Vietnam War Counterculture

The counterculture and hippie movements weren’t all flowers and fun, though. The young adults involved rejected almost all of their parents’ ideas. They saw no issue with public nudity or immorality. Drug use was extremely common, marijuana and LSD the most popular choices. Timothy Leary, a Harvard professor, openly promoted LSD (Flower Power). This is the real legacy of the movement. The political goal of somehow creating a world at peace did not occur. The looseness did though, leading to a degeneration of the morals of the American people (Isaacs 57). The societal norms of the United States had been changed by the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War also affected the US financially. It cost about $170 billion in 1970s dollars, which is nearly $1

After Johnson micromanaged the war and sent an enormous amount of young Americans to their deaths, Congress saw that it must prevent further presidents from exercising such complete control over military matters. So, on November 7, 1973, Congress overrode Nixon’s veto and passed the War Powers Resolution (War Powers). It acknowledged that the president is constitutionally the commander in chief, but said that he can only exercise his powers under certain circumstances. These circumstances are during wartime, with Congressional permission, or during a state of national emergency. If the president decides to mobilize troops during peacetime, he must notify Congress within 48 hours. He must also remove those troops within 60 days, unless Congress gives permission for the troops to remain or is incapacitated for whatever reason (War Powers Resolution). The purpose of these regulations was to reduce presidential control of the army to prevent another situation comparable to the Vietnam

Because of its tremendous death toll and subsequent public outrage, the war has created what became known as Vietnam Syndrome, a reluctance to involve ourselves militarily in foreign affairs. If we would involve ourselves, the goal was to get in and out as quickly as possible (Isaacs 67). In many situations, Congress would not give the president permission to deploy troops. They advocated minimal involvement in Latin America affairs during the Reagan administration (Isaacs 73-75). Then, during the George H. W. Bush’s presidency, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, effectively forcing the US to use military force. We did not want the Iraqis controlling Kuwait’s oil. Bush promised that the war would not be “another Vietnam.” He planned to use force quickly and strongly to restore Kuwait’s independence. Then we would leave (Isaacs 75). In another effort to prevent “another Vietnam,” the federal government made sure to censor the media, allowing very few bloody images to reach the eyes of the American public. Instead, people saw missiles, but not their targets or the explosions. This was to be a clean war (Isaacs 79). These techniques worked, because people supported the war and patriotism rose. This was a quick war, following the principles of Vietnam Syndrome, which say we should try very hard to stay disentangled from foreign wars (Isaacs