It tells the story of two antagonistic characters: Claude Bukowski, a peasant from the American West with conservative ideas, who arrives in New York with the intention of doing military training to fight in the Vietnam War, and George Beger, a funny hippie with no respect to authority other than that which represents the values ​​of his "tribe".

Berger influences Bukowski so much that he even reconsidered his way of thinking and seeing life.

After several events, Berger pretends to be Bukowski, who despite having evolved, cannot put aside his military obligation, so he can say goodbye to Sheila, the girl he is in love with, before leaving for Vietnam. But time is upon them and Berger sets out on the path with no return to the army plane to fight in the Vietnam War.

This movie is related to the Vietnam War because, after graduating, Forrest enlisted in the United States Army where he made a new friend called Bubba, who is an american soldier from a poor family that would die in the Vietnam War. Another important character in this movie is General Dan, who Forrest saves in the Vietnam War and reflects the physical and psychological consequences for those who had survived the fearful conditions of the war. 

When Forrest recovers from the war, he attends a pacifist demonstration on the National Mall and there he meets Jenny, the woman he had been in love with since he was a child and who was then part of a counterculture Hippie movement. Jenny shows what many people had lived during those years: the hippie San Francisco and the massive anti-war demonstrations that demanded the end of the Vietnam War.