War, rebellions, movements, assassinations, music, and drugs defined the 1960s. It
marked as a decade of changes. It was also a decade of violence. America had never seen
herself in such turmoil and decadence. It was the time when America was split into halves. The
old order soon came into questioned by the new one. Protests and uneasiness spread like wild
fire across America. Perhaps, America was in a brink of a total collapse. Putting it into
perspective, the whole world was going under dramatic chaos for it was the “age of selfishness
[and] age of self-indulgence. It was the age of anti- authority.”
The Vietnam War was perhaps the stem of all the events that followed. President
Johnson was the man who stood in support of the war to help South Vietnam to fight against
the spread of communism of North Vietnam. It was the war that would divide a country. The
main question revolved around whether it was justifiable? As the number of casualties
increased, many people started to have doubts about the war, which led to many protests by
the Americans, especially the young generation.
The anti- war movements started to spread across America. Non- violent protesters
soon took it all the way to the Pentagon. However, the government retaliated with violence by
beating many protesters. Was that democracy that America was built upon? Or was America
herself a hypocrite? Better yet, America was an image of communism. People’s voice was
unheard. It stirred angers and uneasiness of the young generation. They began to question the
political authority.
The video clip emphasized the war as the starting point of all evil. Though, it failed to
criticize the government itself as a failure which sparked all the movements or events that soon
followed. Let us make an analogy. Remember when Great Britain failed to listen to the colonists
for their opinion? They made themselves heard with a revolution that forever changed
America. The 1960s was perhaps a little revolution that would change America’s course. It was
when an old world order refused to cope with the changes of the new world order. The
powerless wanted to voice themselves, yet the power suppressed and ignored it. The U.S.
government should be blameworthy for all the tragedies of the 1960s.
Just when there seemed to be rays of hope for the powerless in Robert Kennedy, he was
assassinated. Imagine what would happen if Robert Kennedy were to win the election and end
the war like the majority wanted? America needed a president who would listen to its citizens,
not a president who shunned them aside. Perhaps another mistake America committed was the
election of Richard Nixon, another president who refused to listen to the sentiments of the
masses. Instead, he even took harsher measures against protestors through violence.
Maybe it was the single reason that the feeling of helpless in time of warfare and
turmoil had turned the young generation to resort to other kind of leisure to find their inner
peace. The young generation were particularly were very influenced by the 1960s. They began
to experience with music, drugs, and sexual freedom. They brought about the countercultural
movement. They denounced the materials that affect our life. Music was their new religion. It
was a way for young people to express themselves and removed from the social order.
However, too much freedom also came with its price. This was a period in which young people
lost the foundation of education for they indulged themselves in drugs. Sex was also an issue
ever since the introduction of new birth control pills. This also caused a ripple effect in the
minority. Through the eyes of many Caucasian Americans, it was either the time in which they
tried to get their voice heard. Another could reason that it was a horrific decade. However, the
minority seemed to use the 60s to its full advantage to advocate for their own rights.
Martin Luther King was a figure or the voice of the African- Americans for he spoke for
the masses of their needs and wants. However, coincidentally he was also murdered. America
took the life of another man who represented the majority. Due to his deaths, chaos took place
everywhere. Two prominent figures in King and Kennedy could have changed the course of
1960s. 1960s could have been prevented to certain measure, but the deaths of King and
Kennedy worsen the downward spiral of the decade. The old order might suspiciously have
something to do with it.
Just like the war in Vietnam in which US government refused to lose to inferior North
Vietnam, in the same way, they refused to lose to the protestors in United States. The failure to
acknowledge the consequences did catch up to them. In the end, the protestors finally won
their battle. Nixon was forced to retrieve the troop home.