War in Films: Universal Soldier

Every war will have those who support the war and those who are against the war. In 1965, those who were against the Vietnam War made their views known by many forms of protesting such as forming organizations, rallying, and anti-war protest music. Anti-war protest music was an opportunity to put people’s perspectives into song to hopefully spread their message. Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote the song “Universal Soldier” in 1962 and her message was that “Universal Soldier is about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all” (Boulanger). The song “Universal Soldier” was used as a protest anthem during the Vietnam War and attempts to untangle one of the paradoxes of life that war never leads to peace through examining a soldier that is representative of every soldier in every nation.

The original “Universal Soldier” cover was released in 1964 by Buffy Sainte-Marie who was a well-known singer-songwriter of the 1960’s and “best-known for her incisive protest anthems” (Perea) Beverly Sainte-Marie, nicknamed Buffy, was born on February 20, 1941 on the Piapot Cree Free Nations Reserve in Canada. She was later adopted at a young age by an American family of Mi’kmaq Native American descent due to the death of her mother. Buffy was raised in Maine and Massachusetts, resulting in her gaining a dual citizenship for Canada and the United States. Sainte-Marie attended the University of Massachusetts where she started performing her own songs in local coffeehouses. Vanguard Records signed Sainte-Marie and in 1964 her first album, It’s My Way, was released (Perea). This album contained the song “Universal Soldier” which gained attention from the Scottish folk singer, Donovan. Donovan was an acclaimed singer in the 1...

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...ace. During the Vietnam War, soldiers had no choice of whether or not to go to war. Refusing the draft could lead to prison time, 2,000 men were detained in prison for refusing the draft and those were only the ones who got caught out of the 200,000 that protested against the draft (Tindall 1353).

Although Sainte-Marie makes a valid point that without followers there would be no war, war is inevitable. There are too many human beings who are power hungry and will use any means to achieve that power. The Vietnam War was disliked by many Americans because the United States did not necessarily have to engage in that war, evident by the reuniting of South Vietnam and North Vietnam two years after the United States pulled out all the soldiers (Vietnam). “Universal Soldier” was written with bias but was for the most part accurate with regards to the history of the war.