NEW DOCUMENTARY: troops rebelled to end Vietnam War

[yurbud]

You have got to see this trailer and see the documentary when it comes to your town.

It is funny that the accepted history is that war protesters were hippies who spit on veterans (which has turned out to be an urban legend or disinformation), and the stories like Ron Kovic of Born on the Fourth of July and John Kerry's Winter Soldiers are seen as an anomaly, footnote, or left out all together. In fact, there was a pretty widespread rebellion in the military against the war, this clip shows Walter Cronkite acknowledging it, and Jane Fonda doing a skit on it in front of thousands of troops who applaud:



Fonda played the part of an aide to President Richard Nixon.

"Richard," she exclaims. "There's a terrible demonstration going on outside."

Nixon replies: "Oh, there's always a demonstration going on outside."

Fonda: "But Richard. This one is completely out of control. They're storming the White House."

"Oh, I think I better call out the 3rd Marines." Nixon exclaims.

"You, can't, Richard," says Fonda.

"Why not?" says Nixon.

She answers: "Because they ARE the 3rd Marines!"

Alternet article on history of the military rebellion:

http://www.alternet.org/movies/34532/

http://www.sirnosir.com/home_about_film.html

TRAILER:

http://www.sirnosir.com/home_filmtrailers.html

[MnFats]

1. very first anti-vietnam war event i went to...

...there were about 12 to 15 'leaders' who put their heads together to plan, organize and execute the event (and see that nobody got hurt by cops or prowar types....at least half of that leadership group was guys in their tattered uniforms....Vietnam Vets.
The Vietnam Vets Against the War was/is one of the most honorable organizations ever.
I got to know these guys pretty well and, in passing, I might mention they LOVED John Kerry.

[yurbud]

5. I wish Kerry had run as that guy.

[Trevelyan]

2. K& R Good to have backup information. The FReepers on neutral messageboar

like AOL STILL bring up very nasty comments about Jane Fonda and spitting on the troops.

[yurbud]

4. she screwed the pooch on trip to Hanoi, but this is an amazing

counter-balance.

[MADem]

3. Those were the days

Pot in the barracks, pot on the fantail...with the draftees, especially, it was impossible to maintain what is termed "good order and discipline" because those people were serving against their will. It's why there is such a strong reluctance to go back to a draft.

However, as the Vietnam-era senior leaders are being mustered out, often unceremoniously, because they dare to question the Monkey's view of reality, that "corporate knowledge" is slowly fading. It's one thing to READ about the results of conscription for an unpopular military misadventure, it is quite another thing to REMEMBER FIRST HAND the harsh reality of trying to corral a bunch of unwilling participants, or of being one of those unwilling participants oneself!

[yurbud]

6. either option on the draft brings neocon dreams to an end

• without the draft, they don't have the manpower to invade and occupy all the countries on their wish list.
  
  
• with the draft, they would face an open military revolt.
  
  

Even if the democrats don't get off their dead asses and start acting like an opposition party, this constraint will eventually straighten things out. It's just a matter of how long it takes and how messy it gets.

[EVDebs]

19. The money ran out and Congress refused to funnel any more into

Vietnam 'rat holes'. Besides, the oil crunch had just hit and Pentagoners were more concerned with paying for gas to get to work. Read the saga of Amb. Graham A. Martin (whose adopted son Glenn Dill Mann was KIA in the central highlands after Ia Drang battles in Nov. 1965) trying to get even more $ for the failing S.Vietnam govt. even as the Operation Eagle Pull was being contemplated by the CIA (see Frank Snepp's book or David Butler's 'Fall of Saigon').

As long as the Pentagon/DoD think they can get away with an Iran operation, such as Conplan 8022 disclosed by William Arkin last year and discussed further at

Nuclear War against Iran
by Michel Chossudovsky
January 3, 2006
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20CH20060103&articleId=1714

they will do so. The lesson of Vietnam, huh ?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

7. K&R

:kick:

[earthboundmisfit]

8. Make me number five!

This is something to spread the word about!

[yurbud]

9. definitely! thanks

[Elwood P Dowd]

10. I was active duty Army & participated in the 71 Washington demonstrations

We stood out with our short hair, but there were tons of military people in those crowds of 200,000 or more.

[sandnsea]

11. Interesting

Post a thread that allows you to trash Kerry, trash Democrats and even trash Jane Fonda; all in one fell swoop. It takes real talent to make an anti-Vietnam War thread divisive, but you did it. Congratulations!!

[annabanana]

17. ?

don't see it...

[Bigmack]

12. "The Collapse of the Armed Forces"...

Check it out....The collapse of the Armed Forces - Col Robert Heinl in Armed Forces Journal june 1971

"They have separate companies for men who refuse to go into the field..... Operations have become incredibly rag-tag. .....American garrisons on the larger bases are virtually disarmed.. In the Americal divisions fragging during 1971 have averaged one a week.. in 1969 196th lt infantry brigade refused to advance into combat...... 520 attacks on officers between 69 & 71, pentagon estimated one in ten reported.

Congress reported the 15% of troops in 1970 using heroin...racial incidents are erupting murderously in all services. desertion rate in the army in 1970 was 22.5 per thousand, over twice the peak rate for Korea but below the highest rate of 63 per thousand in early 1945. The marines rate for 1970 was actually higher than the army's..24.1 per thousand in 1970

Sedition, desertion, race, drugs, breakdown of authority, abandonment of discipline, result in the lowest state of military morale in the history of the country."

5 west point grad testified at Cong. Ron Dellums hearing on us war crimes in Vietnam.

[pnorman]

13. Here it is on-line:

http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/Vietnam/heinl.html

Of interestis that the middle name of that author is "Debs". He's a relative (nephew I believe) of that great American Socialist, Eugene V. Debs.

pnorman

[Jose Diablo]

16. "Sir, No Sir" archives

Check it out

[file83]

14. That movie looks great! Thanks for posting!

:patriot:

[file83]

15. It's playing in Portland, OR May 12 at the Fox Tower

May 12 - REGAL FOX TOWER STADIUM

846 S.W. PARK AVE.
PORTLAND, OR
[phone]
www.regalcinemas.com

I'm THERE!!!

[yurbud]

20. good theater

[chat_noir]

18. Check out this review!!

Large social movements create their own “committees of correspondence” -- communication systems beyond the control of power-holders and police authority. Despite prison sentences, police spies, agent provocateurs, vigilante bombing of their offices, coffeehouses and underground papers sprung up in the dusty, often remote towns that surrounded U.S. military bases throughout the world. “Just about every base in the world had an underground paper,” Director Zeiger tells us in Mother Jones.

When the first coffeehouse opened in Columbia, South Carolina, near Fort Jackson, an average of six hundred GIs visited each week. Moved by the courage and audacity of soldiers for peace, civilians raised funds to help operate the coffeehouses and to provide legal defense.

When local proprietors, like Tyrell Jewelers near Fort Hood, fleeced GIs, GI boycotts were common. At one point, the Department of Defense tripled its purchase of non-union produce in order to break the United Farm Workers boycott. American GIs, many from the fields and barrios of California, immediately joined the Farm Worker pickets. Mocking signs appeared on military bases saying “Officers Buy Lettuce.” The GI movement was a profoundly class-conscious movement.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Apr06/Rockwell07.htm

Pete Seeger's lyrics come to mind...Where have all the soldiers gone. Long time passing.