Out of Chaos - Support Material

What course of action do officers have when their conscience is in conflict with their duty? William A. Gouveia, Jr., describes the case of Col. David Hackworth, whose moral indignation at the conduct of the Vietnam War led him to public condemnation of the conflict, and the premature end of his brilliant military career. Gouveia argues that Hackworth's story has continuing relevancy and highlights important issues of the military -- civilian relationship in a democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the manner in which the mass media present protest movements to the reading and the viewing public in the U.S. Way by which the media discredits activists' core message; Features of images used in demonstrations in April 1967; Illustration of posters used by demonstrators aiming to protest the war in Vietnam in the 1960s.

Discusses the impact of the Vietnam War on popular music in the United States. Reflection of the attitudes of the American people towards wars and armed conflicts; Emergence of social protest and anti-war lyrics in songs.

Popular myth today associates the anti-Vietnam War movement with radical New Left politics, counterculture, and student protest, if not also with violence. That those stereotypes originated from media coverage at the time is widely assumed, no doubt, but our images of the antiwar movement also were constructed and were reinforced by the historical literature written during and in the decade or so after the war. Since about 1988, however, writing in the field has broadened our understanding of the movement and has given it fresh nuances. The movement now seems to have had a broader, more diversified, more mainstream base than its stereotype would allow and to have persevered after the New Left disintegrated. There is still an agenda of research and writing in this field, and not least is to challenge the prevailing images of antiwar protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reprint of an interview with boxer Muhammad Ali from the June 1970 issue of "Black Scholar," is presented. He discusses his opposition to the Vietnam War, the experience of African Americans in the United States, and the relationship between black men and black women. Other topics include boxer Joe Frazier, Muslim religious leader Elijah Muhammad, and Ali's suspension from boxing.

Throughout the decades following America's involvement in the Vietnam War, historians have documented various aspects of the antiwar and dissident movements across the nation and on college campuses. Over time, the historiography of the antiwar movement, especially as related to campus protest movements, has expanded considerably, particularly in regard to the origins, structure, and internal dynamics of the groups involved. Yet there are shortcomings in the scholarly literature on this subject. Most historians have focused upon dissident movements in the American North and West while all but neglecting protest activities at colleges in the South. In this article, I show that dissent similar to that which shook other colleges around the nation occurred on the campus of the University of South Carolina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the experience of Canadian Mennonites with the Vietnam War focusing on the alternative service taken by Mennonite young men, who subsequently viewed the system as an inadequate approach to peacemaking. Three religious arguments are identified that suggested the inadequacy of a Mennonite witness who cooperated with a military system in an alternative service program. These arguments raises issues about peacemaking as a Christian vocation, the privileged status given to historic peace churches through alternative service programs but to the detriment of other people outside the church, and participation in the military system as a machinery of war.

The most striking and theoretically anomalous finding of previous research on self-interest and attitudes is the absence of a self-interest motive in support for the Vietnam War. This research note reconsiders this result using a panel survey of university students collected before and after the first Vietnam draft lottery. These data are unique because they allow the unbiased estimation of the effect of self-interest on attitudes toward the war. I find that, contrary to previous results, self-interest had a substantial impact on support for the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Draft lottery number assignment during the Vietnam Era provides a natural experiment to examine the effects of military service on crime. Using exact dates of birth for inmates in state and federal prisons in 1979, 1986, and 1991, we find that draft eligibility increases incarceration for violent crimes but decreases incarceration for nonviolent crimes among whites. This is particularly evident in 1979, where two-sample instrumental variable estimates indicate that military service increases the probability of incarceration for a violent crime by 0.34 percentage points and decreases the probability of incarceration for a nonviolent crime by 0.30 percentage points. We conduct two falsification tests, one that applies each of the three binding lotteries to unaffected cohorts and another that considers the effects of lotteries that were not used to draft servicemen. ( JEL K42, H56) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the conflict in Vietnam, married men with dependents could obtain a deferment from the draft. In 1965, following President Johnson’s Executive Order 11241 and a subsequent Selective Service System announcement, the particulars of this policy changed substantially in a way which provided strong incentives for childless American couples to conceive a first-born child. This study examines the effects of the intervention on the decision to start a family. In my empirical analysis, I use data from the Vital Statistics for the period 1963–1968 and employ a difference-in-differences methodology. The estimated magnitude of the effect is substantial. ( JEL J18) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-1970s, many U. S. citizens who had not complied with the requirement that they participate in the military of the United States during the Vietnam War faced a dilemma. In the preceding decade, tens of thousands of them had immigrated to Canada-both legally and illegally-to resist compulsory military service. Richard Nixon refused to allow these resisters to return to the United States. His successor, Gerald Ford, allowed expatriates to return if they agreed to do alternative service. Jimmy Carter attempted to resolve the crisis with an amnesty. Canada did not participate in the Vietnam War and refused to extradite American men to the United States for violations of most conscription and military laws. However, in 1973, in the middle of an immigration crisis, Canada forced the hand of many Americans and others who had entered the country clandestinely by giving them only sixty days to reconcile their residency status with the Canadian government or to risk becoming illegal immigrants and to face deportation. The shifting matrix of laws on both sides of the U. S.- Canada border forced American exiles to decide whether to risk having a status that officially satisfied neither country, to accept the terms of the Ford or Carter repatriation plans and reclaim the perquisites of life in the United States, to remain illegal immigrants in Canada, or to acquire Canadian citizenship. Residency in Canada opened the possibility for a different type of citizenship for American men, one less concerned with their potential contribution to the military might of a nation and more tolerant of their freedom of expression, which might include opposition to war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the annual Freshman Survey titled "The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2015," which is conducted by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program. It says that college freshmen in the U.S. are most likely to participate in a protest and political activism during college. It mentions the beliefs and behaviors of freshman class including their vote in federal or state election, sexual orientation, and selection of affiliations.