Protest Scholar Sees Anti-Iraq-War Protests Approaching Historic Turning..

[sabra]

http://www.collegenews.org/x4799.xml

Protest Scholar Sees Anti-Iraq-War Protests Approaching Historic Turning Point

Wheaton professor Alex Bloom compares Iraq and Vietnam

NORTON, Mass., Aug.25, 2005 - The anti-war protests recently sparked by mother-against-the-war Cindy Sheehan have brought American society back to the visible protest era of the 1960s, according to Alexander Bloom, history scholar at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. Bloom says the United States is at a turning point similar to that which occurred in 1968.

“As in 1968,” says Professor Bloom, “the majority of Americans no longer support the Iraq war.” The most obvious difference, says the Wheaton historian, is that popular sentiment against U.S. policy in Iraq has grown far more quickly than did opposition to the Vietnam War.

“People look back on the 60s now and think there was protesting from the very beginning,” he notes. “But it took years to build up this type of movement during Vietnam. We seem to be getting to that crossover point--1968 in America--a lot sooner.”

“There's something about Cindy Sheehan's protest, lining up with a steady decline in public support for the war, that has galvanized Americans,” says Bloom, a scholar of the 1960s who studies and writes about how the Vietnam experience has divided Americans for decades, and continues to influence current policy. According to Bloom, the influence of America’s struggles in the jungles of Southeast Asia is reflected in the way in which activists articulate their goals now.

[rodeodance]

1. good to see the academy talking.

[hippiechick]

2. The only potential problem I see ...

... is that in '68, the voters were tricked into believing in Dicky "Restore Law and Order" Nixon and his evil cabal (many of whom are active White House Neocons today).

We already have that BS running the show, so does it mean that whoever displaces this group of thugs in response to the catastrophic war policy, will be even WORSE ??


:shrug:

[kansasblue]

3. It's 1968. What was it like in 68?

Can any DU discuss historic parallels between 68 and now?

[ecoflame]

4. I was in high school

I was in my first into second year of high school.

I remember the Democratic convention in Chicago with Mayor Daly's coppers out of control, the chanting - 'the whole world's watching.'

My dad didn't turn completely against the war until the killings at Kent State (which was two years later) because 'American troops had no business killing Americans' was what he said at the dinner table. He was furious. By then, I was in my senior year. He had served in WWII and this was totally different. Plus, you know - we saw it every nite on the news. None of this sanitized crap.

[tanyev]

5. Power of the internet, baby.

Information took a lot longer to move around back then.