Title: Vietnam Moratorium Committee Records
Inclusive Dates: 1969-1970

Creator:

• Vietnam Moratorium Committee (U.S.)

Call Number: Mss 202; Audio 908A; Disc 116A; PH Mss 202; PH Mss 202 (5)

Quantity: 2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes), 1 disc recording, 16 photographs, and 2 posters

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of the Vietnam Moratorium Committee, a national group of liberal students, faculty, members of Congress, and other concerned citizens that organized local debates, vigils, and other nonviolent activities protesting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Concerning the October 15, 1969, Moratorium and later events the group supported are correspondence (largely incoming), publications, clippings, forms, and lists. There are also clippings, flyers, and forms received from various regional offices. Visual materials include photographs of group members and posters advocating social action.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00202

The concept of a national moratorium to protest continued U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam was first put forth in 1969 by Jerome Grossman, a businessman and chairman of the Massachusetts Peace Action Council. By early summer the idea had been adopted by Sam Brown, David Hawk, and David Mixner, three activists who had been associated in the McCarthy presidential campaign. As a self-appointed committee on June 30 they formally announced plans for a one-day moratorium on October 15, 1969, which was to be followed by a two-day moratorium in November, and so on, increasing one day per month until all U.S. troops were withdrawn from Vietnam.

Despite some skepticism about the feasibility of the committee's objectives the moratorium gained wide public support and ultimately succeeded in bringing a more moderate constituency to the antiwar movement. Both the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which were to the committee's left, made the October Moratorium part of their fall activities (in turn VMC endorsed their November 15 demonstrations), and to the VMC's right a section of the Democratic Party and some Republican doves lent their support. By the end of July the committee had workers on 225 campuses and contacts on 75 others, and by the time classes resumed these local ad hoc organizations had actually expanded beyond the capacity of the VMC Washington offices to keep track of them. Moratorium activities took place in almost every state and were what was up to that time perhaps the largest expression of public dissent ever seen in the United States.

Despite their organizing success, committee coordinators were understandably discouraged by their inability to affect government policy. Troubled by a lack of funds, the committee disbanded in April 1970.

The records constitute a small collection that is disappointing in the fragmentary coverage it provides about the moratorium. There is little information on the policy-making decisions of the coordinators or on relations between the committee, New Mobe, and Student Mobe, and while there is considerable congressional correspondence, none points to the attempt by some leaders to use the moratorium to coopt the antiwar movement. What correspondence there is tends to be incoming and consequently is best as a record of local rallies, vigils, and marches. The most complete record of Vietnam Moratorium Committee activities and policies is found in a file of form letters and in a run of press releases available in the Society Library. The records consist of correspondence, memoranda, publications, lists and forms, and press releases that are arranged as CORRESPONDENCE; an alphabetical SUBJECT FILE; and AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS.

The correspondence comprises about half the collection; of this one box focuses on the coordinators. This box includes a combined group of incoming correspondence, memoranda, and general papers, outgoing correspondence of coordinators Mixner and Hawk, a run of form letters, and letters received by Robert Lucas, the committee's GI coordinator. There are only scattered outgoing letters from Sam Brown. The combined correspondence begins with a May 1969 memoranda which discusses early moratorium planning, but with this exception there is little in the collection about the initiation of the concept. Scattered throughout, however, are letters from Jerome Grossman. Ex-changes with members of Congress are generally routine, but there are letters of interest from Alan Cranston, Shirley Chisholm, John Conyers, Fred Harris, Jacob Javits, Edward Koch, Paul McCloskey, Richard Scheuer, Louis Stokes, John Tunney, Andrew Young, and Jim Wright. Other correspondents of note are Tristram Coffin, Richard Neustadt, and Pete Seeger. General correspondence, which also is largely incoming, contains reports about local October 15 activities and responses to the committee's announced plan to dissolve. Many of these letters are from overseas Peace Corps volunteers.

The alphabetical SUBJECT FILES consist largely of operational materials (financial records are quite limited), publications, and clippings, forms, and flyers submitted by VMC regional offices. Pertaining to the moratorium are lists of local activities and supporters and statements of support. Publications contain drafts of advertising copy, brochures, a few press releases, and an outline for Peace Times, a newsletter. Complete runs of the latter two items are available in the Society Library.

The AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS consist of a disc recording, photographs, and posters. The disc is entitled “Two Faced Lament: Father and Son.” Written by Robert Y. Gromet and read by Gilbert Mack, it dramatizes the generation gap. The 16 photographs are of group members. Two posters advocate social action.

Acquisition Information

Presented by David Mixner, Washington, D.C., June 4, 1970. Accession Number: M70-155

Processing Information

Processed by Lindsay Nauen, June 1972, and Carolyn Mattern, February 1980.

Mss 202	Series: Correspondence
	Coordinators' correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1-3	Combined incoming correspondence and general papers, 1969-1970
Box   1 Folder   4-5	Form letters, 1969-1970
Box   1 Folder   6	Hawk outgoing correspondence, 1969-1970
Box   1 Folder   7	Lucas GI correspondence, 1969
Box   2 Folder   1	Mixner outgoing correspondence, 1969-1970
Box   2 Folder   2	Mixner correspondence regarding McGovern Commission, 1969
Box   2 Folder   3-7	General correspondence, 1969-1970
Box   3 Folder   1-3	1969 October 15, Moratorium telegrams
Box   3 Folder   4	Foreign correspondence, 1970
Box   3 Folder   5	Anti-Moratorium hate mail, 1969-1970
	Series: Subject Files	⇧
Box   3 Folder   6	1970 April 15 fast, statements of support
Box   3 Folder   7	Budgets, 1969
Box   3 Folder   8	Brown Face the Nation transcript, 1969
Box   3 Folder   9	Congressional elections, 1969-1970
Box   3 Folder   10	Congressional research, 1969-1970
Box   3 Folder   11	Labor, 1970
Box   3 Folder   12	Mailing lists
Box   3 Folder   13-14	Student contact lists, 1969
Box   4 Folder   1	Miscellany, undated
Box   4 Folder   2	News clippings
Box   4 Folder   3	Nixon 1969 November 3, speech reply
Box   4 Folder   4	1969 November 15, demonstration
	1969 October 15, Moratorium
Box   4 Folder   5	Activity lists
Box   4 Folder   6	Statements of support
Box   4 Folder   7	Office procedures, undated
Box   4 Folder   8	Press manual and draft, 1969
	Publications
Box   4 Folder   9	Advertising copy, undated
Box   4 Folder   10	Brochures, undated
Box   4 Folder   11	Miscellaneous mailings, undated
Box   4 Folder   12	Peace Times outline, 1970
Box   4 Folder   13	Press release drafts, 1969-1970
	Regional and state materials, 1969-1970
Box   4 Folder   14	Regional coordinators lists
Box   5 Folder   1	Atlanta Office (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee)
Box   5 Folder   2	Boston Office (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Box   5 Folder   3	California Office (Alaska, California, Hawaii)
Box   5 Folder   4	Chicago Office (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin)
Box   5 Folder   5	Denver Office (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming)
Box   5 Folder   6	Des Moines Office (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota)
Box   5 Folder   7	Houston Office (Arkansas, Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas)
Box   5 Folder   8	New York Office
Box   5 Folder   9	Philadelphia Office (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia)
Box   5 Folder   10-11	Washington, D.C. Office
Box   5 Folder   12	Speakers lists and request forms, undated
Box   5 Folder   13	Vietnam television shows, undated
	Series: Audiovisual Materials	⇧
Audio 908A	“Two Faced Lament: Father and Son” Note: Also Disc 116A.
PH Mss 202	Photographs
PH Mss 202 (5)	Posters