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The 60s, Vietnam & Woodstock
A special exhibit at Hagaman Memorial Library through August, compiled by Jack Stacey
by Jack Stacey
Having just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing and preparing for the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival, it is time to reflect on the decade of the 1960s.
The 60s were a decade that started with such hope and promise, as a young John Fitzgerald Kennedy ascended to the Presidency. The decade ended in utter chaos, in part because of assassinations and protest over the war in Vietnam.
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The assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, then of Dr. Martin Luther King followed closely by that of Senator Robert Kennedy in 1968, tore at the soul of the nation. The Vietnam War, which was an attempt to follow the U.S. policy of containment, not allowing the spread of Communism (the Domino Theory), divided the country generationally. Despite this turmoil, the two events: the Moon Landing, and yes, Woodstock, brought everyone together for a brief moment of time.
President Kennedy had announced early in his tenure that the U.S. would put a man on the moon and bring him back by the end of the decade. That accomplishment happened in July 1969. In August of that year, in a small farming community in Sullivan County, New York, approximately 500,000 individuals arrived for what was advertised as “3 Days of Peace & Music”. Incredibly, despite bad weather, not enough food or restrooms, there was not one reported incident of violence during the event.
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Recently retired after twenty years of teaching in the New Haven Public School System, teaching American History and electives entitled “The 60s and Vietnam, America’s War”, I put together an exhibit for the Hagaman Memorial Library of memorabilia and personal items I have collected of the period. I have always considered myself a “child of the 60s”. I was in the Republic of South Vietnam for most of 1969, with the 1st Marine Division, and did not view or take part in either of the benchmark events (Moon Landing & Woodstock), but I did feel the impact of the war.
I hope that viewing this exhibit somehow reflects the times of a critical decade in U.S. history.