How does the anti-war protests movement compare with protests of the Vietnam era?
Well, it is interesting. The U.S. presence in Vietnam began in 1955. It built slowly in the Eisenhower and Kennedy eras. The protests in the U.S. were originally instigated by far Left groups, particularly the Maoists and the Trotskyites, in 1962-63. That was when the Civil Rights movement in the Southern U.S. was getting stronger. It was also a time when the mass student movements were building up. By 1964 these movements and the protests against the Vietnam War were acquiring a big national presence that is 10 years after the U.S. involvement began in Vietnam. It is obvious that these things (organising popular protests) take a while to gather critical mass. The initial antiwar movement started after the US attack on Iraq in 1991. But the protests against the sanctions on Iraq remained tenacious although I would not call it a mass movement. After George Bush came to power in 2001, and after it became clear that the Administration was driving towards an attack on Iraq, there was a ram
