Understand how public opinion changed during the Vietnam War into dissent against the war.
Recognize examples of this dissent in songs of the 1960s.
Identify other protest movements during the 1960s.
* 762-769
End of Consensus: Vietnam War
As we listen to some songs from the Vietnam War era: Write down how the song either attacks
or supports the war. Follow along with the printed lyrics of
the songs and use your highlighter or pen to mark passages in the lyrics that you think explain the meaning of the song (Pro/Anti-war).
Songs about the Vietnam War “War”
Edwin Starr “Fish Cheer/Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die-Rag”
Country Joe and the Fish “The Ballad of the Green Berets”
SSgt. Barry Sadler “Where Have All The Flowers Gone”
Kingston Trio/Pete Seeger “Eve of Destruction”
Barry McGuire “California Dreamin’”
The Mamas & The Papas “Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation”
Tom Paxton
Songs about the Vietnam War
Read the lyrics to the other songs in the packet and determine the meaning of each as either pro-war or anti-war: “The Times They Are a Changin’” – Bob Dylan “Turn, Turn, Turn” – The Byrds “For What It’s Worth” – Buffalo Springfield
The End of Consensus Little dissent until 1960s since McCarthyism had intimidated dissenters, protesters. Voices of Dissent
Senator William Fulbright – “realists” Direct protest against the Vietnam War
1966-67 protesters blocked munitions trains, sent peace delegations to Vietnam and religious groups condemned the war.
Many protested against the Selective Service System arguing it favored the middle-class.
Deferments Burning Draft Cards
The End of Consensus Little dissent until 1960s since McCarthyism had intimidated dissenters, protesters. Voices of Dissent
Senator William Fulbright – “realists” Direct protest against the Vietnam War
1966-67 protesters blocked munitions trains, sent peace delegations to Vietnam and religious groups condemned the war.
Many protested against the Selective Service System arguing it favored the middle-class.
Deferments Burning Draft Cards
Martin Luther King, Jr. Protested on basis that blacks served
disproportionately in the military during the Vietnam War.
Demonstrators to end the war in Vietnam at the main gate of the White House, May 17, 1967, led by Dr. Benjamin Spock and Coretta Scott King
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gestures and shouts to his congregation in Ebenezer Baptist Church urging America to
repent and abandon what he called its "Tragic, reckless adventure in Vietnam," Atlanta, Georgia, April 30, 1967
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and protesters against the Vietnam War.
A young American girl confronts the American National Guard outside the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., July 21, 1967.
The End of Consensus Little dissent until 1960s since McCarthyism had intimidated dissenters, protesters. Voices of Dissent (Protest Movements)
Senator William Fulbright – “realists” Draft Resistance against the Vietnam War Martin Luther King, Jr. Popular Media Protest songs Students for a Democratic Society
Port Huron Statement (1962) – leader Tom Hayden called for a grass roots movement against consumerism, racism and Imperialism (war).
The Free Speech Movement Mario Savio founded this group in 1964 at UC-Berkeley
to build a “community of protest” to fight poverty. LBJ RESPONDED with Model Cities Program in 1966.
Mario Savio was an American political activist and a key member in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley.
He called for a “community of protest” to fight poverty.
American Protest Movements The “Feminist Critique”
Betty Friedan’s book “The Feminine Mystique”
Co-founder of the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.)
Fought for full economic equality for women in job market, attacking the “glass ceiling”.
The “sexual revolution” furthered this cause by bringing about by more reliable birth control methods made it easier for women to join the work force and “postpone” children.
The End of Consensus
Other Protest Movements The Youth Culture
Large, general group of young people who felt alienated from society, expressed this through drug use, growing long hair, new rock music… “Hippies” Woodstock Festival (1969)
in New York celebrated this new Youth Culture.
The Woodstock Festival
The End of Consensus
The Counterculture Smaller but more radical group within the “Youth Culture”
group that experimented with more radical drugs, studied Eastern religions.
Timothy Leary (Harvard professor) “tune in, turn on, drop out”..
Writer Aldous Huxley – “Brave New World”, “Doors of Perception”
Music Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi
Hendrix, The Beatles, Rolling Stones…all included forms of social protest.
Communes Tried to combine individual freedom with cooperative living as
a rejection of the traditional family unit. Cults
Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church Jim Jones People’s Temple
The End of Consensus