We are students in an introductory level english course in our first semester of college.  We do not have many qualifications such as degrees or awards to be named scholars, however we do have a large quantity of research and learned material on rhetoric to be called knowledgeable on this subject. We chose the texts “I Ain’t Marching Anymore”, and a pro war propaganda poster because we thought that it would be interesting to see how the media during a war time impacted the judgements of the people, just like the media today impacts the way that people think and believe things about different topics. Our collective interest was to see if there were indeed similarities in how media and propaganda were able to influence a group of people, similar to what happens everyday around us.

Phil Ochs's 1965 anti-war song, "I Ain't Marching Anymore," and a 1950's pro-war propaganda poster released by the American government present contrasting points-of-view regarding the stance Americans should take on US involvement in the Vietnam War. The pro war poster uses the quote, “After total war can come total living”. This is supposed to inspire the reader to get into the war in hopes of gaining a better life afterwards. It tries to justify the war. The anti war song relies on a catchy tune and a connection to the younger audience to persuade. By describing past wars and the  bloodshed of battle, the song states that the character is no longer “marching anymore”. Overall, these posters are both extremely important during this time period, as America’s involvement in the Vietnam war was a controversial topic. As seen through the song, many Americans, especially the youth, did not believe it was America’s best interest to get involved. However, due to the scare of communism, many Americans were also in fear and desired, “Total living”.  As seen throughout this blog, the anti war propaganda was much more successful than the pro war attempt. The song had more facts, and more emotional appeal than the poster. Even though the poster looked calm and desiring, there is no validity to its argument as past wars have not led to total living. Similarly, the poster may have even aided to the opposite cause, as seeing this attempt could potentially add to the rage of the anti war social movement. Similarly, the source plays a part in the popularity and effectiveness of these advertisements. Since the pro war poster originated from the government during a time in which anti-government sentiments were being born, a popular artist would have a much easier time gaining support in his favor.  

It is important for every citizen of the United States to learn his/her history. Afterall, one cannot learn from his/her mistakes without knowing them. Therefore,  learning about war propaganda is a way to introduce the idea of persuasion, while also introducing the idea of war to a generation that is somewhat removed from the violence their parents have known. Similarly, young adulthood is the age in which individuals truly began to form their opinions and decide which values are most important. Therefore, inaccurate persuasion by propaganda could affect this process for any youngster that does not realize the capabilities rhetoric. Throughout our blog, it is our goal to education about the Vietnam war, while also introducing different aspects of rhetoric and what is most or least successful.

We did not really have a methodology to our blog in terms of order, however, we did attempt to ease our way into the topics, to provide a more smooth introduction to our ideas and opinions.  We started off our blog with the simpler of topics,  so that we could  ease the readers of our blog into the ideas we were introducing, and then went into the more in depth topics where we stated our opinions of which text we thought was more successful.  We chose this way to design our blog because we felt as though the build up to our major argument added strength to the idea that the anti-war propaganda was a lot stronger and had a lot more support than the pro-war propaganda.

First, we would like to say thank you to all of our readers who took the time to read our thoughts and ideas. We hope you have learned some new facts. Also, we just wanted to emphasis the importance of making connections to the past. In the 1960’s there were so many movements and such a huge sense of fear always lingering in the air. With all of these opinions floating around, it was hard to know which cause was the right cause. However, now most of us live in a world with more security than the past. Instead of worrying about an atomic bomb, we are worrying about a terrorist attack, which is equally as bad but in different ways. Therefore, it is important for us to learn about the past and make connections with how are parents and grandparents thought and felt. It would be interesting to try and talk to your parents or grandparents and ask about this time; ask if they were ever involved in such movement. Were they pro or anti Vietnam war? You can show them this propagandic texts and ask how they feel and if they feel one text was more impactful than the other. It is important to keep the conversation alive, both about the past and about how one should feel and think today.

The Evaluation Component of Stasis in the Poster "After Total War Can Come Total Living" 

     The 1950's poster, "After total war can come total living" employs the evaluation component of the stasis theory to argue the validity of needing the wars and why the US should be backing behind them on the personal level and as a nation as a whole.  The poster takes the position in favor of a post war Utopian society, where the war will serve as a benefit to the United States and not as a detriment to the nation. The war would benefit the society standards of the United States, and create a "Utopian" society, however it would cause horrible after effects to the standard of society in the US.

     This pro-war propaganda corresponds to other evaluation of stasis arguments for the Vietnam War that took place more than 10 years past the initial propaganda.  Both (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/310115124312524009/) and (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/310115124312524009/) are pro-war propaganda for the Vietnam war in attempts to gain support for the war efforts from the public instead of lose support of the government.  Both posters were similar to remind the public of the good that the government can create, especially in times where the public believed otherwise.  The addition of these two posters helps solidify the evaluation component in the original poster, that the government is there to help the public, despite the massive amounts of distrust during war eras of the 1960's. 

       

Ethos in The Pro War Propaganda

In "After Total War can come Total Living", there is a lack of ethos in the propaganda because there was a serious distrust in the government during the time that this piece was released and used.  This piece of propaganda was released in the 1950's as an attempt to justify and rationalize the second world war, and then similar posters were used again to rationalize the Vietnam war.  Along with the war, the levels of distrust also followed the economic prosperity and stagnation of the economy.  There were spikes of distrust in the mid 1960's and 1970's, both in times of recession in the economy (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/04/80-percent-of-americans-dont-trust-the-government-heres-whm y/39148/).  There is also a lack of ethos in this propaganda poster because it is exactly that, propaganda.  As a characteristic of ethos, the author is supposed to understand the issue/the topic from all angles.  Since this is a propaganda piece in favor of pro war, there is no appeal or understanding of the anti-war protests or side to the argument.  This detracts from full aspect of ethos, and detracts from the argument validity because of that.  

Lacking Logos in "After Total War Can Come Total Living"

The 1950's government ad, which states "After Total War Can Come Total Living," takes a pro-war stance and is geared toward the general American population. When viewed in the context of the Vietnam war, this ad does not make a logical argument on two terms -- the lack of credibility the government has and the unsupported  argument of pro-war. As the anti-war movement gained momentum, many people turned to the government as the source of blame. Americans, especially young adults, viewed their government as untrustworthy and in some cases, heartless. This was because they kept sending young men to battle in a war a majority of the public deemed to be unnecessary. If the government lacks credibility, their ad will be useless in gaining interest in supporting the war. The ad continues to make a poor appeal to logos, as its slogan and design convey the message that war is necessary to achieve a utopian society. This argument is not logical because it dealt with the future of America instead of its present state (at the time). The ad does address soldiers going off to war, or any violence that war entails. If anything, the illogical state of the ad may have gained the government even more protesters. If the slogan was taken out, this ad could have been taken as an ad for a shopping mall or a movie. In order to have added credibility to the argument of war, the ad should have included a  picture depicting soldiers as brave and heroic, such as this ad from WWII (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/BuyWarBonds.jpg). Depicting what the Americans were fighting for could have made a much more sound pro-war argument.

Appeal to Logos in "I Ain't Marching Anymore"

"I Ain't Marching Anymore" is a protest song that goes against the Vietnam war and advocates against sending solders to fight. Although the song connects with the youth on an emotional level, the song also relies on logic to persuade. The song focuses on historical facts to discourage recurrences in the future. In a convincing manner, the song lists many battles and wars that America has been involved in throughout the years. This shows how much fighting and violence makes up American's past. Also, the song expresses the negative aspects of war, such as, "yes, I even killed my brothers". By stating these consequences of war, they appeal to the logical though process that death is bad. Similarly, another lines states, "when I saw the cities burning I knew that I was learning", proving that the past soldiers are learning the uselessness of war. Lastly, the song creates a sound argument that concludes with, "I ain't marching anymore". Another song, "Fight War Not Wars" by Crass (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jce4-CXTXzA), also has a similar meaning. This song repeats the title over and over with accompanying music ensuring the meaning comes across to the audience. The idea of fighting a war and not multiple wars plays into logical thinking, because it makes sense to do something once as opposed to doing the same thing over and over. When "I ain't Marching Anymore" lists previous wars, it also shows the idea that multiple wars are ineffective.