Editing Abbie Hoffman (section)

===Early activity===
{{See also|March on the Pentagon}}
Before his days as a leading member of the [[Youth International Party|Yippie]] movement, Hoffman was involved with the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC), and organized Liberty House, which sold items to support the [[civil rights movement]] in the southern United States. During the [[Vietnam War]], Hoffman was an [[anti-war]] activist, using deliberately comical and theatrical tactics.

In late 1966, Hoffman met with a radical community-action group called the [[Diggers (theater)|Diggers]]<ref name="abbie">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/sleepingwhereifa00pete |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/sleepingwhereifa00pete/page/71 71] |title=''Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle''|access-date=December 4, 2013|isbn=9781582430119 |last1=Coyote |first1=Peter |year=1999 |publisher=Counterpoint }}</ref> and studied their ideology. He later returned to New York and published a book with this knowledge.<ref name="abbie"/> Doing so was considered a violation by the Diggers. Diggers co-founder [[Peter Coyote]] explained:

{{blockquote|Abbie, who was a friend of mine, was always a media junky. We explained everything to those guys, and they violated everything we taught them. Abbie went back, and the first thing he did was publish a book, with his picture on it, that blew the hustle of every poor person on the Lower East Side by describing every free scam then current in New York, which were then sucked dry by disaffected kids from [[Scarsdale, New York|Scarsdale]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.diggers.org/oralhistory/peter_interview.html |title=Interview by Etan Ben-Ami Mill Valley, California January 12, 1989 |publisher=Diggers.org |access-date=December 4, 2013}}</ref>}}

One of Hoffman's well-known stunts was on August 24, 1967, when he led members of the movement to the gallery of the [[New York Stock Exchange]] (NYSE). The protesters threw fistfuls of real and fake [[United States dollar|dollar bills]] down to the [[trader (finance)|trader]]s below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could.<ref>{{cite book|title=Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture: The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman|first=Abbie| last=Hoffman|edition=First |publisher=Perigree Books|year= 1980|page=101|isbn=978-0399125614}}</ref> Accounts of the amount of money that Hoffman and the group tossed was said to be as little as $30 to $300.<ref>{{cite news|last=Ledbetter |first=James |title=The day the NYSE went Yippie |work=[[CNN Business|CNN Money]] |date=August 23, 2007 |url=https://money.cnn.com/2007/07/17/news/funny/abbie_hoffman/index.htm?postversion=2007082314 |access-date=December 23, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105091727/https://money.cnn.com/2007/07/17/news/funny/abbie_hoffman/index.htm?postversion=2007082314 |archive-date=January 5, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> Hoffman claimed to be pointing out that, [[metaphor]]ically, that's what NYSE traders "were already doing." "We didn't call the press," wrote Hoffman, "At that time we really had no notion of anything called a [[media event]]." Yet the press was quick to react and by evening the event was reported around the world. After that incident, the stock exchange spent $20,000 (approximately {{inflation|US|20000|1967|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) to enclose the gallery with bulletproof glass.<ref>{{cite web|first=Cynthia |last=Blair |url=http://www.newsday.com/about/ny-ihonyindex2004,0,6301617.htmlstory |title=1967: Hippies Toss Dollar Bills onto NYSE Floor |work=[[Newsday]] |access-date=April 1, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606185320/http://www.newsday.com/about/ny-ihonyindex2004%2C0%2C6301617.htmlstory |archive-date=June 6, 2009}} For Hoffman's account of the events of the day, see his 1968 book ''Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a 5-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial'' (reprint edition New York, Thunder's  Mouth Press:2005) {{ISBN|1-56025-690-7}}</ref>

In October 1967, [[David Dellinger]] of the [[National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam]] asked [[Jerry Rubin]] to help mobilize and direct a march on [[the Pentagon]].<ref name="levitate">{{cite web|url=http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/photos/Pentagon67.html |title=Levitate the Pentagon |publisher=Uic.edu |date=October 21, 1967 |access-date=December 4, 2013}}</ref> The protesters gathered at the [[Lincoln Memorial]] as Dellinger and [[Dr. Benjamin Spock]] gave speeches to the mass of people.<ref name="space">{{cite web|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051021-pentagon-vietnam-protest-washington-dc-lyndon-johnson-jerry-rubin-david-dellinger-allen-ginsberg-yippie-robert-mcnamara.shtml |title=The Day The Pentagon Was Supposed To Lift Off into Space |date=December 19, 2005 |work=[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]] |access-date=April 10, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051219220648/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051021-pentagon-vietnam-protest-washington-dc-lyndon-johnson-jerry-rubin-david-dellinger-allen-ginsberg-yippie-robert-mcnamara.shtml |archive-date=December 19, 2005 }}</ref> From there, the group marched towards the Pentagon. As the protesters neared the Pentagon, they were met by soldiers of the [[82nd Airborne Division]]<ref name="space"/> who formed a human barricade blocking the Pentagon steps.<ref name="levitate"/> Not to be dissuaded, Hoffman vowed to levitate [[the Pentagon]]<ref name="space"/> claiming he would attempt to use [[psychokinesis|psychic]] energy to levitate the Pentagon until it would turn orange and begin to vibrate, at which time the war in Vietnam would end.<ref name="TeachingEarthDay">{{cite web|year=1997 |url=http://www.teaching.com/earthday97/center/text/webstock19.htm |title=Abbie Hoffman |work=Teaching.com |access-date=April 1, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060207094531/http://www.teaching.com/earthday97/center/text/webstock19.htm |archive-date=February 7, 2006 }}</ref> [[Allen Ginsberg]] led Tibetan chants to assist Hoffman.<ref name="space"/><!--

It should be noted that the ulterior motive of this act was to show the Pentagon, along with the rest of the [[U.S. government]], who actually held the real power in America; the effort was a deliberate intimidation tactic to show that at any time, the youth-centered, anti-war protesters had the power to surround and capture at will any [[government organization]]. The zany "front" of levitating the building was the kind of [[PR stunt]] necessary to limit any possible hostile media and government response. -->