Critical Reflection: Life in the 1960s
It’s always been made apparent to me in past history courses that there was massive unrest over American presence of American armed forces in Vietnam and Cambodia, but I always seem to forget the extent to which this unrest reached. The dedication of college students to not only attend, but plan and organize protests and demonstrations all over the country astounds me, largely because I have never experienced that in my life time, in spite of there being reason for there to be demonstrations. While there have been the “Occupy” movements and more recent demonstrations in places such as Ferguson, it makes me wonder why there were no massive movements for the war in Iraq. The reasoning behind this, as I was exposed to in a critical thinking class this semester, may be that this generation of Americans have become so used to sensationalism and violence in the media and on the news that we have become complacent to actual issues. It had, however, been unknown to me that the movements of young adults were not just occurring in the United States at the time- as pointed out in the documentary, college students of countries such as France and Italy were all fighting and speaking out against their governments. Their motivations were much the same as those held by the American public- peace and fairness.
The documents from the folder I was given were primarily arguing against the war, and I found most of them to driven out of anger and fear. The emotions were clear as day on the page, whether it be through swear words, messy handwriting, or aggressive language. The letter that I selected stood out to me because of its restraint. Considering that it was written by a married couple who were able to maintain a calm demeanor as they wrote, I can assume that this was likely an older couple, since the younger activists were all driven highly by emotions such as anger and resentment, as was made apparent in the documentary. It hadn’t occurred to me that the writers may be older until I had seen through online research, as well as the documentary, that America’s youth was running on pain and hostility. This couple instead expressed feelings of loss for their patriotism and belief in their country. Though they still refer to America as “great,” they sound defeated in that their respect for the United States has diminished.
I understand that Congress was acting in part according to the desires of the American public, at the start of the war, to take action overseas. It is so easy to try to place the blame entirely on Congresses shortcomings; however, I feel that it would be narrow-minded to make such an accusation without thinking contextually. Prior to looking further into the national and international context of the sixties, I also would have placed blame entirely on the governments actions. What I have realized, though, is that the government was not just acting- it was reacting. They were trying, at least at first, to circumvent communism and to satisfy the fears of the American people. Though it is my personal belief that there came a point where the deaths and refusal to remove ourselves from the war would have to be considered the fault of the government, I don’t believe that they were acting entirely outside of their bounds as representatives of the general population of the United States.
I would not say that m opinion has necessarily been changed, but I would say that it has expanded. In spite of having some knowledge on the military actions in Vietnam and Cambodia, it has been made apparent to me that this knowledge had actually been more limited than I would have expected. This small introduction into the process of research has been an experience unlike any that I have experienced before. Being able to interact directly with and physically hold pieces of history gives a new level of depth to my prior understanding of what happened during the sixties.
