1 / 60

THE GI RESISTANCE

THE GI RESISTANCE. THE NEW FACES OF WAR.

lesteri
Download Presentation

THE GI RESISTANCE

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. THE GI RESISTANCE

  2. THE NEW FACES OF WAR This Power Point material was produced by Vietnam War veteran Harry W. Haines and was used in his presentation titled “Aboveground and The Ally: Soldier Opposition to the Vietnam War,” on April 6, 2013, at Towson University, as part of the third conference of Historians Against the War.

  3. continued The panel included Vietnam War veteran Jerry Lembcke, author of The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam, a book that should dispel the myth of the spat-upon Vietnam veteran. Lembcke’s conference paper was titled “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Historical Antecedents and Social Construction.”

  4. Continued Poet and Vietnam combat veteran Tim Bagwell read his poetry and discussed PTSD. Vietnam veteran and peace activist Jim Baldridge (Veterans for Peace) discussed his role as the publisher of an anti-war newspaper at a naval installation in Iceland.

  5. Uncle Sam Wants You…. to Die!

  6. “Isn’t it wonderful, brothers--- he died so you and I might live.”

  7. GI ANTI-WAR PRESS U.S. Army 86 papers U.S. Air Force 38 papers U.S. Navy 43 papers U.S. Marine Corps 15 papers Army / Air Force 6 papers Army / Navy 2 papers TOTAL: 212 anti-war papers

  8. DEFINITIVE WORK James Lewes (GI Press Project, Philadelphia) Protest and Survive: Underground GI Newspapers During the Vietnam War (2003)

  9. “Soldiers Against the War in Vietnam: Aboveground and The Ally” in Insider Histories of the Vietnam Era Underground Press (2012) Ed: Ken Wachsberger

  10. ABOVEGROUNDColorado Springs • Thomas Roberts and Curtis Stocker • August 1969 to May 1970 • Based at Homefront Coffeehouse • Aimed at soldiers at Fort Carson and USAF personnel at Ent AFB and USAF Academy

  11. ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESSABOVEGROUND • Threats against the Colorado Springs printer • Infiltration of Homefront by Military Intelligence, CID, and local police • Extra duty assignments for soldiers • Reassignment to Viet Nam • Threats of physical violence • On-post arson provocation • Attempts to plant drugs at Homefront

  12. The Homefront, Colorado Springs

  13. FACTIONS AT HOMEFRONT • Civil Libertarians • The “Radical” Elements • Women’s Liberation Movement • Countercultural Elements

  14. TWO GI PAPERS WITH INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION • The Ally • The Bond (US Servicemen’s Union)

  15. THE ALLY Berkeley, California Clark Smith Coalition of civilians and veterans Distributed worldwide, including Vietnam

  16. OM The only anti-war paper distributed in the Pentagon Publisher, Roger Priest, USN

  17. Your Military Left Published by Tom Wetzler and associates, USA, at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio

  18. The Shelter Half, Tacoma

  19. Dave Cline at the Oleo Strut, Killeen TX

  20. The Oleo Strut, Veterans Day 1971

  21. KEY ACTIONS BY VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR Operation RAW: Rapid American Witdrawal, Labor Day Weekend, 1970 Included simulated search and destroy missions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania Operation Dewey Canyon III, April 1971 Included the return of medals and John Kerry’s testimony before Foreign Affairs Committee

  22. KEY ACTIONS (CONTINUED) Winter Soldier Testimony, 1971

  23. Doonesbury Does Kerry, 1971

  24. Doonesbury Does Kerry, 1972

  25. IMPACT OF GI RESISTANCE • Fostered a sense of membership in a largely isolated, anonymous movement that did not yet recognize its own power • Validated soldiers’ sense of Viet Nam’s peculiar counterfeit reality • Reinforced an already established tendency to resist the war effort and to help wear it down

  26. IMPACT OF GI RESISTANCE(contiuned) • Newspapers spread methods of resistance and symbolized oppression in the ranks • Newspapers undermined military authority by their very existence • Newspapers generated unity among civilians and GIs

  27. IMPACT OF GI RESISTANCE(continued) • Newspapers reported on various organizations comprising the movement: American Servicemen’s Union, VVAW, Black Panthers, etc. • Newspapers encouraged cooperation among women’s movement, Black nationalist movement, student rights movement, etc.

  28. IMPACT OF GI RESISTANCE(continued) • Forced changes in military life • Forced Nixon to adopt Vietnamization • Forced Nixon to end the draft • Effectively ended hostilities in various areas of South Viet Nam • Seriously undermined battle readiness among U.S. forces throughout the world

  29. IMPACT OF GI RESISTANCE(continued) • Implicated U.S. civilian population in sharing responsibility for the nature of the war • Established precedent for opposition to draft and wars of aggression and wars of attrition • Probably contributed to negative stereotyping of Viet Nam combat vets

More Related