? A myth is a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone. It is an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true. Popular music, movies, and literature are different ways that a myth is passed on to the people. One popular myth of the Vietnam War is that it was mostly fought by teenagers. Vietnam War songs emphasized the soldier’s youth. The Shirelles “Soldier BoyI’ll Be True To You” (1962), Tommy Dee’s “Goodbye High School – Hello Vietnam” (1966) lyrics’ sought to connect singers with teenage listeners, and The Who’s “Baba O'Riley,” sometimes incorrectly called “Teenage Wasteland” (1971). Another popular myth is that African Americans were killed at a higher rate than other Americans. “Political,” music, such as “We Shall Overcome,” had gained traction with the civil rights movement. Many of its singers, such as Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, quickly became fixtures at antiwar rallies. Links between the civil rights and antiwar movements are explicit in songs such as “Hell No, I Ain’t Gonna Go” (1970), which was co-written and recorded by Matt Jones, a member of the Student nonviolent Coordinating Committee and its associated musical group, the Freedom Singers. A different style of protest song is best exemplified by Country Joe and the Fish’s iconic “I-Feel-I’m-Fixing’- to-Die-Rag” with its catch-phrase, “What are we fighting for? / Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn / Next stop is Vietnam” (1965). A similar type song, Phil Ochs’s “The Draft Dodger Rag,” (1965) with its theme of getting out of the draft for medical reasons, was aimed at high school and/or college audiences. Another subcategory pointed out the inequities tied to race and socioeconomic class that allowed some young men, the “Fortune Son,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969), to avoid military service. Initially confined to folk and pop music, protest songs cropped up in other genres as well following the January 1968 Tet Offensive. Although the Tet represented a military defeat for the enemy, it caused US public opinion to tilt against the war. This made it easier for black artists and rhythm and blues / soul-oriented labels to release antiwar tracks such as Edwin Starr’s “War,” Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” (1969) and Freda Payne’s “Bring the Boys Home” (1971). Movies are how many people understand the profound effects of the Vietnam War on American politics, culture, and society. The 1958 movie The Quiet American completely inverts the critical orientation of the book by the same name. This demonstrates how filmmakers sometimes create motion pictures in order to communicate certain political messages but also the extent of Hollywood is capable of rewriting history. John Wayne’s 1968 movie, "The Green Berets," has a press conference and public presentation that was a distillation of some of the war hawks’ principal arguments and complaints. Those in the audience, both on film and watching the film, learn that the Vietnamese insurgency is in no way indigenous; it is part of a global conspiracy to achieve “communist domination of the world.” The viewers also see the press is an intensely hostile to US foreign policy as it is demonstrably ignorant and unrepresentative of public opinion. This picture is also notable for being the last major fictional film Hollywood made about the war before its official end in 1975. The war had simply become too controversial. The Vietnam War literature remains relevant and persistent because the war, its duration, it costs in human lives and dollars, its unsettled conclusion, continues to affect Americans and American society in the new century. Graham Greene’s canonical, "The Quiet American," was perhaps the first novel about American involvement in Vietnam. It provided the reader with a broad analysis of American foreign policy, American imperialism, and Cold War politics. An enduring myth is that veterans were spit on by protesters when they returned home from Vietnam. While it is possible that such a thing happened to a handful of men, it clearly was not anywhere near as common as is claimed, and it represents something of a collective false memory. The 1982 movie, "Rambo (First Blood)," popularized the spitting myth, which the sociologist Jerry Lembcke has argued originated in Nixon administration propaganda. There is nothing in the historical record, news or police reports, for example, suggesting they really happened. In fact, the Veterans Administration commissioned a Harris Poll in 1971 that found 94percent of Vietnam veterans reporting friendly homecomings from their age-group peers who had not served in the military. Moreover, the historical record is rich with the details of solidarity and mutuality between the anti-war movement and Vietnam veterans. The real truth, in other words, is that anti-war activists reached out to Viet