From: New Liberation News Service <nlns@igc.apc.org>
Subject: NLNS: GI RESISTANCE IN VIETNAM
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 17:39:56 GMT

/* Written  6:18 pm  Sep 29, 1992 by nlns in cdp:nlns.news */
/* ---------- "NLNS Packet 3.2 *** 9/28/92" ---------- */

*A Matter of Conscious: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War* 
by William Short and Willa Seidenberg, photos by William Short; 
Addison Gallery of American Art, 84pp.  
Judith Rew, On Guard

(NLNS)--At first *A Matter of Conscious* seems a little too lovely 
and brief to be what it is: a serious account of GI resistance to the 
Vietnam war that grew into an international movement, most 
recently manifest in Persian Gulf resistance.
	Each of the 27 oral histories is tightly edited to fill just one 
airy page and accompany one coffee table-quality portrait of the 
storyteller, stiffly posed against a black background. There is 
certainly so much more to say about each painful and dangerous 
decision to go AWOL, sabatoge operations, refuse orders, speak 
publicly, and in every other imaginable way resist the war that all 
grew to believe was wrong, most after participating firsthand.
	But the logic of the format soon becomes apparent. As the 
photos stare back, we are reminded that no matter how many 
thousands of words and pictures comprised oppossition to the 
Vietnam war, finally every resister had to commit one personal and 
lonely act in one decisive moment.
	The cover is the key to how this book must be read. It has no 
title, just one large enlarged detail from a photo--huge hands 
holding a timy snapshot of a GI in uniform. Look carefully, this cover 
says, study the details.  Each account describes the event in the 
teller's military service when resistance became inevitable. But the 
photo, taken 20 or 30 years later, finishes the story. William Short, 
who himself is one of the resisters, asked each to bring some samll, 
important object to the photo session. Paul Attwood, the first 
storyteller, holds not his but his father's Marine decorations, which 
he describes as "radioactive" as they touch unexpected feelings in 
him again. Charlie Clements, the medical doctor who as a Navy pilot 
refused to fly ccombat missions in Vietnam and years later treated 
wounded rebels in El Salvador, carries his own book, *Witness to 
War*. One wears what appears to be a gay pride button, many wear 
political tee-shirts, union caps, etc. that hint of lifelong activism. 
Susan Schnall, a Navy nurse who leafletted a San Francisco-area 
base with anti-war flyers from an airplane, carries a stack of file 
folders reminding us of just what hard work resistance is. Others 
carry framed discharge notices or stacks of legal documents. Peter 
Hagerty ironically holds a diary-like book called *Our Trip Abroad* 
and some Vietnamese money.
	Greg Payton, a black man who had to "develop a racist attitude" 
in the military because "he never was raised that way," carries 
nothing. Just his large frame and defiant face add enough to one of 
the most poignant accounts of violence and racism in the military.
	But most newspapers and books are edited, wrote, or read--
*Free Press, Left Face, Fatigue Press*, and others--often at great 
personal risk. Sometimes the books and newspapers link the 
resisters to each other. Donald Duncan, a Green Beret from 1954-64 
who resisted in opposition, carries his book, *The New Legions*. 
Dave Kline carries the same book, which apparently inspired his own 
opposition years later.
	For many, like Terry Irwin, the issue became free speech and 
free press. We learn that some GIs were court martialled for 
distributing copies of the Decleration of Independence. The military 
had good reason to repress free speech. For many GIs it was words, 
spoken or written, that gave them the courage and coherence to 
resist. Dave Blalock holds the *New York Times* ad that inspired his 
unit to organize a black armband protest. He writes, "that was the 
influencce of a full page ad in the *New York Times*. It gave us the 
opportunity to do something bigger than just killing an officer or 
something like that."
	Finally, this book is a distillation of the thousands of words 
written and spoken throughout the years of resistance to the war. 
The authors interviewed 58 people and included only 27 stories, plus 
photos of several more resisters. But the careful linking of stories 
gives us a good picture of how big the movement grew. Many of the 
resisters, themselves, only vaguely aware of what they were part of.
	Nearly every reason a GI chose to resist is conveyed in this 
slim book: personal experience with the particular horrors of war, 
military corruption and disinformation, racism, lack of democracy in 
the military, growing understanding of the North Vietnamese, the 
wholesale destruction that turned Vietnam into a "living hell." If we 
skip a paragraph here and there we might miss an important detail. 
We learn in the short biographies in the back, for instance, that the 
man to whom the book is dedicated, ex-GI Clarence Fitch, died of 
AIDS. Without the book saying another word about it, we are 
reminded of the drugs, homelessness, etc. to which many veterans 
fell victim.
	The one page devoted to Persian Gulf resistance (very 
widespread for such a short war) brings the book firmly into the 
present. This is obviously important to the authors. Although *A 
Matter of Conscience* serves as a kind of class reunion of resisters 
with this yeabook-like format, it is clearly more than memorabilia. 
This is a spare but amazingly complete "look" at the Gi resistance 
movement, presented in a beautiful, dignified way.  Short, a talented 
photagrapher, and Seindenberg should be commended and supported.

*On Guard* is published by Citizen Soldier, 175 Fifth Ave., Suite 
808, New York, NY 110; (212) 777-3470.

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