Angela Encardone

Professor Stubee

College Composition II

February 21 2019

Research Proposal

When America first got involved in the war in Vietnam, around 1960, the public knew

little about what was happening due to the poor coverage from the press and government.

However, as 2-3 years passed, US military death toll started to rise and reporters began going to

Vietnam and streaming the war to America, which is why the war is sometimes referred to as the

“living room war”. The public’s view of the war immediately changed for the worse and the

government began trying to censor the media. This is ultimately what led to the infamous

anti-war movement in the 60’s and 70’s.

In late 1968, the Tet Offensive occurred and sparked a major turning point in the media’s

coverage of the war. For the past 3 years on the first day of Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year),

there was a truce in place between North and South Vietnam. But in 1968, North Vietnam

ignored the truce and surprise attacked the US troops in South Vietnam which inflicted massive

casualties. Although this wasn’t true, the media portrayed the offensive as a “win” for the

communists, and images of both civilian and military casualties were increasingly televised.

Before Tet, the gov’t said the end of the war was “near”, but the public now knew that was a lie.

With the public now heavily opposed to the war due to media coverage, several antiwar

movements arose. After the My Lai massacre in 1968, a horrific mass murder of unarmed S.
Vietnamese civilians by the US troops, even veterans turned their back on the war, resulting in

an anti-war movement called Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). The VVAW

peacefully protested throughout Washington D.C, which included them throwing their combat

ribbons, helmets, and uniforms on the Capitol steps, along with toy weapons (history.com).

On May 4th 1970, four Kent State students were shot and killed by the Ohio National

Guard while at a protest against the war, which many people believe to be an example of

suppression of young adult protestors, and an opposition of imperialism. The shooting still

remains a symbolic division in opinion about war in general, and drastically changed the protest

movement nationwide. The most popular student activist group that had a lasting impact on

American pop culture and politics was the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The group

was best known for organizing resistance against the Vietnam War and military draft policies

that began as nonviolent civil disobedience, but grew increasingly aggressive and militant as the

war intensified (wallstreetwindow.com). On November 27, 1965 the SDS put together their most

successful anti-war demonstration yet in Washington, D.C. The SDS president, Carl Oglesby,

gave a speech where he insisted that the United States government had abandoned democratic

principles and adopted imperialism. The speech received significant press coverage and greatly

increased the SDS’s national status.

One argument about the war is if the gov’t should’ve ended the war earlier than it did,

and how the war was unwinnable due to the negative press. President Johnson & Nixon both

couldn’t be faced with losing a war. Instead, they stayed in, prolonged the essentially hopeless

war, and were the cause of the release of the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers were written

by a gov’t employee, Daniel Ellsberg, who felt compelled to reveal the nature of U.S.
participation in the war and leaked major portions of the papers to the press. The papers revealed

secrets about gov’t officials and presidents negative involvements in the war, and proof of lies to

the public. However, some historians argue that the war was always unwinnable, regardless of

the antiwar movement and the media.

The first critical theory I will use is the Marxist Theory. At the start of the war, N.

Vietnam was socialists while S. Vietnam was kept under imperialist laws by the US. This is

essentially why the war started - the US was afraid of Vietnam becoming communists and the

surrounding countries following, ie. The Domino Theory. Towards the end of the war and the US

failing to win, with a Marxist view one could say that this is a good example of the “working

people” winning over the imperialist powers. Marxists believe that class struggle and revolution

are not political, and the understanding & managing of war remains a problem for them.

The second critical theory I will look at is the Critical Race Theory. The antiwar

movement quickly coincided with the Civil Rights Movement and the rise of the Black Power

during the 60’s. African Americans were not only discriminated at home, but also in the war.

Black soldiers embraced Black Power - culturally and politically, and the Vietnam War was the

first war to not legally segregate soldiers, but there still was small segregated units in the

battlefield. Black American soldiers trusted that if they defended democracy abroad, they were

more likely to receive it at home. Vietnam provided an opportunity for escape from poor

economic and social conditions in the US. Because of this view & greater awareness of black

struggle, & being publicized by media and television coverage, Vietnam became the “black

man’s” true subject. (http://www.americansc.org.uk)

Overall, because of the War & the antiwar movement, to this day there has been a
fundamental shift between political leaders and its citizens, and caused heavy wariness of gov’t

powers. The negatives motives for the war started widespread distrust in the US government, and

this highly affected the younger generations, as well with long lasting negative viewpoints, and

drastic media coverage on war to this day. Some historians say America nearly lost its mind,

while other historians argue the nation reinvented itself and became a more-tolerant,

less-constrained place & more willing to let people express their individuality and challenge

authority.
 Bibliography

Swanson, Mike. “The Students for a Democratic Society Goals and the Vietnam War in the

1960's”. wallstreetwindow.com. 21 January 2017. Web. 20 January 2019.

http://wallstreetwindow.com/students-for-a-democratic-society-and-the-vietnam-war​.

Scott, Anthony, "The Vietnam War Era's Impact on American Society" (2008). Education and

Human Development Master's Theses. 412.

http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/412

Balibar, Etienne. “Marxism and War”. Radical Philosophy. March/April 2010. Web. 20 January

2019. ​https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/marxism-and-war​.