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Griffin Daily News
Antiwar Activism In The Armed Forces: 1
The Dissenter In Uniform
By FREDERICK H. TREESH.
CPI Senior Editor
As editor of an underground
newspaper, Allen Myers articu
lated his views about the
Vietnam War and the constitu
tional rights of American
citizens.
As an enlisted man in the
U.S. Army, he served as a clerk
in the surgical clinic at Walson
Army Hospital at Ft. Dix, N.J.
As both simultaneously, he
personified a new breed of
activist opposing the war in
Vietnam: the antiwar soldier.
Sp. 4 Myers edited "The
Ultimate Weapon,” one of two
antiwar newspapers distributed
around Ft. Dix and adjacent
McGuire Air Force Base.
Court-Martialed.
Typical of the antiwar acti
vists inside the armed forces,
Myers performed his mil'tary
duties well and was scrupulous
ly careful about his personal
conduct. He was court-mar
tialed twice, once for distribut
ing antiwar literature on a
military post and once on a
charge of pasting on a Ft. Dix
traffic sign a sticker inviting
soldiers to an anti-Vietnam rally
In New York Easter Sunday. He
was acquitted both times.
In each case, Myers caused
the Army to act against what
he considered to be his
constitutional rights of free
expression. His second acquittal
two weeks ago e.-.abled him to
be discharged as scheduled
April 25.
Is the antiwar activity of
soldiers like Myers having any
signficant effect?
United Press International
assigned a team of reporters to
seek the answer at military
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5
Wednesday, May 7, 1969
bases across the nation, at the
Pentagon and at the headquar
ters of peace groups fueling the
dissent. They concluded the
impact of the antiwar soldiers
exceeds their small number and
their activities are likely to
affect the military’s system of
controlling dissent and dispens
ing justice long after the
Vietnam War ends.
Teach Medical Skills
Virtually all of the antiwar
soldiers are enlisted men. But
there have been four much
publicized cases involving offi
cers:
Capt. Howard B. Levy, an
Army doctor, was convicted by
a court-martial at Ft. Jackson,
S.C., in 1967 for refusing an
order to teach medical skills to
Vietnam-bound Special Forces
troops and for criticizing the
war to Negro soldiers. He was
sentenced to three years at
hard labor. Dishonorably dis
charged, he now is in the
federal penitentiary at Lewis
burg, Pa.
Air Force Capt. Dale E.
Noyd, a pilot and onetime
professor at the Air Force
Academy, refused to fly
training missions as an instruc
tor for pilots headed for
Vietnam combat. He was court
martialed in March, 1968, and
now is free pending an appeal
that has been accepted for
review by the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Lt. (JG) Susan Schnall, a
Navy nurse, was convicted in
February by a military court
for participating in a San
Francisco antiwar demonstra
tion while in uniform and for
dropping "Stop the War”
leaflets from an airpine on four
military installations. Her six
month prison sentence is being
held in abeyance pending
lengthy judicial review, a Navy
policy in cases involving female
officers.
Army 2nd Lt. Henry Howe,
stationed at Ft. Bliss, Tex.,
joined in an antiwar parade in
El Paso in which he carried a
sign saying "stop Johnson’s
Fascist Aggression in Viet
nam.” He was convicted in
November, 1965, of conduct
unbecoming an officer and of
spreading disloyalty. He was
paroled from Leavenworth Pri
son after serving three months
of a two year sentence.
“The Ultimate Weapon” is
one of about 20 antiwar
publications that have prolifer
ated at military bases across
the nation in the last several
months. Among the others are
“The Last Harass” at Ft.
Gordon, Ga., “Fatigue Press”
and "Gl-Organizer” v at Ft.
Hood, Tex., "Short Timer” at
Ft. Jackson, S.C., “Fun, Travel
and Adventure”—(FTA)—at Ft.
Knox, Ky., "Open Sights,” at
military posts around Washing
ton, D.C., "Counterpoint” at Ft.
Lewis and McChort Air Force
Base, Wash., “Flag in Action”
at Ft. Campbell, Ky., “Task
Force” at bases in the San
Francisco Bay Area and “Head-
On” at Camp Lejeune, N.C., a
Marine Corps base.
Antiwar Activities
These newspapers contain
accounts of antiwar activities at
various posts, letters critical of
the war from troops in Vietnam
and elsewhere, allegations of
excesses of military justice and
of racial discrimination and
articles and cartoons ridiculing
political and military leaders.
Coffee houses at which anti-
Vietnam dissent Is the principal
topic and off-post teach-in type
meetings in which speakers
oppose the Vietnam War,
radical films are shown and
antiwar literature is distributed
also have grown at a number of
bases.
In Columbia, S.C., site of Ft.
Jackson, is the UFO, a garishly
decorated place where off-duty
soldiers pay 25 cents for a cup
of coffee, sit around discussing
the war or playing chess.
They’re surrounded by posters
including portraits of Ho Chi
Minh. Sometimes guitar-plunk
ing folk singers lament a
Vietnamese baby killed by
napalm.
UFO also serves as a meeting
place for "Gls United Against
the War in Vietnam,” a group
of predominantly black and
Puerto Rican soldiers from Ft.
Jackson that circulated a
petition asking Army authorities
for a place on post to discuss
“legal and moral questions
about the war in Vietnam.”
The Army’s crackdown on
Gls United—eight have been
arrested on a variety of charges
—has become a cause celebre
for the antiwar underground
publishers at militau-y bases
across the nation.
At Killeen, Tex., near Ft.
Hood, Is a two-room coffee
house called “Oleo Strut”
(named for the shock absorber
on a helicopter). Coffee is 15
cents, espresso 30 cents and the
talk is free—and often about the
Vietnam War. Some of It
Involves what antiwar Gls call
the Army’s attempts to "get
them;” they point out several
psuedo hippie types who they
consider to be possible spies for
military Intelligence. The front
windows of "Oleo Strut” were
boarded up after the glass was
broken by what the civilian
antiwar proprietors call “con
cerned local citizenry.”
The coffee house at Tacoma,
Wash., is called “Shelter Half.”
Its walls are papered with
posters featuring antiwar and
radical political themes, rock
groups and pop art. It offers the
traditional fare of coffee, soft
drinks and political discussion.
Hundreds of military person
nel, offduty and out of uniform,
marched in the antiwar parades
Easter Sunday in six American
cities.
The activity principally Is
directed at the Army because it
has the highest percentage of
conscripted, non-career soldiers
and, except for the Marines,
they stand the greatest chance
of seeing Vietnam combat.
Some of the activists are
Vietnam veterans. Antiwar sol
diers interviewed at various
military posts in recent days
and military officials agreed
that the number of activists is
(ery small—perhaps a few
hundred in a military establish
ment of 3.5 million. Virtually
none has appeared outside the
United States.
Mass Movement
Some antiwar soldiers talk of
fomenting a “mass movement”
in the Army to end the war.
They speak in terms of
demonstrating such opposition
to the war from within GI ranks
that they will be telling the
defense planners and generals,
in effect, “If you want a war,
you go fight it yourself.”
Pvt. Joe Miles, now at Ft.
Bragg, N.C., expresses it this
way:
"We can let the American
public know that the GI does
not want the war and does not
support the war and that the
best way he can be supported is
to be brought home now.”
Sp. 4 Myers, 26, a graduate of
the University of Wisconsin with
a major in English and a
former member of the Young
Socialist Alliance, personifies
two significant aspects of the
antiwar movement inside the
Army:
He was active in antiwar,
antidraft and related causes
before he was drafted into the
Army. His draft board was well
aware of his politics before they
conscripted him. Antiwar acti
vists cite cases such as his to
refute charges that they are
subversives who quietly infil
trated the Army with intent to
promote disaffection and disloy
alty.
A Model Soldier
Except for his political
activities, he tried to be a
model soldier. He focused his
antiwar writing on the rights of
a soldier under the constitution.
“It is possible for Gls to have
an effect on policy just by
exercising their constitutional
rights (freedom of speech and
assembly) without advocating
anything illegal or subsersive,”
he said.
Restricted to his Ft. Dix
barracks pending his second
court-martial, Myers, lean and
intense, sat on his bunk in
civilian clothes, a button on his
shirt picturing a GI in a helmet
and the slogan “Bring Us Back
Alive.” Behind him were his
books, among them: "Che
Guevara Speaks” and "The
Case of Leon Trotsky.”
"You can embarrass the hell
out of the Army. . .” he was
saying.
NEW AMBASSADOR
WASHINGTON (UPI) —Wil
liam J. Handley, 53, a career
diplomat, was sworn in Monday
as U.S. ambassador to Turkey.
He promised to be a “faithful
friend” to Turkey, saying
“relations between people and
governments cannot be taken
for granted because friendship
requires the attention of both
sides.” Marshall Green, former
ambassador to Indonesia, was
sworn in as assistant secretary
of state for East Asian and
Pacific affairs.
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