Synergy is powerful.
The opposition to U.S. military involvement in Vietnam began in the mid-1950s and steadily grew during the 1960s. That anti-war sentiment was soon joined by a rising momentum to create a counterculture that, in turn, helped impel a generation of defiant young rebels to develop agendas and strategies for securing civil rights for African Americans, for gay men and lesbians, and for women.
All five of these social movements—fueled by the establishment’s repression and bigotry—were potent forces in their own right; they represented a remarkable quintet of parallel initiatives of immense import and impact. But, in addition, each of the efforts seeking fundamental change was influenced by the era’s palpable sense of uncertainty because of the ominous threat of nuclear holocaust and the back-to-back assassinations of three of the nation’s most promising young political leaders.
Also crucial to the strength of these various movements was the energy they drew from each other. Any one of them could have stood as the defining social revolution of the middle to late twentieth century. So when their passion and intensity were combined, they ignited the most explosive period in the entire history of the dissident press in America.