Protest During the Vietnam War

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Opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s grew into the most extensive antiwar movement in American history. Public protests against the war began slowly in the early 1960s with a handful of demonstrations in large cities and on college campuses and grew rapidly after 1964 as the American military presence in Vietnam increased to over five hundred thousand American combat troops. By the late 1960s Vietnam War protests attracted several hundred thousand participants at locations throughout the nation. Although antiwar demonstrations were somewhat limited in Oklahoma prior to 1970, the Sooner State was the focus of one federal government effort to minimize the influence of radical student groups and dissident activities. In response to the emergence of the Students for a Democratic Society and other radical groups on college campuses, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover authorized a number of countermeasures in an attempt to "disrupt" and discredit dissident activity. In 1968 the FBI fabricated and distributed a letter to Oklahoma newspapers that was supposedly written by the parent of an Oklahoma State University (OSU) student. The letter complained about the "immoral character" and criminal activities of members of the Students for a Democratic Society at OSU and the University of Oklahoma (OU). If dissident sentiment was slow to develop in Oklahoma during the 1960s, Vietnam War protests quickly reached their zenith during 1970. Pres. Richard Nixon's April 30, 1970, announcement of the war's escalation into neighboring Cambodia and the shooting deaths of four students by National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio led to a sharp increase in protest activity. On May 4 minor damage was reported at the University of Oklahoma Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) building on the Norman campus, and the Selective Service office in Norman was

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