welcome to this online lesson about
opposition to the Vietnam War the aims
today are to know some reasons why
people oppose the war in Vietnam
secondly to explain what factors
affected this opposition and thirdly to
link reasons for opposition together and
see what relationships there are as I do
now tasks you can consider the following
the following factors can influence the
amount of opposition of war can face
which do you think is the most relevant
in the case of the Vietnam War
how much the war costs how many enemies
are killed how many soldiers are killed
in this case US soldiers how long the
war lasts and the reasons the war is
being fought in the first place if you
want to give this an time and thought
pause the video now what thoughts have
we come up with well the fact is that
all of these factors would have had some
bearing on people's opposition to the
war and much of it was related to the
age of the people for example how many
year soldiers would were killed would
have mattered most of the people who
were families of soldiers who were
either serving or who unfortunately had
paid that price how much the war cost
might have mattered more to high
taxpayers and do politicians so there's
no wrong answer but it gives you an idea
that just talking about opposition is
not a a simple task and it's not one
that relies on this any single factor we
must consider all of these in different
variations if we're going to understand
why people oppose the Vietnam War just
the one term includes compendium of
annoying old-fashioned words that you
need to know today and that is
counterculture this is the culture of
young people of the 1960s that quite
simply went against traditional values
sex drugs and rock and roll some this up
you may have heard of for example the
hippie movement that would be considered
part of the counterculture much of the
popular music of the time also was a
part of this counterculture what must be
realized is that the young people of the
1960s often had parents who were young
people during World War two this was a
very different time by the time they
were raising families in the 1950s for
example many traditional values for
example women staying at home and doing
housework while the men went out and
provided for their families had kind of
crept back into American society it was
also linked with their traditional views
on Christianity for example so there's
quite a complicated
for an idea that's actually quite
well-known some tasks then record and
explain this key term then as an
extension why might counterculture be
related to protest against the Vietnam
War
thirdly it has a challenge can you
identify any examples of 60s
counterculture if you want to have a go
at those tasks press pause on the video
now and then press play when you're
ready to continue okay what did you come
up with did you identify any examples of
sixties counterculture well if you
didn't I've included in the description
to this video a link to a particular
counterculture song which sums up many
of the views of the sixties
counterculture and the hippie vibe of
the era it's a video taken from the
famous Woodstock Music Festival in 1969
it shows Country Joe and the fish
singing their song fixing to die rack
this is a very obvious and
tongue-in-cheek and quite human humorous
song that criticizes the Vietnam War
much as I can't condone country Joe's
language at certain points in this video
that in itself is quite a good reminder
of what the counterculture was all about
it was a rebellion against what we
considered traditionally acceptable so
watch that if you'd like to have an
example of a counterculture song from
the 1960s and going into the early 1970s
we'll move on we're going to look now at
some generalized views as why some
people were against the war and some
people were for it to get some clues
first of all let's have a look at the
pictures on the left we can see a young
man with long hair you might call him a
stereotypical hippie he's holding a
small piece of paper up in the air it is
likely that this is his draft card which
was related to conscription in the Army
a common act of rebellion was to either
burn as Luke Liang looks like what's
happening here or tearing up your draft
card as a way of opposing the draft also
look at the signs and their messages
these are typical anti-war sentiments at
the time on the other hand on the right
we can see a more stereotypical American
patriot carrying the flag he looks more
middle-class smartly dressed in a tie
and he's definitely older than the
people on the left
he carries a sign that says mr.
president do not go sell us out to Red
China or Moscow against Liberty red in
this case refers to communism which was
the ruling political system in those
country
at this time and indeed remain so in
China to this day when we have a look at
these anti-war and pro war views we are
talking about stereotypes here and
generalizations nevertheless they should
give you a good idea of some of the
broad themes as to why people were
against the wall or for it they're
listening to the series of statements
and we'll have a look at the anti-war
ones first the draft is not fair all war
is wrong the South Vietnamese government
is repressive no Vietnamese ever caused
a black person
well the n-word which I won't say here
but I'm sure you know it at the point
here is that this is at the same time
the Civil Rights campaign's were showing
that black people in America were
treated as second-class citizens and the
point was being made that the Vietnamese
were not to blame for that money should
be spent on improving the ghettos also
related to the civil rights movement an
American action is killing children in
Vietnam now let's have a look at some of
the pro war sentiments support our
troops we have to fight communism it's a
real threat tell the North Vietnamese to
be pacifist remember pacifists of people
who are against war my brother died for
his country we need to keep fighting
we're fighting for the freedom of the
South Vietnamese and I've been there we
have to fight the VC presumably that
would be said by a soldier returning who
wants the job done a task then firstly
summarize the reasons for support and
opposition in two short paragraphs try
to include several of these statements
or several of these sentiments within
each paragraph further summarize the
reasons in each for three in three words
each I'll say that again part to further
summarize the reasons in three words
each so choose three words to sum up the
anti-war sentiment and three key words
to sum up the pro war sentiment pause
the video now and when you're ready to
continue just press play I wonder what
three words you came up with well for
anti-war you might have come up with
something like pacifism you might have
come up with civil rights as well over
those that that might be hyphenated
rather than truly being one word you
might have come up with injustice simile
for pro war you might have come up with
anti-communist again
two words but if hyphenated we can count
them as one you might have come up with
patriotic and you might have come up
with traditional this is often a view of
older people who have more traditional
values rather than the counterculture
but whatever you came up with hopefully
it will make these themes more memorable
to you moving on we're going to do a
research and revise topic now here
you're gonna have to be a bit more
independent I'm going to give you some
of the basic background to each of these
different themes within this
presentation but it'll be up to you to
go away and use online resources or
books to find the rest of the
information that you need so this will
be today's main task you will create
either mind maps or revision summaries
based upon the following themes you will
create summaries for each of the
following topics student opposition this
is including SDS which were students
from a Democratic Society opposition to
the draft
this is conscription into the army media
coverage of the Vietnam War and the meal
I massacre of 1968 a word about me like
there's no two ways about it
meal I is simply horrible be careful
what sources you use for this especially
if you're using online sources you may
well come across some images which are
pretty shocking and very unpleasant
indeed so you use a real amount of
caution when you're looking at me like I
will talk you through the basics of me
light on here so that you can make a
more informed choice about where you get
your information from
I'll also be including a video which is
a really good job of summing up the
background to me lie as one of the links
in the description and I do urge you to
watch that as one of your main sources
of information about that horrible event
something you might want to consider in
terms of what to include is the very
basics for each of these topics you want
to have a look at who was involved why
did they hold these anti-war views and
how did they protest what change did
they bring about when were they most
active and as an extension this could be
related to events in Vietnam or indeed
in the USA itself
remembering the links that this has to
be civil rights topic as of extension
you could also explain potential links
between topics links between students
and the draft and a little remind
have one a country during the fishes
lyrics out there too this would be a
good screen to pause it on if you want
to take a screenshot for example of the
main instructions for today's task
before we move on to the basics for each
of those four main topics we're going to
have a look at student opposition first
firstly student opposition who well it
involved 8.5 million students by 1970 so
a very significant protest movement why
many young people rejected their parents
generations views remember this idea
with the counterculture that rebelled
against these traditional views how
while burning draft cards strikes and
boycotts and also protest marches the
burning of the draft cards didn't just
affect the men who were being
conscripted remember their friends and
any woman in their life were often
equally horrified at the idea that their
loved ones were going to be drafted what
did they do
well student groups like students for a
Democratic Society who you can have a
good look at got media attention but
they were a minority and they were
mostly white and middle class this often
led to them getting accusations of being
privileged which somewhat blunted some
of their effect when well throughout the
war but particularly in 1970 when Nixon
expanded the war into Cambodia and in
1971 when the war expanded into Laos as
well
we're going to be having a look at an
example of a student protest movement
and a disaster that happened as a result
of it at a place called Kent State
that's given you a bit of introduction
to your first group make some notes on
it and then go away and do your own
research when you ready revisit this and
press play okay we're gonna have a look
at topic 2 now the draft in the picture
we can see a draft card
draft cards were drawn supposedly at
random and they would include the
information that you could see on there
and once your draft card was drawn you
basically have very little choice but to
join the army there were ways out of it
but it wasn't easy as we'll see so who
opposed the draft men aged 18 or over
but few been older than 26 those are the
main people who were drafted into the
army being of an age where
they were usually most physically fit
and healthy to serve in the Armed Forces
why
well people saw the lottery system as
unfair as wealthier people were more
often exempt or were able to avoid the
draft for example some wealthy people
were able to get doctors to sign medical
forms of them saying that they were
unfit for service
indeed controversially President Donald
Trump was deemed unfit for service by
his doctor whether or not that's really
true it does show that people who came
from a position of wealth and privilege
were often more likely to be able to
avoid the draft how well burning draft
cards by setting up clinics to give
advice on avoiding the draft so people
who had managed to avoid the draft
before could give advice to those who
perhaps didn't have that information
also what were they or 170,000
conscientious objectors avoided the
draft this was legal but the process of
actually doing it was quite humiliating
similarly 50,000 people left the USA
illegally for example they might have
crossed the bird the border into Canada
and settled there to avoid the draft
again this was all often done illegally
so that there settle status in those
countries which could be called into
question but by the time they might get
called back the war was often over or
they were too old when we're from 1965
when the draft was introduced before
this point the draft was not used to get
men to join the army moving on to the
next task
media coverage in the pictures here we
see two of the reporters from the CBS
News Channel at the top we see a man
called Morley Safer this is part of a
famous 1964 report from a village called
cam ney we can see a distressed
Vietnamese villager in the background
this particular report was one of the
earliest to show the effects of Search
and Destroy missions to the American
public and caused widespread shock
underneath we can see Walter Cronkite
this is a screen grab from his address
after the Tet Offensive in which he
argued that the war in Vietnam could not
be won in the way that the politicians
have been saying
Cronkite was one of the most respected
and trusted journalists in America and
very much a household name so who
newspapers and TV news
coverage particularly CBS reporter
Morley Safer at the top and CBS News
anchor Walter Cronkite down below why
well the news media went from mostly
supporting political decisions but the
on-the-scene reporting called into
question the actions of US leaders and
soldiers and that was not covered up
remember this is one of the first Wars
to be reported truly on the television
rather than just in newspapers or in the
cinemas newspapers and cinemas were
easier to censor and for example in
world war ii censorship was very much
common within these forms of media it
was less easy to censor on the scene
news reporting how well by presenting
accurate and vivid reports of the war
and what well the coverage of events
like the burning of Cal May in 1965 as
we can see in the top photograph and the
Tet Offensive of 1968 as you can see in
the bottom photograph increased public
opposition to the war which they saw as
both unjust and unwinnable make any
notes that you want to on this do your
research and when ready we'll move on to
part three oh I should bad this was
increasingly critical as the war went on
for example the news media started as
broadly supportive of the war and its
leaders and as the war was more visibly
going wrong they became more critical
now on to the next topic now we move on
to the least pleasant topic that we'll
be looking at today and arguably in this
entire series of Vietnam War videos the
me Lai massacre look at the photograph
first of all it'll serve as an
introduction to what we're going to be
dealing with here and I'm sorry to say
that this is one of the least
distressing photographs that I have
related to this event
it shows Vietnamese villagers from me
live rounded up by American servicemen
who have their guns pointed towards them
and the shock and distress and upset on
their faces is all too evident notice
too that these are not combatants there
are women children and elderly people
there shortly after this photograph was
taken these rounded up civilians were
murdered I use that word quite
deliberately this is not a simple case
of people being caught in the crossfire
in a war
these people were deliberately roundup
and they were massacred by US soldiers
this is a controversial topic and one
that is deeply unpleasant I'm going to
be showing another photograph in a
moment which shows the effects of the me
lie Massacre and does show dead bodies
on a road this again is not the most
unpleasant image that I will show you
and it's certainly not the most
unpleasant image out there so be really
careful when you're looking for this
stuff if you'd prefer not to look at
this and you'd prefer to watch the video
I've linked in the description to find
out about me lie then please do so now
you can always skip to the end of this
video I'll come back to this at another
time when you understand a bit more I'll
leave that up to you this image shows
some of the women and children who were
rounded up and massacred and me like it
shows one of the roads leading out of
the village and as you can see they have
simply been gunned down so how does this
link in with opposition to the war well
first of all meal I happened a couple of
years before it really came to
prominence public knowledge but let's
find out the background so who took part
in the malai massacre these were
American soldiers of the so called C
Company commanded by a lieutenant Calley
why or reports and photographs of me
light was shocking and gruesome people
questioned the behavior of US soldiers
and wondered how typical this event was
of their conduct in Vietnam how well
cally was convicted but barely punished
he spent a couple of years under house
arrest all the others were not convicted
some demanded better punishments for the
other people who took part that is but
there was little support for this and
indeed many people felt that even Callie
should not have been punished or what
happened perhaps certain people in
America had become hardened to the
realities of the war
well what Nixon promised to review the
case 65% of American people disagreed
with Kelly's life sentence and 77
percent felt the soldiers were only
following orders this is what I mean
about Americans being hardened and
bothered to the realities of the war
when did it happen where the massacre
itself happened in 1968 but it came to
more public prominent and prominent
public attention in 1970 and 71 during
Kali's trial yes as we will see was also
an era of heightened opposition to the
Vietnam War making notes that you want
to before conducting your own research
and again I do urge you to be cautious
in finding information about this
horrible event you can pause the video
now and press play when you're ready to
continue okay before we continue I'm
going to show you two other images of
the meal a massacre I'm going to explain
what they're all about and again I do
warn you that these are deeply
unpleasant images I would skip forward
around two minutes if you do not wish to
see these videos images the first image
shows women and children being rounded
up by the soldiers the fact the matter
is the woman in the front is buttoning
up her blouse because she has just been
sexually assaulted by the soldiers yes
that was another aspect of the meal I
Massacre the crimes done to these
civilians were not just physical they
were psychological and they were often
sexual in nature as well the last image
does show two dead bodies on a road and
a certain amount of blood again it's not
the worst image that I could show you
but it's about as bad an image as I am
prepared to show you on this YouTube
channel it shows a young boy and an
older man dead on the road outside cam
day you can see that they have been hit
by multiple machine-gun bullets it truly
is an awful scene and we must understand
that these are not unique scenes in war
but meal I was one of the more clear-cut
instances of where American soldiers had
committed an atrocity these were not
people who were caught in the crossfire
these are not people had been
accidentally killed this was
cold-blooded stuff we'll move on now
I'm afraid this next case study does
little to lighten the mood the Kent
State shootings of 1970 let's have a
look at the photographs first of all in
top photograph we can see soldiers armed
with weapons firing tear gas as student
protesters outside one of the Kent State
University campus buildings these are
not soldiers in the sense that we might
be associating with the Vietnam War
normally these are national guardsmen
these are more like part-time soldiers
who are controlled by the state governor
in the
instance rather than professional
soldiers we've encountered these sorts
of troops before when we've looked at
the Civil Rights Campaign for example it
was National Guardsmen who were
initially used to bar entry to black
students at Little Rock High School in
1957 in the photograph underneath we see
Mary Ann Vecchio who was a
fourteen-year-old girl at the time
screaming over the body of Geoffrey
Miller one of the victims of the
massacre let's find out what happened at
Kent State in 1970 a shocking event
occurred at Kent State University Ohio
US soldiers or rather national guardsmen
opened fire on US citizens here's what
happened in the days leading up to this
event on May the first violence was
sparked between anti-war and pro war
students at the Kent State University
campus this was sparked by Nixon's
expansion of the war into Cambodia which
we've covered in other lessons or made
the second anti-war protestors burned
down the officer training corps building
on May the 3rd 900 National Guard
soldiers broke up demonstrations using
tear gas that's what's shown in the top
photograph and then the massacre itself
happened on may the 4th May the fourth
between two to three thousand protesters
turned up ignoring a ban on
demonstrations the National Guard fired
at these students and in a matter of
seconds four were killed nine were
wounded and two of the dead were not
actually part of the protest they were
on this four hundred feet away from
where the National Guardsman opened fire
with their rifles their names were
Jeffrey Glenn Miller aged 20 he's
pictured in the photograph on the right
Alison B Krause age 19 William Knox
Schroeder aged 19 also and Sandra Lee
Shoah who was age 20 now some pro World
War movements at the time were keen to
point out that these poor unfortunate
students were only four in number
unlike the thousands who were being
killed on a weekly basis in Vietnam
itself nevertheless it was recognized
that there was a distinction here these
were young students with their whole
lives ahead of them who were killed by
fellow Americans people wanted to know
what went wrong
let's find out firstly summarize the
event under the headings when where and
where did it happen why did where the
students protesting who was involved and
what happened secondly most Americans
blame the students for the shooting I
shall say that again they blamed the
students for the shooting not the
national guardsmen why might this have
been consider the common thoughts
towards young people at this time do you
agree that the students were to blame
after all it could be argued that the
demonstration had been banned and
therefore they were looking for trouble
but does that really reflect the
American value of free speech fourthly
as an extension a famous protest song
was written within weeks of the shooting
why might songs have been an effective
protest method again in the description
for this video I've included a link to
this song
I'd love to include it within the video
itself but unfortunately copyright being
what it is means that this video would
probably end up being taken down the
song was written allegedly in about half
an hour by musician Neil Young he was
part of the supergroup at the time
called Crosby Stills Nash and young they
recorded the song Ohio which covered
this particular shooting it's a great
song and a fantastic anthem of the era
give it a listen it'll will actually not
only be a good example of a good song
but it'll help your understanding of
this particular topic pause this video
here complete the tasks and when you're
ready and perhaps when you've also
listened to the song move on okay let's
go on I'm going to show you next another
image of Geoffrey Miller again it's not
particularly nice image but it's a
black-and-white photograph which lessens
some of the graphic quality of it but it
gives another view of what this what
really made this such a shocking event
here we can see Geoffrey Miller you can
see his blood draining into a drain and
by this point he was unfortunately dead
what I'm showing you this though is
because it's important to realize that
the mass media of the early 1970s was
putting these pictures in the newspapers
and on the television and people had
very easy access to these images we
think about mass communication as being
quite a modern phenomenon when it comes
to the internet for example but actually
images like such as
this were distributed across the United
States and they would have had an impact
on anti-war sentiment we're going to
have a look at more at some exam skills
now so once you've finished getting all
of your information together let's have
a look at some interpretations on
opposition to the war first the
interpretation one this is from the
uncensored war written in 1986 by Daniel
C Hollen there was conflict and ill
feeling between the media and the
government over Vietnam in 1962 and in
1963 the Kennedy administration made an
effort to discredit the young Saigon
press corps which is often at odds with
the generals and ambassador's running
the war in 1965 American troops are
committed to what was in effect the
first televised war CBS enraged Lyndon
Johnson by showing American marines
setting fire to the fact in huts at
Calais a Vietnamese village with Zippo
lighters I've included a link in the
description to that particular news
report and campaign so let's pull apart
this interpretation just briefly notice
that in the early years of the war in
1960 to 1963 during the Kennedy
administration Americans were not
directly involved in the fighting in the
same way as they were a few years later
so when it says that tried to discredit
the young Saigon press corps these are
the young reporters out in Saigon itself
and by discrediting they're trying to
make them seem untrustworthy to the
public in 1965 American troops who have
committed to what was in effect the
first televised war refers to the
widespread television coverage of the
war CBS remember was a prominent news
broadcasting service all right
you may want to have a look at the
burning of kam ney in the video in the
description before moving on when you're
ready let's have a look at
interpretation to interpretation to is
from a bright shining lie written in
1988 by Neil shin he is talking about
reporting in the early years of the war
in the post-war period which means after
World War 2 the American press remains
the most vigorous on earth but where
foreign affairs were concerns the
reporting was weighted towards the
anti-communist crusade the reporters of
the period in the early 1960s were not
accustomed to
you know they're military leaders and
diplomats as deluded men and the
military leaders and diplomats were not
accustomed to reporters who said that
they were consistently wrong we can see
here that interpretation too gives a
slightly different view of the media's
role in Vietnam
by being weighted towards the
anti-communist crusade really what it's
talking about is giving anti-communist
ideas and broadly supporting the
government view of the world similarly
at the end where it says that the
leaders and diplomats were not used to
being referred to as deluded men it
shows that people expected leaders and
diplomats to be respected by the media
rather than questioned this gives a
slightly different view to
interpretation one but as saying that
the Saigon press corps was often at odds
or or rather against or disagreed with
the generals and ambassadors running the
war as a brief task then suggest one
reason why interpretations wanted to
give different views about the media's
relationship with the US government once
you've done that brief bit of
preparation and a sentence will probably
be fine we'll move on to the first
question based upon these
interpretations let's have a look at the
first exam style question how do
interpretations won and together this is
a full mark question and you probably
won't need any longer in about five
minutes to complete it I've included a
basic writing frame which you may use
but you don't have to however this is
how you might approach it in
interpretation one it says and give a
relevant quote and then say what that
means
however interpretation too says give a
relevant quote and then explain how that
is a different view here are the
interpretations again give yourself
about five minutes to answer this
question pause the video and move on
when you're ready okay let's have a look
at how you might have answered that how
do interpretations one and two differ in
interpretation one it says that was
conflict and ill feeling between the
media and government over Vietnam this
means that the media did not back up the
government's view at the wall however
interpretation 2 says where Foreign
Affairs were concerned the reporting was
weighted towards the anti-communist
crusade this is a different view because
it suggests that the media followed the
government's anti-communist ideas take a
moment to make any necessary
improvements to your answer press pause
make
improvements and then when you ready
press play and we'll move on to the next
section done okay let's have a look at
the second part explain why
interpretations one and two differ four
marks you will need to spend a little
bit longer on this but probably not more
than about six or seven minutes to do it
the first and most common mistake that
you can make with this particular
question is by treating the
interpretations like sources that is the
wrong thing to do we are not here to
decide whether Daniel C haulin is
talking rubbish
or whether Neil shyam is lying to us
that is not the idea we shouldn't refer
to these interpretations as necessarily
biased we shouldn't be referring to when
they were written because if you look
that's pretty irrelevant anyway they
were both written pretty close together
and we must recognize that these are
history books
if history books were somehow inherently
unreliable and useless
nobody would punish them so don't go
down that route instead be looking at
what these interpretations are focusing
on what era of the Vietnam War are they
focusing on what aspect of media
coverage are they focusing on and
concentrate on why that might give
different views as to the media's role
in at the Vietnam War I've included
another writing frame which you may use
if you find it helpful but don't feel
you have to in interpretation one it
gives the view that and then sum up that
view this is because and then sum up why
it has that view based on what it is
focused on or its content however
interpretations who is different because
again sum up that the particular
interpretations view the reason it is
different to interpretation one is and
then explain using quotes or examples
from the interpretations particularly
related to what they are focused on
spend about six minutes on this
particular question press pause now and
then press play when you're ready to
continue all right this is more
challenging even though it's only worth
four marks so let's have a look at how
you might answer it
explain why interpretations one and two
differ four marks in interpretation one
it gives the view that the media and the
government did not agree this is because
of how the war was progressing in
Vietnam and the controversial actions of
American soldiers
Rolling Thunder and at kam nae I've
included some old knowledge here just to
illustrate that
however interpretation too is different
because it suggests that the media back
the government the reason is different
to interpretation one is because it is
focused on an earlier period the early
1960s before the war escalated from 1965
onwards reporters did not have the same
shocking events to report on at that
point you would move on to Part C which
is a 16 mark essay question which is
basically asking you which
interpretation you agree with although
I'm not going to ask you to complete
that question today it would be worth
considering that think about the
interpretations which one do you more
agree with when you've made your mind up
we'll move on to the final task in
summary let's sum up some of our
learning about the opposition to the
Vietnam War now complete these sentences
people oppose the war because a specific
example of opposition was opposition to
the war was or was not more significant
than support for the war because if
you're unable to answer that last part
then please check out my video on
support for the Vietnam War and then
have a go at it again that's the end of
this particular online lesson thanks for
taking part I hope you found it useful
and if you did please like this video
and consider subscribing to my channel
thanks very much and goodbye