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IT USUALLY BEGINS WITH AYN RAND 255
University delegation. Berle Hubbard, the mastermind of security for
the Libertarian Caucus, queried a friend about For the New Intellectual:
“Could you dig it? Or was it too heavy for you?” Rand was far from the
only source of libertarianism in YAF; others mentioned Robert LeFevre,
Milton Friedman and his son David, the novelist Robert Heinlein, and
Ludwig von Mises as key infl uences. But she was an essential part of the
libertarian stew. 18
In 1969 this combustible mixture of anarchism, Objectivism, and
traditionalist conservatism erupted in full display at the YAF annual
conference in St. Louis. 19 The Libertarian Caucus brought an ambitious
program to the convention. Their goals included making all seats on the
national board elective, developing a resolution on YAF’s direction in
the 1970s, and amending the Sharon Statement, YAF’s founding credo.
Libertarians wanted to remove the Sharon Statement’s opening reference
to “young conservatives” and add domestic statism to international
Communism as a “twin menace” to liberty. In short, they were proposing
major changes to the YAF’s governance, goals, and values. 20 It was
a bold agenda for the three hundred activists in a population of more
than a thousand delegates. Not surprisingly, most of their alternative
planks were soundly rejected by the convention, including those that
advocated draft resistance, an immediate withdrawal from Vietnam,
and the legalization of marijuana.
On the third day of the conference libertarian frustration bubbled
over when their antidraft resolution went down to defeat. Not only
did the convention reject the libertarian plank, but in the plank that
passed they included a pointed clause condemning draft resistance and
the burning of draft cards. The convention’s decision to endorse abolition
of the draft, but not resistance to it, was critical. It signaled that
there were defi nite limits to YAF’s antistatism. The organization would
remain fi rmly within the political establishment. Rhetorical support of
limited government was fi ne, but anarchism and radical libertarianism
were beyond the pale. 21
In the face of this insult, the libertarians could no longer resist their
innate impulse to challenge authority. A small pack of students gathered
in a conspiratorial knot. One of the group had a facsimile of his
draft card. (Apparently the conservative within him lived still, for he
was unwilling to sacrifi ce the actual card.) Another dissident seized a
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