The free press brought home the reality of the war and soon people were sick of it. One example of this was le Mai Lai massacre. This was the only war crime that was brought to trial by the courts, and this only happened because of pressure from some newspapers. Lieutenant William Calley was put on trail for the slaughter of 109 innocent civilians. He got life but served only three months. Critics said that it was hypocritical standing one man on trial for war crimes when the government had ordered the use of such weapons as Napalm and Agent Orange.
The war was meant to be a "quick Kill" ˆ a quick victory, in and out with minimal American casualties. The reality was that it all lasted for far too long. As the body bags mounted up the Americans started to question their involvement. Wounded soldiers and veterans came home with stories of how they were encouraged to kill anything that moved. Returning soldiers were not given the hero's welcome, far from it, in fact, especially towards the end of the war they were generally shunned by the American Public.
In the late sixties there was a huge movement among the young generation known as the hippie movement. The youth started to revolt against the ideals set by their parents in favour of a life of peace, love and copious amounts of marijuana, Timothy Leany who was a professor of philosophy summed it up with the quote "Turn on and drop out". They saw the war as a thing they could fight against, and so held protests and peaceful demonstrations against the war. All over the country there were strikes and demonstrations at universities.
From 1968 there were doubts of how the Americans could win the war. Top advisors were warning that there was little hope of winning the war, and this understandably undermined the morale of the soldiers and public. In November 1969 over 250,000 people staged a massive demonstration against the war. An opinion poll in 1969 showed that over half the country were against the war and less than 40 percent of the country was in favour of it.