The above picture of course is from the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC.  For most, to see the Wall is an experience, and an effective tool for remembering that conflict.  It is a reminder forever of the men that died in Vietnam serving this country for reasons many still do not understand.

It is for this reason then, that music may be the most influential medium by which we remember Vietnam in America. The country was so eclectic and transitional in its views in this period that one has to look at the music should he want to get a sense of the society at the time. Perhaps more than both the First and Second World Wars, the music that was written during or around the time the United States was involved in the conflict in Vietnam, was very much a symbol of mainstream American's views.  More than ever before, music led the way in telling the world what Americans felt about its country's involvement. In a time of "free love" and "peace, not war," of Woodstock and The Grateful Dead, many Americans were absolutely against the idea of the US going to Vietnam.  There were protests, sit-ins, and various other demonstrations promoting peace. This can be heard in the music of the time. There were also musicians and composers who tried to capture soldier's emotions in their work, and in doing so gave American society a dark view of what it was like in the jungles and marshes of the small country in the Far East.  More than ever before, music took us into the battles, into the minds of the soldiers, into the experience itself. Certainly Bing Crosby was not singing about these images.

Most of the songs I refer to in this section are familiar to many Americans, and most will probably be taken back to the time when they fought against the government on the Vietnam issue. There is no doubt that music was a reflection of American society during the Vietnam war, and the music is perhaps the only thing many Americans care to remember.

After the rise of folk music during the World War II period, the genre really made a name for itself during Vietnam.  Countless artists and their songs proclaimed disagreement and confusion with the government about this conflict.  Songwriters became a voice for the people, sharing the views of an entire conflicted society in their songs. One such artist who was closely involved with the fighting himself and proud of the men representing America in Vietnam, was Ssgt. Barry Sadler, whose album Ballads of the Green Berets really gives a good indication of what it was like in Vietnam. The title track The Ballad of the Green Berets  lets the listener hear about the bravery of the troops overseas. Another song on a similar album entitled In Country: Folk Songs Of Americans In The Vietnam War, Saigon Warrior, written by Saul Broudy and Robin Thomas, talks of the beauty of Saigon, but the incompetence of the American military leaders there.

Perhaps one of the best indications of the "straight-forwardness" of folk writers were songs like Played Around and Stayed Around in Vietnam too Long, by Chuck Rosenberg, Saul Broudy, and Bull Durham which has a sobered veteran proclaim "Ho Chi Mihn and Johnson don't get along, and I just feel like I wanna go home." If people did not like the war, they wrote about and sang about it. This can best be seen in listening to the Woodstock Festival in 1969. One of the peforming artists at Woodstock was Country Joe McDonald, who sang about how we're all going to die when we go to Vietnam in his I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin-To-Die-Rag. The song speaks for iteslf. With no national concensus as in 1941, there were no boundaries or limits on what musicians could and could not write, regardless of status or fame.  John Fogarty proved that himself when his band Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) released the song Fortunate Son. This song was a direct attack on war and the government with verses like:

CCR was one of the most popular bands in America in the Vietnam era, and in the middle of the public's eye, they released a song completely criticizing the government. Things were changing, and music was moving to the forefront of American society as its own voice.

There were also songs in this period meant to give the emotions of the men in Vietnam.  One such song is Eve of Destruction, a very dark song by Barry McGuire asking questions about why Americans are in Vietnam at all, and how devastating dropping another bomb could be. This is a apt song to include on this discussion because it shows how far music had come in speaking for society. Certainly such a heavy and negative song such as McGuire's would not have been a mainstream hit during the World War II period. There wasn't as much questioning by musicians, not as much anger or fear at the government's actions. Eve of Destruction shows that musicians now had a freedom to say whatever they wanted, and could express their views, whatever they were, through their music, good or bad. This is why we remember Vietnam as such a low point in our history. The music does such a good job at showing the emotions of the society that it becomes what we remember. Vietnam was a terrible, horrible, conflict. The music reflects that. It shares the emotions of the public, and though music, gives them a taste of how unimaginable it must have been.

No piece is a better example of this than George Crumb's Black Angels, written in 1970. He says, Black Angels is probably the only quartet to have been inspired by the Vietnam War...it was conceived as a kind of parable on our troubled contemporary world. The work portrays the voyage of the soul. The three stages in this voyage are Departure (fall from grace), Absence (spiritual annihilation) and Return (redemption)."¹ Performed by the Kronos Quartet, consisting of two violins, a viola, and a cello, the piece opens very disturbingly, with the violins sounding like screams or insects out of control, throwing the listener almost immediately into the swamps of Vietnam. Titled Departure, this section is violent and confused sounding, and really gives the listener the impression of what being there was like. It is very quiet and hard to hear, like a solider first arriving and unaccustomed to the jungle. The next section is titled Absence and is even more disturbing as the violin's sound, like lost souls of soldiers crying, as shouts of men ring out in the background. Giant gongs and more voices permeate the ears of the listener as the piece, and the soul, suddenly grow quiet. This leads into the final movement of Return in which the music is nearly inaudible. Besides one flash of violins as in "Departure," the piece is nearly silent as the soul gains redemption. This piece is extremely dark and disturbing because of how eerily life-like and alive Crumb and the Kronos Quartet make Vietnam feel to one who is listening. The instruments are extremely dissonant, and almost defy the normal conventions of quartets because of how unorthodox the piece is. The violins almost sound like children shrieking; that is how dark this piece is. And again, it goes to show how effective music is in remembering war. The folk songs spoke for American society, Black Angels speaks for the men who were there.