Movies

The suppressed story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam

Sir! No Sir! is a documentary about the anti war movement in the ranks during the Vietnam conflict, an inconvenient piece of history that few people know about. Suffice it to say that our overlords don't want that to change, and have desperately tried to cover up real history with distortion and myth.

I was part of the anti war protests back in the late sixties and early seventies. I was never drafted because of my school deferment and then a high number in that asinine draft lottery. After the Kent State deaths, when national guard troops shot a number of students, I took part in an uprising that took over the school I was attending. My group grabbed the administration building while the Panthers were much smarter - they controlled the student union with the cafeteria and basketball court. Some of what we did was out of real concern about the slaughter halfway around the world, some was real fear that we would have to be a part of that garbage, some of what we did in those days was sheer joy at rebellion and being part of a movement. We partied.




But this documentary chronicles the actions of people who had a whole lot more at stake - the men and women who had joined or were drafted into the military and found themselves fighting a war for no discernable reason at all. The military took a dim view of disobedience in the ranks and punishment was swift and hard.
Soldiers were given courts martial with charges of insubordination and mutiny, sometimes carrying death sentences. Draconian punishment didn't deter the movement as this film shows, because by war's end in 1975 the dissension had turned into revolution that had stopped the military machine in it's tracks.

It was inevitable for this viewer to compare that era with what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan (and wherever the hell else the warmongers have planned), although the movie producers wisely avoided that, instead concentrating solely on the veterans' stories and experiences.
One would think that we as a society would have learned our lesson and would never have allowed the fascists to duplicate their scam 40 years on, but that's precisely what we did. Outwardly the similarities are striking. There's the same disgusting disregard for military and native health and the environment by using "depleted" uranium as casually as the pentagon sprayed the defoliant agent orange. When you think about it it's the same money scam, the same racism, the same wanton butchery as the empire goes about it's business of crushing opposition to an illegal and immoral invasion and occupation.

But ultimately there's a huge difference that's really striking as you watch the old footage and listen to the grizzled survivors, and it doesn't sit very well with me. I realized that what those troops did can never be duplicated now, even though they had to rely on mimeographs and word of mouth compared to today's instant communication tech. Sure, a lot of them were there in Vietnam because they had to be, they were draftees instead of willing participants and had more reason for dissent compared with today's volunteers, but that's not it.

A constant refrain heard from those guys was that it was morally repugnant to do what they were told to do. They bravely refused orders because it wasn't the right thing to do regardless of the consequences of that decision. Stockades and prisons were overflowing with soldiers and sailors who were jailed for their opposition to the war. People had the courage to make moral decisions and walked their talk.

I don't think that will happen now in any meaningful way. The pentagon learned it's lesson about public relations and can keep things like acts of disobedience and desertion quiet, but it's the internal wiring of the individual soldier that has changed the most. Even if the illegal orders are the same and the mental trauma will be the same when it finally hits home what they've done, I'm resigned to thinking most of the soldiers will submissively pull the triggers and drop the bombs and enable the carnage to continue the corporate racket. We've lost the spirit to resist and individuals will succumb to automoton behavior and mercenary impulse. They don't know that they have a choice.
Which is why this movie should be required viewing.

added - There's an understated factoid in this presentation that needs a little airing. During the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago a unit of just returned soldiers from Vietnam was deployed to the city to back up the local police in case of civil disturbance. They were never used because the overlords didn't know what side they'd be on.