Kyle prior - How illustration plays a part in political & social upheaval

How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement

Kyle Brian Prior ­ KP253087 Level 4 OUIL401: Studio Brief 1 Word Count: 3008

How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 1

The aim of this report is to analyse what role illustration plays during periods of political and social upheaval. This concept will be explored by reviewing specifically how illustration played a part in the anti­Vietnam War movement, and the contributions it had throughout this time. Including an analysis of what illustration had to offer that other arts such as photography, which were also contributing to the anti­war movement, did not. Also looking at whether illustration was successfully used to change the public opinion on the war.

The success of the anti­Vietnam War movement could potentially be debated. Scholars such as David Steigerwald, Professor of History at Ohio State University, would argue that the anti­war movement received too much credit for bringing the war to an end, because other factors influenced American foreign policy. (​ Robert J. Allison​ , 2000)

The conflicting opinion to Steigerwald’s argument, would be that the opposition of the war in Vietnam was one of the most successful movements of its kind and that the anti­war movement succeeded in preventing any further escalation of the Vietnam War. This is an opinion that is shared by many, including Dr Michael Foley, Senior Lecturer in the History of America and the Wider World at the University of New Hampshire. (​ Robert J. Allison​ , 2000)

This report will be focused more on the latter of those arguments; that the movement managed to create a number of events that would eventually influence the American government's decision to end the war. These included a lack of manpower at the USs disposal, the closure of numerous college campuses throughout America, and the remorse of the American soldiers that were on the front line.

In regards to illustration, it was one of the many tools used by the anti­war movement and therefore could be seen to have contributed to galvanising public opinion towards the war.

Essentially, it could be argued that illustration was a way for artists to react to the conflict, promote demonstrations and to bring the effects of the war to the attention of the public, soldiers and the government.

Before examining the aforementioned points s further, and before beginning to look at examples of how illustration was used, it is important to first have some knowledge of the war and the American involvement in it. The region has a long history of unrest dating back to the 19th century, however, America did not become involved in any sort of conflict in the area until WWII when they assisted the Vietnamese in fighting back Japanese forces that had taken control of parts of the region.

After the First Indochina War, fears that Vietnam would fall under the control of the communist North prompted America to provide assistance to the South Vietnamese forces.

This fear was connected to the much larger concerns surrounding the Cold War. The US was focused on holding back and restricting the spread of communism worldwide as well as preventing the positioning of missiles that would be capable of reaching US mainland.

(Barringer, 2000)

In 1964, the US claimed that North Vietnamese patrol boats fired on two US Navy destroyers (Gulf of Tonkin Incident), the US Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 2

authorising military action in region (BBC News, 2016). By 1965, more than 180,000 American troops were fighting alongside the South. This number would increase and by 1967, the US troop numbers in vietnam hit 500,000.

While the war waged on, the anti war movement gradually began. “The 1960s in the United States were already a quasi­revolutionary period: the civil rights movement had flourished under Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders, and the post–World War II “baby boom” had produced an especially large youth generation, who thanks to postwar prosperity were attending college in large numbers.” (Sparknotes.com, n.d.) While the movement started many years earlier with pacifists and students leading the way, it wasn’t until the mid 1960s that the campaign took off with the general public. One of the first prominent events of the movement occurred in April and May 1964 when adverts appeared in two newspapers signed by eighty seven and one hundred and forty nine people respectively, of whom announced they would not serve if called for duty. That same year, on Armed Forces Day, twelve young men publicly burned their draft cards in New York City (G. Gonzales, 2015).

When the American involvement in the war increased in 1965, the movement grew further.

Art in the 1950s and early 1960s tended to be apolitical and not comment on social issues.

Art being used in relation to social issues, in this case the war, was a relatively new idea.

Between 1950 and 1975, when the war ended, art and illustration would go from being almost devoid of social commentary, to being one of the favoured tools of the anti­war movement.

One of the first artists to address the war through their art was a veteran of the Korean War from San Francisco, Wally Hedrick. Figure 1 shows one of his two paintings from 1963.

“Madam Nhu Blows Chiang” and “Madame Nhu’s Bar­B­Q’s” were among the first to express opposition to the situation in Korea. The paintings were originally an attack on the first lady of South Vietnam, Madame Nhu, and also protested against the Diem government's repression of Buddhists. However they soon came to represent the protest against the U.S­backed Diem regime in general. (Selz and Landauer, 2006)

How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 3

Figure 1: Madam Nhu's Bar­B­Q's

These paintings by Hedrick would become the first of their kind, the first to use art to protest against the events occurring in the region. Following the work produced by Hedrick and other early artists, such as those involved in the “Artists and Protest Committee” and the “American Artists Against the Vietnam War” movement​ ;​ art slowly became one of the tools used by the anti war movement. As the war continued, illustration was being used by artists, protestors and even the soldiers themselves.

To effectively assess how illustration was used to change the public opinion on the war, and to start considering how illustration plays a part in political and social upheaval in general, the ways in which illustration was used will be broken down into the following sections: ‘Highlighting the Atrocities of War’, ‘Questioning American Values’, ‘Promoting Anti­draft’, ‘Promoting Protests’, and ‘Escalating Anti­war Sentiment Within the Army’.

Highlighting the Atrocities of War

Figure 2: Photograph by Nick UT ­ Figure 3: And Babies How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 4

The vietnam war was the first war with images and video frequenting the media. Television in particular played a huge role in shaping the public's opinion with combat footage shot only hours earlier, being shown on a daily basis in living rooms across America. (Isserman, 1992) Ultimately this would change the way the general public thought about war, it would allow the American people to see the atrocities of war through their television screens and newspapers. The anti­war movements would use this to their advantage in their art.

Conflicting the claims of those in power, highlighting the atrocities, highlighting the effects that war had on the Vietnamese people as well as the American soldiers, using shock, parody and commentary to inform and sway the opinion of the public.

While technically not a piece of illustration, the perfect example of the above would be the anti­war poster title “and babies?” which is possibly one of the most infamous pieces of art from the anti­war movement. With over 50,000 copies printed, the poster features a colour photograph, taken by a US combat photographer, from the My Lai Massacre, showing the bodies of a dozen women and children, killed by US soldiers. The image is overlaid with red text that reads “Q. And babies? A. And babies.”. The text below is a quote taken from an interview with U.S. soldier Paul Meadlo who played an active role in the massacre:

Q. And you killed how many? At that time?

A. Well, I fired them on automatic, so you can’t—you just spray the area on them and so you can’t know how many you killed ’cause they were going fast. So I might have killed 10 or 15 of them.

Q. Men, women and children?

A. Men, women and children.

Q. And babies?

A. And babies.

“The poster was originally intended to be shown at the Museum of Modern Art, however it became much more. The Museum refused to show the work and in doing so made it even more popular.” (G. Gonzales, 2015, p.50)

This poster was just one of many like it that used imagery from the war to vent the outrage that the artists and protesters felt in response to the conflict. Photojournalism became an incredibly important method of showing the atrocities that were happening to the public.

Photographs depicting napalm attacks, the My Lai Massacre and the effect the war was having on the troops were extensively being used by the anti war movements to gain the attention of the public and the government in an attempt to influence opinion and thwart the conflict in any way possible.

How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 5

Questioning American Values

Figure 4: American Flag (untitled) ­ Figure 5: I Want Out ­ Figure 6: It's the real thing for S.E. Asia

While photographic imagery was used in posters to show the things that were happening in the war, illustration was able to tackle concepts like parody and satirisation. A big part of this was using illustration to question American values, taking the icons and imagery that inherently symbolised corporate America and use them to challenge the morals and ideas they stood for. Ultimately, the artists were putting patriotism and the “American Dream” in the line of fire.

A great example of this would be the image shown in Figure 6, “It’s the real thing for S.E. Asia”.

While the illustrator of this image is unknown, it is known that it was created between 1968 and 1973. The image shows a bottle likened to that of Coca­Cola on which the product name has been replaced with the word ‘Napalm’ in the same iconic font used by Coca­cola.

The words “It’s the real thing for S.E. Asia”, run across the bottom and top of the artwork.

This image could be attempting to comment on the similarities between the worldwide ‘invasion’ of Coca­Cola and the invasion of the US in S.E. Asia; satirising the role of America in the world and particularly in Vietnam. Coca­Cola is also an inherently American product, so drawing the connection could also be a commentary on Napalm, which was used extensively in the war, also being an American product.

How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 6

Promoting Anti­draft

Figure 7: Chicken Hawk ­ Figure 8: Girls Say Yes To Boys Who Say No

As it has now been made apparent by the examples provided so far, posters were one of the key tools and formats which the people of the anti­war movement worked with, especially when it comes to illustration. Alongside photography, the posters created served a number of purposes. One of which was the promotion of draft resistance.

Stepping away from illustration momentarily, some of the most prominent examples of anti­draft posters are photographic in nature. ‘Girls Say Yes to Boys Who Say No’ (Figure 8) and ‘Fuck The Draft’ are two iconic pieces of anti­war art that are still recognised today.

Photographed by Larry Gates, ‘Girls Say Yes…’ features singer Joan Baez sitting with her two sisters with the title quote in bold typography above them. While somewhat controversial, this was a concept created to contradict the idea propagated by the government that draft dodging or resistance was unmanly. (The Nature of Power in the 21st Century, 2016)

While not quite as iconic as those above, one of the better known illustrated posters is shown in Figure 7, entitled ‘Chicken Hawk’.

Created by United Street Artists, ‘Chicken Hawk’ depicts General William Westmoreland as a chicken hawk. The phrase ‘chicken hawk’ itself is a slang term used to describe a person who actively supports the war yet avoids military service. Using this play on words in conjunction with the blatant imagery of the hawk, made up of draftees and weapons, disposing of dead soldiers, wrapped in american flags, sends a pretty crude yet clear antiestablishmentarian message.

How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 7

It was posters like ‘Chicken Hawk’ and ‘Girls Say Yes to Boys Who Say No’” that assisted in promoting draft resistance. Over the course of the war, there were approximately 500,000 objectors, and in 1972, there were more objectors than there were draftees. (Kindig, 2008) It was this active encouragement to resist the draft that eventually lead to a lack of manpower that would go on to limit the American government's options when considering to continue the war.

Promoting Protests

Figure 9: Title unknown ­ Figure 10: Mobilisation poster against the war in Vietnam

Protests played a crucial role throughout the war. While they began small, mostly attended by pacifists and leftist intellectuals on college campuses, they slowly became more and more widespread, especially after the bombing of Cambodia was brought to the public's attention.

The American government dominated the news and television screens, updating the American public on the events taking place on a daily basis via the 6 o’clock news.The anti­war movement had to focus on gaining attention and communicating with the public through other methods such as commandeering headlines by holding demonstrations, sit­ins, teach­ins, moratoriums or other mass actions that would be considered newsworthy.

(Mann et al., 2004) Posters were something that the government had abandoned in favour of television yet they were the perfect way for the anti­war movement to inform the public of the dates, times and locations of the aforementioned demonstrations.

Posters were of vital importance and were used to promote protests and to gain larger numbers for the marches. Many images were used, with a large majority of them illustrated.

One recurring theme was the reappropriation of the ‘Uncle Sam’ icon (Figures 9 and 10).

Much like the Coke Coca­Cola/Napalm posters, an American icon is villainized and imbued with the negatives of war.

Protests on college campuses that supported the anti­war movement, eventually lead to a number of them being shut down. Campus protests were a constant wear on the American government. They became extremely problematic and at Kent State University on May 4 1970, when students gathered to demonstrate against the war, National Guardsmen fired into the crowd killing four students. “The Kent State massacre had a politically galvanizing How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 8

effect upon millions of young people, who reacted to the killings with outrage and anger. An unprecedented nationwide student strike erupted, involving an estimated 4.3 million students, shutting down or disrupting more than 900 college campuses.” (Mazelis and Martin, n.d.)

The protests against the bombing in Cambodia and the protests throughout US colleges, were one of the considered factors in Nixon's decision to end the war. Again, illustrated posters were not the only factor in the success of the protests, but they did contribute to the promotion of them.

Escalating Anti­war Sentiment Within the Army

Figure 11: Cartoons from GI Papers ­ Figure 12: Peace Leaflet ­ Figure 13: Cover from Last Harass

Throughout the war, especially in the later years of it, anti­war sentiment even spread to the American soldiers fighting the war. American soldiers began to feel remorse for their actions, questioning what they were doing and why there were doing it. (Cortright, 2005) Underground GI publications played a huge part in this. These publications, often crude zines, created by the GIs themselves, allowed the anti­war movement to infiltrate as far as the military bases at the front lines of the war. Hundreds of publications were produced and How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 9

distributed, everything from small scale zines to full newspapers of which thousands of copies were printed. These GI publications were full of news from the front line, opinions on events, and general anti­establishment and anti­war sentiment.

As shown in Figures 11 and 13, much of the content of the GI underground papers were in fact illustrations exploring ideas such as amnesty, class and power, corporate elitism, drug addiction amongst soldiers, racism and feminism. If caught possessing or distributing one of these publications, the GIs risked disciplinary action or even arrest. Reading such a publication was an act of opposition against the war. The ideas that these publications and illustrations expressed were vital in influencing the soldiers to question what was being asked of them.

There are countless excerpts from the underground GI publications that could be used as an example, the image shown in figure 12, from a publication titled ‘peace’, is just one of them.

Depicted on the front cover is the Statue of Liberty, with a face sharing some similarities to Hitler, burning Vietnamese huts with her torch. Once again, this illustration uses iconic American symbolism, in this case the Statue of Liberty which is often associated with freedom and peace, to draw attention to the absurdity of the actions taken by the military in the name of peace. Below the illustration sits the inscription that lies on the Statue of Liberty, further outlining the contradiction between the morals and the actions of the American government.

Through the sections that have been outlined within this report , it is apparent that illustration did in fact contribute to the anti­war movement in numerous ways. It is not apparent exactly how much illustration alone influenced the minds of the American public, however it is certain that it played a part in allowing artists to outline the atrocities of war, question American values and blind patriotism, promote the anti­draft movement, publicise marches and protests, and even spread some anti­war sentiment in the ranks of the American army.

It’s apparent that illustration was not the only way in which anti­war artwork was produced, nor was it the most frequently used. Photography, print, graphic design and painting were all used to artistically contribute to the movement. However, illustration was used to combine many of these practices and use them to emphasise the issues relating to the war.

Illustration provided a way to outline, magnify, satirise and juxtapose the concepts that the anti­war movement were fighting against.

With that being the case, it is within reason to conclude that illustration plays a part in political and social upheaval by giving artists and objectors a way to visually protest the social or political ideas that they find flawed. As it did throughout the Vietnam War, it allows objectors to protest using a visual language understood by anyone, at any time.

How Illustration Plays a Part in Political & Social Upheaval: How Illustration Contributed to the Anti Vietnam­War Movement ­ Kyle Prior ­ Page 10

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Images: Figure 1:​ Hedrick, W. (1963). Madam Nhu's Bar­B­Q's. [Oil On Canvas] Not on display. (Source: http://www.expressobeans.com/public/detail.php/97505) Figure 2:​ UT, Nick. (1973). The Terrors of War. [Photography] (Source: i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150512085932­31­seventies­timeline­0512­restricted­super­169.jpg) Figure 3:​ L. Haeberle, Ronald. (1969). And Babies [Photography]. (Source: http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2013GU/2013GU2922.jpg) Figure 4:​ American Flag (untitled). (1970). [silkscreen]. (Source: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/30/poster­power­anti­vietnam­war­art­berkeley­california­stud ents­exhibition­shapero­modern) Figure 5:​ Daniel, John and Charles Houle. (1971). I Want Out. [Colour offset lithograph]. (Source: https://36.media.tumblr.com/5321be1e1835dc492e72a9bd0d88791c/tumblr_o4wlszDi8r1txdeaio1_500.jpg) Figure 6:​ It's the real thing for S.E. Asia. (1973). [Print] University of British Columbia. Berkeley Poster Collection. (Source: http://collections.museumca.org/?q=collection­item/2010542710) Figure 7: ​ Chicken Hawk. (n.d.). [Print] (source: http://hasbrouck.org/draft/chickenhawk) Figure 8: ​ Gates, L. (1968). Girls Say Yes To Boys Who Say No. [Photography]. (Source: http://collections.museumca.org/?q=collection­item/2010541243) Figure 9: ​ Title unknown. (Source: http://pw20c.mcmaster.ca/files/imagecache/generalresize/files/pw20c_images/00000688.jpg) Figure 10:​ Mobilisation poster against the war in Vietnam. (1966). (Source: http://20030269.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/1/13719160/8361110_orig.jpg) Figure 11:​ Cartoons from GI Papers. (1968). (Source: http://gipressproject.blogspot.co.uk/) Figure 12:​ ​ Third Air Force​ (1970). Peace Leaflet. (Source: http://www.ruislip.co.uk/base/peace1.jpg) Figure 13: ​ Cover from L​ ast Harras. (1971). Fort Gordon GIs for Peace. (Source: http://www.sirnosir.com/archives_and_resources/galleries/cover_pages/last_harass/06.htm)

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