Vietnam
to Watergate: Youth, Rebellion, and
Détente
The final sections in this
reader ask students analyze and consider the crisis of the Vietnam war. American dissension over Vietnam remains high
today. Vietnam is still discussed and used by the Naval War College for
comparison with tactics and strategy in Iran and Afghanistan. War hawks have resurrected a number of
strategic options, including the strategic hamlet program to defeat Al-Qaeda in
the Swat Valley in Pakistan and in fighting insurgency in Iraq, particularly at
Al-Fallujah, and in Afghanistan. This is
an obvious area of considerable debate and requires students to engage in
rigorous research and thought. What Americans
rarely do is ask what was the nature of Vietnamese politics and society and how
American intervention chose alliances with an elite that was estranged from its
own people. In choosing to prop up a
small elite to run the Republic of South Vietnam in an authoritarian manner,
Americans chose to enrich a privileged few at the expense of alienation of the
mass population. The fusion of
nationalism with communism provided the NLF and Viet Cong with a potent
ideological advantage and ultimately victory over the United States and the
Republic by 1975. Domestically, the
youth revolution changed American society in profound ways. The best book to synthesize this phenomenon
and to explain how it forced a new diplomacy of détente on a global scale, is
Jeremy Suri’s Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente (2003). Suri
suggests the forces for détente and ultimately the fall of the Berlin Wall were
well under way before the Reagan presidency.
He suggest the pressure for détente was directly a result of mass
mobilization of international protest movements against militant states.
Mike Wallace Interview in June 1964
Malcolm X debates Martin Luther King Jr.
Malcolm X defines Black Nationalism, Activism, and African Identity
Grace Slick singing "Somebody to Love" with the San Francisco based rock band, Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock, 1969. Iconic. The lyrics here may be read as an anti-war song/poem:
Janis Joplin, "Piece of My Heart" live in Germany, 1968
Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, "Ballot of the the Green Berets"(1966)
These kind of songs from the country music heartland reflect the disparity of a draft system that allowed college deferments, in other words avoidance of the military draft, if you remained enrolled in college. This meant that a higher proportion of those who were drafted came from regions of the country with lower enrollments in college, which was the South and lower Midwest. Note the lyrics:
Kennedy Tapes, the National Security Memoranda and the Vietnam War - did it have a link to JFK's assassination?
The main National Security Council (NSC) memos and directives from
President Kennedy are available at the following websites. These are
crucial documents for analyzing the politics of the Cold War, and
deciding on the Kennedy administration's policies and involvement in
Cuba, Congo, Angola, Dominican Republic and Vietnam. Read the NSAM
directive no. 263 from Kennedy authorizing the withdrawal of troops from
Vietnam by the end of 1963.
JFK Library collection of National Secruity Advisory Memoranda (NSAM) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/NSAMs.htm
The National Archives collection at George Washington University has the main documents that have been declassified, or partly declassified http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB101/index.htm
On audio recordings of Kennedy's consideration for a coup against President Diem of South Vietnam http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB302/index.htm
A good historical archive of documents, including the Kennedy NSAM No. 263 directive on 10/11/1963 to withdraw advisors is at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/vietnam.htm
Internet Modern Sourcebook - Asia in the 20th Century - go to Vietnam Section http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook52.html
Vassar University research site on Vietnam http://vietnam.vassar.edu/abstracts/index.html
Texas Tech research site http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/
Vietnam Virtual Archive http://www.virtualarchive.vietnam.ttu.edu/starweb/virtual/vva/servlet.starweb?path=virtual/vva/virtual.web
Comparing US troop levels with Iraq and Afghanistan (Congressional Research Service Report) http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R40682.pdf
JFK Library collection of National Secruity Advisory Memoranda (NSAM) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/NSAMs.htm
The National Archives collection at George Washington University has the main documents that have been declassified, or partly declassified http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB101/index.htm
On audio recordings of Kennedy's consideration for a coup against President Diem of South Vietnam http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB302/index.htm
A good historical archive of documents, including the Kennedy NSAM No. 263 directive on 10/11/1963 to withdraw advisors is at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/vietnam.htm
Internet Modern Sourcebook - Asia in the 20th Century - go to Vietnam Section http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook52.html
Vassar University research site on Vietnam http://vietnam.vassar.edu/abstracts/index.html
Texas Tech research site http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/
Vietnam Virtual Archive http://www.virtualarchive.vietnam.ttu.edu/starweb/virtual/vva/servlet.starweb?path=virtual/vva/virtual.web
Comparing US troop levels with Iraq and Afghanistan (Congressional Research Service Report) http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R40682.pdf
Malcolm X and the redefining of Black identity
See this interview with Malcolm X at UC Berkeley, October 1963Mike Wallace Interview in June 1964
Malcolm X debates Martin Luther King Jr.
Malcolm X defines Black Nationalism, Activism, and African Identity
Youth Revolution in the 60s
The Beatles as men in black, wearing suits that mock the company ideal. See their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in New York, live national TV in 1964.
The Who, "My Generation," 1967 live on Smothers Brothers Show. as mod rockers, style is everything, dissent is my generation.
Grace Slick singing "White Rabbit" with the San Francisco based rock band, Jefferson Airplane, live on television for the Smothers Brothers show. Note the importance of female vocalists in the period and the psychedelic stage sets and designs that reference the introduction of drug culture and LSD.
Grace Slick singing "Somebody to Love" with the San Francisco based rock band, Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock, 1969. Iconic. The lyrics here may be read as an anti-war song/poem:
When the truth is found to be liesJimi Hendrix, "Hey Joe" (Seattle's own) at Monterey Pop Festival, 1967
And all the joy within' you dies
Don't you want somebody to love, don't you...
Need somebody to love, wouldn't you...
Love somebody to love, you better...
Find somebody to love
When the garden flowers baby are dead, yes and
Your mind, your mind is so full of red
Don't you want somebody to love, don't you...
Need somebody to love, wouldn't you...
Love somebody to love, you better...
Find somebody to love
Your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his
Yeah, but in your head, baby, I'm afraid you don't know where it is
Don't you want somebody to love, don't you...
Need somebody to love, wouldn't you...
Love somebody to love, you better...
Find somebody to love
Tears are running down and down and down your breast
And your friends, baby they treat you like a guest
Don't you want somebody to love, don't you...
Need somebody to love, wouldn't you...
Love somebody to love, you better...
Find somebody to love
Janis Joplin, "Piece of My Heart" live in Germany, 1968
Patriotic Populism - mobilizing support for the war in Vietnam
Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, "Ballot of the the Green Berets"(1966)
 | |
| Fig. 1 LP Album cover (source Wikipedia) |
Lyrics here:
Counter-Revolution against the War
Merle Haggard, "Okie from Muskogee" (1969) |
| Fig. 2 Okie from Muskogee |
These kind of songs from the country music heartland reflect the disparity of a draft system that allowed college deferments, in other words avoidance of the military draft, if you remained enrolled in college. This meant that a higher proportion of those who were drafted came from regions of the country with lower enrollments in college, which was the South and lower Midwest. Note the lyrics:
We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin' right, and bein' free.
I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball ----
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all
We don't make a party out of lovin';
We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo;
We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy,
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do.
And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball.
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all.
Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear;
Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen.
Football's still the roughest thing on campus,
And the kids here still respect the college dean.
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
In Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA.
