Anti-war protest and counter-protest widen the "generation gap" (oct 1, 1965 – may 1, 1976)

Description:

By the early 1970s, stagnation and setbacks in the grueling jungle war, the ineffectiveness of the South Vietnamese government and its forces at self-defense, along with the surprising battle fitness of the Communist forces, were causing concern in US leadership. Students protested widely at US universities. One of these protests at Kent State in Ohio was met with armed National Guard troops, who fired live ammunition at protesters, killing four.

Counter-protests framed the anti-war movement as friendly to Communism, unpatriotic, and anti-American. Slogans like "AMERICA: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT" and "MY COUNTRY, RIGHT OR WRONG" were seen on bumper stickers. The anti-war movement and its opposing movement merged with the polemic over the anti-traditional, counter-culture movements of the 1960s where mod clothing, hair styles, rock and folk music, marijuana, and psychedelic drug use had already defined a cultural schism in America.

This schism already had a popular name: "the generation gap".

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