Rock and Roll and Voices of Peace During the Vietnam War Era

This poster will show the relationship between Rock and Folk music in the peace movement of the 1960s and the responses from state and federal government in their attempts to silence them. It will highlight the turbulent and violent time of the Vietnam war era. This will be done through the perspective of the war’s greatest critics in the musical community and specifically show stories of federal and state governments attempting to silence these messages and eliminate disagreement. The musicians primarily focused on will be John Lennon, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan. Their contributions to the message of peace and ending of the war in Vietnam in their songs. The response from the US government in their attempts to silence the dissonant voices of these three is what primarily will be highlighted. Events such as President Richard Nixon having a file made on John Lennon and his attempts at the deportation of Lennon and his wife. Pete Seeger’s experience of being blacklisted by the US government and being surveilled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for his far-left leaning politics in his music as early as 1955. Bob Dylan’s surveillance from the FBI for dating Suze Rotolo and being believed to be communist for his anti-war songs. The songs they wrote such as “Imagine”, “Waste Deep in the Big Muddy” and “Masters of War” had critical responses from a public that agreed with the message but a government that wanted nothing more than censor and silence these oppositional voices.