Opposition to the Vietnam War

Reasons for the growth of opposition

The student movement

-many young people rejected the attitudes of previous generations and wanted social change (a new 'counter culture' was emerging)

-many students were opposed to the draft

-students numbers increased from 6 million in 1965 to 8.5 million in 1970

-students felt that the war was another example of the abuse of power

-protest singers (eg Bob Dylan) became popular

TV and media coverage of the war

-the Vietnam war was the first to be publicised and seen on TV, lots of media coverage
-media also covered the large scale anti war protests that were spreading across the USA (worsened by colour TV)

-TV and photographs revealed brutality on civilliians and that the USA had little hope

-Americans started to think reporters were being more honest than politicians

-reports inspired people to get involved in understanding and debating issues

-felt that government was misrepresenting the war and could not be trusted to keep the public informed

The draft system

-forced men 18-25 to serve, sent draft cards telling them where to report for duty

-1966, first men chose on account of not behaving in socially acceptable ways (eg petty crime), then volunteers, then men aged 18-25

-1969, lottery system introduced- men born between 1944 and 1950 were issued a number and called up at random

-of the 2.6 million US soldiers, 650,000 were draftees

-led to widespread criticism about unfairness as poor people were the hardest hit

-draft dodging was a criminal offence, people had to go into hiding/flee to Canada…