No event since the Civil War divided Americans as deeply as the Vietnam War. A comparison of the patriotism evoked by Vietnam and by World War II offers a strong contrast. The distinction becomes perhaps even stronger with the reminder that World War II began at the end of the nation's most severe depression, while the Vietnam War occurred at the culmination of a long period of economic expansion. Yet the broader roots of social discontent place these contrasts into perspective. As we saw in Chapter 28, the crisis atmosphere of the Cold War had encouraged a majority consensus during the 1950s. During the 1960s, though, a younger generation began to challenge that consensus--campaigning for free speech, revolting against conformity, and questioning the conditions that allowed segregation, poverty and racism to persist. As draft calls and casualty lists rose for a war halfway across the globe, this questioning also spread to challenge the black-and-white battle lines of "good vs. evil" that characterized explanations of the Cold War.