Representation 1 was written in 2001 and has the advantage of hindsight, with the author having access to a wide range of different sources of information about the anti-war movement. Representation 2 was drawn during the Vietnam War and is a representation of the way that people reacted during the war. As it is mocking those opposing the war, it is likely that this cartoon is from the early years of the war when opposition was not as strong amongst the wider population.
Representation 1 covers the period from the first protest organised by Thomas Cornell in New York in 1963, though to the protests by draft dodgers in 1969. Cornell was a ‘member of the catholic Worker Movement’/ representation 1 identifies the different people and groups who increasingly opposed the war and protested about American involvement. It explains that ‘at its height millions were involved’ and that the war ‘divided the American people’. ‘Socialists’, ‘communists’, ‘pacifists’, ‘students’, ‘ex-soldiers’ were all involved in the protest movement. Whilst the protest movement began with young people, older people increasingly joined in’. Representation 1 also reveals the ‘bitterness’ and that ‘protests were becoming less peaceful’. This is one of the key differences between Representation 1 and 2.
Representation 2 does not include as much information about the different people who opposed the war. Nor does it reveal the increasing extend of the protest movement. Representation 2 mocks the protesters and suggests that all protesters were young, Liberal, Hippie pacifists. Representation 2 does suggest the tension and ‘bitterness’ between those people who supported the war and those who opposed it. This is shown by the aggressive manner of the middle aged, middle class American man asking the protesters to “Name a Clean One”. This is clearly a similarity with Representation 1. The cartoon however does not reveal that many older Americans, including ex-soldiers increasingly opposed the war.
Overall the key differences are the extent of the information and greater reliability provided by Representation 1, as well as the intention of Representation 2 to amuse. As opposed to the intention of Representation 1 to inform. The key similarities are that both are about the protest movement and both demonstrate how Vietnam ‘divided the American people’.