
When you think about the Vietnam war, there is one song that will no doubt come to mind, that song is “Fortunate Son”. This historical piece was by the band Creedance Clearwater Revival in 1969, and in this song, there is cry to be heard, this was the cry of many young men in a war they felt they had been forced into. when a majority of people listen to the song they may hear a multitude of things; some may hear an anti-war song fueling the increasing negative views towards the military and government at the time, or some may hear the attitude of a young man who was too underprivileged to avoid the draft. Even with potentially offensive themes the song finds itself as a posterchild of the American culture during the war; not only for the counter culture college kids of the day, but also for the young men fighting in an alien land. Many young troops enjoyed this song due to its ability to relate to the various experiences of those who did not support the draft or the war, and to those who just simply could not avoid the inevitable, due to their status.

The Vietnam war was an extremely controversial war that many Americans felt was unjustified. The war, for the Vietnamese, was fought to reunify the north and south of Vietnam. North Vietnam was a communist nation looking to take over the south with the help of the Viet Cong. The United States wished to halt the spread of communism, therefore they opposed the North Vietnamese. War was never officially declared by the U.S., however the first combat troop deployment was in march of 1965. The draft for the war started on December 1st 1969. This draft was one of the large factors of why the counter culture of the seventies would rise. Fortunate Son had been released the same year, drawing crowds of frightful and worried young people. Thousands found themselves in a situation they either didn’t want, or didn’t know how to handle.   

Numerous amounts of people responded differently to the draft. A large amount of those responses were extremely negative, as most would suspect. Large amounts of young men found themselves forced into the war, and countless others attempted to find ways out of the war. A very popular way for a lot of potential draftees to escape the war was to cross the border to Canada. Donald W. Maxwell states “tens of thousands of them had immigrated to Canada—both legally and illegally—to resist compulsory military service.” He then says “Their departures had an impact on the families, friends, and communities they left behind in the United States, as well as the communities they entered in Canada.”(Maxwell). After seeing this response, the governments of both America and Canada had to find a way to remedy the situation. The American government had implemented a bargain that would allow those who avoided the draft through immigration to return, on the condition that they would serve through alternative service. Canada decided to act and give the frightened immigrants sixty days to determine their residency either as Canadian citizens or become accountable as illegal immigrants. After observing the impact these immigrations had, there is little debate as to whether or not people were in support of the war.

It’s through these lenses that we begin to see why this song in particular was so popular among the servicemen during the war. One of the popular perceptions of the song was that it was against serving in the war. John Fogerty sings “some folks were born made to wave the flag” and concludes “it aint me!”. Considering how numerous amounts of soldiers were forced into war, it’s easy to understand why many of them would be found singing along to this song. A young man that was forced to serve would no doubt feel that this kind of life was not meant for him. Born without star spangled eyes, there would be little motivation to serve, and even less when his freedom had been taken from him. However, this is not the interpretation of the song.

When Fogerty had written the song, he had an intended message. As music, itself in an art form, songs can be interpreted many different ways, even contradicting the writer, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t an intended meaning. Fogerty has made it clear before that the song was to call out the rich and privileged who could avoid the draft and the war altogether, and how the poor and underprivileged were forced to go to war and die. Which was obviously how the situation at hand actually played out. When we look at the people protesting the war we can see large amounts of them were the privileged who did not serve.

One of the largest sites of protest had been the college campuses all around the United States. It’s hard to find any form of media portraying the seventies without a scene or mention of protest, this was due to how prevalent they were at the time. Jesse Kindig Points out that “By 1969, student body presidents of 253 universities wrote to the White House to say that they personally planned to refuse induction” (Kindig). These were kids who had been able to avoid the draft due to their enrollment in colleges, and they only had a few years before becoming eligible for the draft. This was probably a large factor in motivating the protests. So, masses of young men, who were unable to attend college, observed their countless peers stay stateside as they were inducted into their involuntary service.

Those college kids and those who self-exiled are the ones that are called out in the song. When the song exclaims “it aint me” it also references that “I aint no millionaires’ son”. This is intended to call out the privileged students protesting on campus. College is an academia that is closed to many because of the price of tuition. College has always been something that not everyone could afford. Since college students were able to avoid the draft for as long as they were in school; this meant that most of those exempt were rich or privileged people. As a result of this, most of those drafted were either poor or underprivileged. The themes of this song would surely resonate at least a majority of those who had been put into mandatory service.

Fortunate son has found itself to be a song that will be forever known and adored by the people of America. This was a time where tensions were high and the stakes even higher, emotions, and events would forever go down in history. This song will forever accompany the people, soldiers, and affairs during the Vietnam war. No matter the color, religion, nationality, or general belief of a soldier back then, they more than likely listened to the song, and most would be found to enjoy and connect to its lyrics, especially those who were drafted. Whether the soldier found himself against the war or just not fortunate enough to escape the horrors it held for him, there was something in this iconic anthem for all those unfortunate sons. 
