levo

The USA, 1954–75: Conflict at Home and Abroad

Opposition to the war

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 3

Overview

Student protest and the draft card burnings, the television war, how the draft worked and why it was unfair, refusing to serve, My Lai and its exposure, Calley's trial, Kent State and its effect.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Why was Vietnam called the first television war?

Key term

Name two photographs or news films from Vietnam that shocked American opinion.

Key term

Why was the draft attacked as unfair?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why did students become the loudest opponents of the war, and what did they do?

    Model answer

    Many faced call-up once they left college and doubted the USA should be fighting in another country’s civil war; they held teach-ins, campus sit-ins and mass marches, and burned their draft cards in public.

  2. 2

    Why was Vietnam called the first television war?

    Model answer

    Film of the fighting was flown home and shown on the evening news within a day or two, uncensored, so families watched the killing from their living rooms.

  3. 3

    Name two photographs or news films from Vietnam that shocked American opinion.

    Model answer

    The Saigon police chief shooting a bound prisoner in the head during Tet, and the naked girl running down a road after a napalm strike on her village.

  4. 4

    How did the draft work?

    Model answer

    Young men were called up for two years’ service, at first by local boards and later by lottery, with deferments available for college and certain jobs.

  5. 5

    Why was the draft attacked as unfair?

    Model answer

    Deferments let the better-off stay at college, so the burden fell on poor and Black Americans, who served and died out of all proportion to their numbers.

  6. 6

    What did those who refused to serve do?

    Model answer

    They burned their call-up papers, failed to report, claimed to be conscientious objectors, or crossed into Canada; thousands were prosecuted and some jailed.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060–88
British America, 1713–83: Empire and Revolution
Conflict in the Middle East, 1945–95
Crime and Punishment in Britain, c1000–present

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

£6.6 , fixed in 1921.
billionmillionthousand

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AThe huge loss of life left England short of workers.
BForeign craftsmen and labourers were wanted.
CCompetition for work also bred resentment.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Strategy means the plan for a whole campaign.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in The USA, 1954–75: Conflict at Home and Abroad, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.