Context

A lan Moore was born November 18, 1953 in Northampton, England to a brewery worker Ernest Moore and printer Sylvia Doreen. He lived in a poor working class area, and at the age of seventeen he was expelled from the Northampton Grammar School for dealing LSD. He is an acclaimed writer for the comic book series Watchmen and V for Vendetta. He still lives in Northampton, while being a vegetarian, a practicing magician, and calling himself an anarchist. This anarchist view is shown in his work as he does not portray governmental figures to high esteem.

In Watchmen there are historical events such as the Vietnam War and the nuclear standstill between the Soviet Union and the United States, known as the Cold War, and Nixon being held as a great President, that are portrayed different than how they actually happened in real life. The Vietnam War was a dark time in the United States that is held as a decision that has great hatred and had many protests held in contempt for it. Many people did not like the war because of the draft, where people had to go into this foreign nation, even if they didn't want to, due to this the counterculture held many protests. In Watchmen, the Vietnam War was handled a little bit differently. Since there were these people that were better and stronger than the average citizen they were able to conquer the forces that were against the United States. Although in actuality the United States did end up leaving Vietnam, North Vietnam was still able to win the war against South Vietnam and because of this became one country. However, in Watchmen, due to Doctor Manhattan being there, the south did not have to give up their freedom to the north, but were able to live free lives instead.

Since the Vietnam War happened differently in the real world, the presidents at the time did not receive great approval ratings. President Nixon, although he finally was able to get the troops out of Vietnam, did not receive a great approval rating like he did in the book, because he did not win outright. Also, Nixon had a scandal that will be held in infamy, known as the Watergate scandal. Although not mentioned in the novel, it still happened, but due to Nixon winning outright the Vietnam War, it could be overlooked because when someone does something great, the bad that a person does is more often than not overlooked. This goes back to a very prevalent saying in the book, "who watches the watchmen." This saying is referring to the leaders of the country in that although they are looking over all of the other people, but who is watching over the deeds that they do, especially if the deeds that they are doing are wrong.

The Cold War dealt with nuclear weapons and the fear that other countries would attack you. The setting of Watchmen took place during this time and caused a major character, Doctor Manhattan to have a large effect. Many countries held nuclear weapons, but they knew that if they used them, then possibly a new World War could be under way. The novel shows the stand-still and the fear that the nuclear weapons had on the day, that if someone were to bomb a certain place then that would again cause fear to rise in all peoples.