------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 31, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
WHEN SOLDIERS BUILT A UNION By John Catalinotto As the threat that the United States will launch an invasion of Iraq grows, the Pentagon generals' worries focus not on Congress's willingness to fund their war, but on the troops' reaction if battle drags on. Does the "Vietnam Syndrome" still exist within the armed forces? Workers World spoke with Pvt. Andrew D. Stapp (retired 1968). Stapp isn't like the usual military pundits paraded on CNN. He led GI anti-war resistance during the U.S. war against Vietnam and founded the American Servicemen's Union. The following paraphrases an hour-long conversation on Oct. 19 between Stapp and this writer--who was himself a civilian organizer for the ASU--reviewing Vietnam-era developments for insights into the current crisis. EXPERIENCE SPARKS RESISTANCE U.S. troop strength in South Vietnam reached 500,000 in 1967. U.S. control of the air and superior firepower caused many casualties for the Vietnamese guerrilla fighters. But U.S. troops also began to die in greater numbers. In the January 1968 Tet offensive, guerrillas struck at bases and headquarters across the country and even the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. Thousands of ordinary U.S. enlisted troops came home from the battle in body bags. The Tet offensive was a body blow to political support at home for what amounted to a U.S. invasion and occupation of Vietnam. Battle-weary veterans rotated back to the States in 1967 and 1968 after their year in Vietnam. They shared their war experiences with newer recruits. All over the United States, at basic and advanced training bases, the new recruits heard one story about Vietnam from officers and top sergeants and a completely different story from returning veterans. "The official propaganda was that the U.S. was there to help the Vietnamese people," said Stapp. "By 1968 that was obviously untrue. The Vietnamese were fighting like hell to get the U.S. troops out." FROM INDIVIDUAL RESISTANCE TO A UNION Earlier, dissent in the military had taken the form of individual resistance. Dr. Howard Levy, an Army captain, refused to train Special Forces troops for Vietnam. At Fort Hood, Texas, this resistance took a big step further when three GIs refused duty in Vietnam. In the spring of 1967, when Stapp was an enlisted soldier at the artillery training center at Fort Sill, Okla., he was court-martialed for refusing to open and turn over a footlocker full of anti-war and pro-socialist magazines. This sparked a struggle that shook up the base. Activists from Youth Against War and Fascism supported Pvt. Stapp's battle with the officers. The case ended without Stapp having to serve time in the stockade. He already had the backing of a core of his fellow enlisted GIs and the sympathy of most people in his barracks. "The civilian anti-war movement was tremendous," said Stapp. "But the anti-war feeling among the GIs was even greater. "At Fort Sill the brass baited me constantly, calling me a communist, trying to drum up a frenzied reaction. I was in contact daily with hundreds of fellow GIs. None of them were openly hostile. Most were friendly. They loved that I was dishing it out to the officers and attacking the war." By the end of 1967 Stapp and other GIs, Marines, sailors and airmen from around the United States founded the ASU. The idea caught on fast. Within two years the ASU had over 10,000 members. Its newspaper, The Bond, had 75,000 readers and correspondents wherever the Pentagon had troops. "While we didn't win union recognition," said Stapp, "we were a factor in ending the war." TROOPS ARE WORKERS IN UNIFORM The ASU's demands included an end to racism, election of officers by enlisted men and the right to refuse illegal orders "like orders to fight in an illegal war in Vietnam." The movement in the military was broad. Anti-war newspapers sprang up at many forts. Anti-war activists from the civilian movement set up "coffee houses" near many larger U.S. bases where dissident GIs would hang out. Many individual servicemen--in those days almost all the troops were male--simply left for Canada or stayed among civilians in Europe. Some even joined the Vietnamese liberation fighters. But the ASU was the single most effective organization of enlisted men and women. The military reflected the unjust and privileged structures of capitalist society. The ASU mobilized around the class interests of the enlisted soldiers--who were working-class youths in uniform. "It was not just that the war threatened their lives, though of course that was true," Stapp said. "But it was something they considered wrong--killing Vietnamese peasants who wanted to liberate their country. They felt bitter they were being forced to fight an unpopular war that couldn't be justified. "By the later years of the war the anti-war feeling among the troops in Vietnam was so great it led to direct action, like refusing to go out on patrols. "Officers who were particularly cruel or who tried to push their troops into dangerous situations were taking a risk," Stapp added. "Several hundred officers and high-ranking sergeants wound up 'fragged' by their troops, that is, killed with fragmentation grenades." TODAY'S ECONOMIC DRAFT Stapp continued: "That the personnel in today's military are all volunteers doesn't mean they won't want to resist a war or that they won't want to be organized in a union. Even back in 1970, when most of the Army were draftees, about half the ASU members were young people who had joined up. "In some ways a volunteer military means the rank-and-file soldiers are drawn even more from the working class, poor, and from the communities of color. It's an economic draft. Young people--including women these days--join up to get education and job training. They're not stockholders in oil and munitions monopolies. "The ruling class uses them in the military to fight in the interests of the rich. So they have all the same reasons to be part of a union that defends their interests. "It's hard to say what will happen in a short war, fought mostly from the air. But in a long occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan," said Stapp, "with guerrilla fighting and steady casualties, a real opposition movement within the military is possible." - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. 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