The Counter Culture:A Generation in Conflict

Objectives…•Identify the common characteristics & goals of the 1960s counter culture.

•Describe how the anti-war movement mobilized & spread.

The 60s generation…

The 1960s generation... • Viewed Vietnam as a civil war (Viet Cong v. SV gov.) • Believed the US should not be involved. • Objected to Americans dying & the tactics used to fight the war.

Controversial tactics...-Large scale bombing-Napalm-Search & destroy tactics-Reports of US troops killing civilians

The largest generation in history• The Baby Boomers are of age• Ages: 18-21 • Affluent: 50% attending college• Rejected the conformity of the 50s• New values: Music, dress, hair

How did the counter culture express generational rebellion?

The Hippies highlighted the generational rebellion ...- Dress: Bell bottoms & tie-dyed shirts- Long hair- Increased premarital sex- Drugs- Music

“The Times They Are A-Chang-in”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWdCKPtnYE

1962: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

• Leader: Tom Hayden ..."father to the largest mass protests in American history"

• A radical left wing group that organizes college students to protest against the abuses of capitalism.

• Hayden delivers the Port Huron Statement...

"articulated the fundamental problems of American society”...i.e. Economic injustice, racial injustice and the the Cold War

The SDS developed into the largest protest

group against the Vietnam War.

The Free Speech Movement (1964)…• Originates at U of CA, Berkeley • CA, Berkeley & other universities limit student political activities & the ability to speak out against social issues. • Students demand a say in developing academic programs & in making university rules. • A national movement advocating for student rights develops• Students became angry when they discover universities are involved in war related research.• Students protest & boycott classes

From Campus Protests to Mass Mobilization

How did college students react to the escalation of the Vietnam War?...

- Boycotting classes

- Teach-ins…

- Sit-Ins...

What is a Teach-In?Students gather to discuss an important topic & provide

information on events which people cannot understand through traditional news sources.

The students did not trust the traditional media sources.

WHO? 100K “Hippies”

WHAT? “Be-in” ...Hanging out

1967The Summer of Love

The Summer of Love

• WHY? Social Rebellion– Parental authority/

conformity– Sexual behavior - “The Pill”– Drugs (Marijuana, LSD)– Dress– Communal living

WHERE? San Francisco

Harvard Professor Dr. Timothy LearyAdvocates the mass production

& distribution of LSD…“turn on, tune in, drop out”

Bob Dylan

“Everybody Must Get Stoned”

Recorded live at Farm Aid in 1986

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTtkyMfA0Iw

The Drug Culture

Woodstock - A rock festival held at Max Yasgur's

dairy farm in upstate NY.

400K people attend

Joan Baez Blood, Sweat and Tears Paul Butterfield Blues Band The Band Creedence Clearwater Revival Canned Heat Country Joe & The Fish Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Joe Cocker Arlo Guthrie Grateful Dead Tim Hardin The Who

Jimi Hendrix

Richie Havens Keep Hartley Incredible String Band

Janis Joplin The Jefferson Airplane The Joshua Light Show Melanie Mountain Quill John Sebastian Ravi Shankar Sly and the Family Stone Bert Sommer Santana Sweetwater Ten Years After Johnny Winter

Who played at Woodstock?...

The peace movement spreads off campus…

• 1967: 300K protest NYC

60K protest in San Francisco • Draft card burning… $10K fine• Vietnam Vets Against the War organize

War at Home & War Abroad

• The goal of protestors was to “Bring the war home.” In violent acts of protest bring the violence & destruction of war to America.

• 1969-70: 40K bombings

$21M in damages• The Berrigan Brothers.... (See next slide)

Extreme actions taken by anti-war activists...

The Berrigan Brothers:Radical Priests... “The Catholic Left”

The Baltimore Four (1967)...•Occupied a US Draft Board in Baltimore, MD•Conducted a “blood-pouring protest” •Berrigan: "This sacrificial... act is meant to protest the pitiful waste of American and Vietnamese blood "

The Catonsville Nine (1968)...•Removed records from a draft board & burnt the records with

homemade napalm .•Their statement... “We confront... (the religious) bodies of America with their silence and cowardice in the face of our country's crimes. ...the religious bureaucracy in this country is racist, is an accomplice in this war, and is hostile to the poor.”•Sentenced to 3 years in prison

The Harrisburg Seven (1972)...• Caught trading letters alluding to kidnapping Henry Kissinger & initiating bombings in Washington DC steam tunnels. •Tried, but not convicted