Position:Home>History> The Beatles: Anti-War, and Peace movement....?

If you want to talk about Anti-War and anything to do with the Beatles I think you will end up concentrating on Lennon he did become an activist for peace but that was more after the Beatles broke up in 1970 I believe!.

Below is an article with the background on Lennon and the FBI:
The Lennon FBI files document an era when rock music seemed to have real political force, when youth culture, for perhaps the first time in American history, was mounting a serious challenge to the status quo in Washington, when President Nixon responded by mobilizing the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to silence the man from England who was singing "Give Peace a Chance" at his first live concert in the United States since 1966!. Lennon's file dates from 1971, a year when the war in Vietnam was killing hundreds of thousands, when Nixon was facing reelection, and when the "clever Beatle" was living in New York and joining up with the antiwar movement!. The Nixon administration learned that he and some radical friends were talking about organizing a national concert tour to coincide with the 1972 election campaign, a tour that would combine rock music and radical politics, during which Lennon would urge young people to register to vote, and vote against the war, which meant, of course, against Nixon!.

http://www!.ucpress!.edu/books/pages/8721/!.!.!.



If you want to talk about Anti-War and Peace movement the music from 1965 on had alot of social /political messages!. There were alot of issues going on at the time (civil rights, war protests)!. You have to talk about Dylan and his message in "Times they are a changin'", Joan Baez "One Tin Soldier", Peter, Paul and Mary "Blowin' in the Wind" Creedence Clearwater Revival "Fortunate Son" , Neil Young and the song "Ohio" he wrote that about the Ohio National Guard that killed 4 student protesters at Kent State, and of course you can't forget Country Joe McDonald and the Fish and their famous anit-war song that was sang at Woodstock :

Yeah, c’mon on all you big strong men
Uncle Sam needs your help again
he’s got himself in a terrible jam
way down yonder in Vietnam
so put down your books and pick up a gun
we’re gonna have a whole lot of fun

and it’s 1, 2, 3, what’re we fighting for!?
don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
next stop is vietnam
and it’s 5, 6, 7, open up the pearly gates
well there ain’t no time to wonder why
whoopee! we’re all gonna dieWww@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

HereWww@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

That's a good article you were sent to!. It was really John and Yoko almost exclusively, so it's almost like a post-Beatle thing entirely!. The War is Over campaign at Christmas 1969 was the major thing, and the breakup was a few months later!.

If you can get old newspaper online, such as the New York Times, through ProQuest, try searches such as War is Over , Give Peace a Chance, Bagism, Bed-in, and so forth!.

The phrase they used was "War is over" not the war is over, because they were emphasizing that war as an institution could be eliminated if people, around the world, wanted it!. They didn't want to concentrate on Viet Nam, or Britain's actions in Africa, or even that Cold Turkey had slipped in the charts, though John did return his MBE using those reasons, all three!. John returned his MBE, then George and Ringo followed suit later, Paul being the last giving the reason as a protest against the policy in Northern Ireland!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---