The Cleveland Area Peace Action Coalition (CAPAC) was founded in 1967 to oppose U. S. involvement in Vietnam through non-violent means. Working closely with the local chapter of the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (SMC), CAPAC was able to make Cleveland one of the most active and important centers of anti-war activity in the nation.
The first chairman of the group was Sidney Peck, a sociology professor at Case Western Reserve University who rose to prominence as coordinator of the University Circle Teach-in Committee in 1966. Peck also played a leading role in three meetings which took place in Cleveland that same year and which brought a temporary degree of unity to the anti-war movement. At the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968 Peck was arrested, and involvement with his defense subsequently removed him from involvement with CAPAC. He remained an important figure in the peace movement, however, as a leader in the National and New Mobilization Committees to End the War in Vietnam.
CAPAC revived in the spring of 1969 under Jerry Gordon, a civil liberties lawyer. In June 1970 it became the focus of national anti-war activity when it called a national convention of activists in Cleveland. With over 1500 in attendance, the convention re-formed itself as the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC), with the objective of immediate and unconditional withdrawal from South Vietnam. Gordon was elected one of NPAC's five national coordinators, and with his shift to national activity, CAPAC was headed by Caryl Loeb (1971) and Nancy Brown (1972).
