The anti–Vietnam War movement became a defining marker of youth culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s as increasing numbers of students realized the strength of their collective voice. Posters were a frequently used tool of protest, displayed on college campuses and held aloft in marches and demonstrations. The Student Mobilization Committee, a national organization that encouraged the formation of campus committees to end the war, issued the poster Bring the Troops Home Now.

The phrase was also a slogan for antiwar organizations and rallies, as well as the title of a newsletter that sought to direct the movement toward troop reduction. The poster’s designer, Nancy Coner, summoned many potent signals of the era, including rock-poster lettering, a pinwheel, helmeted and slain troops, riot police, a pontificating President Johnson, and placards with more antiwar slogans.