Viet Nam: Some help for a paper please

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I'd like to suggest you include in your paper, the effects of professors, instructors, etc., who let their personal feelings/beliefs about the war affect their teaching. IMO, where we are today is, in no small measure, a result of that influence. Good and bad.

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I should state that my professor is a Viet Nam vet so his teaching are first hand and not out of a book.

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I should state that my professor is a Viet Nam vet so his teaching are first hand and not out of a book.

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That would have been nice. Thank you.

[BCPVP]

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I'm writing a paper for a class i'm taking regarding the Viet Nam war. Topic of the paper is this: How has the popular culture of the United States been shaped as a consequence of Viet Nam? Also, what lessons have been drawn as a consequence of how the popular culture has been shaped, and to what purposes have they been applied?

I already have a few ideas and I'm not looking for a free roll here. Just some suggestions I can include in the paper. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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Dude, if you need help thinking of major changes in pop culture brought about by the vietnam war you need remidial history classes. There is an entire generation basically shaped around the vietnam war, im sure they probably made a song or two about it.

Seriously: music, drugs, literature all of these have been greatly influenced by vietnam.

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theweatherman's right on this one. You must suck at school if it takes you more than 5 seconds to find enough info for 10 papers about culture during Vietnam.

To the OP, it is always important in a college class to give your teacher whatever he/she wants, to ensure you get the best grade (which is the only thing that matters). If your prof is a flag burning hippie then write about how brave young men and women dodged the draft to stick it to the evil empire. If your prof is a grizzled war vet then write about how the lefty pop media and culture stabbed its own nation in the back. If he's neutral then write about music. You get my drift?

Myrtle, I'm curious, in what ways do you think Agent Orange, Fragging, PTSS, or My Lai had anything to do with pop culture? Certainly important concepts of the war, but the pop culture implications I am completely missing here.

[Myrtle]

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To the OP, it is always important in a college class to give your teacher whatever he/she wants, to ensure you get the best grade (which is the only thing that matters). If your prof is a flag burning hippie then write about how brave young men and women dodged the draft to stick it to the evil empire. If your prof is a grizzled war vet then write about how the lefty pop media and culture stabbed its own nation in the back. If he's neutral then write about music. You get my drift?

Myrtle, I'm curious, in what ways do you think Agent Orange, Fragging, PTSS, or My Lai had anything to do with pop culture? Certainly important concepts of the war, but the pop culture implications I am completely missing here.

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Riddick,

The reason I included those terms was because of the impact that each of them had on the national psyche.

Agent Orange - For the real effect that it had on the people and countries where it was used, and the attempted cover-up and scandal surrounding its' use. For our governments refusal to address the documented health problems that it caused many of us that were exposed to it.

Fragging - An extreme act that demonstated the duality and insanity of the US combat soldier during the conflict.

PTSS - The effects of PTSS were widely known by their symptoms for many years prior to Vietnam, but it was only after Vietnam, when serious & significant studies were conducted, that the far reaching impact of PTSS was finally acknowledged.

My Lai - The My Lai massacre was a fulcrum of the turning point of American support for our administration's 'Vietnamization' policy. The actions of Calley and some of his troops were exposed to incredible scrutiny & publicity and further polarized US citizens surrounding the Vietnam war issue.

It's entirely possible that they mean more to me because of my closeness to them, but even in retrospect, I believe they did have an impact on most US citizens in a number of ways.

Paper is done, but I'm going to keep this post going because I think it's interesting. I'll cite some of the changes of pop culture following the Viet Nam war.

Nixon started the rhetoric of making pro-war support and pro-troop support inseperable. This continues to be used today by Bush and other war-mongers who state how you can't be anti-war and support the troops. (To be fair to Nixon this speech isn't anything new as Hitler used it also to gain support from Germans) They don't realize that being anti-war IS supporting the troops.

Distrust of the government. Again we have Nixon to blame for that, though Johnson and Kennedy helped.

[BCPVP]

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Nixon started the rhetoric of making pro-war support and pro-troop support inseperable. This continues to be used today by Bush and other war-mongers who state how you can't be anti-war and support the troops.

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Really? Bush said that if you don't support the war, you don't support the troops? I'd like to see you back that up.

Did this thread help you any? You didn't say.

Also, did you happen to find any hint as to when the "military baby-killers" tag began to fade? I remember the anti-war folks seemed to always want to denegrate the military. Somehow that became a no-no. Never could figure it out.

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Did this thread help you any? You didn't say.

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Not really.

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Also, did you happen to find any hint as to when the "military baby-killers" tag began to fade? I remember the anti-war folks seemed to always want to denegrate the military. Somehow that became a no-no. Never could figure it out.

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Anti-war protestors spitting on Vets and calling them "baby killers" is simply untrue. Another popular culture myth.

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Anti-war protestors spitting on Vets and calling them "baby killers" is simply untrue. Another popular culture myth.

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You have just earned the distinction of receiving a comment I've never before made on an open forum...

You have absolutely no f'kng idea what you're talking about! Zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Zed. Your pointy little head is firmly planted up your azz. The alledged institution of learning you're attending must be an absolute joke.

Don't bother asking me for proof. I saw it! I heard it! It was gawddammed up close and personal! And it was always from some stoner who should have been back home at his momma's tit. Gutless azzwipes and scumbags.

You want to get an education about 'Nam? Spend some time in an American Legion club. You'll hear hawks and doves. And you'll always hear facts. You'll hear the truth. Not some revisionist bullshiite by some azzhole Whirled Peas whacko.

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