Forrest Gump is not a "smart" man. But the young Alabaman with an IQ of 75 is a thoroughly decent man, who manages to become involved in every major event in American history. And he survives them all with only honesty and niceness as his shields. Thanks to his where-there's-a-will-there's-a-way Mama, Forrest believes in himself. This sees him through being taunted by bullies, playing college football, the army, a business, and -- amazingly -- many of the touchstone events of the Sixties and Seventies: civil rights battles, the Vietnam War, anti-war protests, opening relations with China. The story's extraordinary conceit is that this man, equal parts Candide and Winnie-the-Pooh, was there whenever something big happened to America in those years, meeting Presidents and pop stars, influencing thinkers and trends, his story being our story as a nation.