Hi friend,

For everyone receiving this email about our podcast A Matter of Conscience: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War:

1. Do you know any high school/college teachers who teach about the Vietnam War or the Sixties? We would like to ask if they would consider assigning an episode in their class.

2. Do you know anyone with a draft resister story? We are collecting stories of people who resisted/evaded/dodged the draft during the Vietnam War for an episode.

Please ask friends to email: [email protected]. Thanks!

There is a steep price to resistance against US military might, even for active duty officers, veterans, or democratically elected members of Congress. Recently some have called for military personnel to resist unlawful orders. As a result, they face censure from the Pentagon. In the case of US Senator and veteran Mark Kelly, he could lose his rank of captain and his pension. 

In this week’s show: “Breaking the Chain of Command” we tell the stories of military officers, who connected with other people in the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War, and as a result found the courage to act on their beliefs and disobeyed orders despite risking their careers. 

Featured in this episode are John Kent, U.S. Navy and Charlie Clements, U.S. Air Force: Two officers and pilots, who found the courage to resist. They met others, who were part of the anti-war movement, whose shared values and support motivated them to follow through on their principles and rebel against the military. 

Following his graduation from Annapolis, John Kent was in D.C. in November of 1969, where he went to the Moratorium to End the War. Hearing the speeches changed him. After the Navy sent him to San Diego for flight training, John met other anti-war soldiers, who together started the Concerned Officers Movement to oppose the war.

After Charlie Clements found out about the US secret bombing of Cambodia, he took emergency leave. While in California, Charlie attended an anti-war rally at San Francisco State University, where he gave a speech saying he would not fly any more missions. The crowd’s support solidified Charlie’s commitment to resist. 

In both cases, courage was motivated by community. Listen to the episode to hear more about their rebellion and the consequences of that non-conformity.

Today, we are in a similarly calamitous time, where we need to get to know our neighbors and co-workers to protect each other. Autocracies are taken down by millions of drops of small actions that would otherwise be invisible by masses of people. 

Help learn from the history of people who fought before us, by listening to A Matter of Conscience. You can sign up for training on how to organize and take meaningful action in your own community in support of your immigrant neighbors. Also, if you’d like to support the show, here’s a link. Thank you.

In solidarity,

A Matter Of Conscience Team

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