<underfire> Understanding Vietnam Anti-War Movement

[NAEEM MOHAIEMEN]

There seems to be a streak of romantic nostalgia and longing for the  
Vietnam Anti-war movement.

Why can't kids today just get it together, goes the collective sigh.

It's ahistorical to compare the size of the antiwar movement in  
1968-1970 with that of 2006.  You have to look at the entire buildup  
from 1950s on to make a parallel comparison. Alexander Cockburn  
points out that, as far back as 1954, Eisenhower secretly decreed  
that Ho Chi Minh could not be permitted to win open elections. There  
was no media revelation and the left took another decade to get up to  
speed on Vietnam. Camelot worship was so strong that even Kennedy's  
decision to send detachments of US troops as "advisors" to South  
Vietnam (setting the stage for the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem)  
did not inflame an antiwar movement. It took the buildup all the way  
to 1967/68 which led the organized left  to stage large-scale,  
successful antiwar rallies. All this occurred in an environment of  
1968 and what felt like a worldwide anti-imperialist movement (which  
also created incorrect predictions, as when Tariq Ali described the  
massive upheavals in Pakistan as "people's power", but by 1971 the  
movement had been hijacked by the middle class urban elite of the  
Awami League who became leaders of an independent nation of Bangladesh).

The national draft was always a structural force that was the LARGEST  
factor in creating and sustaining a massive antiwar movement, as well  
as fomenting a major breakdown of military discipline and mass  
desertions towards the end of the war. As described in the film SIR,  
NO SIR, the movement spread to barracks, aircraft carriers, army  
stockades, navy brigs, military bases and elite military colleges  
like West Point.  According to the Pentagon’s own figures, 503,926  
desertions occurred between 1966 and 1971. Over a hundred underground  
newspapers were published by soldiers; national antiwar GI  
organizations were joined by thousands; and stockades and federal  
prisons filled up with soldiers jailed for their opposition. By the  
early 1970s, entire platoons refused to fight and  
"fragging" (friendly fire killing commanding officers), rampant drug  
use and open insubordination became the hallmark of a totally  
demoralized army-- many of whom came home and became robust (and  
invincible in the context of image politics) visual icons of the  
antiwar movement.
Structurally today's conflict can NEVER produce that kind of movement  
because joining the military is now an economic option, limited to  
working class Black, Latino and White kids. By removing the middle  
class and elite from the possibility of the draft, the military has  
successfully defanged the key driver. In addition, we should not  
under-estimate the shrewdness and adaptability with which the US Army  
took concrete steps to professionalize the army and provide carrots  
to mollify dissent (today considered one of the most integrated  
organizations in America, providing "affirmative" opportunities  
particularly to minorities).

Here's an excellent anti-recruitment flash animation created by a  
group of young antiwar protest groups (Yes, Virginia, we contain  
multitudes), which combines elements of SIR, NO SIR, with today's  
anti-recruitment drives.

http://shobakorg.blogspot.com

http://shobakorg.blogspot.com/2006/11/not-your-soldier.html