A Matter of Conscience: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War

Demonstrations, labor organizing within the military, and a Hollywood show for GI resisters. Part two of our look at the GI anti-war movement. You may want to hear episode 5 first, to learn about GI newspapers and coffeehouses. In this episode, we dive into the stories of Susan Schnall, a Navy nurse who came up with an innovative way to get the word about a big anti-war march. We’ll also hear how Army soldier Andy Stapp took unioni...

On October 14, 1968, at San Francisco’s Presidio Stockade, 27 anti-war GIs staged a bold act of civil disobedience. Protesting brutal prison conditions and the moral wrong of the Vietnam War, they sat down on the stockade lawn, locked arms, and sang “We Shall Overcome.” For this nonviolent protest, the Army charged them with mutiny—a crime punishable by death—and sentenced them to more than a dozen years in prison. In this episode,...

Free speech is under attack in the United States today, just as it was during the Vietnam War. As a companion to Episode 5, which looked at GI newspapers and coffeehouses of the Vietnam-era, we are delving into the ways that free speech is being stifled in the era of campus protests over the war in Gaza.  We interviewed former UT Dallas newspaper editor-in-chief Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez about how the school shut down his univers...

In this episode of A Matter of Conscience, you’ll hear how churches and chains made an anti-war splash in 1968. Nine young men announced their resignation from the military by chaining themselves to church clergy during a 48-hour service to protest the Vietnam War. In their words: "They could not be a part of or support the oppressive and dehumanizing activities of the American military machine."   We'll hear from tw...

What do newspapers and coffeehouses have to do with the Vietnam War? It turns out they were critical tools in the GI anti-war movement. You’ll hear the stories of GIs who got around military restrictions to publish 300 anti-war newspapers, often having to distribute them covertly. The episode also highlights the role of GI coffee houses as safe havens and organizing centers for soldiers. GIs, and their civilian supporters faced int...

The Green Berets, the special forces branch of the U.S. Army, figures into the stories of two early and well-known GI resisters:  Dr. Howard Levy and Donald Duncan. Both men made strong public stands against the war, and both worked tirelessly for the GI anti-war movement after they were discharged from the Army.  We’ll hear how Duncan gave up a promising lifelong military career because of the tactics used by the United States in ...

Episode 3 gives listeners a brief overview of the history of the war in Vietnam. If you want to get more detailed information, listen to this extended interview with Chris Appy, a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, and director of the Daniel Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy.  Chris gives his thoughts on the history of Vietnam's occupation by foreign powers, the re-education camps run by the com...

This episode explores how men of the Vietnam generation were primed for war based on the experiences of their fathers and uncles in World War II, and how that patriotism turned to disillusionment when soldiers were confronted with the realities of Vietnam.

Hosts Bill Short and Willa Seidenberg take listeners on a tour through Bill’s red bag of personal war mementos and introduce us to Marine veterans Paul Atwood and Steve Spund.  Th...

A Matter of Conscience uncovers a story of the Vietnam War the U.S. government and the military would like to bury. Hosts Bill Short and Willa Seidenberg draw from firsthand experience to reveal a hidden chapter of the war—one shaped by resistance from within. In this opening episode, we set the stage for the rise of the GI anti-war movement, spotlighting acts of courage and defiance by soldiers who faced internal conflicts between...