Published during the Vietnam War, The Drifters addresses many of the social concerns that contributed to the revolutionary climate in America and elsewhere during the late 1960s. James Michener addresses the Vietnam War directly by introducing the character Joe, an American college student of draft age who leaves the United States in order to evade the draft. Other older characters, like Britta's father and Harvey Holt, have participated in World War II, and their patriotism to Norway and America, respectively, contrasts with Joe's rebelliousness. Yigal is Joe's age but nonetheless resembles the older characters in his sense of patriotic duty, having fought for Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.

These conflicting attitudes between and within generations dramatize the confusion caused by the Vietnam War.

Michener also deals with other prominent social issues of the era, such as recreational drug use, the sexual revolution, the ecological movement...