During the late 1960s, Australians were increasingly opposed to their country’s involvement against the Vietnam War. They argued that it was not possible to win the war, and that it was an immoral war anyway – that it was not appropriate for other countries to be involved in an internal situation. They also argued that Australians should not be forced to fight in the war if they did not want to. There was a lottery that selected young men who became conscripts (they had to join the armed forces to fight the war; if they refused to join, they were put into prison for two years). A series of demonstrations led up to the largest of them, the Moratorium held in May 1970, which attracted hundreds of thousands of people in Australian capital cities. It was a peaceful demonstration that helped convince the government to change its policy. By 1971 the government was beginning to withdraw its troops from Vietnam.