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Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, the United States government did not need to use propaganda to promote the war effort. The propaganda produced by the government during World War II was successful. The success of WWII propaganda carried over into the Vietnam War. The United States government did not have to win the support of its people for the new war. Americans had grown used to living in a militarized nation. They began to believe that war was a part of living in this kind of society. "To them [Americans], war came from outside America to intrude upon their lives and to wrest them from their pacific ways." Americans believed that they had to support the government’s actions in order to keep the intruders out and protect the American way of life.

Most Americans supported the Vietnam War from its inception. They wanted to preserve their way of life. Americans feared the spread of communism. They hoped that America’s involvement in Vietnam would serve to keep the domino effect from taking place. Many Americans believed that if one small country fell to Russia, communism would spread throughout the world. This was the domino effect. However, those involved in the anti-war movement, believed this idea to be ludicrous. The anti-war movement, led primarily by college students, refused to believe that the world would fall to communism if the small country of Vietnam had been deprived of American aid. They held that America should have learned its lesson from the French experience in Indochina. The anti-war movement became increasingly vocal throughout America’s involvement in Vietnam. The same students that had been involved in the Civil Rights movement now used the tools they had learned and applied them to the protesting of the Vietnam War.

During the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement used propaganda to its advantage. This was a different type of propaganda. However, Vietnam was a completely different kind of war. America had never fought a war of attrition. Neither had America fought a war with the threat of nuclear war looming so near. Those opposed to the Vietnam War used many devices to protest the war. Sit-ins, teach-ins, rallies and marches became fairly commonplace at many U.S. colleges. Often, anti-war demonstrators seized upon national images. These images were then distorted. This was done to make Americans and the government realize that the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was a distortion of the very values on which America was founded.

Picture of man on horse in Washington D.C. 1971

This picture is a prime example of how anti-war demonstrators seized upon national images to enforce their message. The men are on top of a war memorial. The United States flag that is upside-down is a universal signal of distress, representing the distress that was evident in American society during the Vietnam War.

Picture of man holding poster 1969 demonstration.

The poster that this man holds carries combined messages. The poster attacks the savageness of Americans towards the Vietnamese. At the same time, the text is telling us that Vietnam is a "tragic, reckless adventure," hoping to convince others that America’s involvement in Vietnam is irresponsible.

Reverends Philip and Daniel Berrigan at Baltimore MD napalming draft records May 17, 1968.

Students were not the only ones involved in the anti-war movement. The Berrigan brothers were Catholic priests who went to extreme measures to protest the war. The brothers sabotaged draft offices. They destroyed draft files by pouring blood on them or napalming the draft records. Here they are seen napalming draft files of young men. These actions helped to ensure that the drafting of many young men was delayed.

anti-war activists in the Nixon era