The Anti-War Movement
and the Counter-Culture
Changing opinions at home
Sections 20.3 and 21.1
Anger for the Escalation
• 1965 – less than a
year after the start,
Johnson issues a
draft for 17,00035,000 men per
month
• Casualty lists
broadcasted every
night
• Congressional
opposition begins to
grow in the gov’t
– Hawks vs. Doves
Causes of the Anger
• The Draft
– 1,500,000 men
• Deferments
– College kids
exempt
– Most draftees
are poor and
working class
Minority Frustration with the System
• Because deferments, African
Americans made up almost 10%
of the army but had 20% of the
casualties early in the war
• Less likely to be
officers
• More likely to be
posted in combat
positions
MLK Jr. Speaks Against the War
• Vietnam was
hurting the War on
Poverty
• The Irony: as
African Americans
received gov’t aid
on the one hand,
they were injured
by the gov’t on the
other
– Mohammad Ali
refused to fight
Oct. 1967: Stop the Draft Week
• Some draft-eligible men
burn their draft cards
• 1969 – pressure building,
draft boards switch to a
lottery system
Colleges Come to Represent
Resistance
• College enrollment
rises from
2,000,000 to
8,000,000 from
1946-1970
– Upper middle class,
white students
now start to resist
– Pushed by liberal
professors
– Students join
protests
Anti-War Demonstrations
Students for a Democratic Society
• SDS (Students for a
Democratic Society)
founded at University of
Michigan in 1960 to
combat racism
– Became anti-war leader
– By 1964 – SDS organized
campus “teach-ins” to
spread the movement
The Free Speech Movement
• UC Berkeley banned
organizing off campus
political activities while
on campus
• 1964 – student arrested
and FSM (Free Speech
Movement) surrounds
police car for 36 hour sitin
The Weather Underground
• Radically Anti-War
– Thought SDS was
too weak and
slow
– Bombed the
Pentagon, US
Capitol, and other
gov’t buildings
– Got Marxist and
urban war
training
The Tet Offensive
• 30 January 1968
• Truce called on Tet
(Vietnamese New Year)
– VC pretend to bury dead
but carried guns in the
coffins into cities
– All across South Vietnam
– massive, coordinated
attack
– Tet was put down but
looked bad on TV
Results of Tet
• US really wins Tet
– Media shows the carnage and
it is taken as a loss by the
citizens at home
– Turning point of Public
Opinion for the war
• Fuels anti-war movement
• US View – Vietnam is
unwinnable
• VC View – the people would
lead a popular uprising…nope
– VC kills thousands, turning
Vietnamese opinion against
them
The “Credibility Gap”
• Many Americans
distrust the
optimistic
statements about
the war from the
politicians
• Pessimism and
anti-war feelings
grow
The March Against Death
• 13 November 1969
• 250,000 march on
Washington holding
name cards of dead
soldiers
• One of the
leaders…Dr.
Benjamin Spock
• Organization – New
Mobilization
Committee to End
the War in Vietnam
(NMCEWV)
The US Invasion of Cambodia
• US tries to cut
Ho Chi Minh
Trail
• 4 May 1970 –
Kent State
Shootings
– 4 killed by
National Guard
as students riot
The Hard Hat Riot in NYC
• 8 May 1970
• Pro and Anti-War
rallies clash in NYC
The Counter-Culture
• The Beat Movement of
the 1950s combined
with the 1960s politics
=
– Those who rejected
America’s mainstream
values
– Different in dress,
music, behavior
Values of the Counter-Culture
• Don’t trust anyone
over 30
• Drugs lead to
enlightenment
• Music = cultural
revolution
• Personal freedom of
expression
• Make Love, Not War
Hippies
• Chinese opium
dens = bruises
on hips =
hippies
• Use of drugs to
escape
boundaries of
society
• Free love and
peace
The Sexual Revolution
• Wanted to separate
sex from marriage
• Communes
developed where
everything was
shared
Haight-Ashbury
• “Capital” of hippy drug
culture in San Francisco
• “Tune in” to hippie
culture, “turn on” to
drugs, and “tune out”
mainstream culture
Eastern Spirituality
• Interest in non-Western
religions grew in
Counter Culture
(rejection of Western
values and customs)
– Buddhism and a return to
“primitivism” (living off
the grid)
• Does this lead to
environmentalism?
Woodstock
• 1969 – 3 day rock
concert/festival
• Gathering for the
whole hippy
movement
• Seen as proof that
people can live in
harmony
Nixon’s Silent Majority Speech
• Nov 1969 – Nixon gave a speech to assure
the “Silent Majority” that the vocal
minority would not pull the nation apart
The Death of the 60s
• Altamount – Rolling Stones
hire Hell’s Angels to provide
security
• Charles Manson – his
“family” brutally murder
American “mainstream”
movie star family
• Death of rockers by drug
overdoses makes drugs less
appealing (Hendrix, Joplin,
Morrison)
The 1968 Election
The Signal to End the War?
The Winds of Change…
• Clark Clifford takes over for
Secretary of Defense
– McNamara had a “change of
heart” about the war
• Westmoreland wants more
troops to fight the war
– Clifford looks at Vietnam
– Tells LBJ to pursue PEACE
over VICTORY
1968 Democratic Primary
• Politically weakened, LBJ
challenged by Anti-War
candidates Eugene McCarthy
and Robert Kennedy
• March 1968 – LBJ announces
he won’t run for reelection
– “Hey, Hey LBJ! How many kids
did you kill today?”
Two More Deaths
• MLK Jr. – April 1968
– Outspoken critic of the war
(killed by James Earl Ray)
• Robert F. Kennedy – June
1968
– Killed while campaigning in
California by Palestinian
Sirhan Sirhan
• Revenge for Israeli support)
The 1968 Democratic Convention
in Chicago
• As convention starts, antiwar protests begin
– Mayor Daly orders the
National Guard and police to
the scene
• Democrats elect pro-war VP
Hubert Humphrey over antiwar Eugene McCarthy
– VIOLENCE!!
A Disunited Front
• The chaos at the convention
strengthens Nixon’s (R)
candidacy
– Promises “Peace with Honor”
in Vietnam
– Vowed to represent the silent,
peaceful majority in US
– Southern Strategy
• Splits S. Democrats who want
peace and order
• Gov. Wallace splits Democratic
vote (yes he is still a racist)