Second “Moratorium” Day Protests

November 15, 1969

Overview

Nixon’s “Silent Majority” speech and other administration statements motivate antiwar activists to come together behind another “Moratorium” day. The second Moratorium rally in Washington D.C. receives greater than anticipated turnout. Approximately 750,000 people participate in a demonstration on the National Mall. Demonstrations elsewhere include a gathering of as many as 250,000 people in San Francisco, California. As in October, the protests remain peaceful. Washington rally organizers plan and run events in cooperation with police.

The “Moratorium” demonstrations of 1969 represent a high point of the organized anti-Vietnam War movement. Lacking funding and united leadership in the wake of Nixon’s appeal to the nation for support, the national antiwar movement becomes less unified in ensuing years.¹

Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 773–74; David L. Anderson, The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 143; George C. Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975 (4th edition; New York: McGraw Hill, 2002), 282–83; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History (2nd revised edition; New York: Penguin, 1997), 614–16. William W. Scranton, et. al., “The President’s Commission on Campus Unrest,” (Government Printing Office, 1970), 496.