“Building A Tower For Peace”

The Artists and Writers Dissent and the Artists’ Protest Committee (APC) had actively opposed the Vietnam War since 1965. Irving Petlin’s letter to the Los Angeles Free Press on November 26, 1965, calling for support for an Artists’ Protest Tower was followed up by an APC poster entitled A Call From the Artists of Los Angeles (1966) and was supported by 60 artists, writers, critics, curators and gallery owners. The opening of the Artists’ Tower of Protest (sometimes also referred to as the Peace Tower) on February 26, 1966, in Los Angeles, with contributions from hundreds of artists and dedication speeches by the writer Susan Sontag, ex-Green Beret Master Sargeant Donald Duncan, and Petlin, was covered by the Los Angeles Free Press.