ShmoopTube

00:03

Make love, not war: sounds like a pretty good slogan, right? [protesters hold signs]

00:07

Well, by 1980, we were desperate for a slogan, or better yet a solution, to end

00:13

the bloody chaos of the previous decade and a half. The 1960s and 70s were not [old woman yells]

00:18

the boring, lackluster decades of the late 19th century. You know, that period

00:22

when nobody can remember what happened or what President did what. Well, the 60s [boring late 19th century montage]

00:26

and 70s have earned their reputation as an era all on their own. They had the

00:31

power to shape the largest generation in American history, and boy did they ever [person makes sculpture]

00:34

shape them. Civil rights enthusiasm and activism laid the groundwork for every

00:39

citizen to be more involved. Folks were pumped up about promoting and protecting [demonstrators pictured]

00:43

American rights and making sure America's leadership didn't forget the

00:47

little guy. Yeah, this era always had something exciting up its sleeves. Ooh, colorful [little guy left on bench]

00:52

scarves... sorry, we got distracted there. You know, issues... like Watergate. Biggest [colorful scarf in sleeve]

00:56

political scandal in our history. It was exciting stuff and on every channel--

01:01

sorry kiddos, Sesame Street would have to wait. Oh, and there was also that little [Watergate and Vietnam footage]

01:05

war... you know, the most expensive, most unpopular war of its time? Yeah, we're

01:10

looking at you, Vietnam. From the nation's costliest and most unpopular war to the

01:15

biggest political scandal in our history, the 60s and 70s could never be called

01:19

dull. Heck, the Vietnam War was one of the most talked-about or screamed-about

01:23

issues of the time. How did it happen? Well, the war in Vietnam was not so [demonstrators pictured]

01:28

secretly the Cold War turned hot. We were do-or-die for stopping the spread of [Cold War kettle steams]

01:34

communism, so when communists started to take over Vietnam, we decided to do a lot

01:38

of dying to try and stop it. What followed was a long losing battle in [military graves]

01:42

Southeast Asia. The war dragged on for 10 deadly years, and it cost America more

01:47

than 58,000 American lives and a sense of belief in our leaders and our role in [Vietnam War info]

01:52

the world. Anti-war protesters were joined by protesters continuing the

01:56

fight for racial equality and gender equality. And new to the scene were [demonstrators congregate]

02:01

activists eager to fight for mother earth. Environmental concerns rose as

02:05

Americans became increasingly aware of their impact on the world

02:08

around them. Americans everywhere were capitalizing on the movement to speak [environmentalists demonstrate]

02:12

out, and those tree huggers were no exception. All right, well all this public

02:15

awareness of social issues was fueled by an increase in accessibility to modern

02:20

media. More and more, people were able to actually see what was going on, and they [TV displays current events]

02:24

weren't too happy about it. The shiny, conservative, white-bread world of the

02:28

1950s was no more. America had issues, and it was going to take more than a few

02:33

therapy sessions to get over it... and probably a bigger couch. [Uncle Sam at therapy]

Full Transcript