The main goal in the lives of any true hippy was to put an end to the Vietnam War. After President Johnson began to bomb Northern Vietnam, (and a month later, starts sending soldiers personally) some people began to get angry. One month after the US started the bombing, an anti-war protest was finally staged by a group calling themselves by "New Left", or SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), at the University of Michigan, where over three thousand protesters gather to get in the attention needed to keep US involvement in the Vietnam War from escalating. A month after that, the first official anti-war march was set up in Washington DC. Here, over twenty-five thousand gather in hopes to bring home our US soldiers. In the same year - 1965 - burning draft cards becomes illegal, and many were arrested for the crime during anti-war demonstrations. More protests were held throughout the country, working on an end to the war and what feel is corruption of democracy. The Gulf of Tonkin was a perfect example for what they feel is one of congress' biggest mistakes.

In August of 1964, vietnamese ships supposedly attacked two of our own US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, giving johnson the perfect reason to propose a new bill that would give the president the rights to send troops to battle in a foriegn country if provoked with out having to have congress declare war. This was called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The president had the right now to collect soldiers and send them off to a war that wasn't even declared official, yet the men fighting there were killing unless they were being killed, like a real war. They were using battle tactics and strategies, planning ambushes, and performing rescue operations for those wounded, like a real war. Lives were being lost right along with morals, charictar, and - in many cases - sanity. Damage to the body was not quite as bad as the damage to the mind, and after the war, many suffered from mental disorders and post incident trauma. It destroyed the lives of those who were sent off with only the vaguest idea of why they were going to fight and kill people they wanted little or nothing to do with. In all the Vietnam War was fought for no other reason than to satisfy the fears of the spreading of communism - a type of governmant that we didn't understand, nor did we even try.

If you have time to, please check out these sites dedicated to the Vietnam War.