On Thursday October 30, 1969, Kentonline's sister paper the East Kent Mercury lead with headline STOP THE VIETNAM WAR, Deal Protest March.

The article explained that chants of ‘Ho Chi Minh’ and ‘Victory to the N.L.F.’ had been shouted in the quiet streets of Deal that Saturday, October 25, 1969.

Almost 500 people marched through the town centre as part of a demonstration organised by the Kent Area National Union of Mineworkers and the Kent Council for Peace in Vietnam.

Their protest was against the Vietnam war.

Protestors came from all over London and the South East of England, and carried banners that read ‘Stop bombing North Vietnam’ and ‘US out of Vietnam’.

Some protestors carried the banners of the different organisations they were representing, half of which were the Kent Area National Union of Mineworkers banners. Others were carried by supporters of the various branches of the Communist Party and International Socialists.

While on the march, a few of the protestors began to shout chants of ‘U.S. Murders Out’ and ‘Smash the Bourgeois Press’.

Souvenir programmes were given out prior to the demonstration march through Deal. They gave the particulars of the day's action such as the time the march would start at Marine Road near Deal Castle.

The programmes said the route would then go along the Prince of Wales Terrace on Deal seafront, down Broad Street, along Queen Street and continue along Mill Road and up along Mill Hill, before ending at the Deal Welfare Club in Cowdray Square.

It highlighted the other events that were taking place over the whole weekend, described as an Anglo - French Vietnam Weekend.

On the Saturday there was to be folk dancing and singing at the Drill Hall in Middle Deal Road and a meeting. The Sunday was the have a blood donor facility, a football match and a bring and buy sale with French, British and Vietnamese goods on sale, along with an exhibition. Both at Hillside House.

Reactions in the crowd were reported to have been mixed. Several youths acted as agitators, apparently wanting to create a fight. However, the majority of the demonstrators considered that peace should be the main intention.

There was some trepidation from people who witnessed the procession through Deal. Some reported they had no idea the march had been organised and one person said: “It could have been better organised.”

All along the route of the march, leaflets were being handed out.

Once reaching the Mill Hill Welfare Club the number of people increased when a party of French miners, who had come over for the weekend joined the crowd which by then had reached 1,000 protestors in the club.

The main speaker at the event was Nguyen Minh Vy, a deputy in the North Vietnamese National Assembly and a member of the Hanoi delegation at the Paris peace talks.

He was joined on stage by Nguyen Van Then, deputy leader of the Vietnamese Provisional Revolutionary Government Delegation at the peace talks.

Other speakers and representatives of the National Union of Mineworkers were Jack Dunn.

The theme of all the speeches was the “American aggressors” who it was felt should withdraw immediately from Vietnam, and leave the country to the Vietnamese.

Ho Chi Minh, who had died before the event was being hailed as a “historic figure of modern times.”

Both of the Vietnamese speakers were given standing ovations after each of their speeches, and were presented with miniature miners lamps by Mr Jack Dunn, General Secretary of the Kent Area of the National Union of Mineworkers, as a souvenir of their visit.

On the Saturday evening a folk concert rounded up the day’s events, with music, dancing and songs of war and peace, of British and French tradition, which was held at the Drill Hall in Middle Deal Road.

Almost 500 people attended the folk concert gathering to hear and watch a variation of folk artists from France and Great Britain.

From France came the Krawowiak Golf Dance Group, who had descended from Polish immigrants into France during the First World War.

The following day, from 10am, a special football match was held between French and British miners at the Betteshanger Colliery Welfare Ground.

The football match was played with a friendly spirit. One of the players, Roy Carr, who had once played for Deal Town Football Club, was the hero by scoring five of the eleven goals for the local team.

A large crowd of at least 400 spectators watched the football match, which saw a final score of 11 - 1.

From 5pm a total of 75 people attended to give blood, which would be sent to Vietnam, and be flown to East Germany before taking a special airline to North Vietnam and be delivered to the N.L.F.

The idea of giving blood was that it should be given to children and civilians who were being injured in the bombing of Vietnam.

During the same morning 43 points of blood were given by the French visitors, while the English gave 30 pints.

After all the event had taken place Jack Dunn told a newspaper reporter that he wanted to thank everyone involved in organising the events, especially those who had travelled from France.

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