The Other \u27VD\u27: The Educational Campaign to Reduce Venereal Disease Rate During World War II

Venereal disease was a major contributor to lost man days in World War I so the government attempted to implement an educational campaign beginning in 1918. After a loss of funding, venereal disease became unattended until 1936 when Thomas Parran was appointed as Surgeon General. He made prevention of venereal disease his top priority and began a new campaign, determined to make it more effective and better funding than its predecessor. The subsequent advent of World War II strengthened national interest. With the inspiration of Parran, the Public Health Service and other organizations made movies, posters, pamphlets, books, and school curriculums. Despite these efforts beginning before the war and only intensifying during the war years, venereal disease rates during World War II climbed through 1943. However, in contrast to the first campaign, Parran’s attempt to end venereal diseases was better funded and longer lasting than its predecessor

Uproar on Campus: Student Protests in the Vietnam War Era

The Vietnam War was one of the most polarizing events in United States history. Protesters angered by a decade of controversial policy decisions in Vietnam opposed what they believed to be an unfair and corrupt political system waging an unpopular war. As the antiwar movement began to gain momentum in the late 1960s and early 1970s, college students took leading roles, protesting not only against the war, but also against conventional forms of authority and social norms. Student protesters embraced a philosophy of free love, and peace and justice for all that had its roots in the radical counterculture movement that started in the early 1960s. The Vietnam War opened an ideological rift between Americans. The radical ideas of student protesters, and the antiwar movement more broadly, met opposition from the US government, as well as from supporters of the war. Americans on both side of this divide banded together to print and distribute materials across the country in the hopes of gaining support and recognition for their respective causes. The artifacts in this exhibit are drawn from the Radical Pamphlets Collection housed in Gettysburg College’s Musselman Library. These artifacts have been selected to provide a taste of what it might have been like to be a college student during the Vietnam War era