Final Paper
Did the counterculture of the 1960s have an enormous impact on the United States? The counterculture is known as the main cultural occurrence that began in the United States and spread worldwide. This countercultural movement picked up vast speed and became the revolutionary way for the people as well as the United States Government during the military invasion in Vietnam.
By mid March 1961 the John Birch Society had well over 95,000 members. This society was known as the despicable joke of the conservatism of the Republicans. Since the Society was taken this way, the feeling about the Society assisted in the defeat of the election of 1962 and the defeat of the National Election of 1964. The Kennedy Administration stayed fully committed to the efforts of the Cold War policy that was still in effect from the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson paid a visit to Saigon in May of 1961. During this visit he declared a man named Diem to be the Churchill figure of Asia. Kennedy’s policy against South Vietnam assumed that Diem and his followers needed to overcome and defeat the guerillas without assistance.
The United States Government looked at America’s involvement in the Vietnam War as the only way to put a stop to the communist uprising of South Vietnam. The Government of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong wanted to reunify all of Vietnam only under the communist rule. On July 23, 1962 Nations came together to sign an agreement to respect Laos in their choice to remain a neutral country. During this time the Mexican American college students were against the war in Vietnam and formed a committee known as the Chicano Moratorium Committee.
There was a large concern for the inequality of gen...
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...de it into the center and the metaphorical “war machine” continued its devastating path.
I’m pro the 1960s and do not have too many negative things to say except that you can really see just how corrupt our government was during these times. If people did not stand up and speak up then just imagine how much worse our government would be today. If the movements in the 1960s counterculture never took place then where would our nation be now? I thank all of the brave men and women of all races, ethnicities, and creeds that stood up to give me the voice I have today. I would have probably been a Mario Savio if I were around in the 60s. So many unjust acts occurred and many were never corrected. The only thing negative I can say about the 1960s counterculture is that I do not agree with the drugs, free sex, nor some of the violent riots and protests that were held.
However, many problems still remain in Vietnam. After the war there was a conference to discuss the troubles in Vietnam and all of the other troubles in Asia. That conference was called the Geneva Conference. Vietnam sent two delegations to the conference. One of the delegations represented Viet Minh (which was Communist in their leanings) and the other represented Bao Dia's government, which was backed by the United States.
The emergence of the American counter culture in the 1960s was directly connected to the youth of the generation. They vehemently opposed fundamental economic, social, and political doctrines, which they believed previous generations of Americans blindly accepted. The anti-establishment crusade of the counter culture created a Civil War like divide with in the country between traditionalist and reformist. Because the cultural movement was led by young people who opposed authority, traditionalist belittled reformist by attaching a stigma of rebellious adolescent behavior to their cause. Traditionalist ignored the core message of social
...ed the rest of his life. My grandfather told me that the sixties were some of the best years of his life. He married the love of his life at the beginning of the decade and by its’ final few years he had three beautiful children that would all go on to live happy lives. The decade had several near disasters but none of them materialized. Overall the sixties was a great time for America. The people were happy, technology was on the move, and the economy was booming. It was also a time where it finally looked like the U.S. was finally pulling ahead of the Soviet Union. We defused a crisis that forced the Soviets to stand down during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They may have beaten us into putting a man into space, but we won the final battle when we landed on the moon. The sixties no doubt had their lows, but they were outweighed by all the highs they brought with them.
American society and culture experienced an awakening during the 1960s as a result of the diverse civil rights, economic, and political issues it was faced with. At the center of this revolution was the American hippie, the most peculiar and highly influential figure of the time period. Hippies were vital to the American counterculture, fueling a movement to expand awareness and stretch accepted values. The hippies’ solutions to the problems of institutionalized American society were to either participate in mass protests with their alternative lifestyles and radical beliefs or drop out of society completely.
The 60s was the period of time when the baby boomers began to grow up and supplement their own ideas. The post World War II Baby Boom created 70 million teenagers for the sixties. This youth swayed fashion into their own favor by moving away from the conservative fifties. Also the fads and the politics of the decade were also influenced by the new generation.
Politics in the 1950s began with the election of President Eisenhower, the first Republican president in a long while. He was a tradition adhering man and was conservative in his thinking. He was a very cautious president, who was thought to leave all of the hard work to his aides. He was a well liked man and was very down-to-earth. However, he did not take action as he should, and that lack of leadership caused our country to stumble a little bit. Unlike the political life of Eisenhower, John Fitzgerald Kennedy broke o...
...vision industry as a gold mine for money. Advertising catered directly towards the hostile youths and hippies in order to appeal to the people. The counterculture deeply influenced society today by erasing the blatant disregard of the views of youth in earlier times. The counterculture became a presence in society that could not be ignored.
The sixties were a time of many political changes. Three men were president during this time period, and their actions both impacted and molded the events that occurred. At the beginning of the decade, John F. Kennedy was president. He was a democrat who promised to get the country moving again. During his administration, he was heavily involved with foreign affairs. He eased tensions with USSR and increased military aid to South Vietnam (Horton 177). John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 by a man named Lee Harvey Oswald (Smith 220).
After World War II, the French began a fight for their former colony of Indochina, which included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The French and other countries failed to see at that time the will and desire of the Vietnamese people to gain independence from foreign rule and to have their country unified. Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese nationalist, fought the French and overtook the North Vietnam capital of Hanoi with his followers, the Viet Minh, declaring the area the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. (Anderson, 2002) The French were unwilling to give up their colony and drove the Vietminh from many of the larger cities in the south. The United States entered the Vietnam struggle in 1950 when $15 million in aid was pledged to France in order to fight the Vietminh. (Anderson, 2002) The rationale was to align with France and keep the Soviet Union from expanding in Europe and to keep another country from falling into communist rule.
American involvement in Vietnam was largely in response to Cold War polices and Strategies. Kennedy took a much more laid back approach to Vietnam than Eisenhower did. He only wanted to support the South and not give them direct military aid by getting involved. Kennedy believed that the nations themselves should bear the burden of fighting the war and America would merely give them supplies and political support. However, the administration’s attempt to help the South largely failed because neither the South Vietnamese nor the Americans knew how to deal with guerrilla warfare. Another issue was that Diem’s support quickly declining to the point where it was just about his own family. He never trusted any popular government official in office, and would quickly replace them. Kennedy kept urging Diem to change his ways before all support for the South diminished (Kaiser). Between 1960 and 1968 Vietnam evolved into an American war and the tactics greatly affected the American soldiers.
During the sixties Americans saw the rise of the counterculture. The counterculture, which was a group of movements focused on achieving personal and cultural liberation, was embraced by the decade’s young Americans. Because many Americans were members of the different movements in the counterculture, the counterculture influenced American society. As a result of the achievements the counterculture movements made, the United States in the 1960s became a more open, more tolerant, and freer country.
The conflict in Vietnam for the United States started when President Dwight D. Eisenhower went along with the domino theory and sent in military advisors in South Vietnam to stop the communist movement from taking place in South Vietnam. The Vietnam conflict was between the communist’s and the United States. North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh, and Ho Chi Minh led the Viet Cong, a guerilla group to help spread communism. The United States were supporters of the South Vietnam because they wanted them to maintain their government rather than falling to the domino theory of communism. After Eisenhower’s term ended, John F. Kennedy became president and took control of the situation in Vietnam.
As the 1960s dawned on America, the bald eagle faced unprecedented threats from afar while facing a new internal struggle. As America continued their battle with the Soviet Union, it also saw a clash amongst its people. Terror was brought to the hearts of many as America was on the brink of a Nuclear Holocaust. The 60s conveyed an exploration of the universe beyond earth. A race between Superpowers America and the Soviet Union, led to the first man to ever walk the moon. Not all was bad in the 60s, people would rejoice in many new dance styles that were on the rise. With technology becoming more advance, many TV shows that portrayed American life were being aired. Life in America seemed great as it was disciplined by a great leader, John F. Kennedy. Sadly, with the loss of a great leader Americans became distraught. During the 1960s in cultural and political movements and musical movements, Americans were rebellious, enterprising, and impulsive.
The Hippie Movement changed the politics and the culture in America in the 1960s. When the nineteen fifties turned into the nineteen sixties, not much had changed, people were still extremely patriotic, the society of America seemed to work together, and the youth of America did not have much to worry about, except for how fast their car went or what kind of outfit they should wear to the Prom. After 1963, things started to slowly change in how America viewed its politics, culture, and social beliefs, and the group that was in charge of this change seemed to be the youth of America. The Civil Rights Movement, President Kennedy’s death, new music, the birth control pill, the growing illegal drug market, and the Vietnam War seemed to blend together to form a new counterculture in America, the hippie.
When people hear the term hippie, they think of men and woman in loose clothing with flowers weaved in their hair. Although these men and women did in fact wear these things, they left a significant impact on society. Hippies were a part of the Counterculture movement, which basic ideals were to reject the ideas of mainstream society. The movement itself began with the protesting of the Vietnam War. Eventually, the movement was more than just protesting the war. Hippies promoted the use of recreational drugs, religious tolerance; they also changed society’s views and attitudes about lifestyle and social behavior. The Counterculture movement was the most influential era in the 20th century because the people of this time changed society’s outlook, and broached the topics of drugs, fashion, and sexual freedom.