College campuses were a new place of protest and freedom. Many college students became involved with the war because it was the people their age, and their friends who were being sent to war; going as one person, and coming back completely changed. In January of 1968 the TET Offensive changed the American view of the Vietnam War dramatically. The Vietcong attacked over a hundred cities including the US Embassy. Many of the cities were occupied by Vietcong for many hours, or days.
Firstly, the Vietnam war was undoubtedly a very significant factor in the increased protests during the 60's. For example, the excessive bombing of North Vietnam lead in 1965 lead to many student protests, as so many civilians including women and children were being purposefully killed in order to ultimately, win the was by flattening Vietnam. This caused outrage amongst the student rebels. In particular, the student rebel group called Students for Democratic Society (SDS) used the Vietnam war to suggest that the US government was corrupt. The cause struck a chord with those at university more so than other groups of people due to the immense number of students that were made to go and fight.
Question B – Why did the USA become increasingly involved in Vietnam between 1964 and 1968? The USA became increasingly involved in the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1968 for a number of different reasons. After Kennedys reign of presidency, Lyndon Johnson took hold of a difficult situation in Vietnam. The South Vietnamese government was very corrupt, the Viet Cong were making large gains in rural areas of South Vietnam and guerilla tactics were proving very hard to combat. One key reason why the US became progressively involved in Vietnam was the fear of the Domino theory.
At the same time they tried to create a strong non-communist South Vietnam under the leadership of Diem. By the late 1950s, the communist rebels in South Vietnam declared a revolutionary struggle against Diem, so as to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. In turn, by the 1960s the USA became more and more alarmed at this prospect, leading to further intervention in Vietnam to stop this. When Kennedy was inaugurated he inherited many crises around the globe, the most pertinent was the loss of Cuba. After the well known Bay of Pigs fiasco, he felt he was advised that he needed a foreign policy success.
Many people demonstrated frustration and anger with the decisions that were being made by the leaders in our government. Additionally, as in the 70’s, and today, this ultimately resulted in a distrust our country‘s international intentions by many United States citizens, as well as citizens of other countries. In other news, the fear and threat of the Aids virus during the 1970’s was considered the new
Taking place at a time of great civil unrest in America, as well as a place where the Gay community were particularly despised [2] . For decades the homosexual community of America had been abused, institutionalised, arrested and treated as mentally insane. So to truly understand the lasting impact of the Stonewell Riots on the gay liberation movement one must first understand the oppression and abuse felt by the LGBT community in those years before Stonewall. Since the words ‘homosexual’
The October 6th debate between Clinton and Dole capitalized on the areas of the culture wars that the two disagreed upon, most predominantly being the youth’s drug use and the after-shocks within the education system and national security. Over the course of two decades the culture wars had evolved into an illustration of the clash between post-WWII cultural attitudes and the rebellious attitudes of the Vietnam War youth, a fight between the parents and their rowdy children. The Vietnam War became the initial catalyst in the emergence of the counterculture. The movement was viewed as a fight against the traditionalist views in society (Klatch, 134). Klatch defines the characteristics of the counterculture as the “dress, music, drugs, sexuality and ‘alternative lifestyles” that those involved became known for.
The year of 1968 was one of the most influential year in America. The year changed how people lived their lives and how they thought about the next years to come. There were various events and things that contributed to the influence of 1968, such as the hippies, the way of how they use the media, civil right movements, anti-war protesting, and the Vietnam war. There were all influential aspects, but the most important one was the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War started when the North Vietnamese wanted to spread communism throughout the South.
The Tet Offensive: The Beginning of the End On January 31, 1968, Viet Cong forces launched one of the most influential coordinated attacks against 36 of South Vietnam’s 44 capitals, and 70 other towns in the country (Hayward 2001, 21). Like other “surprise” military actions in history, the lack of action to prevent these rumored attacks caused for a much larger crisis on the U.S. front – something Army General Bruce Palmer later called "an allied intelligence failure ranking with Pearl Harbor in 1941" (Hayward 2001, 5). This rebel attack led by General Vo Nguyen Giap is considered by many historians to be the turning point in the Vietnam War. With the use of expert military tactics, the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the North Vietnam Army (NVA) gave a new meaning to the phrase “losing the battle but winning the war.” But in order for anyone to fully appreciate the severity of a historical event, one must know all of the history surrounding it. These series of attacks that singlehandedly changed the course of the war by planting seeds of unrest into the minds the American public are known today as the Tet Offensive.
With the invention of television and the coverage of civil rights movement speeches coming into American living rooms from across the country, things started to change. In many cases across the country, the media showed the Black protesters as organized, peaceful, dressed professionally, and simply “normal Americans.” The picture of the civil rights movement is depicted as violent and bigotry. While there is validity to that, the reality is, the civil rights movement began with non-violent student protests. Students were the life blood of the early movement. Blacks supported the