In a recent video essay, film critic Lindsay Ellis contrasts the jingoistic music of the post-9/11 era with American music during WWII and Vietnam. After playing some aggressively patriotic tracks from circa 2001-2003, she argues:
And that was kind of new. With Vietnam, there wasn’t really, like, a pro-war movement in America, it was more like anti-anti-war, like, “These hippies and Jane Fonda need to shut up and get off my lawn.” And even during WWII, which had a much more concerted and organized government propaganda campaign, much of the music of the era was about like, you know, “Tee hee, soldiers are cute.” The music of that war wasn’t really marked by a thirst for revenge.
While comparisons with the music of the post-9/11 era are outside the scope of this sub (20 year rule), I was wondering whether it is really true that there weren't songs encouraging Americans to fight their enemies during both of these periods. Obviously the Vietnam War era was marked by a huge amount of protest music, but was there no counter-current of jingoistic music? And was music concerning the war effort in WWII really limited to songs glamorizing the romantic appeal of American soldiers?
The jingoistic songs of the post-9/11 era contain justifications for the war effort and threats to the enemies of America for daring to mess with their country. Were these themes really absent from the music of WWII and Vietnam?
It is generally seen that songs in the Vietnam war era were absolutely against the war, as many musicians putting out these songs were around the same age or slightly older than the listener. Even so, there were songs in the time period that were pro-war, songs that would appeal to what President Nixon called the “silent majority”. These included songs like Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee”; Haggard had written the song to support soldiers who had given up their freedom to fight, and was quoted as saying “What the hell did these kids have to complain about?” in regards to those against the war effort.
C. Company’s “The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley” and The Spokesmen’s “Dawn of Correction” also reflected various ideas that were considered pro-war as well. In the case of C. Company, “Lt. Calley” argues that the man (an actual soldier on trial) was a hero for killing 22 civilians in My Lai. For the Spokesmen, “Dawn of Correction” was about keeping the Communists out but also a somewhat sarcastic response towards the popular protest song “Eve of Destruction”.
And for what it’s worth, these songs were not just discarded during the time period; “Lt. Calley” was a Top 40 single, peaking at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971, selling nearly two million copies (one million being sold in four days!) and getting a lot of airplay. “Dawn of Correction” also charted well, peaking at #36, but I was unable to find sales numbers.
But we must consider that the people buying these singles were all old enough to fight in Vietnam, and the majority of them were against the war. Songs that seem pro-war, such as The Merry-Go-Round’s “Gonna Fight the War” were in truth calling out the nature of the war; the songwriter, Emitt Rhodes, was quoted as saying that:
Many of these singles reflected the majority of the youth‘s mindset, and as such sold extremely well, hence why we see more anti-war songs from the time period rather than pro-war songs.
In conclusion, pro-war Vietnam songs were certainly there and somewhat successful. Even so, the majority of both record buyers and hit makers were absolutely anti-war.
u/hillsonghoods answered a related question last month: