The Portrayal of Opposition to the Vietnam War in Contemporary Literature, Film and Popular Song
Literature:
During the Vietnam War, so many people were opposed to it they began
to write articles and stories to address their community and fellow
Americans. They tried to express their views on America’s involvement
in the Vietnam War. Most of the middle classed youths were destined to
be drafted and through these articles and stories they tried to sway
the public opinion. In the early seventies they began to make
pamphlets and magazines, which contained pictures and information
about the young men at war who had lost their lives in the conflict.
These radical youths were most definitely biased, they didn’t believe
in showing both sides of the argument, as it was these children who
were going to suffer at the end of it all.
However, apart from these radical youths, there were the newspapers.
These newspapers still wanted to keep patriotism alive within America,
so they were highly conservative, supporting the war and every move
America made. Any tactics or information about the war the government
released these newspapers supported because it was the government kept
them employed.
Although the newspapers were conservative, there was a new form of
“news” to hit America, a magazine called “Life”. It was introduced to
the public in 1969 and its contents stunned the American civilians
into antiwar protests. It was an anti-war magazine, but it didn’t
force people to oppose it, it gave them the choice. However it did
manage to sway most Americans opinion by showing pictures of almost
250 young men who had been killed in Vietnam in...
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...t after the last troops were withdrew from the war. This is
where the cartoonist has and uses his benefit of Hindsight. By using
this caption as he does demonstrates that the promise of each
President to end the war and the expectation of Americas population
had been false. Although Johnson stated that vietnam wasn’t worthy of
fighting america the cartoonist illustrated the fact that the war had
been dragged through five preidencys, each believing that they had
what it took to end the war and that the end would be soon. This
victory was not around the corner and was not even achieved.
Therefore we can see that these sources contradict Johnsons views on
the “fourth rate, raggedy ass little county” which was vietnam. This
was the small country who managed to force america to withdraw their
men and efforts from the war.