Black people were opposed to the war all the way through because the black community were forced to enter the war. The government were still very racist despite Martin Luther King Jnr's best efforts and were corrupt from the inside. They made black people go into war as it was a discreet way to get rid of them without suffering too much protests. More black people were sent into war then whit despite the fact that black people only made up 15% of the American population. This wasn't total because of the corrupt government because white people were richer and could afford to opt out of going to the war. Black people who were not going to Vietnam believed that this was happening as the government was not doing a good cover up operation and some white people disagreed with the racist government as well.
Hippies were obviously against the war. They offered a different opinion to everyone else. Freedom, peace and love did not involve war surprisingly enough and the hippies were strongly against the war. Sit-ins and marches were held to protest but the hippies could not have a strong point due to the governments spin on their drug use.
Lots and lots of women were against the war because they were the wives of the soldiers. When they saw what was really happening due to media coverage they wanted the war to be stopped and their husbands back.
In the early sixties however despite all these groups opposing the war there was an overwhelming support for going to war. The public opinion quickly changed though in 1968 after the Tet Offensive. This was where the Vietnamese celebrated their national holiday a day early and then attacked American soldiers on the day of the holiday. This was a suprise attack and the US lost many soldiers in this attack. This humiliated the American government and they had now lost all credibility. The soldiers no longer trusted their leaders who told the Americans they were winning the war. Also back in America the public had lost all confidence in the government. Members of the government resigned saying America could no longer win the war and that morale was already at its lowest. More proof of this would be that president Johnson who led America in to war. He refused to stand up for re-election which showed the government and the American public that he thought he had made a mistake leading the country at war.
The My Lai massacre also in the late 60's did nothing to help opinions in America. This was the worst recorded atrocity for the war. This involved the killing of 109 civilians in My Lai village. US troops killed innocent civilians. An investigation in 1969 found the commanding officer, William Calley, guilty of murder. This was a major setback in the attempts to gain support from the American and the Vietnamese public. The real figures however were much more than this. The American people believed it was 109 dead, the real figures were closer to 350 dead. Also the Vietnamese saw this as a great opportunity to turn the American public against the US soldiers and they stated the number was closer to 500. Also what wasn't told to the American public was that most females who were dead were raped before they were killed. The American public were again not pleased with these announcements and discoveries. They lost even more confidence in the government and lost faith in everything they were being told. How could the public tell what was the truth and what wasn't. This was the exact reason as to why they could not trust anything the government said.
The main reason the public opinion changed was to do with the media coverage of the war. Vietnam was the only war where the press could go anywhere and do anything that they liked. Images not fit for human eyes were broadcast on television and published in newspapers. All developments and live coverage were shown, it is safe to say they showed almost everything to anyone who had access to a TV or newspaper. They saw all the weapons America was using but hadn't properly tested. Napalm, Agent Orange and severe bombing horrified the public and showed the devastating scenes as they were happening in Vietnam. The public opinion rocketed against the war due to disbelief of what their soldiers were doing. America was now not only unpopular in their own country they were unpopular all over the world.
The hippies were becoming more widespread and had more of a voice towards the end of the 1960's because more people wanted to listen to them now. They were not getting confidence from the government so they had to get it for more unlikely sources. They held more protests, the most memorable outside the American embassy.
Vietnam was also very expensive. the mass weapons and defoliants were not cheap to produce and they were being used frequently. People had to pay higher taxes, this made the government more unpopular and less people trusted them.
Overall I don't believe all this affected the public opinion that much. In 1971 an opinion poll was held. They asked members of the public if they thought it was right to go into Vietnam. More people believed it was wrong but there was still a majority in favour of going to war. The final results were 60% in favour to 40% against it. This was a massive rise but still did not affect anything. Therefore overall I believe that the public opinion change was important but was not as important as it perhaps first seemed. I can understand why the American public were upset and could not trust the government but i believe the government was right to go into war.
