Columbia University 1968 - Photo #2 - Background and personalities

    Enlarge
68_demo
One of many antiwar demonstration on campus before the uprising and building occupations. These continued until the end of the war in 1975. Large contingents from the area also chartered buses to even larger demonstrations in Washington DC. During the Vietnam war, students were much more engaged than today because of the military draft. Even though there were student deferments, everybody was affected; if we weren't drafted ourselves, our family and friends were. More than 20 students from my high school were killed in Vietnam. Once the draft was abolished in 1975, the US found it could attack as many other countries as it wished without domestic blowback.