population during the 1960s, their influence on overall culture was significant. Because young people made up roughly one-third of the U.S. Thus the counterculture tended to distrust authority. Their dramatically different values set young people apart from their elders. They experimented with fashion, 'free love' (having sexual relations outside of marriage), music, and even drugs.

Led by the same college students who opposed the war, the counterculture emphasized personal freedom and expression. They grew up to become part of the 1960s counterculture. involvement in Vietnam were from the baby boom generation born after World War II. As the war dragged into the 1970s, many Americans questioned the government's honesty. Television helped to create a credibility gap between government statements and media reports. They could not capture the horrors of warfare in the same way that the moving, full-color television scenes could.Īs a result, Americans began to compare what they saw on screen with what they were told by government officials. World War II and Korea had been shown in black-and-white newspaper photos and propaganda newsreels. The Vietnam War was called the first 'living room war.' Television brought the conflict into people's homes in an entirely new way. Then the Watergate scandal showed that corruption could affect even the nation's top office. troops from Vietnam raised even more questions about whether the war had been unjustified.

The release of documents known as the Pentagon Papers proved that the government had misled the public. The situation only got worse as the decade continued. However, television reporting had shown that what the government said was not always true. For decades, citizens had trusted their government to be honest with them and do what was best for the nation. The Vietnam War had dragged on for longer than expected, and it seemed more and more like a waste of young lives and U.S. When the decade began, many Americans were angry. With the fall of a president and the collapse of South Vietnam, the 1970s were a time of disillusionment. And the answers led to the downfall of Richard Nixon. Senator Howard Baker, a member of the committee investigating the Watergate break-in, asked the questions. For Americans in the 1970s, those two questions were the key to one of the great scandals in U.S history.

6.04 the korean war