Exhibition Peace2 - 1970sprotestphotos

Exhibition: Peace

The spark that lit the fire of anti-war protest

In 1858–86, France defeated Vietnam and China to secure control over Vietnam and the Indochina region. In 1945, a general uprising brought Ho Chi Minh’s nationalist Viet Minh into power in Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh proclaimed all of Vietnam an independent republic. But France claimed itself the legal ruler of Vietnam and attempted, unsuccessfully, to defeat the Viet Minh militarily.

Flotillas of small boats harassing the warships

After World War II, the United States, France and Britain frequently tested nuclear weapons in the Pacific. In 1959, groups opposed to nuclear weapons, particularly the testing and use of atomic bombs, formed the New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Photographs

Protestors gather against French nuclear testing in the Pacific, Wellington Town Hall, 1970.

KEITH STEWART

Anti-Vietnam War protesters on Willis Street Wellington head to the United States Information Service Office in Brandon St in April 1970.

JOHN M MILLER

The public mingles with a demonstration against New Zealand’s involvement in the Vietnam War at the opening of Parliament in March 1970.

CHRIS SLATER

Workers join the mobilisation against the Vietnam War in Auckland in July 1971. More than 3000 New Zealand military and civilian personnel served in Vietnam between 1963 and 1975.

JOHN M MILLER

Members of OHMS, the Organisation to Halt Military Service, challenge conscripts as they board the train at Auckland Railway Station in 1972 to travel to Waiouru Military Camp for compulsory military service.

JOHN M MILLER

Members of Auckland’s Pasifika community march during a national anti- Vietnam War mobilisation on 14 July 1972. Over 35,000 people protested on the streets around the country.

JOHN M MILLER

Outside the American Independence Day Ball at the Majestic Cabaret in Wellington in 1973, Monica Fyson, (left) states her succinct view on America’s foreign policy. The polite amusement of the police does not last long. It turns into a night of exploding crackers, paint bombs, jeering crowds and arrests.

KEITH STEWART

At the American Independence Day Ball at the Majestic Cabaret in Wellington in 1973 demonstrators attempt to gain access to the venue to voice their disagreement with United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War.

KEITH STEWART

Protesters gather from all round New Zealand to call for the demilitarisation of Harewood Airport and RNZAF Weedons in Christchurch, 1973. It was the biggest police operation against a protest until Bastion Point in 1978. The US communications facility sited there serviced US spy bases worldwide.

HILARY WATSON

A group picket in Lambton Quay in 1973 calls for the thorough implementation of the Paris Peace Agreement. In July 1976 North and South Vietnam were officially united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

HILARY WATSON

Release all Vietnamese Prisoners of Conscience (RAVPOC) was established in 1973 to press for the release of political prisoners in South Vietnam. Geoff Woolford takes his turn in a “tiger cage” in Lambton Quay, Wellington, to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners.

HILARY WATSON

A large crowd gathers to protest the visit of USS Haddo, a nuclear-powered American submarine that came into Auckland Harbour in 1979. The three members of the self-styled ‘Māori and Pacific Peoples’ Revolutionary Front’ holding placards are Anna Mason (left), Wiki Tawhara and Donna Awatere. Between 1978 and 1983 New Zealanders’ opposition to nuclear-armed ship visits rose from 32% to 72%.

JOHN M MILLER

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