The Apartheid Of The Vietnam War - 1723 Words

In the year 1959, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) protested the Vietnam War and other injustices within America, and they only dissented peacefully. But from this came another organization so radical that other radical liberals disowned them. The group stemmed from SDS and many of their members originated in the peaceful movement; however, they grew tired of the miniscule results of nonviolence. The association was ready to do more than hold up signs and hope that someone would listen. They were prepared to destroy and they were prepared for people to get hurt. They were the Weathermen. Their violence ranged from the destruction of buildings, to the injury and murder of innocents and police. Primarily, The Weathermen aimed to†¦show more content†¦In order to advocate for the end of the Vietnam War, SDS used forms of resistance that seemed to be too radical for most other groups of the time. One action that set them apart from others was their defiance of the gove rnment as they refused to be drafted for the war and on some occasions would openly set fire to the letters. Some significant members of SDS, such as Bernardine Dohrn and John Jacobs, wished to hold all of the leadership roles in the association. Attempting to differentiate themselves from other sects of SDS, Jacobs wrote the â€Å"Weatherman Paper† and marked it with the signatures of other members including Dohrn, Jeff Jones, Mark Rudd, Bill Ayers, Terry Robbins, Jim Mellen, and Howie Machtinger. The paper did not address issues separately; it composed all concerns into one global struggle of the oppressed versus the oppressors. After the election of the Weathermen as the leaders of SDS, the group became a reality. While the focus of the Weathermen at the time was ending America’s destructive presence in Vietnam, they had other goals in the long run. Because of their objective to end racism, the organization had hoped to bring in many African American members and be able to fight with groups such as the Black Panthers; however, the group remained predominantly white as almost no black Americans wanted to join. The Weathermen also aimed to break gender stereotypes and sexism, and developed new rules surrounding monogamy. Every member who was in a