Explain an example from one of the assigned primary sources that demonstrates that the Vietnam War was a contentious issue during the 1960s and early 1970s.

The Tumultuous 1960s and Early 1970s

Answer the 6 questions below. Question 5 and 6 have some other questions embedded.

1. Explain an example from one of the assigned primary sources that demonstrates the nation’s focus on poverty during the 1960s.

2. Explain an example from one of the assigned primary sources that demonstrates the perspectives/goals of the feminist movement during the 1960s.

3. Explain an example from one of the assigned primary sources that demonstrates the United States’ rationale for intervening in the Vietnam War.

4. Explain an example from one of the assigned primary sources that demonstrates that the Vietnam War was a contentious issue during the 1960s and early 1970s.

5. The Vietnam War was among a number of issues that polarized popular opinion in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Viewed carefully, it is apparent how “Vietnam,” the 1968 campaign ad for Richard Nixon, attempted to appeal to both opponents and supporters of the war in Vietnam.

After the Tet Offensive of January 1968, the majority of Americans turned from support to opposition to the Vietnam War. CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite’s famous appraisal of the state of the war in the wake of the Tet Offensive—”To say t

hat we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory, conclusion”—is provided in the supplementary primary sources.

Once elected, as noted in The American Promise, President Richard Nixon assumed command of the Vietnam War. What measures did the Nixon administration to maintain the war effort?

How did Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Nixon, in his “silent majority” speech (both are available in the supplementary primary sources), respond to those who opposed the war in Vietnam? Note that citizens responded to Nixon’s “silent majority” speech, in the links to the Letters to Richard Nixon, 1969. For what reasons did they support or disagree with Nixon?

6.  Popular music, like other primary source evidence, can be used to explore and understand the past. For example, consider “Ohio,” the protest song that the rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young produced in May 1970 in response to the events at Kent State. (Protest against Richard Nixon’s Vietnam War policies erupted in May 1970, including at Kent State University in Ohio.

Interviews with two students at Kent State, Carol Mirman and Jim Vacarella, supplement the brief account of the events at Kent State in The American Promise.) This song is one of several examples of music provided in the supplementary primary sources in this module that were created during the 1960s and early 1970s in response to social and political events in American society.

Choosing one of the songs from the supplementary primary sources, on what social/political events does the work comment? What message does the song convey?

How does its message relate to other assigned primary source evidence in this module? What specific connections do you note between the chosen song and the social and political developments of the 1960s and 1970s?

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