The+Conflict+at+Home

Groups that are focusing on the Vietnam War and how it affected life in America will add their content here. What did it mean to live in the United States at the time of the drafts? How did people react? How was this war portrayed in the media? Please make sure your information is clear, concise, and proofread before posting.

5. The Student Movement  **How did people react?**
 * __The Conflict at Home__**
 * What did it mean to live in the United States at the time of the drafts?**
 * 1) Not many people wanted to go to war because it was not by choice. By being drafted people felt scared as they knew it could happen to them at any time.
 * 2) Lottery Drawing- the first draft was in 1942, "There were 366 blue plastic capsules containing birth dates placed in a large glass container and drawn by hand to assign order-of-call numbers to all men within the 18-26 age range specified in Selective Service law"
 * 3) Rise of the “counter-culture"
 * 4) Corrupt government
 * Nixon's Watergate Scandal
 * Red Scare
 * McCarthyism
 * government officials are scaring voters by making them paranoid of communists to gain voters
 * Kent State
 * troops firing on own people
 * innocent students doing a peaceful protest
 * makes troops look bad for killing innocent people
 * against the war--> don't want to fight other peoples revolutions, against segregation
 * Weatherman- radical student movement activists that protested by blowing stuff up--> gave the good and ethical peaceful movement bad press
 * 1) The people reacted with the Anti-War movement, which were peaceful groups, by
 * 2) Weathermen- radicals
 * 3) Counter Culture- hippies, ect.
 * 4) Those who were against the war believed it was not their problem to fight
 * 5) Chicago Riot- was meant to be a peaceful protest, turned into a riot, those who organized it were arrested
 * 6) Sound of Protest- Yoco Ono, John Lenon, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gay, Aretha Franklin all protested the war, these figures had a


 * How was this war portrayed in the media?**
 * 1) At first a lot of people were not aware of how violence the war was but then after the Ted Offensive, an article in the newspaper showing a civilian on the street getting shot because he was accused of being a member of Viet Cong, people became more aware

Mr. Sliter
 * __Works Cited__** __(in MLA format)__


 * //__Group 2 (Lucy, Kaitlin, Mary)__

How Did People React?//** - "I never had experiences like, for example, being spit on or called a baby killer or anything like that. On the other hand, I was just kind of ignored," he said. "I really thought, I guess, when I first came home people would want to know about my experience… They didn't." – Joseph R. Barnes - Many people / protestors at home had misconceptions about the war --> It was the first televised war (Just knew what the television was saying about the war) - Anti-war movement occurred - 1968 Democratic National Convention à Thousands of people came to Chicago to protest American intervention in Vietnam à Also protested against the leaders of the Democratic Party who continued to “prosecute the war” à Vietnam veterans against the war <span style="color: #222222; font-family: Times-Roman,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 32px;">* Veterans that stated the United States should no longer be involved in the Vietnam War background <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica;">- In the mid-1960's, television was considered to be the one of the most important source of news for the American public -In 1950, only 9 percent of homes owned a television. By 1966, this figure rose to 93 percent -as the Vietnam War dragged on, more and more Americans turned to television as their primary source for news -television anchors became house hold names and became -Walter Cronkite (a news anchor) was even referred to as the "most trusted man in America" throughout the war -the trust the people had in the news and its anchors allowed the opinions and biases of television news personalities to have some influence on the way many Americans viewed the war During the war: -people depended on television for images and accurate accounts of the Vietnam War--> the problem with that is they were just clips and small images that could not explain the very complex war -By the fall of 1967, 90 percent of the evening news was devoted to the war and roughly 50 million people watched television news each night -Television coverage of the massacre at My Lai was perhaps the most damaging image for the U.S soldier's reputation. -The massacre and Lt. Calley's trial became one of the war's leading stories - it introduced the subject of American war crimes into television's remaining coverage of the war. -The intensely negative coverage of the war influenced both politicians and the public -the majority of Americans withdrew their support for the war after the Tet Offensive -War coverage declined from 90 percent of all newscasts to 61 percent from Richard Nixon's election through February 1969
 * How was it portrayed in the media?**

__//**Conflict At Home**//__ <span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> - For 50 years young American men were required to register for the draft. The draft was a backup system that helped provide the U.S. Armed Forces with men. - A lottery drawing was held at the Selective National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This lottery would determine the order of call for military induction. - Men ages 18-26
 * American Home Life during the Vietnam War:**
 * -** **In 1940 Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act which created the first draft and established the Selective Service System, an independent federal agency.**
 * -** **The highest draft number called was in 1969 lottery (195 men.)**
 * - The selection process was random.**

Works Cited: (MLA format) <span style="font-family: Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; white-space: nowrap;">McLaughlin, Erin. "Television coverage of the Vietnam War and the Vietnam Veteran." warbirdforum.com. N.p., July 2008. Web. 20 May 2010. <http://www.warbirdforum.com/media.htm>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">Barber, Greg. “Days of Protest .” //PBS//. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/‌ newshour/‌bb/‌asia/‌vietnam/‌protests.html>.
 * http://www.vietnamwardraftlottery.com/phpnuke/index.php**
 * http://usmilitary.about.com/od/deploymentsconflicts/l/bldrafthistory.htm**
 * http://usmilitary.about.com/od/deploymentsconflicts/l/bldrafthistory.htm**

Vassar College. “The Wars for Vietnam: 1945 to 1975.” //Vassar College//. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2010. <http://vietnam.vassar.edu/‌overview.html>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',helvetica,sans-serif;"> || ||