The great mass mobilizations against Vietnam have many parallels to the Occupy Wall Street eruptions. The great demonstrations accomplished much in moving public opinion and creating a resilient network of organizers. Like OWS, the movement exploded quickly, surprising even the organizers and outstriping their resources. The protests also contributed to conflict and burnout, and led much of the leadership into dead-end internal conflicts that paralyzed the anti-war momentum at some critical junctures.
As a youth, I volunteered at the DC headquarters for many of these demonstrations. I never had a leadership position (I was very young), but starting in 1967 ran the mimeo's, posted billboards, and organized students. I do have a understanding and perspective of the events from this ground-level view, my perspective is often at odds with the broader cultural history of the '60's, but is often consistent with some of the more closely documented history of the movement.
My first great demo was the Oct. 21 1967 Mobilization against the Pentagon. I believe this was an attempt to take the local and almost spontaneous demonstrations of the spring 1967 (Sheep Meadow in NYC's Central Park) to a national level. The Pentagon "levitation" generated the iconic images of hippie girls putting flowers in National Guard gun barrels. The power of iconic images/video cannot be underestimated. (and in some respects can be planned for).
The Mobilization as an organization was destroyed by the "success" of the Pentagon action. This was the inevitable generational conflict between peace church and New Left activists, tensions with doctrinaire Trotskyites and the tension over the Eugene McCarthy cannidacy.
The Pentagon demo did generate considerable net-working and a sense of possibility and movement that was crucial to the Eugene McCarthy primary challenge. McCarthy's strong showing in New Hampshire removed LBJ from the race.
Spring and Summer 1968 had little mass organized protest in DC. The assassination of MLK, subsequent rioting, (and the assassination of Robert Kennedy) made mass protests irrelevant, and the presidential campaign had many participants in DC. The organized "peace church" anti-war lobbyists in DC, the ones that negotiated for permits, funded bus caravans, paid for posters were unwilling to organize -- the Chicago convention riots likely sealed the fate of protests- the risks of chaos too great for them.
Separately affected by the MLK assassination riots, DC did not really experience the European May 1968 general student rising. After the MLK assassination, Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy led a Poor People's March on DC, and created the Resurrection City encampment on the Mall, but hoped for black and white anti-war linkage never really occured, and the encampment was cleared later that summer (in June just after the Robert Kennedy death).
Nixon campaigned on a "secret plan" to end the war. Surprisingly, I think that took much public opinion away from the mass movement (while simultaneously validating the belief that the war was a mistake that needed ending).
Public opinion on the war was inchoate at this stage, and Nixon took advantage of the ambiguity. His campaign was to end the conflict, not as a super-hawk.
The Nixon inaugural in Jan 1969 saw poorly organized and disastrous protests, and broke the existing organizations. The left-wing radicalization that developed out of the McCarthy lock-out in Chicago and the general seduction of the extreme politics of the Maoists meant ugly factional fighting in this period.
The next protests were the October 15 Moratorium and the November 15 Mobilization. The Moratorium started as a trotskyite/left wing proposal for a "General Strike" proposed first in the spring of 1969. Sam Brown (and some others) successfully argued that "moratorium" was less threatening to the "silent majority" than general strike. Brown had the vision of a revamped "McCarthy" coalition designed to appeal to an electoral majority. The October moratorium had extensive labor union participation.
I think it was crucial to realize that the October event was generated by the persistence and vision of a very few individuals that managed to shape the event. Clearly the nation as a whole was ready for a mass protest, but the nature of the event really depended on a "leadership" and organizer at this stage. Sam Brown always said he was just an organizer and not a leader (as leaders were toxic to the ideology) but I think this is semantic distinction.
The SDS days of rage had just occured in Chicago prior to the October Moratorium. The October DC event was peaceful, heavily monitored by armbanded volunteers, but unable to break free of the perception that protests were motorcycle helmeted Maoists. The huge significance of the October event was a planning and organizational dry run of the Novemeber mobilization.
The November 15 mobilization was under direction of a separate (more radical) organization than the October event. In the public eye, they were linked, and the periodic nature was important to their power. The avowed goal: a mobilization every month until the war ended was never achieved, but clearly the public saw the ability to create back-to-back mass protests as a watershed. The November event was huge-- 500-750,000 people, hundred of buses, a week of congressional lobbying, etc.
The iconic event of the November mobilization was the candlelight march (in a steady drizzle) from National Cemetary to the White House with placards bearing the names of the dead. This was a peace church organized side event-- but the images of candlelit marchers and emotion created really characterized the event and opposition to the war.
There was riotous tear gas at Dupont Circle after the main march, and that scrum precipitated the withdrawal of the moderates and churches from the mass protest coalitions. No further DC moratoriums were really held because of the moderate/radical split. The center of gravity shifted to college campuses in the spring of 1970- driven by the "lottery draft" (and loss of student deferments) and the widening of the war to Cambodia by sudden and unilateral Nixon tactical decisions.
A mid-May 1970 protest had been planned. It was likely a to be a relatively small but radical event. The Kent State/Jackson State massacres preceeded the planned march, and their was a general student rising in DC. This was the event that Nixon appeared at the Lincoln Memorial at dawn to "negotiate" with the protestors. No longer non-violent and passive marches, the Mayday events had elements of pitched battles, the Whitehouse was ringed by buses with armed men leveling guns from the windows.
The next massive protests were a coninuous series from early April 1971 -- the Easter March 1971- Winter Soldier- May Day Encampment. A peaceful march/ the iconic event where John Kerry and other decorated vetrans threw their medals over the barricade in front of capital. There was an encampment of 10-20-50.000 protestors in Haines Park south of the Jefferson memorial. Just before MayDay 1971, Nixon sealed the city, and brought in National Guard to break up the encampment. Over the next couple of days, running battles and confrontations spread over the city, and about 15,000 were arrested. They were held in basketball arenas for several days (up to two weeks) until being released.
Large-scale antiwar protests didn't occur in DC after the MayDay 1971 battles. This was partially due to the atomized underground nature of the "leadership", the success in this period of Cointelpro dirty tricks, the caution and distate that radicalization had induced in moderate allies such as peace churches. The dissident McGovern candidacy absorbed much of the electorally engaged starting in early spring 1972.
I don't have a prescription for how Occupy can "fix" the mistakes of 60's or how it can emulate that great rising. The history does underscore how the movement should stay nimble and inclusive. Some of the great compelling moments - the flowers at the Pentagon, the candlelit march in November 1969 were created on the fly. This is like the genius of "We are the 99%"-- that has exploded across the world.
There's no one answer to whether "leaders" are good or bad. The October Moratorium in 1969 (and its accompanying great seismic shift in public opinion) was really the creation of visionaries like Sam Brown. Much of the 1960's tore down leaders in a over-wrought Maoism. There were also the egoists and loud-mouths, and the doctrinaire cliques (like the Socialist Workers Party) that led whole events into dead-ends. Stay nimble and celebrate what works.