MUSIC AND CONFLICT:
FROM PATRIOTISM TO PROTEST
Vietnam War (1954-1973)
The Facts
Important Dates:
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1953 - 1961: President Dwight Eisenhower sent financial aid to South Vietnam military forces
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The U.S. engaged over 540,000 troops in the war
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American suffered approximately 58,200 casualties
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The Vietnam War was the longest war in U.S. history until the war in Afghanistan
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January 1961 - November 1963: President John F. Kennedy's administration escalated the U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam
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May 4, 1970: In response to a student protest of the Cambodian Campaign announced by President Richard M. Nixon on television on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio, the Ohio National Guard was sent in to ensure a peaceful demonstration. The result was the Ohio National Guard firing upon unarmed students, killing four and wounding nine others.
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January 1973: Paris Peace Accords signed effectively calling for complete U.S. withdrawal of troops
Quotes or Battle Cries:
"No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now." - Richard M. Nixon
"Who is the enemy? How can you distinguish between the civilians and the noncivilians? The same people who come and work in the bases at daytime, they just want to shoot and kill you at nighttime. So how can you distinguish between the two? The good or the bad? All of them look the same." - - Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in a private letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson, May 1967
"The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"I don't care whether you've never listened to anyone before in your lives. I am begging you right now. If you don't disperse right now, they're going to move in, and it can only be a slaughter. Would you please listen to me? Jesus Christ, I don't want to be a part of this ... !" - Kent State Geology Faculty Member, Glenn Frank immedidately after the shootings trying to disperse the angry crown and discourage them from rioting against the Ohio National Guard.
Make Love Not War - peace slogan during protests
Make Music Not War - variation of the peace slogan during protests
Where in the world . . .
Click the map icon to find out more about where this war took place and the nature of the battlefields.
Coming Together:
Click on each icon in the picture below to find out how music and war came together.
Songs and Lyrics of the War
The Vietnam was not a popular war in the United States and patriotic songs were not as popular as in prior wars. One of the songs from the country music genre, Hello Vietnam by Johnny Wright depicts the governmental view that the spread of communism needed to be stopped for fear that other bordering countries would also succomb to communist rule. The following verse from the song aptly outlines this overarching fear:
A ship is waiting for us at the dock America has trouble to be stopped We must stop Communism in that land Or freedom will start slipping through our hands.
Hello Vietnam
by Johnny Wright
Eve of Destruction
by Barry McGuire
Vietnam was one of the most controversial war in U.S. history. The war came during the peace movement of the 60s and 70s and sarked an entire genre of protest music such as Eve of Destrution by Barry McGuire. The following verse from the song depicts the fear and overall opposition to the war:
The eastern world it is exploding
Violence flarin', bullets loadin'
You're old enough to kill but not for votin'
You don't believe in war but whats that gun you're totin'?
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin'​
Patriotism vs. Protest
The Vietnam War was one of the most protested wars in U.S. history. The war waged duirng the peace movement of the 1960s and 1970s spawning many songs of protest and peace anthems by notable groups such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Neil Young, the band WAR, and many others. The conflict over the purpose and involvement of the United States in the war caused turmoil for soldiers returning home, not as heroes in the minds of many U.S. citizens, but as villians. However, there was support for troops as portrayed in the Hello Vietnam song discussed on this page.