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Activities: Context Activities The War in Vietnam: The War at Home  Back to Context Activities
America emerged from World War II as a superpower with a dramatically transformed foreign policy. The United States became, in historian Mary Sheila McMahon's words, "a more activist and outward-looking state" as it purported to defend democratic ideals. The government felt that to protect American self-interests, defend itself against the Stalinist Soviet Union and Maoist China, and promote capitalistic democracy worldwide, it had to abandon its tradition of isolationism. With the onset of the Cold War, the perceived threat of Soviet and Red Chinese aggression strengthened the government's resolve to protect its interests everywhere. This resolve led to interventions in the autonomy of other nations and increased anxiety at home about "subversive" political and social movements. After the escalation of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s, the conflict and its heavy casualties divided the country dramatically. U.S. involvement in Vietnam killed more than 50,000 Americans and lasted longer than the fighting in both world wars combined. The Vietnam War was a protracted struggle in jungles, swamps, and other difficult terrain, a war with no front lines and two adversaries: the North Vietnamese Army, a well-trained, well-equipped force with decades of experience in guerrilla warfare, and the Vietcong, a South Vietnamese army of dedicated irregulars, genius in the tactics of hit-and-run, and adept at blending in with a civilian population whose loyalties were always in doubt. By the middle of 1968, promises of a quick conclusion had melted away, and a series of catastrophic engagements--the Tet Offensive, the siege of Khe Sanh, the battle for Hue, which nearly destroyed the second largest city in the Republic of Vietnam--brought many Americans to the sobering recognition that the war could continue for a very long time, and that the prospects of a real victory were dim. Another source of moral conflict in the United States was the configuration of the American Armed Forces, and of American casualties, as a result of provisions of the draft. Because college students before 1970 were deferred from conscription, campuses became places of temporary and uneasy refuge, where male students were keenly aware of a countdown to graduation and a coming forfeiture of protection; meanwhile, the front-line forces in Southeast Asia were filled with young men from working-class, inner-city, and minority backgrounds, men who lacked the money and the connections to spare them from military service. As the reasons for continuing the war grew more and more confused in the minds of troops abroad and Americans at home, the resistance to the war grew exponentially in 1968 and 1969; demonstrations in Washington, D.C., New York, and other cities drew hundreds of thousands of people. When Richard Nixon took office in January 1969, the American government implemented two strategies to cool the domestic resistance and find a way out of the conflict: (1) a "Vietnamization" of the combat forces, which meant that American troops would be gradually moved away from direct combat, and (2) a draft lottery, which ended the college deferment and determined eligibility for conscription on the basis of randomly chosen birth dates. For a while, these changes did have some of the intended effect, but the May 1970 killing of student protesters by National Guard troops at Kent State and Jackson State, two college campuses, brought about a nationwide student strike. With the support of faculty and administrators, many campuses shut down almost completely until the end of the academic year. Many of the poets writing during this period responded directly to the Vietnam conflict or expressed a heightened distrust of authority. Repelled also by the general assumption that America could fight a major war and indulge itself materialistically at the same time, some poets looked to leftist politics for an alternate vision of what the United States could be. The Vietnam conflict and the protests against the war were also, in a sense, media events. For the first time in history, television crews could send full-color videotape quickly home from a battlefield halfway around the world, and domestic TV crews could bring violent confrontations with police and National Guardsmen directly into the living room. Not surprisingly, depictions of the human body as a site of suffering, resistance, and sacrifice turn up frequently in literature written during and about these years. Questions
[3043] John A. Gentry, LCpl, Vietnam . . . Private First Class Joseph Big Medicine Jr., a Cheyenne Indian, Writes a Letter to His Family in the United States (1969), courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration. Soldier from Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, on a clear, search and destroy mission near An Hoa. U.S. military destruction in Vietnam encouraged antiwar protesters and distrust of the government. Writer Grace Paley, who described herself as a "combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist," was deeply involved in the antiwar movement. [6217] Cameron Lawrence, It Is a Sin to Be Silent When It Is Your Duty to Protest (1971), courtesy of the Library of Congress. Feminist and activist poet Adrienne Rich's work provokes readers to see the connections between the struggle for women's rights and other movements, including that against the war in Vietnam. [7360] Frank Moffit, SPC 5, Vietnam . . . A Sky Trooper from the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) Keeps Track of the Time He Has Left on His "Short Time" Helmet (1968), courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration. Soldier, part of Operation Pershing, near Bong Son. By 1968, many Americans were ambivalent about the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Most of the soldiers drafted after 1965 were troubled by their role in what they saw as a morally ambiguous conflict. A variety of American poets protested the war, including Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, Robert Bly, Robert Lowell, Adrienne Rich, James Wright, and Galway Kinnell. [7361] Anonymous, Vietnam War Protesters (1967), courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration [NRE-21-KANSWICHCR-CR928-WICH1895]. Wichita, Kansas, protest against the Vietnam War. Antiwar protests were major cultural events in the 1960s and early 1970s. Many writers and artists participated, including Adrienne Rich, whose work became more explicitly political during this time. [7362] Phil Stanziola, 800 Women Strikers for Peace on 47th St. near the UN Building (1962), courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USZ62-128465]. Women protest for peace. Antiwar sentiment grew throughout the 1960s as some Americans became more critical of the Cold War mentality. Throughout the Cold War, the United States became increasingly involved in international conflicts that had high American death tolls and no apparent resolution, such as the Korean and Vietnam wars. [8619] Various, Don't Mourn, Organize: SDS Guide to Community Organizing (1968), courtesy of Special Collections, Michigan State University Libraries. Students for a Democratic Society's Guide to Community Organizing. Some of the articles in this guide address organization and resistance to the war beyond draft dodging, the original focus of SDS actions. One article discusses the various responses of poor whites to black rebellion and violence during the ghetto uprisings in the summer of 1967. Michael Harper's poem "A Mother Speaks: The Algiers Motel Incident, Detroit" was inspired by the Detroit riot of 1967. |
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