Few anti-war protests took place in Wilmington during Vietnam War era

WILMINGTON | Like much of the South, Southeastern North Carolina remained largely pro-military during the Vietnam War – even if sentiment for the conflict in Southeast Asia ebbed and flowed with the media coverage and number of body bags coming home.

But that doesn't mean there was no anti-war sentiment in the Port City.

Students at the University of North Carolina Wilmington joined anti-war protesters on campuses across the country in protesting the U.S. involvement in the conflict from time to time.

While not on the scale of the protests in Berkeley, Calif., Chicago, New England or even UNC-Chapel Hill, the protests did give voice to those who felt alienated or simply disagreed with the U.S. involvement in a war that grew increasingly unpopular as it dragged on from year to year.

Student sentiment, however, wasn't always against the Vietnam excursion. The Seawhawk, UNCW's student newspaper, reported several pro-war rallies during the early years of the war. But by the late 1960s, sentiment on campus was definitely swinging against the war.

That culminated in a large protest as part of National Moratorium Day demonstrations, a nationwide anti-war protest that took place Oct. 15, 1969, largely on campuses across the country.

The Seahawk reported that UNCW student president Hugh Newkirk didn't endorse the protest because doing so could undermine the "confidence of the student body in the (student government association)."

"I feel that my endorsement of a national political movement such as this one would only divide our student body," Newkirk was quoted as saying in the Oct. 15, 1969, issue of the student paper.

But, he added, he was happy that school officials were allowing the protest to go forward on campus.

"Suppression of the right to dissent is an intolerable situation," Newkirk said.

The following year, Bill Friday, then president of the UNC system, made the following comments to the UNC Board of Trustees as student protests swept the state's universities as opposition to the war – and the expansion of the conflict into Cambodia and other countries – grew.

"Disruption, destruction and violence have befallen many American educational institutions. Deaths have occurred," he said at the May 25, 1970, meeting. "I am profoundly grateful that on the campuses of the University of North Carolina we have been spared these most regrettable consequences: No building has been destroyed; no troops have been summoned; no shots have been fired; no gas has been used; no building has been forcibly occupied; no campus has been closed.

"Speaking more positively, free and open discussion has occurred and the demonstrations have been essentially peaceful and free of violence."

But Friday added that school officials wouldn't allow protests to turn violent or campuses to turn overtly political.

"The future requires more than just the maintenance of peace, as essential as that is," he said.

"It requires that the campuses continue the functions for which they exist in a peaceful atmosphere, with assigned responsibilities being met and essential freedoms preserved."

Still, the larger Wilmington area was largely quiet in expressing public frustration or outright hostility against the Vietnam War.

One reason might have been the ongoing civil rights movement that had engulfed much of the South during the same time period, culminating locally in the case of the Wilmington 10.

Several veterans and longtime residents said they believed the region's proximity to several major military bases, including Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville and Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, also played a key role in keeping a lid on most of the anti-war sentiment.

Gene McArley, a Wilmington native who served two tours totaling almost three years in Vietnam, said the Port City was generally a welcoming port for active and retired military personnel – even if local commemoration of Vietnam vets has been slow to materialize at times.

"I think Wilmington always pretty much accepted any serviceman," he said, adding that largely remains true today. "I personally don't know of any episode where someone was mistreated or confronted because he served over there."

McArley said the only time he was criticized for his service was nearly three decades later when an erroneous CNN/Time magazine report stated that his unit in Vietnam had targeted civilians with nerve gas.

"Other than that, my experiences have been great," he said.

Gareth McGrath: 910-343-2384

On Twitter: @GarethMcGrathSN