Anti Vietnam, what did hippies do as peace riots?
Um, the early protest movement, about 1966 to 1969, was very much part of the counter-culture and featured lots of ‘hippies’ like Abbie Hoffman. By 1970 the US was already withdrawing from Vietnam, having accepted the war could not be won already, in 1968. In the 1970s the anti-war movement accellerated and broadened. Students, exempt from military service to study, protested against the war. These were not ‘hippie’ dropouts but rich people’s kids. Parents opposed sending their kids to a war that was lost, whereas they still ‘had faith’ a few years earlier. The media also started asking lots more difficult questions, before later becoming more dormant and weak than ever. Vietnam changed the world because the US and allied governments realised they could not count on the population’s unconditional support for wars. The army became volunteer and looked carefully at why they ‘lost’ Vietnam when they thought they were winning according to their measurements of success. The government reali
If you just want an old hippies point of view about the Vietnam era, I can tell you what It did to me , it stole my youth, it killed some of my friends, it made me hate my own country, and distrust my own feelings about right and wrong. Its a sad day when the youth of a country any country has to be burdened with taking on the job of being that country’s conscience that should have been our leaders responsibility. Many times I found myself at a protest of some kind (sit in,stand in, riot, or just simple civil disobedience) when I should have been studying or working on making myself better. It wasn’t just a bunch of us sitting around smoking pot and listening to John Lennon we had a war to stop and with persistence and determination we did it .
