Next stop is Vietnam! : An analysis of the use of history in Vietnam War song lyrics

The war in Vietnam was a conflict that happened during the Cold War. In the 1960s USA chose to join the war with the hope of stopping the spread of Communism. The war did not go as planned; instead the outcome was that the Americans lost. During and after the war in Vietnam several songs have been made. Some as protest of the war, others the opposite and had a positive attitude about USA and their participation in the war. In this thesis seven songs regarding the war in Vietnam have been analyzed. The aim of the thesis was to investigate the use of history in different lyrics about the war in Vietnam. An oriented interpretation textual analysis has been applied to the content. The theoretical part of the thesis that was chosen is the use of history as a theory. The theory of the thesis is based on Klas-Göran Karlsson’s typology where he list Scientific, Existential, Morally, Ideological, Non-use, Political-pedagogical and Commercial use of history. To search for the answer in how the artists applied a use of history, the typology of Karlsson and also added Robert Thorp’s four different ways which are Traditional, Exemplary, Critical and Genetic. The result of the thesis was that the war in Vietnam does not appear as clearly in the earlier songs as it did in the songs from the 1980s. Regarding the use of history the result showed that the songs apply the use of history in different ways to state their message