Spock believed that the traditional, disciplined approach to child-rearing should be replaced by a regime based on showing a child affection and respect and letting it express itself as it wished. Spock was one of the first to treat children as 'little adults'
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In 1974 Spock astonished the millions who had bought his books when he appeared to admit he might have been wrong. He wrote that by handing down expert advice he may undermined the self-confidence of parents
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Spock did not let the controversy over his apparent recantation prevent him from continuing to advise on how best to rear children. In 1975 he published Bringing Up Children in a Difficult Time, which examined the problems of later childhood and adolescence
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Still active in his eighties, Spock had become the grand old man of child-rearing. By then, new problems were troubling him - the traditional family seemed to be in decline and more children were being brought up in one-parent families. The first generation of Spock babies were now preparing to be grandparents
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In 1968, during the Vietnam War, Spock was arrested for helping young men avoid military service. For Spock, the draft was an unjustifiable assertion of government authority, as harmful and pointless as the actions of an over-strict parent
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In 1968 Spock was convicted of helping young men avoid the draft. An unrepentant Spock vowed to keep campaigning against the war. He said he was proud to think that his theories may have helped produce a generation opposed to the war in Vietnam
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Spock's anti-war stance led to a vitriolic attack on his child-rearing advice, led by Vice-President Spiro Agnew. Spock's critics accused him of creating a generation of spoilt rebels who did not understand the virtues of patriotism
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In July 1969, Spock's conviction was quashed by the court of appeal in Boston. Spock was freed from further prosecution and, unrepentant, declared that the US should pull out of Vietnam
