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Category
Era
Anti-Vietnam War Movement, 1963–1973
During the Second Indochinese War between communist North Vietnam and US-backed South Vietnam (1955‒1975), the US government escalated American involvement in Southeast Asia. In response, anti-war activists and university students in Minnesota, along with demonstrators across the nation, took to the streets to protest.
The US first intervened in Vietnam in the early 1950s, when it backed French troops during the First Indochina War. As the Second Indochina War began, the CIA and US government under Dwight D. Eisenhower backed pro-democracy South Vietnamese leaders. American interference in Southeast Asia continued as subsequent administrations slowly escalated the war throughout the 1960s.
Most Americans were at first supportive of the US government’s efforts to purportedly fight communism and ensure democracy in Southeast Asia. However, anti-war critics believed that this was the Vietnamese people’s fight—first for independence from colonial rule and then for reunification. The US was intervening in a conflict that was not its own, and it was causing more deaths than saving lives. This argument rang true for young college-age Americans who could be drafted into the army, had friends risking their lives abroad, or had already served and were disillusioned with the government.
Protesters across the nation took their concerns to the streets as well as the ballot box. In Minneapolis, anti-war demonstrators organized a march in Dinkytown in April 1967, carrying signs with slogans such as "War is darkness; peace is light." Later that month, activists attended a rally at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus to hear Martin Luther King Jr. speak out against the war.
Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota was also an outspoken critic of the war. Supported by young anti-war activists, he won a high percentage of votes at the 1968 New Hampshire primary. Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale initially supported the conflict but shifted his stance in the late 1960s. In 1965 he had visited South Vietnam, where he talked to reporters from newspapers such as the Minneapolis Tribune and revealed what was going on behind the scenes.
In response to President Nixon’s decision to send troops into Cambodia in April 1970, students on over 700 college campuses gathered to protest. On May 4, 1970, Kent State University students clashed with the Ohio National Guardsmen, which left four students dead and nine injured.
University of Minnesota (U of M) and Macalester College students organized protests in response to the invasion of Cambodia as well as the Kent State deaths. In May 1970, thirty people attended anti-ROTC demonstrations at Morrill Hall. Seventeen were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly. Faculty also got involved and released statements protesting the arrests. Another group of anti-ROTC demonstrators posed as wounded or dead war victims outside the doors of an All-University Senate meeting. Meanwhile, twenty to thirty students conducted an all-night occupation of Coffman Hall, which ended peacefully when policemen escorted them out of the building.
Students carried their protests beyond the campus to locations throughout the Twin Cities. On May 11, 1972, seventy-five demonstrators spent the night on Washington Avenue in Minneapolis and blocked traffic to make their point. Three hundred policemen and National Guardsmen, called in by Governor Wendell Anderson and Minneapolis Mayor Charles Stenvig, told the demonstrators to clear the street. Most complied, though 150 students returned and were joined by more students. Although this could have become a violent standoff, the police eventually withdrew. 3,000 protesters had gathered by then, either reconstructing blockades along Washington Avenue or moving on to other streets (including Interstate 94).
A few days later, over 3,500 protesters marched from Northrop Mall to the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul. Later that month, Minnesotans gathered at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington for a “Dump the War” rally, which featured McCarthy, John Kerry (Vietnam Veterans against the War spokesman), and several Congressmen as speakers. It was considered the largest anti-war assembly in Minnesota to date.
Protests in Minnesota took place within a nationwide context of anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, as well as other social movements that mobilized large numbers of people. Such acts of protest and resistance drew public attention and built up domestic pressure on the US government to gradually withdraw American troops from Vietnam by 1975.

Bibliography
AV2006.41
KSTP-TV Archive
Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10463671
Description: May 11, 1972, news coverage of antiwar demonstrations at the University of Minnesota. National Guard members march down the street and Bruce Lindberg talks to a crowd. Part of the “The Cause Is Peace?” videotape.
AV2006.41
KSTP-TV Archive
Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10463674
Description: Eugene McCarthy speaks to students in front of Coffman Union at the University of Minnesota during a Vietnam protest. Part of Turner & Buehler's Stories - on U of M demonstrations, “The Cause of Peace?” videotape.
48659
KSTP-TV Archive, Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10522864
Description: May 11, 1972 videotape of University of Minnesota anti-war demonstrations. Part of Turner & Buehler's Stories - on U of M demonstrations, “The Cause of Peace?” videotape.
48663, AV2006.41
KSTP-TV Archive, Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10463677
Description: Videotape of Vietnam protest march to the Minnesota State Capitol on May 13, 1972. Speaker rallies the crowd on the steps of the building.
29800, AV2006.41
KSTP-TV Archive, Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10463532
Description: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at an anti-war rally at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus on April 27, 1967.
Chaduvula, Raju. “9 Photos of the University of Minnesota’s Massive 1972 Anti-war Protest.” Minnesota Daily, October 3, 2016.
https://mndaily.com/225572/news/stvietnam/
Furst, Randy. “Vietnam War Era Activists Reconvene at Macalester College.” Star Tribune, May 4, 2016.
Originally found at: www.startribune.com/vietnam-war-era-activists-reconvene-at-macalester-college/378033081/
Gettleman, Marvin E., Jane Franklin, H. Bruce Franklin, and Marilyn B. Young, eds. Vietnam and America: A Documented History. Young. New York: Grove Press, 1985.
Isserman, Maurice, and Michael Kazin. America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Nathanson, Iric. “Martin Luther King’s ’63 and ’67 Minnesota Visits Are a Study in Contrasts.” MinnPost, January 16, 2012.
https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2012/01/martin-luther-kings-63-and-67-minnesota-visits-are-study-contrasts/
Nordahl, Jeffrey. "Why I Protested The Vietnam War." Minnesota Remembers Vietnam: The Story Wall. A Minnesota PBS Initiative.
https://www.mnvietnam.org/story/why-i-protested-the-vietnam-war/
O’Neill, Hannah. “Eight Days in May.” U of M Radio on Your Historic Dial (podcast), May 23, 2017.
https://www.continuum.umn.edu/2017/05/eight-days-may/
Phillips, Kimberley L. War! What Is It Good For?: Black Freedom Struggles and the U.S. Military from World War II to Iraq. University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
PUM-10872928
Walter Mondale Oral History Interview, June 16, 2011–October 26, 2011.
Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10872928
Description: Portion of interview with Gary Eichten and Mr. Mondale regarding Vietnam.
Sandbrook, Dominic. Eugene McCarthy: And the Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism. New York: Anchor Books, 2005.
Sieg, Kent G. "The 1968 Presidential Election and Peace in Vietnam." Presidential Studies Quarterly 26, no. 4 (1996): 1062-80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27551671.
University of Minnesota. Fact Sheet II on University of Minnesota Activities During the Nationwide Campus Anti-War Movement, May 25, 1970. University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, http://hdl.handle.net/11299/122371
University of Minnesota. Fact Sheet III on University of Minnesota Activities During the Nationwide Campus Anti-War Movement, June 8, 1970. University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, http://hdl.handle.net/11299/122373
Wells, Tom. The War Within: America’s Battle Over Vietnam. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994.
Related Resources
Primary
P1996
Vietnam War Protest Collection, 1969-1973
Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: This archival collection consists of flyers, leaflets, posters, petitions, newsletters, newspapers, and other printed matter centered on the protest movement against the Vietnam War (1969-1973) in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Anti-war actions documented in the collection include local and national protest marches and demonstrations, student strikes, teach-ins, draft resistance, and fundraising benefits.
12.037
Minnesota Clergy and Laity Concerned. Vietnam War opposition papers, 1962-1975.
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00062.xml
Description: Papers relating to the Minnesota Clergy and Laity Concerned's activities in opposition to the Vietnam War and U.S. draft policies.
AV2007.38.2
Oral History Interview with Donna-Marie "D.M." Boulay, June 10, 2005
Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project, Oral History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10868903
Description: Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project’s interview with Boulay, who was in the Army Nurse Corps. She describes the hostility and sexist remarks she received as a veteran, as well as her participation in the Veterans Against the War and anti-war protests in 1968/1969.
AV2007.38.5
Oral History Interview with MaryLu Brunner, May 23, 2006
Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project
Oral History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10868909
Description: Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project’s interview with Brunner, who was in the Army Nurse Corps. She did not personally experience hostility from the anti-war movement and describes her skepticism of the war while on duty.
AV2007.38.6
Oral History Interview with Valerie Buchan, October 27, 2005
Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project
Oral History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10868910
Description: Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project’s interview with Buchan, who was in the Army Nurse Corps. She discusses the hostile anti-war environment that she and other veterans faced when they returned home.
Bloom, Alexander, and Wini Breines, eds. “Takin' it to the Streets": A Sixties Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
DS557-DS559
Pamphlets Relating to the Vietnam War
Pamphlet Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: The MNHS Pamphlet Collection contains pamphlets and printed ephemera relating primarily to Minnesota protests and draft resistance during the Vietnam War. A few items pertain to the creation of the Minnesota Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Oglesby, Carl. Ravens in the Storm: A Personal History of the 1960s Anti-War Movement. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008.
Secondary
Bailey, Beth L. America's Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.
Gottlieb, Sherry Gershon. Hell No, We Won't Go!: Resisting the Draft During the Vietnam War. New York: Viking Press, 1991.
Heikkila, Kim. Sisterhood of War: Minnesota Women in Vietnam. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2011.
Ludewig, Sara. “Marching Against the Madness: Macalester College and the Counterculture, 1966 to 1974.” History honors project, Macalester College, 2017. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/history_honors/22
Nathanson, Iric. “Another War that Divided Minnesota: Vietnam Politics in the 1960s.” Hennepin History, 63, no. 4 (Fall 2004): 4‒24.
Schmitz, David F. The Tet Offensive: Politics, War, and Public Opinion. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
Smaby, Alpha. Political Upheaval: Minnesota and the Vietnam War Protest. Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1987.
Web
Gale Family Library. Vietnam War & Minnesota: Overview.
http://libguides.mnhs.org/vietnamrec
Michigan in the World. Resistance and Revolution: The Anti-Vietnam War Movement at the University of Michigan, 1965‒1972.
http://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antivietnamwar/
Nathanson, Iric. "Two Favorite Sons: the Humphrey‒McCarthy Battle of 1968." MinnPost, May 25, 2011.
https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2011/05/two-favorite-sons-humphrey-mccarthy-battle-1968/
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries. Vietnam War Protests at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee–Archives Dept.: The Student Strike and Later Protests, 1970‒1972.
http://guides.library.uwm.edu/c.php?g=56372&p=364611
Related Images

Anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Dinkytown

Anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Dinkytown
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Anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Dinkytown
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in St. Paul
Holding Location
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in St. Paul
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Crowd listening to speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in St. Paul
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University of Minnesota student protest
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University of Minnesota student protest
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University of Minnesota student protest
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University of Minnesota student protest against the United States' invasion of Cambodia
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Protest button
"March On the Capitol" button issued as a Vietnam War protest item, ca. 1971.
All rights reserved
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Protest button
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Protest button
All rights reserved
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Eugene McCarthy anti-war button
All rights reserved
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Demonstration at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
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Flier announcing a fundraising party for the Student Mobilization Committee
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Police pursue and attack a student protester with clubs
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Blockade of Interstate 94
Holding Location
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Related Articles
Turning Point
The Nixon administration’s decision to expand war to Cambodia in April 1970 sparks nationwide protests on university campuses, including ones in Minnesota.
Chronology
April 11, 1967
April 17, 1965
April 27, 1967
November 30, 1967
January 30, 1968
August 26-29, 1968
November 5, 1968
November 13, 1969
April 30, 1970
May 4, 1970
May 9, 1972
May 11, 1972
May 27, 1972
January 27, 1973
Bibliography
AV2006.41
KSTP-TV Archive
Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10463671
Description: May 11, 1972, news coverage of antiwar demonstrations at the University of Minnesota. National Guard members march down the street and Bruce Lindberg talks to a crowd. Part of the “The Cause Is Peace?” videotape.
AV2006.41
KSTP-TV Archive
Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10463674
Description: Eugene McCarthy speaks to students in front of Coffman Union at the University of Minnesota during a Vietnam protest. Part of Turner & Buehler's Stories - on U of M demonstrations, “The Cause of Peace?” videotape.
48659
KSTP-TV Archive, Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10522864
Description: May 11, 1972 videotape of University of Minnesota anti-war demonstrations. Part of Turner & Buehler's Stories - on U of M demonstrations, “The Cause of Peace?” videotape.
48663, AV2006.41
KSTP-TV Archive, Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10463677
Description: Videotape of Vietnam protest march to the Minnesota State Capitol on May 13, 1972. Speaker rallies the crowd on the steps of the building.
29800, AV2006.41
KSTP-TV Archive, Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10463532
Description: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at an anti-war rally at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus on April 27, 1967.
Chaduvula, Raju. “9 Photos of the University of Minnesota’s Massive 1972 Anti-war Protest.” Minnesota Daily, October 3, 2016.
https://mndaily.com/225572/news/stvietnam/
Furst, Randy. “Vietnam War Era Activists Reconvene at Macalester College.” Star Tribune, May 4, 2016.
Originally found at: www.startribune.com/vietnam-war-era-activists-reconvene-at-macalester-college/378033081/
Gettleman, Marvin E., Jane Franklin, H. Bruce Franklin, and Marilyn B. Young, eds. Vietnam and America: A Documented History. Young. New York: Grove Press, 1985.
Isserman, Maurice, and Michael Kazin. America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Nathanson, Iric. “Martin Luther King’s ’63 and ’67 Minnesota Visits Are a Study in Contrasts.” MinnPost, January 16, 2012.
https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2012/01/martin-luther-kings-63-and-67-minnesota-visits-are-study-contrasts/
Nordahl, Jeffrey. "Why I Protested The Vietnam War." Minnesota Remembers Vietnam: The Story Wall. A Minnesota PBS Initiative.
https://www.mnvietnam.org/story/why-i-protested-the-vietnam-war/
O’Neill, Hannah. “Eight Days in May.” U of M Radio on Your Historic Dial (podcast), May 23, 2017.
https://www.continuum.umn.edu/2017/05/eight-days-may/
Phillips, Kimberley L. War! What Is It Good For?: Black Freedom Struggles and the U.S. Military from World War II to Iraq. University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
PUM-10872928
Walter Mondale Oral History Interview, June 16, 2011–October 26, 2011.
Moving Images Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10872928
Description: Portion of interview with Gary Eichten and Mr. Mondale regarding Vietnam.
Sandbrook, Dominic. Eugene McCarthy: And the Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism. New York: Anchor Books, 2005.
Sieg, Kent G. "The 1968 Presidential Election and Peace in Vietnam." Presidential Studies Quarterly 26, no. 4 (1996): 1062-80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27551671.
University of Minnesota. Fact Sheet II on University of Minnesota Activities During the Nationwide Campus Anti-War Movement, May 25, 1970. University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, http://hdl.handle.net/11299/122371
University of Minnesota. Fact Sheet III on University of Minnesota Activities During the Nationwide Campus Anti-War Movement, June 8, 1970. University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, http://hdl.handle.net/11299/122373
Wells, Tom. The War Within: America’s Battle Over Vietnam. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994.
Related Resources
Primary
P1996
Vietnam War Protest Collection, 1969-1973
Manuscript Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: This archival collection consists of flyers, leaflets, posters, petitions, newsletters, newspapers, and other printed matter centered on the protest movement against the Vietnam War (1969-1973) in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Anti-war actions documented in the collection include local and national protest marches and demonstrations, student strikes, teach-ins, draft resistance, and fundraising benefits.
12.037
Minnesota Clergy and Laity Concerned. Vietnam War opposition papers, 1962-1975.
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00062.xml
Description: Papers relating to the Minnesota Clergy and Laity Concerned's activities in opposition to the Vietnam War and U.S. draft policies.
AV2007.38.2
Oral History Interview with Donna-Marie "D.M." Boulay, June 10, 2005
Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project, Oral History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10868903
Description: Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project’s interview with Boulay, who was in the Army Nurse Corps. She describes the hostility and sexist remarks she received as a veteran, as well as her participation in the Veterans Against the War and anti-war protests in 1968/1969.
AV2007.38.5
Oral History Interview with MaryLu Brunner, May 23, 2006
Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project
Oral History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10868909
Description: Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project’s interview with Brunner, who was in the Army Nurse Corps. She did not personally experience hostility from the anti-war movement and describes her skepticism of the war while on duty.
AV2007.38.6
Oral History Interview with Valerie Buchan, October 27, 2005
Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project
Oral History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10868910
Description: Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project’s interview with Buchan, who was in the Army Nurse Corps. She discusses the hostile anti-war environment that she and other veterans faced when they returned home.
Bloom, Alexander, and Wini Breines, eds. “Takin' it to the Streets": A Sixties Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
DS557-DS559
Pamphlets Relating to the Vietnam War
Pamphlet Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: The MNHS Pamphlet Collection contains pamphlets and printed ephemera relating primarily to Minnesota protests and draft resistance during the Vietnam War. A few items pertain to the creation of the Minnesota Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Oglesby, Carl. Ravens in the Storm: A Personal History of the 1960s Anti-War Movement. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008.
Secondary
Bailey, Beth L. America's Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.
Gottlieb, Sherry Gershon. Hell No, We Won't Go!: Resisting the Draft During the Vietnam War. New York: Viking Press, 1991.
Heikkila, Kim. Sisterhood of War: Minnesota Women in Vietnam. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2011.
Ludewig, Sara. “Marching Against the Madness: Macalester College and the Counterculture, 1966 to 1974.” History honors project, Macalester College, 2017. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/history_honors/22
Nathanson, Iric. “Another War that Divided Minnesota: Vietnam Politics in the 1960s.” Hennepin History, 63, no. 4 (Fall 2004): 4‒24.
Schmitz, David F. The Tet Offensive: Politics, War, and Public Opinion. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
Smaby, Alpha. Political Upheaval: Minnesota and the Vietnam War Protest. Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1987.
Web
Gale Family Library. Vietnam War & Minnesota: Overview.
http://libguides.mnhs.org/vietnamrec
Michigan in the World. Resistance and Revolution: The Anti-Vietnam War Movement at the University of Michigan, 1965‒1972.
http://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antivietnamwar/
Nathanson, Iric. "Two Favorite Sons: the Humphrey‒McCarthy Battle of 1968." MinnPost, May 25, 2011.
https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2011/05/two-favorite-sons-humphrey-mccarthy-battle-1968/
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries. Vietnam War Protests at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee–Archives Dept.: The Student Strike and Later Protests, 1970‒1972.
http://guides.library.uwm.edu/c.php?g=56372&p=364611