I think that this is exactly the point. Some people in this thread are acting as if the protestors have irredeemably damaged the anti-Rumsfeld cause or something ridiculous like that.
Sure, their protest was a flash in the pan that had little practical effect and that will be quickly forgotten. But it’s not as if it did any harm. More than one person has suggested that acts like this might push some people into the arms of the conservatives, which is ridiculous. And even if it did, we should be spending our energy asking those people not to base their political decisions on such minor acts, rather than condemning the protestors.
Don’t like the protests? Fine, that’s your prerogative. But your constant bleating is starting to sound depressingly like our parents: “Get a haircut. And would it kill you to put on a suit?”
Actually, I’d say the way the media reported on Vietnam had more to do with it than the protests. It was slightly before my time (born in 1971) but I get the impression that Middle America considered the protestors to be dirty hippies and cowards more than courageous fighters-for-truth. Personally, I believe the recent (past 15 years or so) media celebration of the “heroic struggle to end the slaughter” on the part of the protestors is more a symptom of the typical boomer belief that their generation is the most important thing that ever happened to America rather than an objective reporting of fact.