Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Preferred Citation

Edwin W. Lynch Vietnam War protest collection, C0080, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Collection donated by Edwin W. Lynch in 1983.

Processing Information

Processed by Special Collections Research Center staff. EAD markup completed in March 2009 by Eron Ackerman and Jordan Patty. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in December 2022.

Biographical Information

Born in Annandale, Virginia, in 1913, Edwin Williams Lynch, a prominent Northern Virginia real estate businessman, served as Fairfax County delegate to the Virginia General Assembly from 1945 to 1947 and again from 1949 to 1954. For more than 50 years, Lynch participated in the George Mason University community. As a George Mason University Foundation trustee and an ICAR advisory board member and chairman, Lynch supported a framework of programs that have ensured a margin of excellence and distinction for ICAR. In 1987 Lynch endowed the first chair and an annual lecture series, in memory of his parents, Vernon and Minnie. The following year, he helped to establish the doctoral program, the first in the world. In 1996, Lynch and his wife, Helen, created the John W. Burton Endowment, named for one of ICAR's most distinguished professors. Lynch died in 2004.

Scope and Content

The collection provides information on the discontent and disillusionment which came to exist among some segments of the American people as a result of American military intervention in Southeast Asia. The collection covers the period of time ranging from 1965 to 1975, with the bulk of the material from the years 1967 to 1971.

The collection consists of a variety of materials relating to the Vietnam War including pamphlets, booklets, correspondence, posters, reprint articles, newspaper clippings, various antiwar publications, and the minutes of meetings of several antiwar groups. These items are arranged by subject heading in alphabetical order, and the material within the individual files is arranged in chronological order. Much of the information contained in the Collection relates to the activities of various groups that were formed to protest the American involvement in Vietnam, groups representing such disparate segments of the population as the clergy and business executives. While this information manages to give us a good view of the antiwar movement in the United States as both a local and a national phenomenon, the collection is particularly valuable for the information it provides on the work of local groups based in and concerned with the Washington D.C. area, including Northern Virginia.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged by alphabetically by subject.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center holds other collections on the Vietnam War and its protest.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Correspondence
• D.C.-Metro area
• Newspapers
• Protest movements
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Protest movements -- United States
• Virginia, Northern -- History, Local