The records constitute a small collection that is disappointing in the fragmentary coverage it provides about the moratorium. There is little information on the policy-making decisions of the coordinators or on relations between the committee, New Mobe, and Student Mobe, and while there is considerable congressional correspondence, none points to the attempt by some leaders to use the moratorium to coopt the antiwar movement. What correspondence there is tends to be incoming and consequently is best as a record of local rallies, vigils, and marches. The most complete record of Vietnam Moratorium Committee activities and policies is found in a file of form letters and in a run of press releases available in the Society Library. The records consist of correspondence, memoranda, publications, lists and forms, and press releases that are arranged as CORRESPONDENCE; an alphabetical SUBJECT FILE; and AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS.
The correspondence comprises about half the collection; of this one box focuses on the coordinators. This box includes a combined group of incoming correspondence, memoranda, and general papers, outgoing correspondence of coordinators Mixner and Hawk, a run of form letters, and letters received by Robert Lucas, the committee's GI coordinator. There are only scattered outgoing letters from Sam Brown. The combined correspondence begins with a May 1969 memoranda which discusses early moratorium planning, but with this exception there is little in the collection about the initiation of the concept. Scattered throughout, however, are letters from Jerome Grossman. Ex-changes with members of Congress are generally routine, but there are letters of interest from Alan Cranston, Shirley Chisholm, John Conyers, Fred Harris, Jacob Javits, Edward Koch, Paul McCloskey, Richard Scheuer, Louis Stokes, John Tunney, Andrew Young, and Jim Wright. Other correspondents of note are Tristram Coffin, Richard Neustadt, and Pete Seeger. General correspondence, which also is largely incoming, contains reports about local October 15 activities and responses to the committee's announced plan to dissolve. Many of these letters are from overseas Peace Corps volunteers.
The alphabetical SUBJECT FILES consist largely of operational materials (financial records are quite limited), publications, and clippings, forms, and flyers submitted by VMC regional offices. Pertaining to the moratorium are lists of local activities and supporters and statements of support. Publications contain drafts of advertising copy, brochures, a few press releases, and an outline for Peace Times, a newsletter. Complete runs of the latter two items are available in the Society Library.
The AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS consist of a disc recording, photographs, and posters. The disc is entitled “Two Faced Lament: Father and Son.” Written by Robert Y. Gromet and read by Gilbert Mack, it dramatizes the generation gap. The 16 photographs are of group members. Two posters advocate social action.
