History presentation in Music

Due → Wednesday week 19

Group: Anushka, Erik, Sophia and Urvi
Era: 1960-65

Assignment:
- Explaining why and how this music is specific for your era.
- What happened then and/or what events at the time is of importance (the Vietnam War, Cold War
as well as long term effects of WW2)
- Draw parallels between World events → Sweden
- what influences can be seen today (such as, has there been covers done, by who, why etc.)
- There should also be a combination of various approaches→ political, socio-economical,
cultural and individual
- What features and common nominators can be linked to our society and how can this be
explained
8

SWITCH SLIDE
The Cuban missile crisis

The 45 year period after the world war became known as the cold war. Where at any given time, a world
nuclear missile war could emerge from the 2 opposing sides, the United States and the Soviet Union.
People lived in fear of a global nuclear war at all times and it became very apparent just how fragile
politicians can really be as well as the terrifying power which they can unleashed on the lives of innocent
civilians.

After WW2, the Soviets had established an extreme government with communitist ideologies in countries
located in eastern europe. America feared the power of the Soviets as well as the permanent dominations
of western europe. As the United states and Soviets faced off across the globe, each knew that the other
had nuclear weapons capable of destroying one another. In 1962, the fear of nuclear war was on the verge
of becoming reality.

SWITCH SLIDE
The previous year, in 1961, the US unsuccessfully tried to overthrow Cuba's new communist government,
this attack became known as the bay of pigs. The US attack on communist Cuba at the time led them to
seek help from the Soveit union and not to our surprise, the soviets were intrigued and helped deploy
nuclear missiles to Cuba.

SWITCH SLIDE
This initiated the 13-day long Cuban Missile Crisis in which destruction of a nuclear war never loomed
closer. The US and the USSR carried out small attacks and warnings on opposing aircraft and
submarines, nearly leading to an all out nuclear war. While America insisted on the removal of the
missiles, Cuba and the USSR claimed that there was a method of defence in case the US decided to
interfere.Both powers were ready to launch hundreds of nuclear missiles.

SWITCH SLIDE
However, a diplomatic agreement between the US attorney general and the Soveit ambassador might have
been what solved the Cuban Missile crisis. In a secret agreement, they decided that the United States
would remove their missiles from Turkey and Italy in exchange for the soviet withdrawal from Cuba.

SWITCH SLIDE
The stress and fear reached a peak among the general population as the tensions were rising in the missile
crisis. This anxiety can be visualized by a multitude of songs produced during this period of uncertainty.
One notable pioneer in lyrically expressing these thoughts was singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, who later
received the Nobel Prize in literature in 2016 for his innovative lyrical compositions.

SWITCH SLIDE
One of his songs that prominently describes this feeling of uncertainty under which the majority of
American society lived was “Blowin in the wind”.

PLAY SONG
Song played from [1:58-2:33]

SWITCH SLIDE

This song is one of Bob Dylan’s classics, and despite being composed and published before the Cuban
Missile Crisis, it still reflects the pointless nature of the back- and forth missile threats between Cuba, the
Soviet Union and the United States. The song was officially released in 1963 and can easily be
distinguished as a protest song, along with many of Dylan’s other works. It instantly became a global hit,
as it reached number two on the Billboard pop chart that same year. The popularity of the song clearly
displays how this manifestation of war opposition was of popular opinion.

The verses are structured to each contain 3 questions that seemingly have no adequate explanation. They
all root in the cold-bloodedness of war and the injustices that it brings. Bob Dylan is consequently
conveying the message of a desired world peace as the questions he poses depict reality while having an
absurd tone to them. For instance, he asks:

Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly

Before they're forever banned?

Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?

Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows

That too many people have died?
These all visualize the nonsensical atrocities of war, lacking any form of humanitarian viewpoints.
Finishing each verse, Dylan simply gives a paradoxical answer to these unanswerable questions by
saying:

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind

This suggests that the answer must in some sense be right in front of us, or at least extremely obvious, and
despite this, Dylan ironically demonstrates how we continuously fight out these wars without any
particular motive. The themes of war, injustice and cruelty are imminent in the lyrics and seem to be part
of a common trend of protest songs of this era. Looking only at the impact of this musical genre, it is
suggested that the general population did not really approve of the war and constant conflicts going on
during the cold war.

SWITCH SLIDE

Similarly, only a couple of years ago, the constant fear of a nuclear missile dropping over
Americans reoccurred. During a period in early 2018 in Trump’s first year in office. He brought
the U.S. far closer to a nuclear conflict with North Korea than most Americans realize. In 2017,
North Korea successfully tested intercontinental ballistic missiles that could plausibly reach the
continental United States. [INSERT QUOTES ON SCREEN]

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with
fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Trump [at the United Nations] “the United States has great strength and patience, but if it
is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.
Rocket Man is on a suicide mission.”

SWITCH SLIDE
The Vietnam war

The impact of this musical genre and reactive movements opposing the war only grew stronger as time
went on, and this feeling of war opposition reached its peak as the United States were debating whether to
enter the national ongoing conflict in Vietnam. The US’s involvement in the Vietnam war is quite a
complicated story. In fact, the true intentions for the United States entering the war are still widely
discussed and unknown, as the Vietnam War remains one of, if not the most, controversial America’s war
involvement in history.

SWITCH SLIDE
The two main sources of controversy arise from the notion that the US:
 1) Never properly declared war on Vietnam until they had actively been taking part in the war for
over a year, and:
2) There was never a clear motive for the Americans to enter the war. Although the formal
reasoning goes along the lines of “to stop communism”, this argument fell short as the disastrous
loss of life became evident in the early stages of the war, the US was certainly not solving the
conflict, if anything, they were prolonging it.
SWITCH SLIDE
This unquestionably sparked polemics in the country, and the counter-movement to US involvement in
the Vietnam war is befittingly named the Anti-war movement. The movement initially started off with a
small circle of left-wing activist college students in the University of California at Berkeley, initially
carrying out small protests during the civil rights movement and as they steadily saw how the government
could divert its gaze from injustice. When the Americans joined in 19 65, the Anti-war movement
adopted two strategic goals

1) To give activists knowledge about Vietnam in order to draw others into action, and
2) To normalize opposition, since many Americans were hesitant to oppose their own
country in a time of war.

The peace groups educated the public and the press and by mid of 65, over 120 protests were
held across the country.

SWITCH SLIDE

Activist→ Mohammed Ali

In 1965 Mohammed Ali, a legend: the least to say was classified with a draft status of 1-A which
meant that he was available for military service, making him eligible to be enlisted in the Vietnam
war. During this time Ali had converted into Islam and became a practicing muslim. Ali publicly
declared that he was not going to war citing his faith as the reason why [SHOW VIDEO CLIP→
“take me to jail” from 1:13-1:42].

He was sentenced to five years in prison and his boxing license was suspended for 3 years. During this
time, He focused on further activism, giving speeches to anti-war protests across the country. Ali’s
actions even drew the attention of civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King. Ali will forever remain an
example of an athlete that stood up for the anti-war movement and today more than ever in the great era
of social media, athletes should take a stance on current political matters. Black players are rather
aware of the thin line that separates them from a life of professional success and how the world
views a black man when he is out of team uniform.

- An act of protest that called for controversy was when famous NFL and NBA players
kneel during the American national anthem. Kneeling has long been a sign of respect,
 mourning, and support. Martin Luther King Jr. was seen kneeling with his supporters in
remembrance of lives lost during the Civil Rights Movement. What's interesting is that
more than 40 years later, we continue to mourn the loss of innocent black lives and fight
against racial injustice.

SWITCH SLIDE

Why did Sweden side with the Vietcong:

During the Cold War Sweden aimed for a policy of non alliance and peace neutrality in war —> they
were not picking sides!!

SWITCH SLIDE
However throughout most of this period it was pretty clear that Sweden learned much more towards the
NATO pact than the Warsaw Pact.
- [show on slide the difference between the NATO and Warsaw pact]

SWITCH SLIDE
Sweden was also consistent in their criticism of the United States and their involvement in the
Vietnamese War. Vietnam was divided into 2 states: North Vietnam was under the control of the
Communists and they wanted the south as well → Thus the United States intervened. The U.S.
entered the Vietnam War in an attempt to prevent the spread of communism. In the mid 1960’s Sweden
pushed itself as an international mediator and spent 3 years trying to make the US and Vietnam to make
peace.
SWITCH SLIDE
Famous Swedish Prime Minister→ Olaf Palme. Palme was driven by a force of anti-war
ideologies.His attitude towards the vietnamese war was very hostile. He compared the US bombing
campaigns in Vietnam to Germany's use of concentration camps in WW2. Sweden’s support for
Vietnam was because Palme and the rest of the Swedish government saw US intervention as
ignoring the will of the people → Thus making it an act of imperialism.
- Palme opted to give direct aid to the vietcong (this didn’t include Swedish soldiers to fight the
american soldiers)
- The first thing Sweden did was give asylum to American draft dodgers.Approximately 503,926
desertions occurred in the United States military. Sweden was the only country that granted
asylum to Vietnamese War deserters.
SWITCH SLIDE
Alva Myrdal → Swedish activist in the anti war movement.

Aside from Olof Palme, another Swedish figure of importance was Alva Myrdal. A politician and
diplomat that led the “disarmament movement”, a side movement parallel to the antiwar movement
developing in the US. She protested for eliminating and abolishing weapons of mass destruction→
including nuclear arms. Myrdal was also a Swedish delegate at the UN disarmament conference, in
which she played a vital role as a leader of the nonaligned nations which endeavored to bring pressure to
bear on the two superpowers, United States and the USSR, to show greater concern for concrete
disarmament measures.

SWITCH SLIDE
The impact of the antiwar movement, as well as its side-movements, was strongest amongst the middle
class and students in particular, who were leading the fight against any form of war-involvement. This
consequently resulted in a significant rise of protest music during this era, especially in opposition to the
Cold War. This allowed singer-songwriters such as Phil Ochs, often described as a protest singer, to
popularize under the public eye with his critical songs on society, government and war. One of his most
remarkable works is “I Ain’t Marching Anymore”, a lyrical adventure following the lives of war soldiers
in previous wars.

PLAY SONG - I AIN’T MARCHING ANYMORE

Song played from [1:33-2:00]

SWITCH SLIDE

Phil Ochs fills out his verses with short descriptions of the lives of soldiers in numerous wars: anything
from the british wars, to the world wars. He gives a short description of the event and ends each verse in
the same fashion, by stating that he isn’t “marching anymore”.

To mention a couple of examples, he begins with the british wars:

Oh, I marched to the battle of New Orleans

At the end of the early British wars
[...]
But I ain't marching anymore

He also presents the long-lasting American-Indian Wars, the Civil War, and later the World Wars, among
others, he sings for instance:

For I've killed my share of Indians

In a thousand different fights
[...]
But I ain't marching anymore

For I stole California from the Mexican land

Fought in the bloody Civil War
[...]
But I ain't marching anymore

For I marched to the battles of the German trench

In a war that was bound to end all wars
[...]
But I ain't marching anymore

He states clearly here the false promise of a certain war “ending all other wars”, and further incentivises
and supports the theme of never marching to war ever again. He continues with:

For I flew the final mission in the Japanese skies

[...]
When I saw the cities burning
I knew that I was learning
That I ain't marching anymore

Here again, Ochs uses the words “final mission”, despite the previous war being bound to “end all wars”,
and by saying “I ain’t marching anymore” declaring that humans (or him in particular) are opposing the
idea of “marching to another war”, considering the loss of life it has led to throughout history, which he
also symbolises as the song progresses. The song also conveniently came out as the war in Vietnam was
escalating and the US had officially launched bombings, and allowed American troops to enter Northern
Vietnam. This song could therefore, similar to Bob Dylan’s “Blowin in the Wind”, reflect the social
movements opposing war (such as the antiwar movement) and truly represent the people.