Fortunate Son

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Recommended: Impact of the Vietnam War

Take a moment, and imagine over 58,000 dead American soldiers, mangled, and bloody, covering the war torn ground of Vietnam. It’s a terrible sight that stinks of rotting bodies, and the twisted face of lifeless young men staring at the sky in horror. However, it doesn’t have to be that way, and Creedence Clearwater Revival knew that. They wrote plenty of songs, but one truly spoke out against the war in Vietnam, titled Fortunate Son. It touches on subjects like the, how the privileged were not drafted, the split between the rich, and working class, and how the government will war support as black mail against it’s own citizens. Although, how did the United States end up in Vietnam in the first place?
It all started with the French fighting a war against all of Indochina, and the U.S providing aid to the French in the late 1940’s. Even with the aid of America, Ho Chi Minh defeated the French in 1954, but America decided to become officially involved in an attempt to defeat the North Vietnamese communists. Eisenhower, addressed the United States with what he called the “Domino Effect,” basically stating that if we allow communism it will spread all over the world.
Time passed, and in 1964 it was reported that the North Vietnamese in international waters attacked the USS Maddox. However, this was not true. It was true the USS Maddox was attacked, but the second attack in international waters that was used as the catalyst to light the cannons of war, was a lie. Despite this fact, Secretary of Defense McNamara pushed the United States to all out war against the North Vietnamese communists. By 1968 we had over 500,000 troops drafted, and fighting in Vietnam.
The year of 1968 was also the year of the Tet offensive, when American tro...

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... it at you”, and if you are not for the war you are against America.
All in all Fortunate Son is a classic anti-war song that is both meaningful, and catchy. Creedence is able to get a lot of points across in a very short 2 minutes, leaving the listener overwhelmed with symbolism. It’s classic American rock sound, combined with beautiful lyrics makes this song one that will go down in history, and listen to by many generations to come. Even after 33 years since the song was released, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s hit, Fortunate Son, still holds relevance in today’s society.

Works Cited

Kelly, M. (n.d.). Top essentials to know about the vietnam war. Retrieved from http://americanhistory.about.com/od/vietnam/tp/vietnam-war.htm
Paterson, P. (2008, February). Truth about tonkin. Retrieved from http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2008-02/truth-about-tonkin

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