I can still clearly remember how astonished I was at that reaction - fathers being excluded from a campaign to end military deaths and suffering experienced almost solely by young men, many of whom would themselves be fathers. What made the response even more breathtaking was that the fathers who weren't in the room, but at whom these sniggers were directed, would have been the generation of men drafted to Vietnam. If there was anyone who had a right to be a part of the anti-war debate, it was surely them.