Mobe appeals for funds for Pentagon demo: 1967
The Washington Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam issues an appeal for funds September 28, 1967, before the October 21, 1967 March on the Pentagon in what would be the largest antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. up to that date.
The demonstration in which 100,000 or more marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Pentagon came at a turning point in the war.
Gen. William Westmoreland informed the administration that the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were essentially defeated but he requested 150,000 more troops to supplement the over 500,000 that were already in Vietnam in order to mop up the resistance.
Though not a majority, antiwar sentiment was on the rise.
President Lyndon Johnson ultimately rejected Westmoreland’s request. The North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front troops launched the Tet Offensive early the next year destroying the credibility of those who thought the communist-led forces were defeated.
Johnson then announced he would not seek re-election.
From that point on, the U.S. essentially admitted defeat, but continued seeking an “honorable peace” until the Paris Peace Accords in 1973—with thousands more dead and wounded on both sides.
The forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam ultimately defeated the U.S. allied Republic of Vietnam in 1975, ending the war that for the Vietnamese began against the Japanese at the outset of World War II.
One of the signers of the appeal for funds for the March on the Pentagon, Donna Allen, was a lifelong activist and leader in social justice causes.
She was active in the Progressive Party’s 1948 presidential campaign for social justice and against hostile relations with the Soviet Union.
Her early career was with the labor movement where she worked as a researcher for labor unions, teaching industrial relations at Cornell University and serving in conflict resolution roles, including federal labor panels.
She was active in the ultimately unsuccessful campaign to save the Rosenbergs from execution in the 1950s and against U.S. intervention in Guatemala in the 1960s.
Allen was one those who joined the pickets to desegregate the Glen Echo Amusement Park in 1960.
She also served in leading roles with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and SANE—Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.
She became one of the founding members and leaders of Women’s Strike for Peace in the early 1960s that led mass anti-nuclear testing and later anti-Vietnam War activities.
Along with Women’s Strike for Peace chair Dagmar Wilson and Russ Nixon of the National Guardian, she refused to testify in secret before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and was cited for contempt of Congress. The three were ultimately cleared of the charges on appeal.
Her work with the Committee to Abolish HUAC was an important factor in the dissolution of the long-standing committee in 1975.
In 1968 she organized the group Americans for Equal Access in Media and helped lead the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press that pushed for democracy and increased access for women in the mass media. Most of the rest of her life was focused in this area.
Allen died in 1999.
Another signer, Rev. William A Wendt, was the Episcopal priest at St. Stephens Church during the 1960s and 1970s when it was the center of social justice causes.
He was active in anti-Vietnam War activities, civil rights, low-income housing and permitted a woman to celebrate mass at St. Stephens two years before the church permitted women to be ordained as ministers. He was found guilty of violating church doctrine and reprimanded.
Wendt permitted black nationalists H. Rap Brown to give a fiery speech at the church, outraging some parishioners and also permitted Black Panther leader Huey Newton to speak there during the abortive Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in 1970.
Wendt was an activist priest who was arrested for sitting in the “colored” section of a bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi in 1961 during the Freedom Rides and carried the guilt of having talked All Souls Church Unitarian minister James Reeb into attending the Selma, Alabama demonstrations in 1965. Reeb was beaten with a baseball bat by white vigilantes and died of his injuries.
Wendt died in 2001.
For a PDF of this flyer, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1967-0...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsk5q4pim
Donated by Robert “Bob” Simpson
Mobe appeals for funds for Pentagon demo: 1967
The Washington Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam issues an appeal for funds September 28, 1967, before the October 21, 1967 March on the Pentagon in what would be the largest antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. up to that date.
The demonstration in which 100,000 or more marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Pentagon came at a turning point in the war.
Gen. William Westmoreland informed the administration that the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were essentially defeated but he requested 150,000 more troops to supplement the over 500,000 that were already in Vietnam in order to mop up the resistance.
Though not a majority, antiwar sentiment was on the rise.
President Lyndon Johnson ultimately rejected Westmoreland’s request. The North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front troops launched the Tet Offensive early the next year destroying the credibility of those who thought the communist-led forces were defeated.
Johnson then announced he would not seek re-election.
From that point on, the U.S. essentially admitted defeat, but continued seeking an “honorable peace” until the Paris Peace Accords in 1973—with thousands more dead and wounded on both sides.
The forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam ultimately defeated the U.S. allied Republic of Vietnam in 1975, ending the war that for the Vietnamese began against the Japanese at the outset of World War II.
One of the signers of the appeal for funds for the March on the Pentagon, Donna Allen, was a lifelong activist and leader in social justice causes.
She was active in the Progressive Party’s 1948 presidential campaign for social justice and against hostile relations with the Soviet Union.
Her early career was with the labor movement where she worked as a researcher for labor unions, teaching industrial relations at Cornell University and serving in conflict resolution roles, including federal labor panels.
She was active in the ultimately unsuccessful campaign to save the Rosenbergs from execution in the 1950s and against U.S. intervention in Guatemala in the 1960s.
Allen was one those who joined the pickets to desegregate the Glen Echo Amusement Park in 1960.
She also served in leading roles with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and SANE—Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy.
She became one of the founding members and leaders of Women’s Strike for Peace in the early 1960s that led mass anti-nuclear testing and later anti-Vietnam War activities.
Along with Women’s Strike for Peace chair Dagmar Wilson and Russ Nixon of the National Guardian, she refused to testify in secret before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and was cited for contempt of Congress. The three were ultimately cleared of the charges on appeal.
Her work with the Committee to Abolish HUAC was an important factor in the dissolution of the long-standing committee in 1975.
In 1968 she organized the group Americans for Equal Access in Media and helped lead the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press that pushed for democracy and increased access for women in the mass media. Most of the rest of her life was focused in this area.
Allen died in 1999.
Another signer, Rev. William A Wendt, was the Episcopal priest at St. Stephens Church during the 1960s and 1970s when it was the center of social justice causes.
He was active in anti-Vietnam War activities, civil rights, low-income housing and permitted a woman to celebrate mass at St. Stephens two years before the church permitted women to be ordained as ministers. He was found guilty of violating church doctrine and reprimanded.
Wendt permitted black nationalists H. Rap Brown to give a fiery speech at the church, outraging some parishioners and also permitted Black Panther leader Huey Newton to speak there during the abortive Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention in 1970.
Wendt was an activist priest who was arrested for sitting in the “colored” section of a bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi in 1961 during the Freedom Rides and carried the guilt of having talked All Souls Church Unitarian minister James Reeb into attending the Selma, Alabama demonstrations in 1965. Reeb was beaten with a baseball bat by white vigilantes and died of his injuries.
Wendt died in 2001.
For a PDF of this flyer, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/1967-0...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsk5q4pim
Donated by Robert “Bob” Simpson