ABSTRACT
George Meany and the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations executive board supported the actions of both the Johnson and Nixon administrations throughout the period. Walter Reuther and the International Executive Board officially supported the Johnson administration until his resignation but increasingly individual board members began to oppose Johnson’s policies, finally causing Reuther to speak out in late 1967. The Vietnam War created divisions in American society not seen since the days of the Civil War. The problems of workers in 1997 cannot be laid at the door of labor’s divisions over Vietnam. The war was simply symptomatic of the failure of the movement at the international level to understand, protect and represent the interests of the rank and file. From Walter Dorosh’s inauguration in 1965 to the final denouement of the war, they openly opposed the war and other aspects of American domestic and foreign policy.
