The National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam (NCC) developed as the first in a series of short-lived, ad hoc attempts to guide the burgeoning anti-Vietnam war movement during the 1960s. On April 17, 1965, the Students for a Democratic Society sponsored the first large march on Washington against the war, but despite its success by the end of June, SDS had decided not to become overly committed to the anti-war movement. During the early months of 1965 many local anti-war groups were established around the country. Besides joining in the April 17 march, these committees held teach-ins, demonstrations, and occasionally affiliated with the older peace organizations such as SANE or Women Strike for Peace. At a Berkeley teach-in on May 21-22, 1965, Staughton Lynd proposed an Assembly of Unrepresented People to improve the tactics used in both the civil rights and peace movements. Participants in this teach-in also agreed to organize demonstrations for the following October that would be international in scope.
The Assembly of Unrepresented People in Washington, D.C., on August 6-9, 1965, brought together civil rights activists and peace proponents from throughout the country. There they shared their common experiences which included a frustrating lack of national direction and communication. A workshop, two hundred persons strong, on national coordination proposed the formation of the National Coordinating Committee. The assembly adopted this scheme on August 9; by that afternoon many of the NCC's leaders including its national secretary Frank Emspak, had been jailed for protesting against the war at the Capitol. This incident was indicative of the NCC's tone: militant, but non-violent.
The committee's headquarters were located in Madison, Wisconsin, with regional offices established in New York City and Washington, D.C. and three to six travelers around the country. The decision to establish headquarters in Madison exemplified the desire to cement the NCC's uneasy alliance of radical pacifists, moderate pacifists, Communists and Socialists, and reform Democrats. In Madison, which was centrally located and already well organized against the war, the local anti-war groups cooperated with little ideological bickering. The NCC's primary units of organization, however, consisted of approximately two to three hundred local anti-war groups. These included both ad-hoc committees and local chapters of various liberal and radical societies. Each group was theoretically represented on the NCC's steering committee; this committee determined policies and programs and served as the link between the local groups and the national staff. A standing committee composed of Lynd, David Dellinger, Jerry Rubin, Jack Weinberg, Irving Beinin, Tom Shields, David Berkley, and Frank Emspak directed decision-making between meetings of the steering committee. The national staff, never numbering more than about a dozen individuals, possessed little power to initiate policies, but it was responsible for publishing the Peace and Freedom News.
The success of the October 15-16, 1965 First International Days of Protest increased the stakes involved in the struggle to control the swelling anti-war movement. Over one hundred thousand persons in fifty American cities participated in what was then the largest outpouring of anti-war sentiment. The November 28, 1965, March on Washington, sponsored by SANE, again displayed the grassroots sentiment against military involvement in Vietnam. The NCC held a national convention the week before this November demonstration (November 25-28) at which time a caucus demanding the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam established a newsletter, Bring the Troops Home Now. The caucus, composed largely of radical pacifists and SWP members, did not succeed in changing the basic policies and positions of the NCC due to the opposition of moderate pacifists, Communists, and reform-Democrats. The convention also mandated a Second International Days of Protest for March 25-26, 1966.
The Second International Day of Protest occurred in nearly a hundred cities and towns throughout the U.S. as well as in over thirty foreign countries. This very success led, however, to further debates within the NCC. Radical pacifists and SWP members desired to continue organizing demonstrations; liberals and Communist Party members preferred to turn to electoral politics; and new left radicals disliked the use of the NCC as a recruiting ground for older organizations and envisioned a new, radical organization which transcended both electoral politics and massive, non-ideological demonstrations.
During the spring of 1966, the continuing discussion over the NCC's direction remained unresolved. An effort to alleviate this problem at a conference was rejected by the local anti-war committees as too great a drain on their limited resources. The NCC staff did, however, attempt to coordinate the formation of community anti-war projects for the summer of 1966. Towards this goal, a conference was held at Antioch College on June 10-16, 1966, to discuss topics such as American imperialism, organizing tactics, and the role of China in the Southeast Asian conflict. While the NCC's summer organizing program achieved some moderate successes, the focus of the anti-war movement began to shift away from the NCC, which was being increasingly crippled by factionalism.
Another organization, the Fifth Avenue Peace Parade Committee, arose to sponsor demonstrations on August 6-7, 1966. This New York-based group drew much of its support from radical pacifists, SWP members, and others associated with the caucus that established the Bring the Troops Home Now Newsletter. A series of conferences held during the summer and early fall of 1966 further eroded NCC's leadership. These meetings exacerbated the internal tensions within the NCC and witnessed the formation of another anti-war group--the Fall Mobilization Committee to direct the October and November 1966 mass demonstrations.
The foundation of the Fall Mobilization Committee as well as the electoral campaigns of peace candidates like Robert Scheer in California and Thomas Adams in Massachusetts drew staff, funding, and public support from the NCC. Although it assisted these efforts, it no longer coordinated them. During the winter of 1966-1967, the NCC redirected its focus towards state-wide organizing. Some staff members hoped to establish a grassroots, radical anti-war movement throughout Wisconsin to include clergymen, small farmers, blue-collar workers, professionals, and students; however, the attempt failed. Gradually the staff members either became involved in other Madison organizations or left the city.
