Review: History of SDS takes in sex, drugs and radical activism

[Natasha]

Review: History of SDS takes in sex, drugs and radical activism

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/07/DDG5U26QK.DTL
by Charles Solomon
01/07/2008

Although its name is seldom evoked today, except in crossword puzzles (" 'student activists' in three letters"), Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, was considered one of the most radical left-wing organizations of the late '60s and early '70s. Teens who wanted to be taken for members of the counterculture dropped the name; mainstream opponents of the Vietnam War worried that its violent tactics would alienate voters; the mainstream media used those actions to attract audiences; conservatives saw the organization as the vanguard of a communist assault.