Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Americans became uneasy not only about the troubled

position of the United States in world affairs, but also about the disorder wrought at home by
foreign entanglements. Vietnam, either because of the searing war experience itself or because of
the lessons Americans later drew from the experience, drastically altered society during the
1960s and 1970s. The belief in the right to influence the internal affairs of other countries led to
disaster in Southeast Asia. This disaster would forever be known as the longest war in the
nation's history (lasted 25 years), in which the world's most powerful military (United States)
spent itself in a futile attempt to subdue a peasant people. Vietnam became another test in the
containment of communism for the United States. Overlooking the native roots of the revolution
and the tenacity of the people fighting for their own land, American leaders are going to make
the mistake of looking at Vietnam from a globalist point-of-view, and the events through a Cold
War lens. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, came to recognize this as their flaw in the war, he stated
that the United States had "misconceived the nature of the war" (Doc. E). Ultimately, the
Vietnam War would come to heighten tensions in the social, political, and economic aspects of
the United States during the mid-1960s and early 1970s.

The social turbulence along with the growing movement opposing the Vietnam War gave
rise to Black Power, the radical politics of the New Left, and a revived women's movement. The
Americanization of the war in Vietnam bothered growing numbers of Americans. Television
coverage brought the horrid pictures of combat into families' homes every night. Innocent
civilians were caught in the line of fire, and villages considered friendly to the enemy were
burned to the ground. Essentially, America's missions were counterproductive; rather than
winning the war, they were molding an ever-growing population of anti-American peasants who
gave secret aid to the Vietcong. Atrocious stories such as the My Lai massacre sparked antiwar
sentiments in the United States. In this massacre, American units, frustrated by their inability to
pin down an elusive enemy, shot to death scores of unarmed women and children. This incident
sparked even more frenzy when it was learned that the government tried to cover the incident up
for more than twenty months. As the war ground on to no discernable conclusion, the army grew
troubled, and morale sagged. Martin Luther King Jr. continued to be the most admired leader of
the civil rights movement. He believed that the negroes were being overlooked as far as civil
rights were concerned, and that the nation was focusing more on foreign than domestic issues
(Doc. C). Then a new concept emerged; in 1966 Stokely Carmichael called on blacks to assert
Black Power, in order to be truly free from white oppression. This was black nationalism at its
finest. Groups such as the Black Panthers arose with the ideals to denounce major political
parties and big business, and strove to "change the system". Inspired by the Free Speech
Movement, a minority of students joined the New Left. Those who joined the New Left were
united in their hatred of racism and the Vietnam War. The New Left was not a single
organization or even a single movement. Some believed in pursuing social change through
negotiation; others were revolutionists who regarded compromise as impossible. In the wake of
the New Left, appeared a phenomenon that observers called the counterculture. It reflected new
attitudes towards drugs, sex, and ways of life. Rock festivals became cultural happenings, the
most famous of which was Woodstock. It was an upstate New York festival that attracted over
400,000 youths who sought alternative experiences through drugs and music. As the Vietnam
War escalated, the New Left and the counterculture discovered a common cause and rooted itself
into society. With such movements, it was not surprising when the National Organization for
Women was founded in 1966 ( its purpose was to establish equal rights in partnership with men).
Not long after its formation, a new generation of radical feminists emerged which had a drastic
impact in American life. Unlike the members of NOW, the radical feminists practiced direct
action, as they protested the view of women as servants and sex objects who were pressured to
conform to society's expectations. Women came to realize that they, just as blacks, were second-
class citizens. As the war dragged on, many began to change their position of its purpose and
necessity. Thousands of young men also expressed their opposition to the war by fleeing the
draft. During the war, half a million men committed draft violations. James Fallows wrote about
this experience, he stated that the men signing up for service were like "cattle of to slaughter".
He believed that the nation was sending the troops into a difficult situation, in which high
casualties would occur (Doc. F). This was the essence of the antiwar protests. Marches and
demonstrators against the Vietnam War became a popular protest tactic. In October of 1965, the
national committee to end war mobilized 80,000 people in demonstrations across the nation.
During the next two years Students for Democratic Society (SDS) led groups in antiwar marches
of several hundred thousand people in New York and San Francisco. There was even a song
made in 1965 (I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die) that basically stated that the youth of America
were being sent off to their death in Vietnam (Doc. B). By this time, a major part of the
American public had stop believing in their elected leaders, and wondered what good would
come of the war.

The war abroad, brought on inflation and the rise of economic tensions throughout the
nation. Determined to unite the country behind the unfulfilled legislative program of the
martyred president, President Johnson pushed the new program he called the Great Society. He
advocated a "War on Poverty" and in 1964 he signed into law the Economic Opportunity Act of
1964, which allocated almost $1 billion to fight poverty. Two bills enacted in 1965 became
legislative milestones in the economic realm. The Medicare program insure the elderly against
medical and hospital bills. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act became the first
general program of federal aid to education. However, these times of aid could not help anyone
with the skyrocketing inflation in 1971. Massive deficit spending to support both the Vietnam
War and the Great Society had fueled the inflation. Soon the word stagflation would be coined to
describe this coexistence of economic recession and inflation. In August, in an effort to correct
the nation's blance-of-payments deficit, Nixon announced he would devalue the dollar by
allowing it to "float" in the international markets. Finally, to curb inflation, President Nixon
froze prices, wages, and rents for ninety days, then sent limits on their increase. The inflation
cause by the acts of the Great Society greatly heightened the tension that the nation was feeling
during this time period.

Because of the increasing struggles the United States were experiencing in the Vietnam
War, political tensions intensified as it dragged on. What came to heighten the tension in the
political realm, and what persuaded the United States to take action in Vietnam, was the Domino
Theory. This was a speculation that if communists were allowed to take over one country, then
all neighboring countries would fall to communism. This theory sent shudders down America's
spine, because it meant that the U.S. would lose influence in international affairs. In August of
1964, an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of North Vietnam, led to accelerated
American war making. On August 2, the U.S.S. Maddox, came under attack from northern
Vietnam patrol boats. Even thought the Maddox sailed away unscathed by the incident,
American leaders had no problem in using this as a motivation for serious action. President
Lyndon B. Johnson knew that the evidence available was questionable, but he went forward to
face the American people on television and stated that the United States was retaliating against
unprovoked attack. Thus on August 7, Congress gave LBJ the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which
authorized the president to "take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the
forces of the United States." (Doc. A) Over time, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution would come to
serve as the Declaration of War that Congress never voted on. Only in 1970 would Senators
repeal it, realizing too late, that Congress had surrendered their powers in the foreign policy
process by giving the president a wide latitude to conduct war. Then in 1973, Congress would
also come to pass the War Powers Act, further limiting executive power in war (Doc. I). In
January of 1968, a shocking event forced Johnson to reappraise his position on the war. During
the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces struck all across
south Vietnam, capturing provincial capitals. The destruction of the village of Ben Tre, revealed
the cost of driving the Vietcong out. "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it." This
became known as the Tet Offensive, and it jolted Americans as they began to question the
purpose of the war. The Tet Offensive and its impact on public opinion bewildered the White
House. It showed the Americans that the war in Vietnam could not be won. As antiwar protests
increased dramatically, President Johnson on March 31, 1968 announced that he had stopped the
bombings on North Vietnam, and had already begun negotiations. At home, the war had brought
inflation, attacks on civil liberties, and retrenchment from reform programs. When Nixon went in
as president after the election of 1968, he too faced much chaos. Nixon's misfortunes would
increase in 1971. On June 13, the New York Times began to publish the Pentagon Papers, a top-
secret study of the Vietnam War ordered in 1967. The study revealed that the government had
consistently lied to the American people about the war. This angered many Americans, because
they believed that the so-called "attacks" on America might have been a lie orchestrated to rally
public opinion in favor for the war. These tension would only come to heighten with following
cover-ups and lies to the American public.

The experience of the Vietnam War called into question the ideals and values of the
nation. A majority of the people came to see the effects of the war as a threat to their economic
well-being, social stability, and political system. After the war, Americans had not reached a
consensus about the lessons of the Vietnam War; but fearing America's slippage from its high
world rank, Americans were eager to restore its pre-eminence and repair their own frayed
society.