Perry Watkins Describes his Mistreatment by the Army
Civil Rights and Citizenship
Gender and Sexuality
Race and Ethnicity
Perry Watkins was a gay African American soldier who was drafted to serve in the army during the Vietnam War. He was open about his sexuality throughout his entire career. Despite this, in 1981, the army revoked his security clearance after 13 years of service. Army officials stated that his homosexuality made him unfit to serve. Watkins filed a lawsuit in response, citing the fact that the army had been aware of his sexuality since he was first drafted, and that he had served faithfully ever since. This passage is an excerpt from an interview, in which Watkins discussed his experience in the army and the legal battles he fought for his rights. In 1988, the court ruled in Watkin’s favor, making him one of the first people to successfully challenge the military’s exclusion of LGBTQ+ service members.
Eric Marcus, interview with Perry Watkins, November 19, 1989. Making Gay History, podcast audio, https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/perry-watkins/
1989
2842
Postwar America (1946-1975)
Contemporary US (1976 to the present)
LGBTQ+ Students Organize Anti-War Protest
Gender and Sexuality
Social Movements
Anti-war sentiment rose across the country in the midst of the Vietnam War for a variety of reasons, including pacifism, anti-imperialism, solidarity with the Vietnamese, and even a desire by some young people not to be drafted. Many anti-war activists also supported gay liberation. In contrast to the homophile movement, which fought for equal rights for LGBTQ+ people, starting in the 1960s gay liberationists also sought to change social attitudes. Calling for “gay rights,†gay liberation activists emphasized using direct action to fight injustice, whether it be homophobia and transphobia in the United States or the ongoing conflict overseas. They also sought to challenge gender roles and argued that war and aggression would end if society rejected traditional ideas about masculinity. This article was published in the Berkeley Barb, a student newspaper, in 1969, in order to generate interest in an upcoming anti-war demonstration.
“Gay May Day.†Berkely Barb, April 19-15, 1971. Accessed March 21, 2021. https://voices.revealdigital.org/
1971
Postwar America (1946-1975)
"Uncle Sam's Got Himself in a Terrible Jam": Protest Music and the Vietnam War
Social Movements
In this activity students analyze the lyrics to a popular Vietnam War protest song and discuss how music can be used to motivate people and for protest. Then students will create a new stanza for the protest song "I-Feel-Like-I'm Fixin'-To-Die Rag."
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2009.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
2009
Copyright American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
<div><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.</div>
English
Postwar America (1946-1975)
<em>Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence</em>
Social Movements
On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King delivered his first major public statement against the Vietnam War, entitled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence." Addressing a crowd of 3,000 at Riverside Church in New York City, King condemned the war as anti-democratic, impractical, and unjust. He described the daily suffering of Vietnamese peasants caught in the crossfire, as well as the human and economic burdens being placed on America's poor. Not only were lower-class Americans more likely to fight in Vietnam, but Johnson's domestic "War on Poverty" designed to help poor families was being derailed by U.S. foreign policy. King called for an immediate end to the bombing and a negotiated peace settlement with Vietnam. Although some activists supported King's opposition to the war, many were concerned that the speech would be perceived as unpatriotic and hinder the civil rights struggle by connecting it to the more radical peace movement.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., "Beyond Vietnam—A Time to Break Silence," 4 April 1967, Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., available from American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank, http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1967
English
Speech
Postwar America (1946-1975)
President Johnson Justifies U.S. Intervention in Vietnam
Expansion and Imperialism
President Johnson, in this speech delivered at Johns Hopkins University on April 7, 1965, lists the reasons for escalating the United State's involvement in Vietnam. Having secured Congressional authorization with the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Johnson launched a bombing campaign in the North, and in March 1965, dispatched 3,500 marines to South Vietnam. With this speech, Johnson laid the political groundwork for a major commitment of U.S. troops.
Lyndon B. Johnson
<em>Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965</em>, vol. 1, entry 172, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966), 394-399; from Michael H. Hunt, ed., <em>The World Transformed, 1945 to the Present: A Documentary Reader</em> (New York: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2004), 156-57.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1965
English
Speech
Postwar America (1946-1975)
The National Liberation Front Comments on the My Lai Massacre
The National Liberation Front Committee of Quang Ngai province began disseminating this shortly after the My Lai massacre. While the notice exaggerates some aspects of the massacre, the document suggests the potential of incidents like My Lai to be used by pro-Communist forces as propaganda.
National Liberation Front Committee of Quang Ngai Province
[William Peers], Report of the Department of the Army Review, of the Preliminary Investigations in to the My Lai Incident, vol. 4, exhibits M-2, M-3, ([Washington, D.C.]: The Department, 1970), 9-11; from James S. Olson and Randy Roberts, <em>My Lai: A Brief History with Documents</em>, (Boston: Bedford, 1998),136-8.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1968
English
Pamphlet
Postwar America (1946-1975)
<em>Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of VietNam</em>
Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary name of Nguyen That Thanh (1890-1969), was the leader of the Vietnamese independence movement against the French, and later the United States. He was educated in France, where he became a communist. He returned home to fight Japanese occupation during World War II and to lead resistance to the French afterward. He denounced western imperialism as contrary to democratic principles and explicitly allied himself with the promise of both the American and French Revolutions.
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh, <em>On Revolution: Selected Writings, 1920-66</em>, ed. Bernard B. Fall (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967), 14345; from Center for History and New Media and ASHP, "Ho Chi Minh, Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of VietNam," <em>Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution</em>, http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/583/
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1945
English
Pamphlet
Postwar America (1946-1975)
A Group of "Boat People" Arrive by Plane
Immigration and Migration
This photograph from the <em>Detroit News</em>, December 16, 1978, shows a Vietnamese family arriving in the United States. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, thousands of refugees fled Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in search of new lives in the United States. Although often stigmatized as "boat people," the family here clearly arrived by plane; their well-dressed appearance suggests they may have been better off than some of their more desperate compatriots. The look on the face of the little girl in front captures the optimism and hope for a better life in a new country.
Detroit News
"Vietnamese Boat People Arriving at Metro Airport," black and white photograph, (Detroit: <em>The Detroit News</em>, 16 December 1978), from the Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University, <em>Virtual Motor City</em>, http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?id=S-VMC-X-7214-UND-1%5D7214_1.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1978
Used by permission of the Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.
English
Photograph
Contemporary US (1976 to the present)
Soldiers in Vietnam Gather Around a Guitar
Members of Company A of the 14th U.S. Infantry Division gather around a guitar after a hard day during "Operation Yellowstone," which lasted from December 1967 to March 1968. Many soldiers in Vietnam would customize their helmets by writing slogans on the cloth covers; the guitar-playing soldier here has dubbed himself the "Oklahoma Kid."
Department of Defense
Department of Defense, "Operation 'Yellowstone' Vietnam," 18 January 1968, photograph, National Archives and Records Administration, http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=530617.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1968
English
Photograph
Postwar America (1946-1975)
Vietnam War Protestors Confront M.P.s with Flowers
Social Movements
A Vietnam-era photograph shows a standoff between antiwar protesters and military police. The demonstration, which took place on October 21, 1967, included a march to the Pentagon, where "Yippies" Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin led a mock "exorcism" of the building. As many as 100,000 people took part in the protest, which also involved several exchanges similar to the one depicted in the photograph.
Department of Defense
Department of Defense, "Photograph of a Female Demonstrator Offering a Flower to a Military Police Officer, 10/21/1967," 21 October 1967, from the National Archives, http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=594360
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1967
English
Photograph
Postwar America (1946-1975)