Just after a going away party for a platoon on Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, all hell broke loose. It had been a pleasant evening for the soldiers consisting of drinking, chatting merrily, singing with their comrades. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and carefree despite being in the middle of a gruesome war with Vietnam. Then all of a sudden total pandemonium. Soldiers were suddenly rushed from behind by a large group of about thirty unknown black and Puerto Rican assailants. Beaten viciously, they tried to fight them off but they were enraged, these black and puerto rican soldiers were not stopping until their message got across: black soldiers are equal to white soldiers. All around, other scuffles ensued too, other white soldiers
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The first causes and incidents of racial tension within the army is with the military draft boards in the US that decided which Americans would be shipped to Vietnam. The draft boards at home during the 1960’s through the early 70’s were notoriously racist with African-Americans making up 1-2% of the members on the draft boards not to mention that in the deep southern states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, there were no African-Americans on their draft boards. None of those states permitted an African-American from being on their draft boards which led to different draft eligibilities by race. Many more African Americans became eligible to serve in Vietnam, about 64% of black males could be sent off to Vietnam whereas the percentage of white males eligible to serve was only 31%. These numbers show a huge contrast with the majority of black males were able to be sent off to Vietnam but a fairly small portion of the white male population could be sent off. This shows a diminished value on the lives of black men for the draft boards were more ready to send black soldiers off to basically their deaths whereas they were more cautious and conservative about the lives of the white males in …show more content…
Another antiwar feeling that emerged, was that capitalism was a deep seeded motivation for America going to war. As Arthur Woodley Jr. points out, “And this country befell upon us one big atrocity. It lied. They had us naïve, young, dumb-ass niggers believin’ that this war was for democracy and independence. It was fought for money. All those big corporations made billions on the war, and then America left.” These statements resounded with other black soldiers and the black population as a whole growing the counterculture and the antiwar sentiment. Due to this growing counterculture, the US government created a new recruiting project, Project 100,000, that targeted the black population by Lyndon B. Johnson and the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara
The first causes and incidents of racial tension within the army is with the military draft boards in the US that decided which Americans would be shipped to Vietnam. The draft boards at home during the 1960’s through the early 70’s were notoriously racist with African-Americans making up 1-2% of the members on the draft boards not to mention that in the deep southern states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, there were no African-Americans on their draft boards. None of those states permitted an African-American from being on their draft boards which led to different draft eligibilities by race. Many more African Americans became eligible to serve in Vietnam, about 64% of black males could be sent off to Vietnam whereas the percentage of white males eligible to serve was only 31%. These numbers show a huge contrast with the majority of black males were able to be sent off to Vietnam but a fairly small portion of the white male population could be sent off. This shows a diminished value on the lives of black men for the draft boards were more ready to send black soldiers off to basically their deaths whereas they were more cautious and conservative about the lives of the white males in …show more content…
Another antiwar feeling that emerged, was that capitalism was a deep seeded motivation for America going to war. As Arthur Woodley Jr. points out, “And this country befell upon us one big atrocity. It lied. They had us naïve, young, dumb-ass niggers believin’ that this war was for democracy and independence. It was fought for money. All those big corporations made billions on the war, and then America left.” These statements resounded with other black soldiers and the black population as a whole growing the counterculture and the antiwar sentiment. Due to this growing counterculture, the US government created a new recruiting project, Project 100,000, that targeted the black population by Lyndon B. Johnson and the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara