[indiscernible] he can call superwoman and super dog it wont do him no good i found out why from a russian spy he aint nothing but a comic book gonna pull him off the stand clean up the land gonna have us a brandnew day and what is more i got the fantastic four and spiderman to help him on his way i said come out with your hands held high drop your guns, reach for the sky aintu surrounded and you got a chance gonna send you back to texas, make you work on your ranch yeah ah, yeah, agriculturalm in worker. [applause] lordy, lordy, [laughter] gave me an f. F. Thank you. I needed that. Got himself in a terrible jam way down in vietnam. Put down your books pick up your gun where gonna have a lot of fun what are we fighting for . Me, i dont give a damn aint no time to run under why to wonder why we all gonna die. There is plenty good money to be made supplying the army with the tools of the trade 2, 3, what are we fighting for . Dont ask me, i dont give a damn next up is vietnam open up the pearly gates aint no time to wonder why were all gonna die lets move fast now you can go out and get those reds the only good commie is the one that is dead 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for . Dont ask me, i dont give a damn next up is vietnam 5, 6, 7, open up the pearly gates aint no time to wonder why we are all gonna die come on, mothers throughout the land pack your boys off to vietnam come on, fathers, dont hesitate send your daughters off before its too late. Be the first one on your block to have your kids come home in a box , 3 its 1, 2 [chanting] [applause] please welcome to the stage, mr. Peter yarrow, singersongwriter and political activist, and the director of live,ammy museum at l. A. Country for the next panel. Well, joe, on behalf of everyone here i want to thank you for exercising your freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Thank you very much. [applause] 50 years. And, boy, for those of us who were alive back then and remember that song and remember those days, that was one song that could always get a response going and it did even here. Interesting, huh . Look, every generation has a sound track. Every historical era has a sound track. Every historical moment. Every movement. Music has played a vital part in americas history. Its been there from the revolutionary times and it goes right through our history even today. And almost always the music was creative, expressive, and sometimes controversial. And certainly in the 1960s the music was controversial because for the very first time american pop music embraced the idea that a song could act as an agent of social and political conquest. It could do something that allowed change in our world and in our time. It could do something to rally people to a particular point of view. And when in the 1960s this became something of import, many, many artists from country joe and peter paul and mary on down took to the microphone, picked up guitars, and began to present a point of view. And sometimes that point of view positive for others and negative for others and sometimes it was , just different. However, what happens by the late 1960s, its very clear that rock n roll, pop music, soul music, funk music all kinds of music has embraced the political point of view thanks in large measure to vietnam. So id like to discuss with my colleagues today and really begin with peter if you will since you go back to the early 1960s with this. We said on an earlier panel i believe it was yesterday or the day before that many of the ideas of the Antiwar Movement sprouted from the Civil Rights Movement. And you of course were very much involved in the Civil Rights Movement and the Antiwar Movement. Is that an accurate statement . And if so, how did it happen . Yes. That is the case. Im not sure that my microphone is on. Yes, there we are. Okay. Can you hear me . Yes. All right, good. The Civil Rights Movement was very important in terms of the Antiwar Movement in many ways. Number one, we were looking at what we, we who were a part of the Civil Rights Movement, peter paul and mary sang at the march in washington in 1963 where Martin Luther king delivered his i have a dream speech and we sang two songs at that gathering. One of them was if i had a hammer and the other was blowing in the wind. If i had a hammer had become a very big hit. Everybody knew it. Blowing in the wind, it was the first exposure of america to the work of bob dylan. And that song peaked on the charts the week before the march on washington in 63. So we sang it, but we didnt sing it alone. We were not singing two people, just as you just sang with joe. The people held hands, and what they said together with that expression of singing together, was our hearts are united. And we are united in doing something that is considered by many to be unamerican, by many to be unpatriotic. We were not following the rule of law. The rule of law supported at that time lynchings for which there was no possibility of some kind of legal recourse, no prosecutions. You go to washington, d. C. , if you were a person of color you could not use a bathroom or a public bathroom or a public water fountain unless it said for colored only. What we were supporting was the point of view that challenged the law. It challenged what doing you do your duty. You follow this law. No. For the first time, we said, as moral citizens, we have to do what is right for our country. Our country is not always right. Our country is but our job as citizens is to be engaged in that dialogue. So that set the stage for saying what our country if youre patriotic to us, you have to stop a war that we all felt was killing our young men. Peter paul and mary sang in the v. A. Hospitals. We honored the troops. We prayed for the troops. We loved the troops. We loved that they did what they could and put their lives on the line for us. But we opposed the war and ultimately we did what we felt was a patriotic thing, which was to contravene a policy that was being pursued that was faulted extraordinarily on many levels. Number one, it was based on a tissue of lies. We know that from the pentagon papers. We know that now from mcnamaras, the westmoreland. But at the time we also knew it and we said, how can as john kerry said and i worked with john kerry at Vietnam Veterans against the war, and i saw them suffer, suffer not only for what they experienced but for their being excoriated when they opposed the war. What we learned, what we could do was as americans love america by opposing what we felt was a war that as i said did not have a legitimate purpose. And today as i speak of this, now i am throwing it back to you, had we really fully embraced what youre trying to do here today at the center which is to form the basis of healing, is exactly what was said in the last discussion we have to have a clear purpose. Know that we are in jeopardy. We have to know that is the case. Or we go on and do it again, as we did when we went into iraq. And if we can heal and hate the war and not divide between those who say you were unpatriotic. No, you were unpatriotic. Putsay we love those who their lives and there were people who resisted the war that went to jail, we have to honor them. We have to honor those who put their lives on the line for the country. In the service of trying to do what they could in their patriotic view. Become one of the signature songs of the Antiwar Movement. Its an interesting story how ts wrote it, and also, i incredible spontaneous role in the woodstock festival. Can you tell me how you came to write it, and how you came to performing at woodstock . I was in the navy during the civil rights. I came back up and went to college. I dropped out. My parents were radical leftists. I grew up with communism, but i didnt like communism. They didnt help us in any way. But i didnt hate communists. My parents were communists. [laughter] good time in the military. Personalf the experience with my parents and my father losing his job, i didnt trust the leftwing. I didnt like civilians. I think when you were in the military, god bless civilians, but they dont know whats going on. [laughter] song popped in my head, because it was about the military and conflicts. Think about that song, it doesnt win soldiers. It travels so many places. I could not believe where that song went. I worked with Vietnam Veterans against the war. They were so good. I learned so much about the war. It freaked me out, because it just opened up the wound coming here. It was horrible stuff. I was telling you earlier today, about 15 years ago, i attended a veterans for peace conference in san francisco. One of the speakers was phil butler. Whene up to me and said we were in hanoi hilton, and i read the book called love and war, about when he was a prisoner and his wife struggles to communicate with him. I new all about hanoi hilton. He came over to me and said when we were in the compound, they would play American Music to demoralize us and make us homesick. Every time we heard your song, it would boost their morale. I thought those french educated vietnamese could manage to understand american humor. We are all going to die. It would make them feel good. [laughter] americans are unique people. I wouldi never dreamed live long enough to hear you sing that song in person. We just started crying and hugged each other. The song you play at woodstock . Yes. I wasnt supposed to play it at woodstock. It wasnt a big deal. They wanted me to fill in time for the audience. The band couldnt get there. They told me you have to save us, you have to do something. I told them i dont want to do it. I didnt have a guitar, so they grabbed a cheap guitar and gave it to me. They cut a piece of as a car struck and pushed me out. For about half an hour. Nobody knew who i was. Woodstock was like a giant family picnic. People just talk and laugh. I walked off of stage and said to my partner who was it . Ighting can i do i was saving it for the band later on when the band played. He said no one is paying attention to you, what difference does it make . Yelled give me an f. They all stopped talking and looked at me, and said f. I said oh my gosh, here we go. Tomade my career, enabled me pay the rent. Maybe made some people feel good. I had a guy tell me his buddy died in nam. His last words were we were going to die. This is serious stuff. When i learned i was coming to this summit, i got so sad, then i got angry, and here i am. [applause] one of the interesting things about the war is there were pop songs that were written that didnt say anything about the war itself. They were not meant to be antiwar. About a song like leaving on a jet plane, which then became a song you and peter Palmer Harrison would have. It was embraced by a lot of soldiers simply because of the fact it was leaving on a jet plane. When you heard it was popular, what did you think . Let me respond in this way. Over the years, with peter paul mary, when we would perform this song, it was not unusual for a vietnam vet who at that point was significantly older to come that songand said was my link to home. I know you oppose the war, but it meant so much to me. Then they break down in tears. We would hold them and hug them, and thank them for their service. Lineput their lives on the for us. The songs, that was a link to their home. Va hospital, at the they wanted not only to hear that, they wanted to hear where have all the flowers gone . [applause] for thells not ndment to disagree commitment with somebody to disagree with them the really evil is the war it self. Would have thought in the second world war, i am not a bottomline pacifist. , inthe musicg the case of leaving on a jet. Lane, it was a link imsomebody would say leaving on a jet plane, i dont know when i will be back again. It was very painful. I still sing it now. The songs that united the people who said we have to stop the war, and we do nothing, this is a legitimate war. How can you ask somebody to be the last person to die for a war that nobody wants . When we would sing those songs, and i would sing the great mandela, an anthem of sort, about a young man this is an interesting story. Jailng man who goes to rather than serving in the war. He cannot serve in this war. Then he goes on a hunger strike. Then he dies. Outside, the people who are dead,ng him say ok, hes we dont have to endure his accusations. We can kill now, we can hate, now we can end the world. Place on the your great mandela, the prayer wheel of life as it moves through your brief moment of time. Win or lose now, you must choose. If you lose, you are only losing your life. When i was with the washington inhedral, we were pointed four different directions. The individuals in the war. These were each human lives and they were sacred. Indeed on both sides. Song, theyg that played taps. During taps, there was a sound of a woman wailing. That juxtaposition was overwhelming and painful beyond painful. We didnt know what it was all about. Son was serving in he said if i am to die there, i want the words of that song engraved on my tombstone, and i did so. Understand how deeply these songs permeated the today, thet, unlike nature of music has become so superficial compared to that era, where it was the real heart and soul of our conscience that was being expressed in the way that you just experienced when joe chocked about talked about it and sang his song. You are in the bay area during the mid1960s at a time when america experiences a counterculture, the rise of the hippies. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of the summer of love. By and large, that movement was a social movement. Even a philosophical movement. Not so much a political movement, except for one band that stood out amongst all of the other ones, and that was country joe and the fish, which i remember reading someone saying it provided the political aspect of what the counterculture should be doing and the way it should be acting. Yet sometimes when i look back, it seemed country joe and the fish, is stood out by itself. The rest of the bands were rivaled, they did not get so involved politically like you did. How come . I dont know, bob. [laughter] [laughter] what i have come into the conflict, i thought nobody know knew what to do with us. There were 22 songs about the vietnam war. Welcome home, agent orange, combat. All kinds of songs. Im changing the subject. Fish weree and the on the david frost show a long time ago. Charles robb and Lyndon Johnson were on the show because they were engaged to be married. People wrote in to the david cross show saying that the bearded felty creeps should be sent back to russia. That was about us. None of us had beards. [laughter] i have one letter that says dear mr. Frost, why did you have to have that horrible rock band singing that horrible song about vietnam, when those lovely people Lyndon Johnson and charles robb, were talking about it. I dont think im ever going to watch your show again. I have saved those letters all these years. Ishought how weird life that here i am at the lbj library. Thanks to you, i hope i havent disappointed. You didnt answer my question, but thats ok. [laughter] all kidding aside, you were there was the mc five in new york doing radical things, musically and politically. Gethe end, too many people the Antiwar Movement confused with the hippie movement, when often times, we want to parallel and overlap. When you are in the midst of 19661967, there was a crossroads in your career when you are folk stars and pop stars, and by committing to a political platform in your music, that you were certainly going to alienate a sizable number of your audience. People thinking less of you, not buying your records. How did you handle that, in terms of your career . How did you say were going to be above this and push on . In the Civil Rights Movement, that was the first time that we stepped out and became proponents of a point of view that was highly controversial. In the north, there was not a lot of controversy. These, did sing that that was the end of our selling of records in the southern states. We had been warned by warner bros. That that would happen. Collarswords would have as barry woods wouldve called us, we were seekers raters. Ifad paved the way to say to expressr music your ethical perspectives and unite that, you are giving a andt gift to yourself following in the tradition of these songs. Many of them certainly came from the labor union movement. When we were in the Antiwar Movement itself, for me, i was a and you on one hand, are quite right it was the hippie point of view, which was about the spirit, love, and caring. There were the consequences we were dealing with. My other part of my life was as an organizer in the Antiwar Movement. We capped a low profile because there was a neck and enemy list nixon enemy list. I organized with a woman. I marched in washington in 1969. That march, coupled with the march against death, called the celebration of life, it was attended by half a million people. That is generally credited as the moment where the public sentiment turned against the war. , my job was tong , whiche the performers theyded pete seeger, wanted a diverse music to express that sense. Not antiwar, so much as let us bring peace. We have john denver singing last night. Mitch miller, the cast of hair. The String Quartet from the cleveland symphony orchestra. Earl scruggs from country music. And of course peter, paul and mary. That event was 90 music. I followed the march against death all night in a candlelight procession. People with candles put the name of an american soldier who was killed into a coffin, then those coffins were brought to the pentagon. March against death was followed by the celebration of life. That is true, folk music. Iner kinds of music later 1972, i organized something where we did have janis joplin, where we did have credence, steppenwolf. I called and mobilized by talking to them. And at Madison Square garden i organized something with jimi hendrix and blood, sweat and tears. There was an involvement. Not in the sense of their picking up the banner the way country did and writing songs, and walking the walk in that particular way, they simply got on stage. Before they did, in all cases, as was true in the civilized movement, we got together. Knock we are not here to people out with our songs, and perform, we are here to make a statement that will help us move society to a place where we will have greater equity and peace. Whatever you do, that has to be your intention, you need to say some words and let people know. Hat is where you are standing and when people have it in their hearts, i dont care if theyre singing lemon tree, the it were going to live in peace. Truth and thee of reality of it all, the Antiwar Movement embraced popular music to get its message across. Told, there was also many country artists who were expressing the other side of the viewpoint of the war. Many of us remember the ballot of the green berets, which came out in 1966, 1957, which holds a different narrative. Many in the country have written songs. Those songs back then in the music isnt country what it is today. Texas, they much south, southwest. It didnt infiltrate much of north to cities like berkeley or new york as it does now. But there were other songs, other artists taking other positions and using song as the vehicle to express those opinions. Isi underscored that that the case. It is the most minute group. Categorically throughout folk beatles, we are is give peace a chance. The massive thrust of the music business embraced the Civil Rights Movement, embraced the peace movement. That there werent others who had a different point of view. If were going to be accurate, we have to know that the scale was minute. Unconscious of our time. Sure that since we began with a song, that i leave time for you to take us out in song. Thank you for coming. And thank you all for the opportunity to do this. [applause] i will turn it over to you. Stand in front of these. You can hear me from this microphone if you would like. This is a song that i sing now. Hope. Yer, my i think all of you that are here. Is that by gathering together and expressing what we feel, we find there are ways for us to love each other and embrace those who feel differently from the way we did. Chalk it up to the years. [laughter] i went to vietnam three times. I focused around the issue of agent orange and the damage it did. I have a lot of footage. Hour piece made an on it, but i will extend it. The day that i arrived, i went house, whereship we knew had thes disabilities that were almost impossible to endure and see. It,nt want to describe because it is so terrible. It gets in the genetic system. Nd is inherited identify if somebody agente disability from orange or not, because after eight years, it is no longer there. I was singing with these kids and holding these kids i cant even say. I went to the hanoi opera house, where i was thinking. It is just like the paris opera house. I was singing a concert. Saw, so troubled by what i and realized what we had done. It didnt matter at that moment, the kind of discussion about whe not president carter saying you can come back is not the issue. We have to love each other and accept each other. Andthat pain not try justify our pain by saying we were right or wrong, because if we dont look at what we have accept that we did terrible things, notwithstanding whatever was done to us, notwithstanding the pain of our friends and comrades who died or pows. N misery as but how do we get beyond that . One of the ways we can do it is by having this kind of symposium. One of the ways is by singing a song together that affirms something that is important, no matter what position you took. In this song, when i came to the point of singing this at the hanoi opera house, i said i wanted to sing this song, but i cant. I cant do it until i tell you how i feel. I saw those kids. I have to let you know as one american. Im not saying things werent done back and forth. As an american, how deeply sorry i am for what i did to your country. 3 million dead, yes, we lost 58,000. More than that committed suicide because of the pain they endured after they came home. My heart breaks for them. Afterwards, do you know what the vietnamese said to me . You dont have to apologize, we just want to have our country and live in peace. Major ally their marriag and trading partner. How do we build piece . We build it by taking down those walls. Sing thisverybody to song that was a great anthem. It is not about the soldiers or the protesters, its about properly putting our commitment war, andng particularly, not going into wars unless its a just war. Then with the heaviest of hearts. Id like you to please stand up. I know for some of you it is difficult to stand up. For me, too. It comes with the years. Js jo just join our hands and sing. Where have all the flowers gone time passing gone have all the flowers ago time gone have all the flowers them,girls picked everyone wither. L be theywill b where have all the young girls gone . Where have all the young girls gone . Passinge where have all the young girls gone . Ago time where have all the young girls gone . For young men, everyone. They ever let me hear you now. Where have all the young men gone . Long time passing mene have all the young gone . A long time ago. Where have all the young men gone . They have gone for soldiers, everyone. Will they ever learn . Learn . Be ever and very solemnly and prayerfully, for all of those who are injured, killed, wounded or maimed, where have all the soldiers gone . But not to the graveyard, to lives of great, great this and difficulty. Where have all the soldiers gone . Where have all the soldiers gone . Time passing. Where have all the soldiers gone . Long time ago. All the soldiers gone . Gone to graveyards, everyone. They ever learn . When will they ever learn . Where have all the graveyards gone . Long time passing where have all the graveyards gone . Ong time ago where have all the graveyard gone . Flowers, everyone. Learn . Ll they ever . Will they ever learn when will we ever learn . And we sing when will we ever learn . , ever learn . Ever and then we sing where have all and the ironyne, and the pain of the endless i, when will we ever learn . But we do know that when we can love each other and say we are sorry, and we forgive each other, we are taking the right step. I am so sorry for anything that brought the war or any war, unjust war. Where have all the flowers gone, together, softly. Where have all the flowers gone . Long time passing. Where have all the flowers gone . Ago time where have all the flowers gone . Young girls have picked them, everyone ever learn . Ey whenl they have will they ever learn . When will we ever learn, last time. When will we ever learn . We ever, ever learn . [applause] do old mcdonald [applause] announcer sunday at nine a. M. Eastern, a washington journal and American History tv live special callin program looking at stack, the night woodstock, 1969 phenomenon. David farber, author of open with the age of rate dreams american the 1960s, joins us to take your calls. Drugs matter, but who takes those drugs, and why they had the effect they did in the 1960s and 1970s is something we are wrestling with the scholars to understand. The technology of drugs. We have people who have thought long and hard about this. It is imperative as an understanding of just the 1960s but the production of history. What drugs we use at a different time and waste have cash lace have incredible have incredible ability to change his id. Announcer call into talk to david farber about the social movements of the 1960s about woodstock and its legacy. Woodstock, 50 years, sunday at opena. M. Eastern on washington journal and live on American History tv on cspan3. Open this weekend, American History tv joins our spectrum Cable Partners to showcase the history of bozeman, montana. To watch more from the cities on our current work, visit cspan. Org citiestour. We continue now with our look at the history of bozeman. I first moved to bozeman, there were so many things named