the distinctive views of the sharon statement and port huron satement

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This essay will examine two documents, The Sharon Statement (1960) and The Port Huron Statement (1962). Both of these documents attempt to defend the liberty of the citizens of the United Sates and demonstrate an opinion on how the government of the United States should approach the future of the country. While both the students in The Sharon Statement and The Port Huron Statement fought for a route to greater freedom, The Sharon Statement supported the founders’ conservative intentions for the United States while The Port Huron Statement proposed a liberal expansion of the government in order to protect individual freedom.
During the 1960’s, there was a rising tide of protests that were taking place. College students began to stand up for their rights and protest for a stronger voice in society. The United States was going through a tough period marked by the Cold War against communism and also the war in Vietnam. From Truman to Nixon the United States government involved the country more and more in Vietnam. Nixon announced a new policy in 1968 called Vietnamization. (Foner, 4th edition, pg.1028) This policy would bring American troops back home, but it neither limited the war nor ended the antiwar movements.
This situation was one of the many reasons that lead to the people’s dissatisfaction. The growths of conservative movements were beginning to be uncovered. With the founding in 1960 of Young Americans for Freedom, conservative students emerged as a force in politics. The Sharon Statement became to be about when ninety young students gathered at an estate of a conservative, William F. Buckley in Sharon, Connecticut. The Sharon Statement was adopted on September 11, 1960. The statement provided a set amount of principles...

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...he commitment of American troops overseas.
The regrets of the many lives lost in Vietnam. The former secretary of defense Robert McNamara published a memoir, two decades after the war ended. In the memoir he admitted that the policy he helped create was “terribly wrong”. He stated that the ignorance of the history, the culture of Vietnam, and the misguided belief that every communist movement in the world was led by Moscow, had led the United States into a war that was unwinnable and regrettable. (Foner, 4th edition, pg.1030) The students of The Port Huron Statement were right by being against the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was a military, political, and social disaster. Which only brought casualties in the lives of American people. It was an unforgivable mistake caused by Presidents that feared that the public would not forgive them for “losing” the Vietnam War.

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