This feature looks at the first time famous names or terms appeared in The Times. Have an idea for someone or something you would like to read about? Send a suggestion in the comments section.
On March 8, 1965, the American ground war in Vietnam got underway when 3,500 Marines were dispatched to protect American air bases there. That same day, peace groups took to the streets of New York with signs proclaiming “War Is Not a Game,” The Times noted on March 9. It was not the deployment of Marines that brought out the protesters — it was the American Toy Fair, and a new doll geared for boys. Almost from his birth at the dawn of the Vietnam War, G.I. Joe was as much a symbol as a toy.
Just days earlier, on March 1, The Times had mentioned G.I. Joe for the first time, reporting that its creator, Hasbro, would be advertising “its, new, and successful concept in toy soldiers” on children’s programs like “Underdog” and “Casper.”
With a name that came from a World War II comic strip, the toy was a huge hit, even though “peace groups wage constant war” over it, as an article on July 24, 1965, put it:
The original G.I. Joe line ended in 1976, just a year after the Vietnam War drew to a close, but the action figure wasn’t inactive for long — a smaller version was released in 1981. By 2004, the doll’s familiar role as symbol was being rebooted for a new generation as artists protested American actions in Iraq.