Explain why an Anti-Vietnam war movement developed in the USA in the 1960’s
America had been through nearly twenty years of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and were informed by the government that what was happening in South Vietnam would happen elsewhere, the Domino Theory. This could apparently be prevented by the use of military power against the Vietcong. There are several reasons why an anti-Vietnam war movement developed in America in the 1960’s. The most significant reasons being the change in American society and development of general student protest and counter cultural. There are also other factors like the war itself, money, death rates, ideology, atrocities and the conscription that also caused an anti-Vietnam movement.
American society had changed after the Second World War because people were having a higher standard of living and could afford to buy homes, cars and consumer goods such as televisions. This could be why the Vietnam War was unappealing to Americans because the war had high cost rate so prices increased and major cut backs happened in President Johnson programmes to help end inequality and deprivation, especially for the black people because they would be more likely to live in poverty and have a low standard of living in the 1960’s. This resulted in poor families, particularly those that live in rural areas, to suffer from economic and social hardship. An anti-Vietnam war movement would be forming in America because people would find an outrage since tax is increasing for a war that would decrease the chances for people in poverty to move out of poverty. They wanted to improve the lives for American societies. In 1961, the US spent nearly $270 million in military support for Diem. The ARVN numbered 170,000 troops but the number of Vietcong was estimated at just 10,000. The question the Americans should have asked themselves was: why did it take an army of 170,000 to defeat one of just 10,000. The real point was that there wasn’t a military solution to the Vietcong (VC). The only chance that Diem and the Americans had to defeat the VC was to undermine the popularity of the communists in the South. To do this they had to show that they could help the people as much, if not more.
