“I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die” Protest Songs and Antiwar Demonstrations during the Vietnam War

Abstract

From 1955 to 1975, the United States engaged in the Vietnam War in an effort to contain the spread of communism. As the US military presence gradually increased, public support of the war declined, and people grew wary of the military draft and a seemingly never-ending war. The protest music of the 1970s articulated people’s feelings of disempowerment and helplessness. Its rise was intricately connected with the growing antiwar sentiment and demonstrations across the nation. Musicians such as Bob Dylan, Country Joe and the Fish, and John Lennon emerged as protest leaders who used music to demand an end to the unjust war. This paper examines how protest music reflected the evolving perspective of the American public during the 1970s. By employing the oral history methodology, this paper endeavored to highlight the distinct individual experiences of the Vietnam War that cannot be captured by statistics and government records.