![]() ![]() Show the image of a man and woman watching footage of the Vietnam War in their living room and read aloud the following quote from The “Uncensored War”: The Media and Vietnam, by Daniel C. What overall conclusions can you draw about changes in the way war was represented to Americans by the media between World War I and the Vietnam conflict?ġ.Which war is depicted in each magazine cover? (World War I and the Vietnam War.).What kind of picture is shown on each cover? (The first is an illustration, the second a photograph.) Explain to students that the first image was created by Norman Rockwell, an illustrator known for his often sentimental images of everyday life in America.How do you imagine a young person in 1966 would have responded to this image?Ĥ. ![]() What attitude toward war and soldiers does this picture convey?.What words come to mind to describe the soldiers in this image?.Now ask students to examine the second image, the cover of LIFE from February 11, 1966: How do you imagine young Americans would have responded to the first image in 1919?ģ.What attitude toward war and soldiers does the picture convey?.How do the children in the picture appear to feel about the soldier?.What words come to mind to describe the soldier in this image?.Briefly discuss the first image, the cover of the Saturday Evening Post from February 22, 1919: Show students two magazine covers, one from the Saturday Evening Post and the other from LIFE.Ģ. The music of 1960s protest, however, remained among the era’s most enduring legacies.ġ. In earlier eras, protest music sometimes had a subtle tone, propelled by acoustic instruments. By the late 1960s, however, it took on the instrumentation of Rock and Roll and made its way to the top of the charts. Not until 1971 did the 26th Amendment grant suffrage to 18-year-olds, empowering those most directly affected by the military draft. With the war increasingly unpopular at home and no American victory in sight, the United States negotiated a peace treaty and withdrew from Vietnam in 1975. The music helped to build the antiwar community. Social protest provided young people with a voice they didn’t always have at the ballot box. Popular music, already a vital part of youth culture by the mid-1960s, became a vehicle through which they could hear their concerns put to music. The growing presence of television in nearly every American household thus exacerbated divisions over the conflict and helped fuel the antiwar movement. What Americans watched on television each night shaped their perceptions of the Vietnam War, which came to be known as the “living room war.” For some young Americans, called on to fight but unable to vote until the age of 21, the situation was unacceptable. ![]() Even before they shipped out, those who were drafted had begun to see the horrors of the war, most notably on television. As American involvement in Vietnam deepened, many in that age group faced the disconcerting reality of conscription. ![]() Prior to the antiwar demonstrations on and around college campuses, the Civil Rights movement in particular had increased student activism. In this period, protest music was among the most powerful means of voicing opposition to the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. Although protest music was not new - one finds rich examples of music calling for change in slave spirituals, labor songs, and even the popular songs produced on Tin Pan Alley during the first World War, for instance - it reached new heights in the 1960s, as many young Americans, facing mandatory participation in the war, grew increasingly outspoken in their dissent. Television, a relatively new phenomenon, showed both graphic, often brutal images of the Vietnam War and footage of social and political unrest at home. Just as the United States has a long, complicated history of war and international conflict, so too has the nation seen resistance to that activity. During the 1960s, however, protest against war became a particularly visible part of American life. ![]()
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