Waiting for him to end the war?

Places
Accession Number ARTV00317
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 57.4 x 43.4 cm
Object type Poster
Physical description linecut and photoengraving on paper
Maker Unknown
Vietnam Moratorium Campaign
Comment Publishing Company
Place made Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made 1971
Conflict Vietnam, 1962-1975
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright unknown

Description

The Vietnam Moratorium Campaigns were a result of a conference held in Canberra in November 1969 to plan a series of protests based on the American Moratorium model. There were three Moratorium campaigns in Australia in 1970 and 1971. The Moratorium was the first truly mass movement of the protest against the Vietnam War. Until 1969 the protest had been uncoordinated in a national sense and rallies had been reasonably small in size, whereas the Moratorium mobilised the support of hundreds of thousands. It also succeeded in gaining more publicity in its first six months than had been achieved by the protest movement between 1965 and 1969. The aims of the first campaign were the immediate withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam and repeal of the National Service Act. The Moratorium stated that all actions taken by its members and supporters should be of a non-violent nature and this philosophy was extended throughout Australia through various state committees and others.

This black and white poster features an image of the face of the smiling US President, Richard Nixon, montaged as the tail of a bomb. The accompanying text advertises an anti-war rally at Sydney Town Hall in February 1971 and a National Anti-war Conference. The Moratorium symbol appears on the lower right. The poster was issued by the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign National Coordinating Committee, Sydney.

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