Now that we are going to be focusing on John Kerry, the Vietnam War protests are a national issue once more. I know that a lot of folks here don't personally remember those years.
The issue boils down to: Did the Vietnam War protests serve to get the US out of Vietnam more quickly by mobilizing public opinion against the war?
OR
Did the Vietnam War Protests prolong the war by turning the War into a Republican vs. Democrat/strong national defense vs. pacifism issue. In other words, the antipathy for the protests and protestors made it harder for Americans to come to the necessary consensus that whatever the government's purpose was in going into Vietnam, it wasn't worth the cost.