Essential Question: What impact did Vietnam, Watergate, and Ronald Reagan have on Americans?
Through my interview with my father I was able to gather valuable insight into the impact of Vietnam, watergate, and other major events of the 1970’s on Americans.
My father expressed to me, through explaining his personal experiences with the draft and the conflict the war and the presidency in this era brought to his life, that America was infact a “nation in turmoil”. However, my father explained, “turmoil” was not necessarily as detrimental to the nation as the word seems to imply. This turmoil, as it my father expressed, brought a restlessness and energy to America that fueled a political awakening and allowed the social changes that occured in this era to take place. From my interview I can conclude that Vietnam and Watergate were hurtful to the nation in the sense that they undermined the security of many Americans but the positive repercussions of such events seem to out weigh the negatives. These events also caused the backlash of the youth culture known as “counter-culture”, a notion that added to the surging energy of the nation and, although many of the baby boomer’s parents viewed it as a negative type of culture, allowed the youth to express their political and social beliefs in a stronger, more unified manner. This youth culture and expression through music and pop culture is an everlasting affect of the 1970’s that has forever positively changed the way politics and the government are run in America.
I was able to uncover what one baby boomer percieved as the biggest difference between politics and the political beliefs of Americans in the 1970’s and today. My father observed, logically, that the sentiments Americans feel towards the government and towards their country are the same feelings they have always had and they are just as strong now as ever, but the means through which Americans express these emotions has changed drastically. The more physical demonstration of the 1970’s seemed to have been more powerful and uniting than the digital and cyber petitions and protests we see in the twenty fist century.