The Limits of Moral Protest and Participatory Democracy: The Vietnam Day Committee

Abstract

On May 21, 1965, over ten thousand people gathered on the Berkeley campus of the University of California for Vietnam Day, a twenty-four-hour carnival of antiwar protest. This brilliantly provocative event, organized by the Vietnam Day Committee (VDC), a collection of students and professors disenchanted with liberal America and frightened by the the Southeast Asian conflict, stunned university authorities and undoubtedly caused concern in Washington, D.C. In the months that followed, however, VDC activists failed to build upon the triumph of May 21, and by its first anniversary the group was a spent force, torn by factionalism and respected only by the far right who profited in spreading paranoia.1 The VDC nevertheless deserves attention because its failure