His Ch22-3

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His Ch22-3

Multiple Choice

Identify the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

A Working-Class War

The idea of fighting a war in a faraway place for what some believed was a questionable cause prompted a number of young Americans to avoid going to Vietnam. Because many middle-class and upper-class American youths were able-through college and other means-to avoid military service, most of the soldiers who fought in Vietnam were from the lower economic classes of American society.

A “MANIPULATABLE” DRAFT Most soldiers who fought in Vietnam were drafted into combat under the country’s Selective Service System. Under this system, which had been established in the 1940s during World War II, all males had to register with their local draft boards when they turned 18. In the event of a war, the board called men between the ages of 18 and 26 into military service as they were needed . Thousands of men attempted to find ways around the draft. Because many medical excuses were honored, some men sought out sympathetic doctors to obtain medical deferments . Local draft boards decided who would be drafted. Different draft boards had different qualifications, which prompted some men to change residences in order to stand before more lenient boards. Some Americans even joined the National Guard or Coast Guard, which often secured a deferment from service in Vietnam. One of the most common ways to avoid the draft was to receive a college deferment, by which a young man enrolled in a university could put off his military service. Because most university students during the 1960s were white and some were financially well-off, many of the men who fought in Vietnam were lower-class whites or

minorities who were less privileged economically. To be sure, the majority of Americans who were drafted proudly went to Vietnam .

Others volunteered to fight, their reasons ranging from a sense of duty to a feeling of patriotism. Nonetheless, with almost 80 percent of American soldiers coming from lower economic levels, Vietnam was a working-class war

Almost 80 percent of soldiers who fought in Vietnam were _____ .

a.	middle class college students	c.	from the South
b.	from non-college lower economic levels	d.	from the Northeast

Americans were drafted into wars as far back as the American Revolution. The present system for drafting soldiers was called the “Selective Service System.” It was made-up of local people who tried to be fair and decided who would be drafted and who would not. When was the Selective Service System established.?

a.	World War I	c.	Civil War
b.	World War II	d.	1920’s

To get out of the draft because you were in college was one of the main ways to escape service. This method was called a college _____

a.	probation	c.	deferment
b.	annulment	d.	extension

Women and Minorities in the War

While there was some racial tension in the military during the Vietnam war, there was much less tension than there was in the civilian sector. The civil rights movement was in full swing in the United States and that led to some of the tension. Dr. Martin Luther King did not agree with the war and he spoke out against it. Finally, there was some natural resentment of soldiers who looked at the thousands of college students who did not have to be called to duty. There was a high percentage of black soldiers who were killed but that was because of their economic status rather than any conscious effort to put black soldiers in harms way. Most black soldiers were loyal and heroic. Some found themselves in positions of leadership for the first time in their lives during the war. Colin Powell fought in Vietnam,

While the U .S . military in the 1960s did not allow females to serve in combat, nearly 7,500 women served in Vietnam as army and navy nurses. Thousands more women volunteered their services in Vietnam to the American Red Cross and the United Services Organization (USO), which delivered hospitality and entertainment to the troops.

There was a conscious effort to push black soldiers onto the front lines during the Vietnam war.

a.	True	b.	False

The civil rights movement in the U.S. took place _____ the war in Vietnam.

a.	before	c.	after
b.	because of	d.	during

Women in Vietnam served in _____ positions.

a.	combat	c.	leadership
b.	non-combat	d.	fighting

Dr. Martin Luther King spoke out _____ the war in Vietnam.

a.	against	c.	in favor of
b.	in silence for	d.	quietly in favor of

Anti War Movement Emerges

In the years prior to America’s involvement in Vietnam, an atmosphere of protest already existed in many college campuses. In contrast to the general contentment that characterized the youths of the 1950s, students in the early 1960s had become more active socially and politically . Some had participated in the civil rights struggle, while others had answered President Kennedy’s call to more actively pursue public service . By the mid-sixties, many youths believed! the nation to be in need of fundamental change.

THE NEW LEFT The growing youth movement of the 1960s became known as the New Left, which encompassed many different activist groups and organizations . The movement was “new” in relation to the “old left” of the 1930s, which generally tried to move the nation toward socialism, and, in some cases, communism . While the New Left movement did not preach socialism, its followers demanded sweeping changes in American society.

Voicing these demands was one of the better-known New Left organizations, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) . Tom Hayden and Al Haber, two University of Michigan students, founded the group in 1959. Three years later, they convened a meeting in Port Huron, Michigan, to draft the group’s declaration. Known as the Port Huron Statement, it began : “We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.” The statement, which charged that corporations and large government institutions had taken over America, called for a restoration of “participatory democracy” and greater individual freedom.

In 1964, another New Left group gained prominence . At the University of California at Berkeley, the Free Speech Movement (FSM) grew out of a clash between students and administrators over free speech on campus. Led by Mario Savio, a philosophy major and a dynamic speaker, the FSM soon focused its criticism on what it called the American “machine,” the nation’s faceless and powerful business and government institutions .

CAMPUS ACTIVISM The strategies and tactics of the FSM and SDS soon spread to colleges throughout the country. There, students addressed mostly campus issues, such as dress codes, curfews, dormitory regulations, and mandatory Reserved Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs . At Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, students marched merely as “an expression of general student discontent With the onset of the Vietnam War, the students suddenly found a galvanizing issue . At campuses across the country, American youths joined together to protest the war.

"It isn't the rebels who cause the troubles of the world, it's the troubles that cause the rebels.".. Carl Oglesby, SDS

Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda

What motivated these young people to protest?. Was it idealism, was it a desire to avoid the draft or was it a way to be “cool?”. Maybe a little of each. To be in favor of the war and in college in the 60’s and 70’s was to be alienated from your classmates and many of your college professors. The anti-war groups had the drugs, the music and the girls. Beards, beads and sandals were “in.”

Comparing the 1950’s to the 1960’s, which statement below is not true

a.	60’s youth were more intelligent	c.	60’s youth were more concerned about social issues
b.	60’s youth were more liberated	d.	60’s youth were more aware of politics

The SDS and other activist groups of the 1960’s became known as

a.	the old left	c.	the Socialist left
b.	the new left	d.	the new right

10.

SDS stood for ....

a.	Soviet Demonstration Society	c.	Students for Democratic Society
b.	Saving Democracy Society	d.	Students for Demonstration Societies

11.

The new left was anti

a.	business	c.	traditions
b.	war	d.	all of these

THE MOVEMENT GROWS

Throughout the spring of 1965, a number of colleges began to host “teach-ins” to protest the war. At the University of Michigan, where only a year before, President Johnson had announced his sweeping Great Society program, teachers and students now assailed his war policy. “This is no longer a casual form of campus spring fever,” journalist James Reston noted about the growing demonstrations . As the war continued, the protests grew and divided the country between those Americans who supported their government’s policy in Vietnam and those who opposed it.

In April of 1965, SDS helped organize a march on

Washington, D .C., by some 20,000 protesters . By November of that year, a protest rally in Washington drew more than 30,000. Then, in January of 1966, the Johnson administration changed deferments for college students . Students now had to be in good academic standing to defer their military service . Campuses around the country erupted in protest. SDS called for civil disobedience at Selective Service Centers and openly counseled students to flee to Canada or Sweden . By the end of 1967, SDS had chapters on nearly 300 campuses. The protesters claimed that the conflict in Vietnam was basically a civil war and that the U.S. military had no busi ness there. Others argued that the United States could not police the world. Still others saw the war simply as morally unjust.

As the antiwar movement grew, it reached outside the college campuses and touched other groups in society. Small numbers of returning veterans also began to protest the war. Some antiwar veterans returned their medals to President Johnson. In addition, many musicians took up the antiwar cause. Folk singers such as Peter, Paul and Mary and Joan Baez led the way as music became a popular protest vehicle . Soon protest songs even conquered the pop-music charts. Number one in September 1965 was “Eve of Destruction,” in which singer Barry McGuire stressed the ironic fact that in the 1960s an American male could be drafted at 18 but had to be 21 to vote :

12.

By 1968 the U.S. was divided between _____

a.	business and labor	c.	pro Vietnam war and anti Vietnam war
b.	Great Society and those against	d.	soldiers and civilians

13.

In 1966 the Johnson administration ruled that students needed to be a student in good academic standing at a college in order to have a deferment. What was the result of this ruling?

a.	Some students fled to Canada	c.	Campuses erupted into protest
b.	Demonstrations at Selective Service Offices	d.	All of these

14.

Every paragraph has a topic sentence. It is the main idea of the paragraph. The rest of the sentences are supporting details that support the main idea. What is the topic sentence of the last paragraph above?

a.	Some antiwar veterans returned their medals to President Johnson	c.	Soon protest songs even conquered the pop-music charts
b.	As the antiwar movement grew, it reached outside the college campuses and touched other groups in society	d.	In addition, many musicians took up the antiwar cause

FROM PROTEST TO RESISTANCE

From 1965 to 1967, the antiwar movement intensified. “We were having no effect on U.S . policy,” recalled one protest leader. “So we thought we had to up the ante.” In the spring of 1967, nearly half a million protesters of all ages gathered in New York’s Central Park. Shouting “Burn cards, not people” and “Hell, no, we won’t go!” hundreds tossed their draft cards into a bonfire . Many in the park were protesting for the first time. A housewife from New Jersey told a reporter, “So many of us are frustrated. We want to criticize this war because we think it’s wrong, but we want to do it in the framework of loyalty.”

Draft resistance continued from 1967 until President Nixon phased out the draft in the early 1970s During these years, the U.S. government accused more than 200,000 men of draft offenses and imprisoned nearly 4,000 draft resisters. (Most won parole after 6 to 12 months behind bars, while some served four or five years.) Throughout these years, about 10,000 Americans fled to Canada rather than serve in the military.

Responding to antiwar posters, Americans who supported the government's Vietnam policy developed their own slogans : "Support our men in Vietnam" and "America-love it or leave it." In one incident construction workers came down from the buildings they were working on and beat protestors in an anti-Vietnam parade when the protestors defaced the American flag. Because they wore construction hard hats, the term, “hard-hat,” now has come to mean anyone who is a conservative patriotic middle class working person.

15.

The passage above shows clearly that Americans were _____ over the war in Vietnam.

a.	polarized	c.	unconcerned
b.	united	d.	enthused

16.

What president ended the draft in 1970?

a.	Johnson	c.	Carter
b.	Nixon	d.	Reagan

WAR DIVIDES THE NATION

By 1967, Americans increasingly found themselves divided into two camps regarding the war. Those who strongly opposed the war and believed the United States should withdraw were known as doves. Feeling just as strongly that America should unleash a greater show of military force to end the war were the hawks.

Despite the visibility of the antiwar protesters, a majority of American citizens in 1967 still remained committed to the war. In May of that year, a prowar march through the streets of Manhattan drew 20,000 people . During this time, a poll showed that two-thirds of Americans still felt that the war was justified. And while only 10 percent of Americans approved of’ the administration’s present level of commitment in Vietnam, about 50 percent felt that “increased attacks” against North Vietnam would help win the war. A poll taken in December of 1967 showed that 70 percent of Americans believed the war protests were “acts of disloyalty.”

JOHNSON REMAINS DETERMINED

Throughout the turmoil and division that engulfed the country during the early years of the war, President Johnson remained firm. Attacked by doves for not withdrawing and by hawks for not increasing military power rapidly enough, Johnson continued his policy of slow escalation . As for the protesters who paraded outside his window, the president saw them as misguided and misinformed. They “wouldn’t know a Communist if they tripped over one,” he declared.

However, by the end of 1967, Johnson’s policy-and the continuing stalemate-had begun to create turmoil within his own administration . In November, Defense Secretary McNamara, a key architect of U.S. escalation in Vietnam, quietly announced he was resigning to become head of the World Bank.

As it happened, McNamara’s resignation came on the threshold of the most tumultuous year of the sixties. In 1968 the war-and Johnson’s presidency would take a drastic turn for the worse .

17.

People who were against the war in Vietnam were called _____ and those in favor of the war were called _____

a.	hawks - doves	c.	doves - hawks
b.	pigeons - eagles	d.	fish - sharks

18.

In 1967 _____ of the people in the U.S. supported the war.

a.	a majority	c.	only a minority
b.	only a slight majority	d.	half

19.

This person was a holdover from the Kennedy administrtion and was the main architect of the Vietnam war. After guiding President Johnson into the war he resigned in 1967. Who was he?

a.	Robert McNamara	c.	Maxwell Clark
b.	Bobby Kennedy	d.	Jerry Rubins

20.

Which group wanted to increase the war effort to finally win the war in Vietnam?

a.	SDS	c.	FSM
b.	hawks	d.	American Eagles