An Anti-War Movement In The United States During The Late 1960's And Early 1970's
The reasons for the anti-war movement are varied. There was a new
generation of young people in the United States in the 1960's. There
were college educated and highly under the influence of drugs such as
Cannabis (also known as weed) and LSD's which are mind affecting drugs
such as Ecstasy (also known as Ex). They were also under the influence
of free love which is the idea of everybody having unprotected sex
with everybody else and disregarding the consequences which pushed up
the birth rate in the United States in the 1960's. They adored people
such as Kennedy and Johnson and admired their ideas of helping your
country and the 'Great Society'. They were also highly influenced by
civil rights campaigns for blacks, women, the poor, gays and other
oppressed groups that wanted liberation. They looked up to people such
as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King. They wanted to take on the
World and thought that they could. These people were known as the
'Hippies'. The Vietnam War took place when all of this was going on so
there was bound to be an anti-war movement because people would want
to be free and liberated from war and to see justice done.
The main reason for the anti-war movement in the United States is the
media and the fact that the Vietnam War was the first ever televised
war. This was people's way of finding out what was going on in
Vietnam, through the TV, radio and newspapers. This was the United
States biggest downfall due to the fact that the government organised
this to happen due to their belief that they would thrash the small
island of...
... middle of paper ...
... a war veteran and had
experience in the war. It also has to be catchy to attract attention
and therefore it does not necessarily have to be completely true.
Therefore this source is partially reliable and partially unreliable.
Source h the Song nineteen corresponds with the Soldiers deaths due to
a lot of statistics and facts and figures mentioned in the song about
how many soldiers died and suffer long term effects of the war,
however where as it is a song it needs to be catchy and to attract
people to it so that it will sell and therefore may not be true at all
as long as it sounds good.
From what I can conclude most of the sources support the information
on why there was an anti-war movement in the United States during the
period of the 1960's and 70's however bias factor blurs some and makes
them puzzling.
In his article, “To Be Patriotic is to Build Socialsim”: Communist Ideology in Vietnam's Civil War, Tuong Vo challenges a standard view of the civil war between North and South Vietnam – the war is power struggle between the two camps. Based on a newly availble documents and other primary sources, Vu argues that “[V]ietnamese communists never wavered in their ideology loyalty during the period when key decisions about the civil war were made (1953–1960).....a modernizing socialist idology rather than a mere for national unification was driving the Vietnamese civil war from the north” (Vu 2009, 34–35).
The Vietnam War (1965-1975)was fought between the North and South Vietnam. The North was called Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the South was the Republic of Vietnam which was supported by the United States. On August 2nd, 1964 the USS Maddox was on a secret intelligent mission on the North Vietnamese coast where in the Gulf on Tonkin they were attacked by torpedo boats. The USS Turner Joy was attacked in the same area two days later. Due to the second attack Congress declared the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which led to air strikes.In 1959 there were 5,000 guerilla fighters and in 1964 the numbers jumped to 100,000. At Pleiku on March, 1965 U.S Marine barracks were attacked causing the three stage escalation bombing of North Vietnam to begin. The 3 year lasting bombing was used to force North Vietnam to stop supporting the "National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam" by destroying their industrial infrastructure and Vietnam's air defenses. Unfortunately this did not stop the North's support for the NLF. The U.S. Air Force bases were constantly being attacked so the U.S. on March 8, 1965 the 3,500 U.S. Marines was deployed to South Vietnam. At this point in time, the U.S. public supported the dispatch because the Vietnam War had been portrayed to the American people as a war against the spread of Communism. Johnson was president at the time and he kept adding more and more troops as the war went on. As the draft quotas increased, the American public protests started. When Nixon came into presidency his policy towards the Vietnam War was "peace with honor" in other words he wanted to widen the war. After more bombing and fighting, on January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords was signed, restoring peace in Vietnam and U.S. forces pulled out. Nixon stopped all American attacks on Vietnam. The condensed summary of the Vietnam War is to see what presidents were involved in this war (Johnson, and Nixon) and what foreign policies were taken towards Vietnam mostly before the protests began.
Paul Potter, president of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), held his first anti-war rally that attracted 25,000 people. The movement occurred between 1960 and 1970. Paul Potter’s speech, “The Incredible War”, was established in hopes of ending the war by creating a social movement. The only way for people to end the war is by challenging the system, creating posters, and not by having a couple marches because that wasn’t going to benefit them. “This war was mainly fought mainly by Vietnamese Communists, who were strong in the north of Vietnam.” (Britannica) The goal of the movement was to end the Vietnam War because it was taking away the American’s freedom and destroying their peace in the world. The Americans and South Vietnam were mostly involved in the movement. The movement started because Vietnam wanted to become a communist government and until then, corruption occurred.
So far, the title's words are just a catchy song, though their repetition, at a key mo...
In fact, the Tet Offensive broke out on the Tet's Eve - in the early
The Vietnam War created one of the most dividing periods of American history. Many saw the war as an unnecessary conflict that cost dearly in both money and lives. The United States’ involvement in the war was also considered to be unjustified. Despite the many difficulties faced during the controversial time, many activists raised issues in opposition to the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War because of its unjust nature with acts such as the high casualty rates, scorched earth policies, and the lack of an immediate threat.
There were a lot of movements during the 1960s like the Civil Rights movement or the Feminist movement. However the Anti-War Movement was the most popular one during the 1960s due to the lack of support towards the war. Protests across the U.S against the Vietnam War started small. Nevertheless, they became popular among young people as groups like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) started protesting in Washington, D.C. The organization of nonviolent protests was the best way to fight back the injustice made by the government for drafting people into a war that was totally unrelated to the country.
“In July 1965, Lyndon Johnson chose to Americanize the war in Vietnam.” Although Johnson chose to enter America into the war, there were events previous that caused America to enter and take over the war. The South Vietnamese were losing the war against Communism – giving Johnson all the more reason to enter the war, and allowing strong American forces to help stop communism. There were other contributing factors leading up to the entrance of the war; America helped assist the French in the war, Johnson’s politics, the Tonkin Gulf Incident, and the 1954 Geneva Conference. President Johnson stated, “For 10 years three American Presidents-President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and your present President--and the American people have been actively concerned with threats to the peace and security of the peoples of southeast Asia from the Communist government of North Viet-Nam.”
There a lot of heroes in freedom walkers, but my favorite is E.D Nixon because I know that he did the most for the boycott. First of all, E.D Nixon was the president of the NAACP. The NAACP is a place where people gather to talk about how the african-american can succeed or they plan things to help their community. By E.D Nixon being president made most of the rally or inspired people to go and talk about the segregation laws and how to fight for freedom. Furthermore, Nixon pick Rosa park to be a major role to end the bus segregation laws. E.D Nixon to pick Rosa Park as a key person in the bus boycott. E.D Nixon believed that picking Rosa was a good choice and he was right because, Rosa didn't fight anyone or yell, she was calm and no violence
hard for them to understand those who were so passionate against the war. “Young protesters were often dismissed by many older Americans for being part of the counterculture that rejected traditional American values and embraced experimentation with sex and drugs. Yet the protests represented a genuine, and growing, resistance in the United States to the country's role in the Vietnam conflict.” (Doswell). Because the protesters, had a hard time connecting to the older parental generation, the nation was even more tense and divided. While there were plenty of people protesting against the war, there was also plenty of people that were against the protest. For example, many police officers disagreed with the protesters. They were often just as
The American Counterculture Revolution, which lasted between 1956 to 1974, completely transformed both politics and culture. Among many revolutionary movements, the Antiwar Movement consisted of strong protest and outrage towards the Vietnam War and America’s military actions abroad. A countless amount of writers, musicians and even athletes participated in the movement and contributed to its success. Many activists contributed to this movement, such as writer, Allen Ginsberg and government official, Daniel Ellsberg. The movement gained popularity due to the growing American disapproval towards the Vietnam War and The Draft. This movement has also contributed to peace organizations, congressional laws, and has produced antiwar scholarship.
There were many events that lead up the Vietnam War, it started in 1945 with the hostilities between the French and Vietminh. “Geopolitical Strategy, economics, domestic US politics, and cultural arrogance shaped the growing American involvement in Vietnam” (Anderson 1). As a matter of fact, the Vietnam War was several wars, but it was not until 1962 that America had their first combat mission, however, Americans were killed during ambushes by the Vietnamese before the first combat mission. There is much controversy over the reasons for the Vietnam War, supported by the several different books and articles written about the war. “The most famous atrocity occurred in a tiny hamlet called My Lai in March 1968” (Detzer 127). History shows that the reaction of many Americans to the attack by US soldiers on the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War was opposition, and the actions of the US soldiers during the My Lai Massacre will be forever remembered as a significant part of the Vietnam War and American History.
James A. Baldwin once said, “The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose” (BrainyQuote.com). In the 1960s, “the man” was youth across the country. The Vietnam war was in full force, and students across the country were in an outrage. Society needed an excuse to rebel against the boring and safe way of life they were used to; Vietnam gave them the excuse they needed. Teenagers from different universities came together and formed various organizations that protested the Vietnam war for many reasons. These reasons included protesting weapons and different tactics used in the war, and the reason the U.S. entered the war in the first place. These get-togethers had such a monumental impact on their way of life that it was famously named the Anti-War Movement. When the Vietnam War ended, The United States did not have a real concrete reason why; there were a bunch of theories about why the war ended. Through negative media attention and rebellious youth culture, the Anti-War Movement made a monumental impact in the ending of the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam Antiwar Movement is one of the most prominent eras in American History. Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, people across the U.S., young and old, publicly opposed the Vietnam war. Opposers of the war expressed their antiwar opinions by organizing protests and mass demonstrations. Multiple anti-Vietnam war protests significantly effected North America. Despite being underestimated by the United States government and pro-war supporters, the Vietnam Antiwar Movement led to powerful and influential impacts.
Turning Point of Vietnam War The Vietnam War was an extension of the Cold War An Ideological conflict between Capitalism and Communism. In this protracted war scores of critical events happened and many proxy wars were fought between nations belonging either to the Capitalist/ Communist bloc. The contrasting ideas of West and East about Government and economy was the driving force between the two major forces of the World.