York: Viking Penguin, 2003.
Appy, Christian. Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers & Vietnam. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
Burr, William and Jeffrey P. Kimball. Nixon’s Nuclear Specter: The Secret Alert of 1969, Madman Diplomacy, and the Vietnam War. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2015.
Eisenberg, Carolyn Woods. Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.
Small, Melvin. At the Water’s Edge: American Politics and the Vietnam War. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005.
Small, Melvin and William D. Hoover. Give Peace A Chance: Exploring the Vietnam Antiwar Movement. Essays from the Charles DeBenedetti Memorial Conference. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992.
Small, Melvin. Covering Dissent: The Media and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994.
Small, Melvin. Johnson, Nixon, and the Doves. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1988.
Small, Melvin. The Antiwarriors: The Vietnam War and the Battle for America’s Hearts and Minds. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2002.
Wells, Tom. The War Within: America’s Battle Over Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Memoirs From or About Interviewees
Cortright, David. Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2005. (first edition, 1975).
Ellsberg, Daniel. Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.
Ellsberg, Daniel. The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017
Hartsough, David with Joyce Hollyday. Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist. Oakland CA: PM Press, 2014.
Janes, Jami. Almost Back: The Brenda Cavanaugh Story. Introduction by Robert MacNeil. The Woodlands, TX: New Century Books, 2002.
Joyce, Frank. The People Make the Peace: Lessons from the Vietnam Antiwar Movement. Just World Books. 2015.
Mixner, David. Stranger Among Friends. New York: Bantam Books. 1996.
History of the Vietnam War
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.
Ward, Geoffrey C. The Vietnam War: An Intimate History. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2017.
Young, Marilyn B. The Vietnam Wars 1945-1990. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
History of the Vietnam Antiwar Movement
Anderson, Terry H. The Movement and the Sixties. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Bingham, Clara. Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul. New York: Random House, 2016.
DeBenedetti, Charles and Charles Chatfield. An American Ordeal: The Antiwar Movement of the Vietnam Era. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1990.
Dumbrell, John, ed. Vietnam and the Antiwar Movement: An International Perspective. Brookfield, VT: Gower Publishing, 1989.
Halstead, Fred. Out Now!: A Participants Account of the American Movement Against the Vietnam War. New York, Monad Press, 1978.
Hixson, Walter L., ed. The Vietnam Antiwar Movement. New York: Garland Publishing, 2000.
Morrison, Joan and Robert K. Morrison. From Camelot to Kent State: The Sixties Experience in the Words of Those Who Lived It. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Swerdlow, Amy. Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Zaroulis, Nancy and Gerald Sullivan. Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam 1963-1975. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985.
FILMS
Other films that tell important stories about the antiwar movement.
The Boys Who Said No! Directed by Judith Ehrlich. The untold story and impact of the draft resistance movement during the Vietnam War, the largest refusal to fight a war in American history.
Sir, No Sir. Directed by David Zeiger. Profiles the antiwar movement within the ranks of the military during the Vietnam War.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Co-directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith. Oscar-nominated documentary that reveals what led Daniel Ellsberg to risk life in prison to release the top-secret Pentagon Papers and expose the lies that drove the Vietnam War.
The War at Home. Directed by Glenn Silber. Oscar-nominated film that depicts a decade of antiwar protest in Madison, WI, a microcosm of the nationwide antiwar movement.
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
The Vietnam War. United States Foreign Policy History and Resource Guide
Rethinking the Teaching of the Vietnam War. Zinn Education Project
Teaching the Vietnam War: Beyond the Headlines. Zinn Education project
