For the Sake of Peace: One's Campaign Experience in 1968

Introduction
The 1960s is always considered as a significant era in American modern history. Since the Vietnam War was not only a combination of the American’s longest conflict and one of the most divisive Civil Wars, but also one of the largest mass protest movements in American history. Because of the continuance of the Vietnam War, the 1960s was destined to be a remarkable decade.

To people who live through this significant period, their voices towards the Vietnam War were heard and recorded. Perhaps unlike the heart-attack scene of college students being killed for protesting the war in the movie Watchmen, most people were doing things that they believed are able to help stop the war. For instance, as a pacifist, my interviewee Andrienne Clark firmly considered the Vietnam War as “a horrible horrible thing” (Clark, Personal). Her deep involvement of supporting the U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy’s election in the New Hampshire presidential primary evidently expressed her attitude and actually reflected the thoughts of people who hold the same point of view.

Using a combination of primary and secondary sources, this research project specifically reviews Andrienne Clark’s experience of supporting Eugene McCarthy’s presidential nomination election in 1968 in order to reveal the public’s anti-war attitude in the 1960s and the efforts they made to protest the war.

"Hawk" and "Dove"
At the beginning of this significant event, the American public’s responses were distinct. On one hand, Senator Barry Goldwater, retired military men, many "blue collar" workers and middle class (the silent majority) members, and even some extreme members of the John Birch Society supported the war and were known as “hawks”. As President Johnson escalated the war effort, he became a “hawk” as well.

On the other hand, many believed the US was fighting a war against the wishes of the majority of the Vietnamese people. Some critics felt the war was a civil war in Vietnam between north and south and the Americans had no business interfering. Known as “doves” and included antiwar protesters, college students and faculty, liberal Democrats, and “many other people in various walks of life, they felt that the war was immoral, dragging on to no benefit for the US, and was causing increased casualty lists to mount” (Clark, Personal).

Especially when the starting of the common use of television and relatively open access brought the war into living rooms every night, Vietnam War was believed as “the first television war” (Hallin). Since then, the war was not a distant abstraction where those brave and noble boys were fighting a dastardly enemy. They were dying, and people can actually see the circumstances in which they died. This situation largely stimulated people’s anti-war sentiment. As Mrs. Clark mentioned, she remembered when she was watching scenes of Vietnam War on television, there was a horrible image of “a young girl who had no clothes on, running away and she got shot by some US troops” (Clark, Personal). The image Mrs. Clark mentioned turned out to be Figure 1.




Fig. 1- Photo of a young girl who had no cloth on running away taken in Vietnam, 1972. Source: Online photo.

Background made differences
Graduated and received honor as an International Relations major student from Clark University in Worcester in 1958, Mrs. Clark decided to continue her study of her specialty. At the end of January, 1960, she also received a fellowship from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst to study for a master’s degree in the same major. These educational experiences can be interpreted as to why she later strongly protested this immoral event.

Fig. 2- Photo of Andrienne Clark’s graduation taken in Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA, circa 1958. Source: Clark, Anndrienne.
Another important factor that motivated her was her husband John “Jack” Paul Clark. Once Andrienne Clark graduated from the college, she was busy settling down and did not think of helping people in her professional field in the long term. However, “Jack Clark had grown up in a family with a strong political background and was always eager to get involved in electoral politics. His father, John G. Clark, had participated in helping people getting elected for years” (Clark, Personal). From January 1961 to the end of 1968, John G. Clark was the State Representative of three towns of Massachusetts: South Hadley, Hadley and East Hampton.

Because of Jack Clark and his family legacy , Andrienne Clark became very involved in the political field after their marriage.

Fig. 3- Photo of John Paul Clark who also known as Jack Clark. Source: Andrienne, Clark. Fig. 4- Photo of State Representative John G. Clark of Easthampton, MA. Source: Andrienne, Clark.




Fig. 5- Map of South Hadley, Hadley and Easthampton area which John G. Clark represented from 1960 to 1968. Source: author.





Going Campaign
On November 30, 1967, Eugene McCarthy announced that “he would run against President Lyndin Johnson for the nomination of the Democratic Party” (Freeman). As a well-known feminist scholar, speaker and author, Jo Freeman described the public’s attitude towards McCarthy running-against President Johnson, “Although the press and polls were skeptical that McCarthy’s candidacy could effectively contest Johnson’s war policy, young people in particular flocked to his banner.” In an interview in 1997, McCarthy described the reason for his opposite of the war in Vietnam as “that was a strange war”, and “the fellows running this war don’t know where they’re going or what they’re up to.” His also admitted his dissatisfaction towards President Johnson, “He’d been a militarist all the time. And he may have thought he could do what Kennedy couldn’t do.”

Mrs. Clark considered McCarthy’s challenge against Johnson as a "wonderful thing" at that point. She always held the view that “in keeping with the democracy, you do not agree with the policies that we are doing, and then you challenge them, you run against them in a different point of view and sight.”

There was not always the Presidential Preference Primary in the United States presidential election history. It was “a new development” in the 1920s, and “New Hampshire was one of the very few states who have Preference Primary,” although now many states do (Clark, Personal). Thus, the first Primary always take place in New Hampshire and it will get a lot of attention. Mrs. Clark later pointed out the core point of this fact: “people watch to see the public attitude, whether they are supporting their president, or they want a different candidate. They also watch to see what candidate got the most votes.” Normally, it was not often that the president was challenged by someone in his own party. In other words, “it was unusual for a Democrat to go into a Primary and challenge the president for a Preference Primary” (Clark, Personal). However, the Vietnam War was very controversial. Eugene McCarthy, who was the Senator of Minnesota, “considered the only way he could make a change is to directly challenge the president” (Clark, Personal).

His reasons for choosing New Hampshire are not only because it is the first state to announce its Primary in the election year, but also a state with small population and territory. This factor provides those supporters of Eugene McCarthy a chance to go door-to-door and talk to people in small groups and communities. In Mrs. Clark’s words, “you have an opportunity to directly connect to the voters. Only for doing this, McCarthy got himself a lot of attention”.





Fig. 6- Photo of Mrs. Clark’s badge collection from the 1968 Presidential election, 2011. Source: author.

The Tricky Part
After Mrs. Clark and her husband Jack decided to support Eugene McCarthy, they went up to New Hampshire almost every weekend. There were people in charge and organized people who willing to volunteer. “You don’t really want to just go to random people and ask them to vote for your candidate,” Mrs. Clark said, “this is a more effective way to do the campaign.” She got a list of streets and hand-outs, which she was in charge of. The next thing she did was knock on the doors and tried to talk to people and told them you are representing Eugene McCarthy who is running for the Presidential Preference Primary. Mrs. Clark explained the four situations she would run into. They would say, “Come in, let’s talk.” Or they would say, “Stand out side the door and talk.” Other people may say, “I’m not interested.” In some circumstances, no one is at home. If it was the fourth situation, she normally left the information bag on the door knob, because it is illegal to put anything in people’s mailbox if you are not a postman. If they were interested, they can read it or throw it out. It did not matter, because at least she left information about McCarthy.

There was a tricky part Mrs. Clark mentioned and burst into laughter when she was reminded of this. In her conclusion, “If you know the person is going to vote for your candidate or leaning to vote for him, you make sure to tell them what the time is and where the poll is. So they can have all the information they need to vote for your candidate.” If it is the opposite situation, that person is going to vote for another candidate or is a Republican, “you just don’t tell them the time and then cross your fingers that they might forget to vote. Yeah, they can also get information from the newspapers or other campaign supporters, but just make sure they don’t get it from you” (Clark, Personal).

Impressiveness
The campaign left Mrs. Clark with some impressive experiences, which as she said will be remembered in the rest of her life. One of those memorable moments she had is meeting Eugene McCarthy in person at the airport in Keene, New Hampshire. “So we went up that night to the small airport outside of Keene”, after she and her husband saw the advertisements, which said McCarthy was going to meet his supporters (Clark, Personal). When saying this, Mrs. Clark’s eyes are still shining because of the excitement, “When his plane came, he got out of the plane, and stood in the terminal and explained the importance of this election. Then he shook every body’s hand, and he shook my hand. I told my students I might won’t wash my hands forever! Haha.” However, participating in a campaign is not only about politics, it can also help investigate how people’s lives really are. Mrs. Clark was touched once because of an old lady she ran into during the campaign. Normally, there were seldom people as enthusiastic as this one, but “She said, ‘Oh, I’m so glad to see you, come on in. I’ve been waiting for you to come’” (Clark, Personal). Expecting she might be interested in the idea Mrs. Clark held, they started a long conversation. Nevertheless, it turned out that the lady held completely opposite idea. She had a strong faith in the Vietnam War. Mrs. Clark quoted what she said at that point, “Yes, but you must understand, when we are killing a Vietnamese, we are killing a Communist. Communists are dangerous people, they will take away all our things.” Mrs. Clark wholly did not expected this and said, “Well, I don’t think they will come all the way from Vietnam to invade the United States, because we are so far away and we are a big country.” Although they did not make an agreement in their political viewpoint, the lady still showed her great gratefulness to Mrs. Clark’s visit. Mrs. Clark even wiped her eyes and said, “When I left, before she closed the door, she was saying I’m so glad you came. I have all those ideas, but I have no one to tell.” Thus, Mrs. Clark realized how lonely this old lady was that she would rather start a conversation with a person who has opposing ideas.

Afterword
Although Eugene McCarthy did not win the Preference Primary in 1968, he challenged President Johnson and his war theory. He also made it close enough by around 40% of the whole votes in New Hampshire to attract attention from the public.

The war in Vietnam affected Mrs. Clark’s life as well. After being involved in Eugene McCarthy’s campaign in that year, she and Jack Clark continued participating in the later presidential elections. What was believed after that is even for ordinary people, their voices can be heard; and this is the true meaning of democracy.

Works Cited

Clark, Andrienne. Personal interview. 29 Apr. & 13 May 2011.

Freeman, Jo. “Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 Presidential Campaign.” Jofreeman. Jofreeman, n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. http://www.jofreeman.com/photos/McCarthy.html

Hallin, Daniel. “Vietnam War on Televison.” The Museum of Broadcast Communications. The Museum of Broadcast Communications, n.d. Web. 09 May 2011. http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=vietnamonte

Li, Nade. Mrs. Clark’s badge collection from the 1968 Presidential election. 9 May 2011

Li Nade. “South Hadley, Hadley and Easthampton” Map. 13 May 2011.

McCarthy, Eugene. Interview with Senator Eugene McCarthy- 1968 Democratic Party Contender. gwu.edu. 7 Nov. 1997. 16 May 2011. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-13/mccarthy2.html