Saturday, Mar 21, 2009

BoomerByte - The Soundtrack of A Generation - The Televised War

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Download this episode (29 min)
"1969-70 & The Televised War"

Ask any boomer what the biggest events of 1969 were and you would probably get these three top answers: The Apollo Moon landing, Woodstock and the Mets Miracle Championship. Those who remember the summer of '69 will recall nationalistic feelings surrounding all these events (except, of course, for the hippie-haters!) To millions of Americans anything seemed possible then...until President Nixon went on TV in the Fall and announced his intentions to expand the Viet Nam war into Cambodia. His speech rained on everything. Television covered the new draft lottery (which today looks like a bunch of old men playing Bingo with kids'lives!) and Viet Nam was, once again, the dominant cloud covering our nation. As college kids sat around dormitory TVs to get their draft numbers, the peace movement revved up for what they hoped would be a government will-breaking assault.
Unfortunately, with the tragic shootings of 4 college kids on the Kent State campus the following Spring, it was clear that the idealism and hopes of the 1960s were finally shattered once and for all.

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