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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Demonstrations against the Vietnam War were not the exclusive arena of college students. Neither were students the first to protest. The Society of Friends, popularly known as the Quakers, bore "witness" to their pacifist principles by sending medical supplies to both sides during the war. In this way they sought to lessen the suffering of war victims in Vietnam. Friends in Western Massachusetts raised funds that were publicly given to Canadian Friends at the U.S. Canadian border in an act of peaceful civil disobedience. Their act was illegal because all trade with North Vietnam was forbidden under the "Trading with the Enemy Act."

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