The story of GI protest during the war is an important counter to the conventional story, for it hits at the heart of some of the most emotive symbols in these political battles: the soldiers. It offers grounding for an alternative politics from the antiwar left. It is history worth knowing.

Monthly Review article

Draft resisters were, as their critics charged, radicals, but they were home-grown radicals who, despite their faults, represented long-standing American traditions of dissent. This is, therefore, a story about veterans of the Vietnam War: civilian veterans who tried to reclaim American hearts and minds from the culture of the military-industrial complex that permeated American life in the late 1960s.

The level of GI protest in the Iraqi war is far from what it came to be during the war in Vietnam. But the war in Iraq has gone on for two years, and it was three of four years before rebellion among the military became widespread in Vietnam. David Cortright, in this remarkable book, reminds us, as the war in Iraq continues, that a point can be reached where men and women in uniform can no longer tolerate what they begin to see as an unjust war. It is encouraging to be reminded of the basic desire of human beings to live at peace with other human beings, once they have divested themselves of the deceptions, the nationalism and the racism that is provoked by war.” - Howard Zinn

Jstor open access link

The Fort Hood Three were three United States Army soldiers – Private First Class James Johnson, Private David A. Samas, and Private Dennis Mora – who refused to be deployed to fight in the Vietnam War on June 30, 1966.  This was the first public refusal of orders to Vietnam,  and one of the earliest acts of resistance to the war from within the U.S. military. Their refusal was widely publicized (it was covered, for example, at least 20 times in the New York Times) and became a cause célèbre within the growing antiwar movement.

Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and veterans turned against the war in Vietnam in large numbers, and by 1971, the military was, by its own admission, unable to fight the war in Vietnam because their soldiers would not obey. One of the most effective methods of spreading antiwar and radical ideas were the underground newspapers GIs published and distributed (often clandestinely) around bases. Over 300 such newspapers were published during the length of the war, though many did not survive for longer than a few years, due to the rapid turnover among active-duty soldiers as they rotated in and out of Vietnam and on and off bases.

Sir! No Sir! tells for the first time on film the story of the 1960s GI movement against the war in Vietnam. The film explores the profound impact that the movement had on the war, and investigates the way in which the GI Movement has been erased from public memory.

GI Stories - Portraits and Oral Histories by Matter of Conscience

The podcast shares the stories of GIs who took individual and collective action while in uniform to oppose the war—including refusing to go to Vietnam or to fight in the field, publishing underground GI newspapers, sabotaging operations, going AWOL (Absent Without Leave), and even deserting. These deeply personal stories remain highly relevant today in light of current wars and issues of free speech, the meaning of patriotism, and following your conscience.

 Folk singer and political activist Barbara Dane lent her voice and support to resisting solders in a series of recorded performances at GI coffee houses near Army bases in Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina. The songs are a mix of traditional songs of protest and resistance, and original songs by Dane and draft resisters. The liner notes contain essays on the Vietnam anti-war movement written by Irwin Silber and Dane and song lyrics.