The Vietnam War at TCU
U.S. participation in the Vietnam War, and the drafting of over six hundred thousand Americans, divided the country and led to a tumultuous 1960s, which resonated on TCU’s campus. TCU students, alumni, and faculty served in Vietnam. Some earned prestigious honors, like Colonel John V. Swango, professor of military science, who was awarded the Bronze Star. Others were killed in action, including the five TCU alum killed in Vietnam in 1967. While the majority of TCU’s population supported U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, small pockets of protest and resistance appeared throughout campus. In 1967, TCU students started a chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and founded a group called Students for Peace. They also staged an anti-war demonstration, the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, in which students gathered to mourn those who had been killed and advocate for peace. On April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon, the Vietnam War ended and TCU, after adding more names to its Veterans’ Memorial, slipped back into normalcy.