In Sunday's New York Times both Gail Collins and Frank Rich wrote about Woodstock in their columns To Be Old and in Woodstock and ‘Mad Men’ Crashes Woodstock’s Birthday. For me both columns take a hard look at Woodstock and fail to see the importance of the concert.
In To Be Old and in Woodstock Gail Collins says:
When I was actually at Woodstock, it never occurred to me anybody was going to want to discuss it 40 years down the road. In fact, the only time I envisioned the concert having any impact on my future was on the way home when I decided all of us were going to die in a massive traffic jam.
and in ‘Mad Men’ Crashes Woodstock’s Birthday Frank Rich says
As many boomers have noted, Woodstock’s nirvana was a one-of-a-kind, one-weekend wonder anyway, not the utopia of subsequent myth. It wasn’t even meant to be free; in the chaos, the crowds overwhelmed and overran the ticket sellers.
For me both miss the significance of what Woodstock represented at the time.
In 1968 I was a white male middle class college student worried about losing my deferment in two years when I graduated. There were many of us. We learned about Vietnam because we might go there to die. What we learned was that Vietnam was a war fought to contain communism. The problem was that the war was really being fought so the French could maintain control of rubber and tungsten.
To better understand Vietnam one must understand WW II. Prior to WW II Vietnam was ruled by the French and the Japanese which may be described as:
French rule was harsh: only the government was allowed to produce/sell alcohol & salt; rice was exported from huge French-owned plantations while many Vietnamese did not have enough to eat; workers in mines and rubber plantations could be jailed if they tried to leave their jobs; and taxes of every kind multiplied. Then during WW2, the French shared control of Vietnam with the Japanese.
See What were the causes of the Vietnam War?
Ho Chi Minh "oversaw many successful military actions against the Vichy French and Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II, supported closely but clandestinely by the United States Office of Strategic Services" See Ho Chi Minh. After WW II Ho Chi Minh wanted independence from the French rule. He looked to the communists for support only because the US chose to support the French.
As we college educated deferred males learned these facts we realized that the Vietnam War was not worth the US fighting a war. We did not want to die fighting a stupid war. We taught our parents and they did not want us to die in a stupid war. Hence Eugene McCarthy did better than expected in the New Hampshire primary (he didn't win).
Then there was the Chicago Democratic Convention and college students being shot by US troops at Kent State. The musicals Hair and Godspell were released. We also fought for the civil rights of African Americans. Feminism was rejuvenated. The pill enabled sex without worry. And then there were the drugs LSD and marijuana. We dreamed of a new society where all were highly educated, there was no supremacy (no discrimination against anyone for any reason), and we all shared with each other.
For me Woodstock is not about the music, the drugs, the sex, breaking down fences, masses of people, etc. Rather for me Woodstock represents the new society we dreamed of. This is the society that Obama is trying to build. For me this is the society we still need today. This new society is the significance of Woodstock.