The overwhelming unpopularity of the Vietnam War led to the heightened social, political, and economic tensions in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Though itwas motivated by largely the same policies from the Cold War era (domino theory,containment, etc.), it was felt that those policies were outdated and US intentions in thewar quickly became unclear and misguided. The ambiguity of the war led to social unrestin America, yielding many protests which drew attention to the economic squandering of the government, the large inequalities among different social groups, and theinconsistencies within government policy. Many Americans adopted the belief thatthough it had been a mistake to get involved in Vietnam in the first place, we needed …show more content…
He was not the only American political figure who felt entry into the war had been a mistake. George McGovern was a very strong advocate against the Vietnam War throughout his years as Senator, and later in his race against Nixon for the presidency. Inone of his later speeches denouncing the current state of America’s involvement inVietnam, McGovern proposed to “spend all that is necessary for prudent nationaldefense, and no more… [to] conserve our limited resources” (Doc H). He was amongmany who, at that point in the war, recited an all too familiar rhetoric: it was a mistakefor the US to have gotten involved in Vietnam in the first place; however, we’re therenow so we need to either win or get out. McGovern asserted that the military was wastingmoney and manpower, and they needed to rethink their efficiency, size, and weaponstrategies. Money and the economy played a huge role in all of McGovern’s wartimeopposition speeches, especially following the era of the New Deal.The 1960s quickly became a decade associated with hippies, young protesters,and the famous slogan “make love, not war.” Many songs emerged from these younggroups, such as “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die” (Doc B), expressing the popular …show more content…
He specifically mentioned some of the hardships for African American families,including “sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and die inextraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population” and “sending themeight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had notfound in southwest Georgia and East Harlem” (Doc C). He as well as many other civilrights leaders could not condone this war which proposed having young men fight for rights belonging to other people in other countries, when they were not guaranteed thosevery rights themselves in the United States. A clear addition to the social tension andracial divide was apparent in the proportional numbers of Black young men to whiteyoung men sent to fight, as Dr. King mentioned. Though less than 10 percent of American men in arms were African American, they accounted for almost 20 percent of all combat-related deaths in Vietnam during that period. In 1965 alone AfricanAmericans represented almost one-fourth of the Army's killed in action. Some arguedthat it was the economic divide between the races that led to those numbers, as there wasa disproportionate amount of men who were drafted that did not attend college to thosethat did. James Fallow mentioned that fact in his discussion of his 1969 draft boardexperience (Doc F). The older, wealthier, more educated youths from Cambridge knewhow to intentionally fail the tests from the military as not to