Movements of the People
the VCE Study Design
Read the two excerpts below to ensure you understand the requirements of this area of study.
A Timeline of the Vietnam War
Press the button below to see the timeline of the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War
French Colonial Vietnam
Looking at Leaders
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)
Ho Chi Minh
Born 1890, he was a Vietnamese communist revolutionary.
He left school in 1907 (age 17), and travelled to France in 1911 (21 years old).
He then began a world wide travel, working on ships from 1911-1917.
1912-1913 lived in New York and Boston working as a baker.
At points between 1913 and 1919 he lived in the UK and worked in New Zealand.
From 1919-1923 he lived in France and built relationships with French Socialists and Vietnamese Nationalists.
In 1923 he left Paris for Moscow, and studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East.
He arrived in China in 1924.He organised ‘Youth Education Classes’ and gave socialist lectures in China.
In 1941 he returned to Vietnam and lead the Viet Minh independence movement.
He oversaw many successful military operations against the French. He led the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941, establishing Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in 1945.
He was Prime Minister of the DRV (45-55) and President (45-69.
He officially stepped down in 1965 due to health issues, but remained a figurehead.
South Vietnam
Ngo Ding Diem
A Roman Catholic, anti-communist who enforced religiously oppressive laws against certain groups, including Buddhist monks.
He eventually lost US support and was assassinated in 1963.
Ho Chi Minh
Born 1890, he was a Vietnamese communist revolutionary.
He left school in 1907 (age 17), and travelled to France in 1911 (21 years old).
He then began a world wide travel, working on ships from 1911-1917.
1912-1913 lived in New York and Boston working as a baker.
At points between 1913 and 1919 he lived in the UK and worked in New Zealand.
From 1919-1923 he lived in France and built relationships with French Socialists and Vietnamese Nationalists.
In 1923 he left Paris for Moscow, and studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East.
He arrived in China in 1924.He organised ‘Youth Education Classes’ and gave socialist lectures in China.
In 1941 he returned to Vietnam and lead the Viet Minh independence movement.
He oversaw many successful military operations against the French. He led the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941, establishing Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in 1945.
He was Prime Minister of the DRV (45-55) and President (45-69.
He officially stepped down in 1965 due to health issues, but remained a figurehead.
South Vietnam
Ngo Ding Diem
A Roman Catholic, anti-communist who enforced religiously oppressive laws against certain groups, including Buddhist monks.
He eventually lost US support and was assassinated in 1963.
Important Definitions and CounterCultural Movements
Culture: The ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people group or society.
Subculture: A cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.
Counterculture: A way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norm.
Beatnik: A young person in the 1950s or early 1960s belonging to a subculture associated with the beat generation.
Beat Generation: A movement of young people in the 1950s and early 1960s who rejected conventional society, valuing free self-expression and favouring modern jazz. An example of an author from this subcultural movement was Jack Kerouac.
Hippie: A person of unconventional appearance, typically having long hair and wearing beads, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values and the taking of hallucinogenic drugs.
Pacifism: The belief that war and violence are unjustifiable and that all disputes should be settled by peaceful means.
New Left: A term referring to activists, educators, agitators and others I the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad rang of reforms on important social issues.
Rejecting traditional Marxism and the theory of class struggle, the New Left was associated with the Hippy Movement, and anti-war college campus protest movements.
Sex:
Either of two main categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions.
Gender:
The sex-associated, social, psychological and behavioural characteristics that form roles and identities for humans, respectively divided into masculinities and femininities.
Gender Norm:
A set of social and behavioural norms considered appropriate for a man or a woman, according to their sex.
Normative:
An established standard or norm, especially in regards to behaviour.
Gender construct:
An idea wherein gender roles are socially constructed, meaning that societies and cultures develop the roles.
Dichotomy:
A division or contrast between two things that are represented as being entirely opposed to one another.
Activism:
A policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.
Civil Rights Movement:
A series of political movements seeking equality before the law during the 1960s. The aim of the movement included, and continues to include, the rights of all people are equally protected by the law, including the rights of minority groups.
Feminism:
The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
Patriarchy:
A system of society of government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
First-Wave Feminism:
A period of feminist activity during the 19th and early 20th centuries, which focused on ending the de jure (legalised) inequalities between women and men, particularly suffrage for women.
Second-Wave Feminism:
A period of feminist activity that commenced in the early 1960’s in the US and spread through the Western World. In constrast with first-wave feminism, second-wave feminism focused on the de facto inequalities between men and women, including issues around sexuality, family, the workplace and reproductive rights.
NYRW: New York Radical Women was an early second-wave feminist group that existed from 1967 to 1969.
Their first major protest they attended was the Jeannette Rankin Brigade Protest in Washington D.C., on January 15, 1968.
The women held an alternative protest event, a ‘burial of traditional womanhood’, in the Arlington National Cemetery.
A second protest was at the Miss America pageant, where they unfurled a banner with the words ‘Women’s Liberation’, and symbolically threw a number of feminine products into a trash can, including mops, pots and pans, Playboy magazines, false eyelashes, high-heeled shoes, hairspray, makeup, girdles, corsets, and bras, all items which they call ‘instruments of female torture.’
Subculture: A cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.
Counterculture: A way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norm.
Beatnik: A young person in the 1950s or early 1960s belonging to a subculture associated with the beat generation.
Beat Generation: A movement of young people in the 1950s and early 1960s who rejected conventional society, valuing free self-expression and favouring modern jazz. An example of an author from this subcultural movement was Jack Kerouac.
Hippie: A person of unconventional appearance, typically having long hair and wearing beads, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values and the taking of hallucinogenic drugs.
Pacifism: The belief that war and violence are unjustifiable and that all disputes should be settled by peaceful means.
New Left: A term referring to activists, educators, agitators and others I the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad rang of reforms on important social issues.
Rejecting traditional Marxism and the theory of class struggle, the New Left was associated with the Hippy Movement, and anti-war college campus protest movements.
Sex:
Either of two main categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions.
Gender:
The sex-associated, social, psychological and behavioural characteristics that form roles and identities for humans, respectively divided into masculinities and femininities.
Gender Norm:
A set of social and behavioural norms considered appropriate for a man or a woman, according to their sex.
Normative:
An established standard or norm, especially in regards to behaviour.
Gender construct:
An idea wherein gender roles are socially constructed, meaning that societies and cultures develop the roles.
Dichotomy:
A division or contrast between two things that are represented as being entirely opposed to one another.
Activism:
A policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.
Civil Rights Movement:
A series of political movements seeking equality before the law during the 1960s. The aim of the movement included, and continues to include, the rights of all people are equally protected by the law, including the rights of minority groups.
Feminism:
The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
Patriarchy:
A system of society of government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
First-Wave Feminism:
A period of feminist activity during the 19th and early 20th centuries, which focused on ending the de jure (legalised) inequalities between women and men, particularly suffrage for women.
Second-Wave Feminism:
A period of feminist activity that commenced in the early 1960’s in the US and spread through the Western World. In constrast with first-wave feminism, second-wave feminism focused on the de facto inequalities between men and women, including issues around sexuality, family, the workplace and reproductive rights.
NYRW: New York Radical Women was an early second-wave feminist group that existed from 1967 to 1969.
Their first major protest they attended was the Jeannette Rankin Brigade Protest in Washington D.C., on January 15, 1968.
The women held an alternative protest event, a ‘burial of traditional womanhood’, in the Arlington National Cemetery.
A second protest was at the Miss America pageant, where they unfurled a banner with the words ‘Women’s Liberation’, and symbolically threw a number of feminine products into a trash can, including mops, pots and pans, Playboy magazines, false eyelashes, high-heeled shoes, hairspray, makeup, girdles, corsets, and bras, all items which they call ‘instruments of female torture.’
War Protest Songs
John Lennon - Imagine
Bob Dylan - Blowin in the Wind
Crosby Stills Nash and Young - Find the Cost of Freedom
Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down
Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down
Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down
Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down
Edwin Starr - War, What is it good for?
War, huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, oh hoh, oh
War huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again y'all
War, huh good God
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
Oh, war, I despise
'Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tear to thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go off to fight and lose their lives
I said
War, huh good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, just say it again
War whoa Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Oh war, is an enemy to all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest within the younger generation
Induction, then destruction who wants to die
War, good God, y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it, say it, say it
War, uh huh, yeah, huh
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, it's got one friend that's the undertaker
Oh, war has shattered many young man's dreams
Made him disabled bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious to spend fighting wars these days
War can't give life it can only take it away, ooh
War, huh, good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again
War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Peace love and understanding tell me
Is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way
War, huh, good God y'all
What is it good for?
You tell 'em, say it, say it, say it, say it
War, good Lord, huh
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it, nothing
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, oh hoh, oh
War huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again y'all
War, huh good God
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
Oh, war, I despise
'Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tear to thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go off to fight and lose their lives
I said
War, huh good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, just say it again
War whoa Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Oh war, is an enemy to all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest within the younger generation
Induction, then destruction who wants to die
War, good God, y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it, say it, say it
War, uh huh, yeah, huh
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, it's got one friend that's the undertaker
Oh, war has shattered many young man's dreams
Made him disabled bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious to spend fighting wars these days
War can't give life it can only take it away, ooh
War, huh, good God y'all
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again
War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Peace love and understanding tell me
Is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way
War, huh, good God y'all
What is it good for?
You tell 'em, say it, say it, say it, say it
War, good Lord, huh
What is it good for?
Stand up and shout it, nothing
War, it ain't nothin' but a heartbreaker
War Protest Footage
A media clip discussing war protests.
A young journalist documents the Melbourne Moratorium against the Vietnam War.
An election advertisement by the Australian Labor Party, arguing that the Liberal government will send soldiers, whilst a replacement ALP government would send compassionate aid to Vietnamese civilians.
The Women's Liberation Movement
Defined as: the liberation of women from inequalities and subservient status in relation to men, now generally termed as 'feminism'