Podcast

Attorney Eric Seitz on defending war objectors, “Our efforts were better utilized representing people in the military who were beginning to stir.”

While on active duty, “We flew the plane and fliers over five military installations in the SF Bay Area,” explained the former Army “Peace Nurse.”

Dee Knight, who left the US to resist the Vietnam War from Canada, declares, “Don’t be afraid. Follow your conscience.”

“The fact that we were not shot encouraged us that this was not an unusual opinion … that Vietnam was just a bad idea in so many ways.”

“The vast majority of guys who were sent to Vietnam were sent against their will…coerced into the army and had a chip on our shoulders.”

I said, “This is fucked up.” And he said, “You’re just having a little thing.” And I said, “No, it’s not okay.” I said, “We don’t belong here.”

On organizing with the American Serviceman’s Union: “I thought, what could I be doing that’s more effective than helping the GIs organize to stay out of this war.”

“Four of us from the same platoon desert[ed] together, which is the ultimate military crime,” shares Ward Reilly, US Army Vietnam era GI resister

“It’s very hard for people to believe that their country would try to kill them,” explains former National Guard member Zels Johnson.

“I told my command officer that I wasn’t going to, I was refusing my orders [to Vietnam] … In his rage, he thought if he court-martialed me, he’d have to stay in the Army past his discharge date.”