A new PBS documentary, The Movement and the Madman, tells the story of the fight between anti-war activists and President Richard Nixon in 1969. One of the protesters featured is Indiana native, Mary Posner.
Now a clinical psychologist in Rockport, Ind., Posner organized the Vietnam Moratorium Committee in 1969 when she was getting her English degree at Ball State University.
Over two-million people attended the nationwide protests, including the one at Ball State.
The documentary is important, Posner said, because it can inspire young people to continue working toward progress on current social issues such as climate change, income disparity and gun control.
“People are concerned about these issues and they may be frustrated. They may think that what they're doing isn't having an impact, just like we didn't think we were having an impact,” Posner said. “But in fact, they may be having a huge impact that they won't know about till maybe even 50 years later.”
At the time, Posner and the other activists didn’t think they were making much of a difference. In public, President Nixon largely ignored the protests and claimed to be paying no attention to the anti-war movement.
Decades later though, declassified documents and the Pentagon papers revealed Nixon had been watching closely, and the movement influenced him to reconsider his plan to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam.
Posner and Muncie gained national attention when NBC visited and did a week-long series about the Ball State protests. Posner was interviewed, and appeared on The Huntley–Brinkley Report in 1970.
In the interview, 20-year-old Posner said, “I guess if you consider the context of this community, yes I’m a revolutionary. If you’re for peace nowadays, that’s being revolutionary.”
Posner stood next to the other protesters shouting, “Get us out of Vietnam! Power to the people!”
She went on to get her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Indiana University and lived in Bloomington with her husband from 1973 to 1978. The couple started a movement in Monroe County to get Nixon impeached.
Posner hopes the documentary will shed light on the realities of the Vietnam war and those who protested against it.
“It's time for we as Americans to own that we did this, and that we need to recognize it, and make up for it in any way that we can. So I think it's important for people to watch this documentary, so they will know the truth about our history,” Posner said. “And also, that it's possible for one person to make a difference.”
The documentary airs nationally Tuesday March 28 at 9 and can be seen here on WTIU.