Vietnam War Of The Sixties Analysis

The Sixties and Seventies were among the most important decades in American history in terms of massive social upheaval. With practically the entire world in a state of unbalance and with the wild relationship of the United States to the rest of the world, it is unsurprising that the States faced a state of unrest and social change. The United States was involved in two vastly different wars at the time that created a massive feeling of unrest inside its own walls, especially among groups of young people who worked in massive numbers to bring about heavy societal change in many different areas aiming for the top and moving down. These decades included some of the most hotly debated and controversial events in American history. The United states

faced a state of massive uneasiness internally with the nervousness brought about by the Cold War. There was also a state of triumphant upheaval among the younger generation of the time through their mass protest of the Vietnam War. There was also a massive shift in the eye of the American public from support to vehement protest of the Vietnam War causing a large shift in American politics. These many issues gave way to both the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights movements which worked towards creating a change in the way that society had operated for practically the entirety of the United State’s existence. Terry Anderson in his book The Sixties aptly states that this is “the Decade of Tumult and Change” (Anderson 22). The 1960s and 1970s showed massive shifts in social and political climates through war, protest, and social action taken by the people of the time. These shifts are strongly portrayed in the book The Sixties by Terry Anderson and these shifts can be seen firsthand through the music of the decades.
The Cold War was one of the biggest provocateurs of the shift in political climate of the twentieth century with a monumental impact on the social climate of the decade. The mass fear of communism in the fifties and sixties prompted a mass feeling of uneasiness that was further amplified by the fiasco that was the Bay of Pigs. As described by the Anderson text, the Bay of Pigs consisted of “1,500 Cuban émigrés invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. The invasion force had been conceived during the Eisenhower years, trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and aimed at ending the rule of Fidel Castro” (Anderson 28). The Bay of Pigs was one of the most absolute blunders of the Kennedy administration and it did nothing but increase conflict between the United States and Russia. This complete failing of a plan to diffuse the communism in Cuba under Fidel Castro created a mockery of American foreign policy, however it aided in the ratings of President Kennedy. This invasion prompted not only the arms race between Russia and the United States, but the allyship between Russia and Cuba that lead to a further dissonance in foreign policy for America.
The arms race between the Soviets and the United States was a massive one with armies being built that could launch the largest war in history. This international relationship was a pot that was on the brink of boiling over and could do so at any moment. Kennedy “increased the defense budget, tripled draft calls, extended enlistments, enlarged the armed forces by 300,000, and sent 40,000 additional troops to defend Europe” (Anderson 32). On the Soviet side, large missiles and troops were being sent by the Soviets to their new ally, Cuba. On October 22, President Kennedy publicly informed the public of the United States of the imminent threat of nuclear war, thus sending its citizens into a frenzy. In their song The Dawn of Correction, The Spokesman have an oddly optimistic take on the situation as a whole, saying that “There are buttons to push in two mighty nations//But who's crazy enough to risk annihilation?//The buttons are there to ensure negotiation//So don't be afraid, boy, it's our only salvation” These lyrics tap into the fear held by the American people in an almost self reassuring way. They tell the tale of a nuclear war that nearly came to be, but that no reasonable leaders would blow everyone up. These lyrics help the listener tell themselves that they are safe in a time of such massive political upheaval. Those listeners were right. The United States and the Soviets negotiated and the missiles were brought home once more, thus taking the pot of the heat just before it boiled over. While this was not the end of the Cold War, these incidents, which were massive crises of the Sixties themselves, helped to create the state of massive unrest that was necessary for some of the biggest social events of the Sixties.
The second war of the Sixties which prompted massive cultural change in a multitude of ways was the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam war was essentially a surrogate war for the Cold War with the Communist Russians supporting North Vietnam with the anti-Communist United States supporting the South Vietnamese. The war in Vietnam was initially widely supported by the people of the United States. The overwhelming support or apathy of the American people can be seen as Anderson writes “opinion polls demonstrated that about 80 percent supported bombing the North, and the same percentage thought it was “very important” to prevent a Communist South Vietnam” (Anderson 59). Initially there was what appeared to be great support for the war, but this great support was more likely a stronger sense of American apathy towards the United State’s foreign policy. Anderson’s book goes on to mention that “surveys also revealed that two-thirds of the public either had not followed or had no opinion of LBJ’s policy, and a fourth did not even know U.S. troops were in Vietnam” (Anderson 59). It was abundantly clear that there was a lack of awareness on the part of the American people regarding this war, and the appearance of support was not due to an actual approval of policy, but a blindness to what that policy actually was. This support would not be long lasting, however, as people would slowly become aware of what the United States was actually taking part in within this war. The start of this war was

met with what seemed like gargantuan approval, but was, in actuality, mammoth unawareness.
In 1965, those in colleges began noticing the fact that there were heavy bombings on the part of the United States in Vietnam.

The peace movement began popping up around college campuses in which people began holding “teach-ins” in which professors and students would spend large chunks of time discussing ways to improve the Nation’s policies in Vietnam. Consequently, the peace movement spread throughout college campuses. Teach-ins were happening at schools throughout the country and more and more students were becoming involved in the protest against the Vietnam war. The movement for international peace moved forward with strength, surging its way to the White House. Anderson describes this in saying “some 20,000 appeared on a warm, beautiful Sunday. They picketed the White House and then began marching to the Washington Monument. Students sang with folksingers Judy Collins, Joan Baez, and Phil Ochs. SDS president Paul Potter called for a “massive social movement” to change America”(Anderson 60). Barry McGuire’s song Eve of Destruction powerfully describes the attitudes of those searching for peace, and for the often held sentiment that we should move out of Vietnam and into discussion regarding Civil Rights. McGuire sings “You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you’re totin’” describing the unpopularity of the draft and the fact that millions of people, including those fighting, are against this war. McGuire also echoes the ideas that we should focus on our own

civil rights before attacking others when he sings “Think of all the hate there is in Red China//Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama.”
The draft began making bigger waves in the civil rights community with primarily low income African American men being drafted, and college students continued to become further and further involved in anti-war protests. Families were losing their children to this war and college students were noticing the mass injustice and deciding that “If you weren’t part of the solution, you were part of the problem” (Anderson 78). Peter, Paul, and Mary’s hit song Jet Plane could be heard by those whose loved ones had been sent to war saying “I'm leavin' on a jet plane//Don't know when I'll be back again.” Those leaving to go to war were never certain that they would be back again, which provided their loved ones with even stronger motivation to stop this war.
Thusly, anti-war protests became stronger and more extreme among the population of students that were the primary source of heavy protest against the war. The anti-war movement continued to gain momentum and people were actively moving against the draft. The President at the time, Lyndon Johnson, felt as though backing out was not an option, he could not lose a war. As a result Johnson “attempted to change opinion in America instead of changing policy in Vietnam”(Anderson 87). Johnson was trying to, instead of altering the goingson of the war itself, alter the opinion of the public towards the war and the policies of which they were not in favor. There was mass confusion in American politics at the time and a huge uncertainty in what were were even doing, in fact, “a New York Times poll discovered nearly half of the respondents had no clear idea why their nation was fighting a war in Vietnam”(Anderson 88). The once overwhelmingly unaware support had evolved into an unaware distaste. When Walter Cronkite denounced the war following the Tet Offensive, he took the rest of the United States with him. The Vietnam war launched protests throughout the country and prompted a social movement, and it crumbled a once powerful presidency. President Johnson became “the most notable casualty by declaring, ‘I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president’”(Anderson 92). There were many events of the sixties and seventies that shaped, shattered, and reconstructed society as a whole, and the Vietnam did so on every possible level.