policy - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
Discussed below are the following subgroups which had elements within
them that were politically active during the Vietnam War period:
- youth
- intellectuals
- blacks
- labor.
1. Youth
Among the subgroups of the US population that had significant 2!
political impact during the Vietnam War was youth, as defined by individuals
between the ages of 18 and 24.
It was this group that provided the
college students and that filled the ranks of the Armed Forces. The 1960's
began as a period dominated by a theme of youthfulness. The decade saw the
passing of leadership from one generation to another. John F. Kennedy was
acutely conscious of this passing, and he sought to stamp his administra-
tion with a
look of strength and vitality that he perceived had been
lacking in the older generation's conduct of the nation's affairs. Before
his election he noted:
A
Everyone thinks the significance of my winning in
November would be to prove a Catholic could make it all
the way to the White House. But the real significance
will be that we will have by-passed a whole generation.
Never again will anyone from Stevenson's generation be
president. I think the establishment resents our youth
as much as anything else. But it is time the vigor of
youth took over. 27/
Demographic characteristics of the nation also made youthfulness 5
a dominant theme in the 1960's. In the 1960's the 18-24 year old age group
was expanding more rapidly than the total populati -. The rapid increase
in the young-adult population may be traced back to the rise in births
during the 1940's,
from 2.6 million in 1940 to a peak of 3.8 million in
1947. Beginning in 1958 the babies of the "baby boom" began to reach 18.
The number of 18-24 year olds expanded from 15.3 million in 1958 to 22.8
million in 1968.
The rising numbers of young adults and American affluence
S'
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