This dissertation examines the contributions and significance of U.S. expatriates in Great Britain, West Germany, France, and Canada to the Vietnam antiwar movement. Utilizing archives of several expatriate antiwar groups, the personal papers of prominent expatriate activists, and the U.S. government, I argue dissent from this constituency was motivated by a desire to broaden U.S. civil society so that it included the perspectives, insights, and experiences of the highly mobile postwar population and accounted for the reality of its transatlantic empire. Overseas citizens often presented their dissent as patriotic, leaning on a range of national icons and traditions to situate themselves as part of the U.S. community, and, based on their experiences abroad, they claimed a specific expertise, unavailable to most other citizens on matters of foreign policy, international relations, and national security. As such, expats contested how U.S. policymakers used claims of national security and credibility to mobilize the transatlantic public for the war, and instead disseminated alternative interpretations as the basis of their dissent.

The Vietnam antiwar movement developed in the American Southwest out of a coalition of Chicanos, GI's, and students who agreed that the Vietnam War was racist, imperialist, costly, and negatively affected them and their communities. The antiwar movement in the Southwest formed in 1967, made possible by the emergence of the Chicano and GI movements. Chicanos criticized the military for a disproportionate number of Mexican American combat deaths in Vietnam. The military sent activist youth from across the country to bases in the Southwest, where they protested the war alongside Chicanos and college students. Connections between Chicanos, GI's, and students developed into a strong antiwar movement in 1968-1969. Beginning in 1970, the coalition fell apart as Chicanos increasingly pursued a strategy of separatism from mainstream American society as the key to self-determination. Frustration over perceived lack of progress in ending the war led the antiwar movement into an escalation in protest tactics and radicalization of its message, pushing out moderate voices and further weakening the movement. This thesis offers an original contribution because historians have failed to pay attention to the vibrant antiwar movement in the Southwest, instead, mostly focusing on the East Coast and San Francisco Bay Area. Historians of the Chicano movement have not adequately shown how it allied with other movements in the 1960s to achieve its goals. The use of underground newspapers allows a window into the writings and ideas of the protestors.

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This dissertation examines the relations between the local base of the anti-Iraq War movement and the local press in the UK. It is, as such, a study of the interactions between local newsworkers and local activists, as well as a Content Analysis study of how the Iraq crisis, and particularly opposition to military action, was reported on in the pages of the local press. Key questions to be addressed include how local journalists assessed the legitimacy of the antiwar movement; how, and the reasons why, opponents of the war sought local press coverage, and with what consequences (if any) their interactions with the media may have had for the movement; and how the local press handled the almost uniquely controversial nature of the Iraq crisis in its reporting. Most previous research on the Iraq crisis has focused on the national media local media has hitherto been absent from the research agenda. Likewise, the majority of research on social movements has usually focused on the national leaderships of those movements again the local dimension of social movements has rarely been studied. In these ways it is hoped that the study makes a unique contribution to research into both the reporting of the Iraq crisis, and to the study of the interactions between social movements and the media.

Cette thèse se penche sur les photographies dites « iconiques » issues des contenus photojournalistiques de la guerre américaine au Vietnam. Au cours de l’histoire moderne, quelques dizaines de photographies documentaires, d’art ou de mode ont été consacrées comme « icônes », un terme qui dénote leurs qualités symboliques ou d’incarnation. Parmi ces images, quatre ont émergé de l’archive visuelle de la guerre du Vietnam. Ces quatre icônes sont des images photojournalistiques au contenu choquant, sensationnel ou violent, qui ont fait l’objet de nombreux rappels dans la presse au cours des décennies post-guerre, ainsi que de remédiations dans divers domaines artistiques. Leur grande renommée a conduit l’historiographie de la guerre et l’imaginaire public à les penser influentes ; ainsi, on pense souvent que ces images ont retourné l’opinion publique pendant le conflit ou causé la défaite. Cette thèse examine de près la relation entre « icône » et « influence » par le biais d’une revue de l’historiographie des médias pendant la guerre du Vietnam et dans sa période de mémorialisation. Si la notion d’influence des images est démentie par certains experts dans des études très précises et documentées, elle continue néanmoins de faire partie de la définition des icônes photojournalistiques et de nombreux contenus médiatiques de nos jours. La spécificité des icônes du Vietnam et leur progression dans la presse des années 1970 aux années2000 sont ici présentées en détail pour expliquer comment ces images sont devenues représentatives de la notion d’influence, et dans quelle mesure les discours médiatiques ont contribué à une éducation par l’icône. L’objectif de cette étude est de montrer que les icônes sont des objets uniques dans leur composition et tout à fait métaphotojournalistiques qui attestent de l’attachement de la discipline à leur adaptabilité et à leur familiarité. Le public américain n’est plus le seul réceptacle de leur symbolisme, et les icônes, du Vietnam comme d’autres contextes,ont désormais atteint un statut international. Par conséquent, les icônes participent, dans l’ère contemporaine, à la problématisation et à la théorisation des études en culture visuelle. / This dissertation focuses on those press photographs from the Vietnam war considered to be “iconic”. In recenthistory, only about 30 or 40 photographs, whether documentary, art, or fashion images, have been consecrated as“icons”, a word that denotes their capacity to symbolize or embody various concepts. Among these images, fourhave surfaced from the visual archive of the Vietnam War. These icons are photojournalistic images whose contentwas considered shocking because of their sensational and graphic nature and which have appeared consistently inthe press since the end of the war and remediated in various artistic fields. Their fame has caused thehistoriographers of the Vietnam War and the public to think of them as influential objects; they have been credited with, or blamed for, turning public opinion against the war or for causing the ultimate defeat of American forces.This dissertation examines closely the relationship between “icon” and “influence” by way of a review of thehistoriography of the media during the Vietnam War and, afterwards, through its memorialization. Even thoughthe notion of influence is refuted by some experts in very precise and well-documented case studies, it remains anintegral part of the definition of photojournalistic icons of media content today. This essay exposes in detail theunique characteristics of the Vietnam icons and their progress in the press from the 1970s to the 2000s so as toexplain how these images have become representative of the influence theory, and to what extent media discoursehas contributed to educating the public by using icons. The aim of this essay is to show that icons have truly unique compositions and are fully meta-photojournalistic objects that testify to the media’s attachment to their adaptability and familiarity. The American public is no longer the only recipient of their symbolism ; icons—from Vietnam andfrom other contexts—have now reached an international status. Consequently, in contemporary times, icons contribute to problematizing and theorizing studies in visual culture.

Historians recognize that there was an increase in political repression in the United States during the Vietnam War era. While a number of accounts portray the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the primary driver of repression for many groups and individuals during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly those on the left, historians typically overlook the role played by local and state law enforcement in political intelligence-gathering. This thesis seeks to advance the study of one aspect of this much larger topic by looking at New York State Police surveillance of the Vietnam-era student peace movement. Drawing extensively on State Police spy files housed at the New York State Archives, the thesis makes several significant contributions to the existing historiography on this period. First, it demonstrates how state and local police contributed to the climate of political repression and surveillance during the Vietnam era. Second, while this thesis encompasses state police surveillance at all types of institutions, including elite private universities and second-tier state colleges, in doing so it provides the first-ever detailed look at how community college students organized against the war. Since a majority of community college students were from relatively low-income backgrounds, chronicling the history of protest on two-year campuses gives historians another angle from which to counter the persistent myth that antiwar activism failed to penetrate the most working-class sectors of U.S. society.

The 1960s counterculture had a huge impact on American society and questioned many of the American values in order to replace them with their own ideas. Even thought the first trace of youth's revolt against the older generation appeared in the 1950s, it was in the 1960s when the young generation fully rose up and started to fight for their goals. The 1960s counterculture can be divided into two parts, the New Left and the hippies, which both comprised of many different groups and organizations, among them for example the Black Panthers, the Weatherman, Students for a Democratic Society or Vietnam Veterans Against the War. These organizations engaged in many different issues like a civil rights movement or an antiwar movement. The tool for spreading countercultural values was an art - until nowadays countercultural impact is still visible especially in music. Even thought the countercultural movement gradually became radical and in the end of the 1960s split up, its impact on American society is undeniable in some issues such as drug use, perception of sexuality or questioning authorities.

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