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Another Mother for Peace (1967): 200,000 Mother's Day Cards Against the Vietnam War

In 1967 the United States was drafting young men for a war in Vietnam that Congress had never declared. A group of ordinary mothers in Los Angeles decided that the people sending their sons should hear from the people who raised them. They did it with postcards. Their story is the clearest American example of Plato's white horse, the part of the soul that loves honor, standing between a child and a war instead of charging into it.

How it started​

Barbara Avedon, a television writer, told friends at her son's first birthday party that she feared she was raising him only to send him off to war. On 8 February 1967, fifteen women met in her living room. Avedon later wrote: "We wanted to... communicate our horror and disgust to our elected representatives in one concerted action... we wanted the Congress to know that they were dealing with an awakening and enraged middle class" (Wikipedia, Another Mother for Peace).

Notice the words she chose: middle class, elected representatives, one concerted action. These were not radicals. They were mothers who decided that loyalty to their children came before loyalty to a policy nobody had explained.

The card​

Their first action was a Mother's Day card addressed to President Lyndon Johnson and to members of Congress. The group's own history gives its text:

"For my Mother's Day gift this year, I don't want candy or flowers. I want an end to killing."

The first printing was 1,000 cards. Two months later, 200,000 had been sent (AnotherMother.org, About). The card carried artist Lorraine Schneider's sunflower and the line "War is not healthy for children and other living things," which became one of the best-known images of the era. Wikipedia reports that Senator J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was photographed at his desk among piles of the cards.

The pledge​

The group's later pledge put the whole idea in two lines: "They shall not send my son / To fight another mother's son" (quoted in Wikipedia). That is the white horse at its best: honor turned into protection. It is also a line an Iranian mother could say, which is the point.

Why it matters for an Iran draft​

  • It was lawful and cheap. A stamp and a signature. No one broke a law, and no one could dismiss the senders as outsiders.
  • It aimed at the right door. Congress holds the power to declare war and the power to start a draft. The cards went to the people who vote on both.
  • It scaled. 1,000 to 200,000 in two months, before the internet.

In 2026 the same door is open. The Senate vote to end the Iran war failed 49–50 in September (The Guardian, 24 September 2026), and automatic draft registration is scheduled for December under Section 535 of the FY2026 defense law (Law Passed to Force Citizens into the Draft). One senator's vote is the margin. A card, a letter, or a call is how a parent reaches it. See Calls and Letters to Congress.

Sources​

Status: Barbara Avedon: Deceased (1994). Lorraine Schneider: Deceased (1972). J. William Fulbright: Deceased (1995).

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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