One of the more ubiquitous bits of personal jewelry in the early 1970s was the POW/MIA brace-let. A steel circle inscribed with the name of an American soldier captured or missing in Vietnam, the bracelets were created by the Victory in Vietnam Association as a means of fomenting anti-Vietnamese sentiment at a time when the majority of the population wanted the United States to withdraw from Vietnam. The political message failed, but the bracelets were a hit. Contrary to their intention, pacifists, hippies", and children wore the bracelets to signify the human cost of the war, unaware of the bracelet manufacturer's intent— one more illustration of the complex politics created by Vietnam.

Source:

Pagan Kennedy, Platforms A Microwaved Cultural Chronicle of the 1970s (New York St Martin's Press, 1994)

Assimilation.

Lasch's analysis of the me decade reflected the awareness of many of...