Document #3 Just Politics

(1) Lyndon Johnson, 1968“There is division in the American house now. There is divisiveness among us all tonight. I would ask all Americans, whatever their personal interests or concern, to guard against divisiveness. With American sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President. But let men everywhere know, that a strong and a confident American (incumbent VP, Hubert Humphrey) stands ready tonight to seek an honorable peace; and stands ready tonight to defend an honored cause.”

(2) “The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government’s statements. I had no idea until then that you could not really rely on them.” - Senator William Fullbright

(3) 1968 Democratic Convention: ChicagoChicago had been chosen to host the 1968 Democratic Convention to pick a candidate to run for president. Meanwhile young people from all over America gathered across the street in Lincoln Park to peacefully protest Mayor Daley’s stronghold on the city of Chicago, the Democratic politicians, and most of all the Vietnam War.

“We got there around eleven and immediately sensed that there was a different atmosphere from the night before, about twice as many people, including twenty or thirty priests and ministers. At midnight the police arrived on the opposite side of the expressway. Their gas masks were quite conspicuous (visible). A few minutes later, a patrol car occupied by four cops with shotguns slowly moved off the expressway and down the sidewalk, through the crowd. Somebody in the crowd threw a brick through the windshield, probably a cop. These were cops dressed like hippies whose job it was to incite (motivate) the crowd to acts of violence which would justify police intervention. In any case, when the brick hit the windshield, it seemed to me that was our cue to get the hell out of there, so we began a leisurely withdrawal. Behind us now the crowd had surrounded the car, and was rocking it, trying to turn it over. That’s when the police charged. They came very fast, clubbing everyone they could catch, and firing tear-gas shells ahead of the fleeing crowd. Most people emerged into the street on the south side of the park, groping blindly, faces streaming with tears…” – Terry Southern

Document #2 Student ProtestStudents for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a student activist movement in the United States formed in 1960. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s. A group of SDS formed the Weather Underground, identified by the FBI as a “domestic terrorist group.” Members of the SDS argued for participatory democracy, direct action, radicalism, and student power. Although there have been various organizations similar to this one in the years after it ended, none have approached the scale of SDS, and most have lasted a few years at best.

Port Huron Statement (1962) Manifesto written by Students for a Democratic Society: We would replace power rooted in possession by power rooted in love. As a social system we seek the establishment of a democracy of individual participation… we want individuals to determine the quality and direction of their life; society should be organized to encourage independence in men and provide the media for their common participation.

Berkeley University Student Movement: “Significant parts of the population both on campus and off are dispossessed…The university is the place where people begin to seriously question the conditions of their existence and raise the issue of whether they can be committed to the society they have been born into. After a long period of disinterest during the fifties, students have begun not only to question but having arrived at answers, to act on those answers. This is part of a growing understanding among many people in America …that history has not ended, that a better society is possible, and that is worth dying for.”

Kent State University, May 4, 1970“On May 4, 1970, four Kent State University students were killed and nine others wounded when numerous members of the Ohio National Guard fired 67 bullets into a crowd of unarmed students during an anti-war demonstration. The four dead Kent State students were shot and killed by bullets while they were far away from the killers who fired 67 deadly bullets during 13 seconds of mayhem: Jeffrey Miller was shot through the head 275 feet away; Allison Krause was shot through the arm and the chest 350 feet away; Bill Schroeder was shot in the back nearly 400 feet away; Sandy Scheuer was shot through the throat nearly 400 feet away. Allison and Jeff were active protesters. Sandy and Bill were bystanders killed as they walked toward their classrooms.”

– Alan Canfora, Survivor of the Kent State Riot

4 Kent State Students Killed by Troops8 Hurt as Shooting Follows Reported Sniping at Rally

By John Kifner, Special to New York TimesThe youth stood stunned, many of them clustered in small groups staring at the bodies. A young man cradled one of the bleeding forms in his arms. But many of the students who rushed from the scene seemed almost too shocked to react. The hospital said that six young people were being treated for gunshot wounds, some in the intensive care unit.

Document #1 Counter-cultures: Youth, Lifestyle, and MusicThe sixties were the age of youth, as 70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and

young adults.  The movement away from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the culture of American life.  No longer wanting to be images of the generation ahead of them, young people desired change. The changes affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment.  Many of the revolutionary ideas that began in the sixties are continuing to evolve today. 

(1) “Turn on; tune in; drop out.” Words well known to sixties’ guru Dr. Timothy Leary. Unfortunately, the press took the words, simplified them, and completely changed the original meaning. “Turn On” was an instruction to activate your neural and genetic equipment. “Tune In” was advice to interact peacefully with the world around you. “Drop Out” was intended to suggest a graceful process of detachment from things you don’t want to commit to, or feel can hurt you. The entire idea was corrupted and twisted to mean getting stoned and abandoning all productive activity. Dr. Leary’s entire life has been documented to show a drive for knowledge, understanding and experience.

(2) WoodstockThere was a major cultural change in America. For the first time in United States history, thousands of Americans flaunted the use of illegal drugs, often popularized in rock music. Many young Americans referred to themselves as hippies or flower children. They claimed to be searching for a freer, simpler way of life. Woodstock was a 3 day concert to promote peace and love.

“I WAS THERE! My daughter, Siouxsie, was conceived there! But by whom I will never know. Woodstock was not just a concert, but a way of life; it was a breakthrough where we as a whole community fought to revive peace and love, not war. We were not rebellious, just anxious and curious.

(3) Music In the 1960s, music mirrored the tensions of the Vietnam War era and played an important role in American culture. The verbal content of rock songs turned toward rebellion, social protest, sex, and, increasingly, drugs. By the late 1960s rock was widely regarded as an important musical form. Musicians such as Miles Davis and John McLaughlin and groups like Traffic or Blood, Sweat, and Tears tried to fuse rock and jazz. Groups featuring virtuoso guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, and Jimmy Page continued to perform variations on classic blues themes using the traditional instruments of rock 'n' roll. From 1967 onward, the rock festival was regarded as the ideal setting in which to hear rock music, and thousands of fans attended. The most successful and peaceful rock festival, Woodstock, was held near Bethel, N.Y., in Aug., 1969. By 1970 several of rock's top performers—Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix—were dead from substance abuse. Alice Cooper and David Bowie, were famous for their sexual ambiguity and outrageous behavior.

Country Joe and the Fish “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag”: Come on mothers throughout the land,Pack your boys off to Vietnam.Come on fathers, don’t hesitate,Send your sons off before it’s too late.Be the first one on your blockTo have your boy come home in a box.

Document #4: The Draft

A. The Draft: The Draft (Selective Service) was a system where young men between the ages of 18 and 26 were forced into military service. The men were chosen to go to war by their birthday. The United States military would select a date and all men born on that date would be sent draft cards. In 1965, over 5,000 young men were being drafted each month. Originally, if selected, one could avoid going by attending university as a full time student but this option didn’t last long. Eventually people began “dodging the draft” by leaving the country (many ran away to Canada) and burning their draft cards in protest. If caught draft dodging, you would be thrown in jail. The draft no longer exists, but to this day the United States government reserves the right to draft young men to war if necessary.

B. United States vs. O’Brien (1966)O’Brien burned his Selective Service registration certificate before a crowd in order to influence others to adopt his antiwar beliefs. He was indicted, tried, and convicted for violating a part of the Universal Military Training and Service Act, subdivision (3) of which applies to any person “who forges, alters, knowingly destroys, knowingly mutilates, or in any manner changes any such certificate…” O’Brien claimed that the speech was in protest to the war and that the military code was made specifically to limit free speech. Decision: Government has the right to have and maintain a military. Draftees are not allowed to protest in this way.

C.

Wounded SoldiersThroughout the war, many soldiers were injured or killed. A lot of these men were forcibly drafted into the war. Over the course of the war about 540,000 American troops were sent to Vietnam. Of those about 50,000 men were killed and countless others were physically and mentally wounded. PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) became part of soldier’s lives in Vietnam. Some soldiers who returned home could not confront people from fear and distrust, which resulted in failed marriages and frequent career changes.

Document #5 Literature (and TV)

(1) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey was a direct product of Kesey's time working the graveyard shift as an orderly at a mental health facility in Menlo Park, California. Not only did he speak to the patients and witness the workings of the institution, he took psychoactive drugs including Mescaline and LSD as part of Project MKUltra. From this, he became sympathetic toward the patients.[5]

The days of the year (including February 29) were represented by the numbers 1 through 366 written on slips of paper. The slips were placed in separate plastic capsules that were mixed in a shoebox and then dumped into a deep glass jar. Capsules were drawn from the jar one at a time.

The novel constantly refers to different authorities that control individuals through subtle and coercive methods. The novel's narrator, the Chief, combines these authorities in his mind, calling them "The Combine" in reference to the mechanistic way they manipulate and process individuals. The authority of The Combine is most often personified in the character of "Nurse Ratched" who controls the inhabitants of the novel's mental ward through a combination of rewards and subtle shame.[5] Although she does not normally resort to conventionally harsh discipline, her actions are portrayed as more insidious than those of a conventional prison administrator. This is because the subtlety of her actions prevents her prisoners from understanding that they are being controlled at all. The Chief also sees the Combine in the damming of the wild Columbia River at Celilo Falls, where his Native American ancestors hunted, and in the broader conformity of post-war American consumer society. The novel's critique of the mental ward as an instrument of oppression makes it seem comparable to the prison. This was very much in the spirit of the 1960s. Published in 1962.

(2) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee focused on racial injustice in the south and in the legal system, making the lawyer who was in favor of social justice and equality the hero. The editor warned that this book would not sell and it wouldn't be successful but it ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize and being adapted into a movie. Published in 1960.

(3) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller written in 1953 and published in 1961, (properly titled 'Catch-22' - with a hyphen). The first chapter was also published in a magazine in 1955, under the title 'Catch-18'. The paradox is presented as the trap that confined members of the US Air Force. In logical terms the 'catch' was that, by applying for exemption from highly dangerous bombing missions on the grounds of insanity, the applicant proved himself to be sane (after all, that's what any sane person would do). If anyone applied to fly they would be considered insane. Either way; sane or insane, they were sent on the missions.

TV

Name: _______________________________________________________ Band: _________ Date: ___________

Document How did the war change American perspectives on government, war, and our role in foreign affairs?

Which method is more effective to show discontent with governmental actions? Rate from 1-4 (1: most effective,

4: least effective)

Document #1: Youth,

Lifestyle, and Music

Document #2: Student

Protest

Document #3 Just Politics

Document #4: The Draft