Reasons of Protest??

Hello,

I am a student and writing a research paper on the attitudes of the american people during the vietnam war. I am canadian, and was born in 68' so i have little to offer for retrospect myself. My thesis is developing on this idea:

In america during the 60s, new identities were arising with the american people of what america stood for. The vietnam conflict polarized the old attitude and the new. To the new attitude, the vietnam conflict symbolized suppression of ideals and democratic thinking on both the american people and the vietnamese. These people no longer trusted their government in acting on behalf of the american peoples best interest. To them, anyone who submitted to the draft was weak minded or was in direct conflict with their ideals. This could be why returning veterans were treated so harshly; they represented the pawns of the government the protestors were fighting against.

Thats it so far, needs a lot of work. Please give me some feedback (meaning any americans out there who can remember those days well).

Hamish Richardson