Subseries 2 - Vietnam War

0.18 m of textual records
1 folder of oversized textual records

Subseries documents Dr. Franklin’s opposition to the Vietnam War, as an academic, a Quaker, a member of Voice of Women, and as a private citizen.

Records includes files documenting A Quaker Action Group (AQAG) and the Quaker Aid program to North Vietnam, including descriptions of the campaigns by U.S. Quakers to make bridges to the ‘enemy’ with the assistance of Canadian Quakers. These developments span 1963 to approximately 1968 and include the pilgrimages across the Peace Bridge from Buffalo to Toronto. Files include reports, lists of medical supplies, brochures, press releases, public education literature, news clippings, and a brief to the Committee on External Affairs re: the situation in Vietnam. Records also include internal Quaker correspondence, letters from the Hanoi Red Cross, and a letter from the U.S. Treasury Department, concerned about the movement of funds.

Subseries also includes records relating to the University of Toronto Teach-ins against the Vietnam War (Toronto International Teach-in). Records include programs, session descriptions, lists of seminar leaders, tickets, and newspaper clippings. Files also include background material, including U.S. government documents on the war, American Friends Service Committee public education literature, and a memo on Vietnam by The War Resisters League.

There is also a file on Dr. Vo Tranh Minh, a Vietnamese Buddhist, scholar and musician who wanted to attempt a reconciliation between the people of the North and South. According to Dr. Franklin, he was influenced by both Gandhi and the Quakers he had met, and spent a number of weeks in Canada to prepare himself to enter South Vietnam. He had planned to walk to the North trying to make contact with all those interested in working out a livable solution on the basis of non-violent conduct. He stayed in Toronto at Friends House where the Quakers tried to obtain press exposure for him, one of the few ways they could protect him in his mission. Unfortunately, not only did the mission fail, but to the best of everyone’s knowledge, Dr. Vo died in a South Vietnamese jail.

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See also: There is some material relating to the use of chemical and biological weapons in Vietnam in subseries 7. In addition, material relating to the VOW Knitting Project for Vietnamese Children can be found in Subseries 4.