One of the largest acts of Civil Disobedience occurred in opposition to the War in Vietnam. People from every walk of life and from every corner of the country rose up in 
opposition. Whether the portests were demonstrations, the burning of draft cards or music festivals, they were always acts of Civil Disobedience. The opponents were not violent, raised significant amounts of public awareness, accepted the consequences of their actions, and had just, moral cause for their actions.
After the United States began its involvement in Vietnam, pacifists, mainly students, took to the streets in protest. One of the early protests was on May 2, 1964 when nearly a thousand students held a rally at Time Square in New York. The purpose of this and other rallies was to demonstrate the injustice of the US involvement in Vietnam to the general public. This is significant because it helps raise awareness on the injustice that they saw, and public awareness is needed in Civil Disobedience.
Eventually, another type of resistance began in opposition to the draft. The opponents saw the military draft as unjust because it forced young Americans to fight a murderous and unjust war. In response, they began to raid local branches of the Draft Board, steal the draft cards, and set them alight in the street. An example of this form of Civil Disobedience is depicted in the play “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine” by Daniel Berrigan. The play depicts the trial of nine clergymen who raid a draft board office in Catonsville, Maryland, steal several boxes of draft cards, and burn them with napalm in the street for all to see. This is a very pure example of Civil Disobedience as they were acting in non-violence. The play discusses on how there was no physical harm done, only a slight mental confusion suffered by a clerk at the Draft Board. Also, they gained a lot of publicity doing this act. The nine clergymen who committed the demonstration were all found guilty and sentenced to three years in jail. All of them eventually accepted the punishment for their actions.
A final public form of Civil Resistance to the Vietnam War were the musicians who wrote songs condemming the war effort. The best example of this music has to be Woodstock, where in 1969, over 500,000 people attended a three day music festival intended to inform the public about the atrocities happening in Vietnam. This is a good example of making Civil Disobedience public.
Additionally, many of the political leaders spoke out against the war in Vietnam. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a controversial speech condemning the unjust war, and John Kerry made a speech to Congress expressing his disproval. All of this public opposition can also be considered Civil Disobedience as they were expressing their concerns about injustice without violence and doing so in a public manner.
Civil Disobedience 