Sally Benson - Interview 05-12-2017 -  Final
Channel: Washington, D.C. Lessons of the Sixties
Date: 2019-08-29

Sally Benson is a long-time antiwar activist who determined, after college, to live “a meaningful and independent life.” Originally from Western Massachusetts, she found herself drawn to Asia, and in 1966 secured a teaching position in Vietnam through the International Volunteer Service. She lived and worked in Saigon and experienced the 1968 Tet Offensive up close, with her landlady warning her to cancel a planned visit to a friend the very night that the National Liberation Front troops moved in. Returning to the US in 1969, she and her partner Steve Nichols purchased a house in Washington, DC and became stalwarts of the local anti-war movement there, as well as well as working with national anti-war organizations through the end of the war. Today Sally still works on issues of reconstruction and reconciliation, travelling frequently to Southeast Asia. Sally Benson discusses her experiences with the International Volunteer Service in Vietnam, including being present during the 1968 Tet Offensive, and her work back in Washington, DC with the Indochina Mobile Education Project and with other initiatives to end the war in Vietnam and bring reconciliation.