The most important event of 60’s in American history was Vietnam War. No doubt that this historical event changed forever the mind of American society and leads to creation of civil rights movement, famous Martin Luther King’s march on Washington DC, student’s protests, movement for gay rights and etc. Full responsibility for the beginning of Vietnam War is on Lyndon Johnson, who in 1964 forced US Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The official beginning of Vietnam War is 1965, when 200,000 American soldiers were sent to Vietnam. That war, that no one really needs and whose goal was to take the revenge on Soviets, broke American society believe into the rightness of the politics. The lost generation of American soldiers who survived this war gave birth to the new protest movements for peace and until now being one of the most politically active anti-war and civil right supporters. The book by Kovic “Born on the Fourth of July” and the movie based on this book very well illustrates the historical events of that period in American history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5gaIXI2Mn4
The motivation to go to war, which was to fight communism, resulted in uncontrollable circumstances. The military leaders had very little idea of what the situation was on the ground and lead the American soldiers into a war that could not be won. What resulted was a war that cost more than a million people their lives including over fifty thousand soldiers their lives. War can never be used to change ideas or principles. Even if it is, it never achieves it’s purpose.