(June 1, 2016)

All sides have attempted to define the collective memory of the Vietnam War in ways that advance their current visions for global and domestic politics and superimpose them on the past. Think, for example, of the persistence of the “spit upon” or “baby killer” myths, or the claim that the antiwar movement “stabbed” soldiers “in the back” (even many of my students, born decades later, say these are the first things they think about when they hear “Vietnam War”).1 The continued influence of these myths has helped prop up consent for militarism at home and abroad. The story of GI protest during the war is an important counter to the conventional story, for it hits at the heart of some of the most emotive symbols in these political battles: the soldiers. It offers grounding for an alternative politics from the antiwar left. It is history worth knowing.

August 1964

False claims of North Vietnamese attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin lead to U.S. airstrikes and an escalating air war over the coming years that becomes the heaviest bombing campaign in the history of warfare, with more than 7 million tons of bombs and ordnance used against Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

1965

Major escalation of U.S. ground troops begins.

January 1965

Lt. Richard Steinke becomes the first U.S. serviceman to refuse to fight after arriving in Vietnam. In November that year, Lt. Henry Howe of Ft. Bliss, Texas, attends antiwar protest in El Paso and is sentenced to two years hard labor.

June, 1966

Privates James Johnson, Dennis Mora and David Samis—the Ft. Hood Three—publicly refuse orders to Vietnam.

October, 1966

Capt. Howard Levy, MD, refuses orders to train Green Beret combatants at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina.

December 1967

Andy Stapp and others at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, form the American Servicemen’s Union and organize chapters at dozens of military installations and ships.

Late 1967

Vietnam GI , one of the first known GI antiwar newspapers, begins publication. Hundreds of other GI papers appear throughout the military over the next five years. …….