Hi friend,

In our podcast, A Matter of Conscience: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War, we tell the stories of veterans whose brave and important actions changed the course of U.S. history.

Today, we’re back with Episode 7: We Shall Overcome: The Presidio Mutiny.

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 Vietnam War, they sat down on the stockade lawn, locked arms, and sang “We Shall Overcome.”

In this episode, we hear from members of the Presidio 27, their lawyer, and fellow GI resisters as they recount their defiance and expose the injustice of the war they opposed.

According to mutineer Randy Rowland: “ We drew up a list of demands, including investigations into the murder of the prisoner, protests against stockade conditions, opposition to the war and racist harassment of Blacks. I passed a copy of the list to my lawyer… and reported back that he would set up support on the outside.” 

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.

The fact is, the country was standing up against the military’s war in Vietnam — and many soldiers of conscience were doing everything they could to protest the war. 

We continue to tell their stories in our podcast about the course of resistance during the entire war. We will keep you updated on every new episode.

Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or our website. And please give us a rating!

Thank you for listening,

Willa and Bill

(FYI: "GI" is slang referring to soldiers as “Government Issued” equipment.)

To learn about prior episodes, see past newsletters below: