Eve of Destruction/Blowin in the Wind

The songs written during the Vietnam era reveal many interesting things about the uncertainty and turmoil in the American people towards the Vietnam War. In the song “Eve of Destruction” , McGuire writes that many of the soldiers are “old enough to kill, but not for votin”. This comparison tries to put things in perspective for the American people, by emphasizing the youth and innocence of the young soldiers that were being sent to Vietnam. It goes on to list many other crazy things that are going on in the world, using deductive logic to say that the world is on the “eve of destruction”. The evidence he provides is the conflict in Vietnam and its effects in the United States.
Although McGuire’s song was in protest of the war, Bob Dylan’s song took a different step rhetorically. Rather than try to logically break down the reasons why the world is on a self-destructive path, Dylan uses “Blowin in the Wind” to explain that during this period of time there are many unanswerable questions. Most applicable is when he asks “Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows That too many people have died?” His answer is that it is “blowing in the wind”, meaning that there often is no answer, or if there is one, it is often very hard to find.