"Question Authority!" This was the creed of yippie Abbie Hoffman. This statement was commonly used in the nineteen sixties. It was a time of peace and love, but also a time of war. Hippies, yippies, and other youths saw problems in our nation and protested and changed it to the way it should be. The sixties affected our countries culture through radical new ideas and rejecting the old values and beliefs. Without their rebellious actions, America's culture would be very different. .
The sixties were a turbulent time in America. One of the biggest conflicts that affected the youth was the war in Vietnam. Because men were needed so badly, the government used the draft as a means of getting soldiers. Before nineteen sixty-six, men could not be drafted if they went to college, because they would be bettering our nation. However, this changed because American soldiers were being slaughtered in Vietnam, so there was a need for more manpower. The new policy took teenagers out of college to go to war, depending on their grades. If a student had good grades, he was exempt from the draft; but if he had bad grades, he had to go to war. .
Many people who got out of the draft were known as "draft dodgers." Men moved to Canada or Europe to get out of the country so they did not have to go to war. Others changed their religion or religious beliefs to that of pacifism, so they could say their beliefs prevented them from fighting. Most people engaged in active protest. They sent their draft cards back to the Selective Service office in Washington, D.C., and some even burned their cards.
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The baby boom earlier in the century increased he nation's population dramatically. During the sixties, all of these people were in college. They had strength in.
numbers, and they knew it. "Some of these young people believed that unless they did something to change the world, they wouldn't be able to live out their natural lifespans.
