Americans remember the 1960s for 3 reasons: an international landmark was achieved, an important social change took place and three crucial political events occurred.
The U.S made international headlines when its Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon and its astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon.
In the book, The 60s Experience, Edward P. Morgan explains about the social change in America where civil rights were ultimately granted to African-Americans in the aftermath of massive led black demonstrations that will always be remembered on account of several incidents: the Rosa Parks incident, where 95% of the black population in the city staying “off the buses”, the student sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina, the news of which spread quickly “with the aid of national news coverage and the network of SCLC movement centers”, and the James Farmer inspired Freedom Rides.
The three political events were the Cuban missile crisis that almost caused nuclear war, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and American involvement in the Vietnam War.
The highlight of the 1960s is the year 1969, and the highlight of that year is the Vietnam Antiwar Protests.
American President Lyndon Johnson promised the nation that their country’s involvement in Vietnam “isn’t really war” but that American troops were being sent there merely “to save Vietnam from the Vietnamese”. This statement is undoubtedly the grossest understatement of the century. By the time the U.S policy makers had recognized the inevitable and begun pulling out American troops in the latter part of the year from Vietnam, Americans had already paid a massive price for their country’s misguided adventure. Out of nearly 3.8 million American troops involved in the war, 58,000 lost their lives and over 303,000 were wounded P 127. Many of the survivors became victims of psychological disorders – 700,000 displayed signs of traumatic stress, 38% of married service people got divorced in less than 6 months since their withdrawal from Vietnam, around 25% of heavy combat soldiers was arrested on various criminal charges, while another 25% started taking drugs. American society as a whole was badly dented as the Vietnam War spawned a “deep and wide polarization” in it.
Meanwhile, there were massive numbers of Americans who did not take part in the war, some of them despite being eligible for military service. Labeled generally as protestors, they were classified as direct rule-violators (93, 250 military deserters and 500,000 draft dodgers), active protestors (numbering around 172,000) who participated in antiwar demonstrations, and passive protestors (about 100,000 persons) who preferred to immigrate to foreign nations, with Sweden and Canada emerging as the most popular destinations P 128. Active protestors included people from different sectors of American society such as church activists, leftists, socialists, labor union members, battle-scarred veterans, and young people with military drafts hanging over their heads and grieving dependants of those killed in the war. Their single plea to the government was printed on thousands of placards that they flourished during the demonstrations: “Support Our G.I’s…..Bring Them Home Now”.
Several crucial reasons have been identified as the causes of the Antiwar Protests.
The first was the helpless fury of Americans as they saw loved ones being made to forcibly endanger their lives in a war that had no connection with the American people. Parents were separated from their offspring, students were forced to give up their studies, young men and women were compelled to give up their jobs and careers, and even veterans were forced into active military duty. People realized that the U.S policy makers were not only solely responsible for the massive upheaval in the lives of all these people, but also for the massive number of dead or wounded American soldiers in Vietnam.
The second reason was painful disillusionment. Alienation from the American culture increased rapidly. Millions of people who had pinned their hopes and faith on the American Dream found the ugly realities of the Vietnam War shattering that dream.
The third reason was the improper, dubious and high-handed government interaction with the public on war issues. The government’s capacity to deliberately and blatantly conduct brutal and oppressive actions was startlingly revealed . As American involvement in the war intensified, it became increasingly clear to the public that government claims and realities in Vietnam were very different. Peaceful moralistic petitions from the public to concerned government officials were rudely rebuffed with rhetorical replies garbed in official language; in some cases the petitioners had to even bear the brunt of police violence. The overall result was heightened public perception of not only government officials, but the very purpose of American involvement in Vietnam as immoral as well as undemocratic. People’s trust in bodies of authority like Congress, the Presidency, military, business entities and trade unions dropped dramatically.
The last reason was the special disillusionments felt by different groups of protestors. Black protestors viewed the unequal number of black soldiers sent to the war front as a continuance of racism against African-Americans. Moralists were incensed at journalist reports of atrocities perpetrated by American soldiers in Vietnam – crimes that brought to mind the heinous atrocities perpetrated by the Germans and Japanese during the Second World War. Vietnam War veterans were furious that the government considered them as mere symbols rather than persons in need of medical and psychiatric help as a result of their experiences in Vietnam. Student protestors identified disturbing technocratic trends in the actions of government decision-makers as the same they encountered in their education process, something they abhorred and protested against. Cultural activists saw the government’s oppressive reactions towards the people as signs of the American culture gone insane. Feminist protestors saw the government actions as representative of typical masculine machismo. Ecologist protestors viewed the government’s action as a threat to the ecosystem.
In conclusion, the Antiwar Protests of 1969 resulted in American public feelings very similar to those of Germans in the wake of their country’s disastrous World War II adventure, that too coming just 21 years after the policy makers failed to learn from Germany’s previous disastrous adventure – World War I. The Vietnam War also startled Americans into a deeper personal insight; as Loren Baritz said, the war was a “magnifying glass that enlarged aspects of some of the ways we, as Americans, think and act”. By revealing its ill intentions, the American government was exposed to the world as an international troublemaker. The general perception of the United States by other countries of the world is well elucidated by Senator Morse’s statement. He said that the United States “may well be the greatest threat to peace in the world today”.
References
Morgan, Edward P. “The 60s Experience: Hard Lessons about Modern America.” USA: Temple University Press, 1991.