In 1962, Spock joined
The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, otherwise known as SANE. Spock was politically outspoken and active in the movement to end the
Vietnam War. In 1968, he and four others—(
William Sloane Coffin,
Marcus Raskin,
Mitchell Goodman, and
Michael Ferber)—were singled out for prosecution by then Attorney General
Ramsey Clark on charges of conspiracy to counsel, aid, and abet resistance to the draft. Spock and three of his alleged co-conspirators were convicted, although the five had never been in the same room together. His two-year prison sentence was never served; the case was appealed, and in 1969 a federal court set aside his conviction. In a 1980s interview about the trial, he claimed that he and the other convicted defendants were railroaded to a guilty verdict by fabricated evidence and a biased judge. He added that the trial experience "radicalized" him. In 1967, Spock was pressed to run as
Martin Luther King Jr.'s vice-presidential running mate at the
National Conference for New Politics over Labor Day weekend in Chicago. In April of that year, Spock helped lead the largest anti-war protest to date, the
Spring Mobilization Against the War. He wore a suit and held a sign that read, "Children are not born to burn." In 1968, Spock signed the "
Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War, and he later became a sponsor of the War Tax Resistance project, which practiced and advocated
tax resistance as a form of anti-war protest. He was also arrested for his involvement in anti-war protests resulting from his signing of the anti-war manifesto "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority" circulated by members of the radical intellectual collective
RESIST. The individuals arrested during this incident came to be known as the
Boston Five. In 1968, the
American Humanist Association named Spock
Humanist of the Year. On 15 October 1969, Spock was a featured speaker at the
Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam march. In 1970, Dr. Benjamin Spock was active in The New Party serving as Honorary co-chairman with Gore Vidal. In the
1972 United States presidential election, Spock was the
People's Party candidate with a platform that called for free medical care; the repeal of "
victimless crime" laws, including the legalization of
abortion,
homosexuality, and
cannabis; an end to electronic surveillance; a
guaranteed minimum income for families; a halt to American
military interventionism and the immediate withdrawal of all American troops from foreign countries. In the 1970s and 1980s, Spock demonstrated and gave lectures against nuclear weapons and cuts in social welfare programs. In 1972, Spock,
Julius Hobson (his vice presidential candidate),
Linda Jenness (Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate), and Socialist Workers Party vice presidential candidate
Andrew Pulley wrote to Major General Bert A. David, commanding officer of Fort Dix, asking for permission to distribute campaign literature and to hold an election-related campaign meeting. On the basis of Fort Dix regulations 210-26 and 210–27, General David refused the request. Spock, Hobson, Jenness, Pulley, and others then filed a case that ultimately made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court (424 U.S. 828—
Greer, Commander, Fort Dix Military Reservation, et al., v. Spock et al.), which ruled against the
plaintiffs. Spock was the People's Party and the
Peace and Freedom Party nominee in 1976 for vice president as the running mate of
Margaret Wright.
Conservative backlash Preacher
Norman Vincent Peale supported the
Vietnam War and, in the late 1960s, criticized the
anti-war movement and the perceived laxity of that era, blaming Dr. Spock's books: "The U.S. was paying the price of two generations that followed the Dr. Spock baby plan of instant gratification of needs." In the 1960s and 1970s, Spock was blamed for the disorderliness of young people, many of whose parents had been devotees of
Baby and Child Care. These allegations were enthusiastically embraced by conservative adults, who viewed the rebellious youth of that era with disapproval, referring to them as "the Spock generation". Spock's supporters countered that these criticisms betrayed an ignorance of what Spock had actually written, and/or a political bias against his left-wing political activities. Spock in his autobiography said he had never advocated permissiveness; also, the attacks claiming he had ruined American youth only arose after his public opposition to the Vietnam War. He regarded these claims as
ad hominem attacks, whose political motivation and nature were clear. Spock addressed these accusations in the first chapter of his 1994 book,
Rebuilding American Family Values: A Better World for Our Children. In June 1992, Spock told Associated Press journalist
David Beard there was a link between pediatrics and political activism: Conservatives also criticized Spock for being interested in the ideas of
Sigmund Freud and
John Dewey and his efforts to integrate their philosophies into the general population. Spock wrote: ==Olympic success==