The Counterculture and the Antiwar Movement

With the nation shocked and paralyzed by the Vietnam War, thousands of American youth showed their concern through campus rallies, antiwar demonstrations, and concerts for peace. Many of the nation's youth were strongly opposed to the war taking place halfway across the world, in which their fathers, brothers, and husbands were dying.   United in their antiwar sentiment, thousands of young people joined in their creation of the "counterculture."  This new culture, which fostered the tenets of rebellion, spread rapidly during the late 1960s.  It showcased an alternate lifestyle symbolized by drugs, sex, and antiwar protest.

"All we are asking is give peace a chance," was the mantra chanted in antiwar protests and demonstrations.  The youth were more outspoken than ever before.  They protested on college campuses and in major cities.   Even the United States Capitol was not immune to this new age of rebellious youth.   In a surge of boldness, 50,000 flower children and hippies journeyed to San Francisco for the "Summer of Love."

Counterculture groups sprung up across the nation. Some examples include such radical groups as the Chicago Seven and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).   "New Left" became a term used to describe the generation of young people radicalized by social injustice, civil rights struggles, and the Vietnam War. These groups were enraged by the draft and American involvement in Vietnam, and in response staged sometimes violent demonstrations such as those held in Chicago and Detroit, and on college campuses like Kent State and Columbia University.

The counterculture stood against the traditional values of middle-class society, and manifested its rebellion in several way: long hair, rock music as showcased at Woodstock, tye-dye, free sex, drugs, and riots are only some of the vehicles through which the counterculture asserted itself.  Through protests and anti-war demonstrations, the counterculture challenged the governmental institutions of American society and the youth spoke out for what they believed in.

Source: "Counterculture of the Sixties"- North Hagerstown High School A.P. U.S. History
Pictures: Photos courtesy of Robert Altman,©1999

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