ABSTRACT
Although finding effective ways to oppose the Vietnam War was the primary business of the December 1964 meeting of the SDS National Council-at least one observer traces the origins of the antiwar movement to this very meeting1-the group’s two top officers, president Todd Gitlin and vice president Paul Booth, had much of their attention on a different project. They asked for and received the endorsement of the Council for a demonstration against Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. Chase Manhattan was a leading lender to the Apartheid regime in South Africa; by protesting at Chase, Gitlin and Booth hoped to bring pressure on that regime.2
