[Working-Class] "Sir, No Sir"--Film about anti-Viet Nam war movement inside the US military

[Kim Scipes]

Sherry--

I hope this works for you--this is a very important film and I belive 
fits within the parameters of this list.  Thanks!

Best--

Kim


This is a film about the anti-war movement WITHIN the US military 
during the war in Southeast Asia--the largest working class 
mobilization since the 1940s.  Tells the story of a movement that was 
central to the US defeat--the troops turned against the brass. Key 
recovery of some very important people's history--get people and go see 
it!   PLEASE EXCUSE ANY CROSS-POSTINGS!	


"Sir, No Sir," a film by David Zeiger:  An Appreciation and Some 
Comments
By Kim Scipes (USMC, 1969-1973)


The movie web site:  http://www.sirnosir.com

I just got back from watching David Zieger's brilliant new film, "Sir, 
No Sir," about the resistance movement WITHIN the US military during 
Viet Nam, or more correctly, the war in Southeast Asia.  I want to 
share some thoughts.  This is from an activist who is a Viet Nam era 
veteran (USMC, 1969-73, stayed in States all four years, honorable 
discharge, rank of Sergeant), and even though I work as an academic 
today, I have never studied the war academically, and definitely do not 
see myself as an "expert."

Two quick thoughts and then some details:  First, Zieger has done an 
excellent job on this movie--he brings to life the largest working 
class movement in the country's history since the late 1940s:  the 
anti-war movement in the military.  Second, folks, we've GOT to do a 
better job in getting people into the theaters to see this film.  We 
who call ourselves leftists, progressives, liberals, what ever, need to 
get our asses into the theaters for this one and take our friends.  I'm 
quite serious about this.

Let me recount:  during the Viet Nam war, as GIs and Marines began to 
understand what they had gotten into (whether volunteer or 
draftee)--many after coming back from Viet Nam--they started fighting 
the US military itself, and particularly officers and staff NCOs 
(Non-commissioned officers--these are senior enlisted folks who have 
re-enlisted at least once in the military and usually see it as a 
career:  often, along with "gung ho" officers, referred to with great 
disdain as "lifers").

This resistance movement--in my opinion--came very close to causing the 
US military to implode.  It affected the military not only in Viet Nam, 
but around the world, including the US.

"Sir, No Sir" tells the story of this resistance movement, showing its 
growth.  Zieger interviews a number of vets (and in one case, a family) 
to tell the story of this resistance movement, and shows how it grew 
over time.  Eventually, entire military units in Viet Nam refused to 
fight in combat--which, under military law, is a death penalty offense; 
over 500,000 service men and women deserted; there were over 1,400 
DOCUMENTED cases of "fraggings" (where soldiers would try to use 
fragmentation grenades to kill officers and/or staff NCOs; and some 
military units brought to help control the riots expected around the 
Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968 were not used because 
their reliability as repressive forces could not be guaranteed.

Towards the end of the war, and especially as Nixon and Kissinger began 
shifting to greater and greater reliance upon air power, the resistance 
movement spread into the Air Force and Navy.  (Not mentioned in the 
film, but one large aircraft carrier--I believe it was the Forrestal, 
but I'm not certain--had one of its main drive shafts damaged so badly 
by sabotage that it was in dry dock for a year and a half before it 
could be used for combat operations!)

In this film, David Zieger interviews a number of men and 
women--overwhelmingly men, as that what our military was like during 
those times--and has them talk about what they saw and did.  This is 
not theory--these folks took some serious risks, and a number ending up 
serving years in prison for their efforts, such as publishing 
anti-military newspapers while still on active duty (over 300 were 
created).  Some of these folks acted on their own, and some recognized 
they were part of something larger, and acted accordingly and/or joined 
organizations, or created their own, like Vietnam Veterans Against the 
War (VVAW), which still exists today.  (www.vvaw.org )

Importantly, Zieger includes Jane Fonda in the film, and recognizes the 
importance of her traveling anti-war show, "FTA."  (A take off on the 
Army's recruiting slogan, "Fun, Travel and Adventure," it was 
translated in polite company as "Free the Army" and among the troops as 
"Fuck the Army.")  Fonda, along with folks like Donald Sutherland and 
Holly Near--and many others whose names, unfortunately, I don't 
know--traveled around the Western Pacific, giving shows in Japan, 
Okinawa, and the Philippines to the vets, and SUPPORTED THEIR 
RESISTANCE!  Jane, who's been vilified so badly by the right over the 
years, gets her say, and I'm glad Zieger included her.  One mention is 
of a show or probably a series of shows--it wasn't clear to me--that 
played to over 60,000 active duty US troops!

But why do I think this film is so important?  A number of reasons.  
Most importantly, it tells part of the war that has been all-but 
expunged from history.  How many people know that by 1971-72, the US 
military came within a hair of imploding internally?  Another reason is 
that it validates the general anti-war movement:  I've seen many 
debates over the years of the impact of the 1960s protest movement on 
the war, and while we can--and I'm sure will--debate the direct effect, 
what I KNOW is that the anti-war movement in the streets had a powerful 
positive affect on the troops in the military and encouraged us to act. 
  And then, when vets came back, and VVAW held its Winter Soldier 
investigations in Detroit in 1971 that revealed the war crimes that the 
US military was committing in Viet Nam--the film of the hearings is now 
on DVD and is available from VVAW--and then their action in Washington, 
DC called Dewey Canyon III where vets threw their medals back at 
Congress in disgust, the vets reinvigorated the anti-war movement.  
This was the first war when US combat troops came back and repudiated 
what they had done, and the political leadership that had sent them.

But the real importance of this is for today.  It is to show US 
military personnel on active duty now that they can resist, they can 
organize, they can work to end the war in Iraq.  It can show high 
school students why they shouldn't go into the military.  It can show 
college students, whose chances of being faced with decisions regarding 
a draft increase as long as W wants to keep troops in Iraq, that they 
can learn from the past.  (If you think it's not saying anything today, 
go to the movie web site (www.sirnosir.com ), click on the Rukus 
Society's Flash "Punk Ass Crusade," on the right hand-side of the 
screen, and then tell me again!)

In other words, while strongly rooted in the past, this movie is 
intended for the present and the future.   It's about hope.  Hope that 
the troops will come to understand what they're part of, and get them 
to stop participating in the killing machine.  (When you go to the 
movie's web page, you can click on "Free DVD for Active Duty and 
Deployed Soldiers," and find that the Iraq Veterans Against the War" 
will send 500 free copies to people on active duty.)

We've got to make this movie an organizing tool and get people in to 
see it.  And then we've got to ask them, ok, now what are YOU going to 
do to help end this war?

Now, while being overwhelmingly positive about "Sir, No Sir!", there 
are some things to say.

First, as good as this film is--and I think it really is quite good--it 
is only a beginning report on the GI movement.  There was a LOT going 
on not mentioned, or just barely mentioned in the film.  The resistance 
movement was not just in Viet Nam, nor was it just by vets back from 
Viet Nam.  It took place in the States and in Europe, and by men and 
women who hadn't gone to Viet Nam but who were on active duty and began 
to understand what they were a part of.

Second, the resistance was not just against the War--in fact, my 
experience was that much of the resistance, at least among folks at my 
base, was against the hierarchy and authoritarianism of the military.  
I think a better way to understand the movement it was that for some 
folks, the war (and later, the Empire, although it wasn't often called 
that) was the problem.  For some, the authoritarianism was the problem. 
  And for some, it was both.

Third, despite interviewing a number of African-Americans, the movie 
really doesn't address the incredible racism within the military.  By 
1971, the Marine Corps--the most disciplined of all the military 
branches--had a race riot in every major Marine facility in the WORLD 
except one!  Blacks and whites were being disarmed in some places in 
Viet Nam when they came out of the bush, because there were a number of 
places where whites and blacks had fire fights against each other.  
Blacks were being imprisoned at rates far beyond whites.  Etc., etc.  
This story remains to be told.

Also, while "Sir, No Sir!" focuses on the politics of the movement, 
other than the FTA show, a little bit on the coffee houses, and some on 
the GI newspapers, it does not give enough attention to the culture 
that emerged among the junior troops (we called ourselves "snuffies" in 
the Marine Corps, basically, first term enlisted types).  Most 
especially, there was almost nothing about the music and the drugs.  
Where would the movement have been without the Animals' "We Gotta Get 
Out of this Place," and many others?  Hendrix, of course, was big, as 
was Janice Joplin, the Doors and so many others, including Bob Dylan 
and Phil Ochs.  (Ochs' "I Ain't a Marchin' Anymore" would have been 
perfect for this movie!)

It also ignores the drugs.  They were all over.  They were used both to 
resist the military--Marines could get YEARS in prison for a few pot 
seeds if found, and a undesirable discharge--and they were used to 
build solidarity.  I'm not just talking pot here--I had a friend who 
was the Quality Assurance person in our (air wing) squadron who just 
couldn't work right if he wasn't tripping on acid.  In Viet Nam, people 
smoked pot and opium, and a considerable number tried heroin.  (Which 
was flown in to Viet Nam on the CIA's airline, Air America, after they 
flew it from the highlands to Bangkok for processing and then on to 
Saigon for distribution.  See Alfred W. McCoy's THE POLITICS OF HEROIN 
IN SOUTH EAST ASIA for details.)  This is in addition to alcohol.

[While not having read a lot on the war, the two best books on the 
anti-war movement in the US military that I have read are Richard 
Moser's THE NEW WINTER SOLDIERS:  GI AND VETERAN DISSENT DURING THE 
VIETNAM ERA (New Brunswick, NJ:  Rutgers University Press, 1996)--which 
I reviewed in the VVAW Newspaper, "The Veteran," back in 1996 at 
http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=298 --and Richard Stacewicz' 
WINTER SOLDIERS:  AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE 
WAR (New York:  Twayne Publishers, 1997).  The "classic" book on the 
subject is David Cortwright's SOLDIERS IN REVOLT:  THE AMERICAN 
MILITARY TODAY (Garden City, NY:  Anchor Doubleday, 1975 but which I 
understand has been republished more recently.)

In short, an excellent film that deserves wide spread publicity and 
circulation.  We've got to get the word out:  if you find these 
comments useful, then forward them on to at least 10 friends, and ask 
them to do the same thing.  Tell people to go to the web site, find out 
when the film is appearing in their area, and then have them go see it! 
  We need to get people to see it, and talk about it, and spread the 
word:  this is too important not to do so.

It challenges the myths of the idiots on the right in ways few movies 
do--it challenges their interpretations of Viet Nam, of the role of the 
US in the world, and it ultimately challenges our military war on 
Iraq--and all the other crap that Bush has planned.

_____
Kim Scipes, Ph.D., was trained as an Avionics Technician while on 
active duty (1969-73).  He also spent 18 months working in a "human 
relations" program that was designed to cover the Lifers' asses if a 
race riot had jumped off at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, 
Arizona where he spent most of his enlistment.  With the guidance of 
three African-American Marines who he worked with, they made fighting 
the racial oppression of the Marine Corps--both personal and 
institutional--a real effort.  Scipes, who was not offered a 
re-enlistment opportunity, got out in early 1973 to go to college.

This review will be published in the July 2006 issue of "Substance 
News," a monthly investigative newspaper devoted to in-depth reporting 
of major issues facing public education, and which can be found at 
www.substancenews.com .

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