PEACE NOW!

by Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

How did the protests and support of ordinary American citizens affect their country’s participation in the Vietnam War? This engrossing book focuses on four social groups that achieved political prominence in the 1960s and early 1970s―students, African Americans, women, and labor―and investigates the impact of each on American foreign policy during the war.

Drawing on oral histories, personal interviews, and a broad range of archival sources, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones narrates and compares the activities of these groups. He shows that all of them gave the war solid support at its outset and offers a new perspective on this, arguing that these “outsider” social groups were tempted to conform with foreign policy goals as a means to social and political acceptance. But in due course students, African Americans, and then women turned away from temptation and mounted spectacular revolts against the war, with a cumulative effect that sapped the resistance of government policymakers. Organized labor, however, supported the war until almost the end. Jeffreys-Jones shows that this gave President Nixon his opportunity to speak of the “great silent majority” of American citizens who were in favor of the war. Because labor continued to be receptive to overtures from the White House, peace did not come quickly.

329 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones was born in Wales and grew up in the ancient town of Harlech. He attended the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, then the Universities of Michigan, Harvard and Cambridge, where he obtained his PhD. He was active in anti-apartheid, anti-Bomb, anti-Vietnam War and pro-civil liberties campaigns and aimed at a career in politics, but then settled down to family life and scholarly pursuits. He was a Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh, where he is now emeritus. He played rugby in Wales, England and America, and remains a keen fan, his other interests being opera, vegetable gardening, and snooker.
Rhodri’s latest book, published in different formats in the United States and the UK, tells the story of how FBI detective Leon Turrou hunted down a German spy ring in 1938 and then conducted an effective propaganda campaign against the Nazis. He is currently writing a history of the CIA, and researching the Glasgow background of the private detective Allan Pinkerton.
For further information:
“Learning the Scholar’s Craft" (2020): https://hdiplo.org/to/E221
Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodri_...

Reviews

[Dane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick history of the peace movement during the Vietnam War.