During the Vietnam war, GI Coffeehouses played a key role in providing a safe space outside of Army bases where members of the military could speak their mind and organize together. This purpose, combined with the hope of bringing together members of the military and civilian activists, inspired and motivated the People’s House and its members.

Jane Fonda personally sought out returning American soldiers from Vietnam to solicit them to publicly speak out against American atrocities against Vietnamese women and children during her radio broadcasts.  North Vietnamese officials based in Canada coordinated these broadcasts.

The federal government monitored the activities of the People's House as a foreign aided communist cell.  It must be realized that there are agents still operating in this Country attempting to undermine our Country and our political process. Encouraging mutiny, uprisings and assassinations would achieve a foreign country's goal.

The People’s House, the Vietnam era, the antiwar movement, and GI Coffeehouses promoted and achieved governmental and public tolerance for criticism of the government and military by members of the military, the government, and the public.

The antiwar movement of the 60’s is commonly thought of as having been developed and carried out by radical students and disillusioned members of America’s youth counterculture. However, at the center of those questioning the Vietnam War were, in fact, members of the military. As the war escalated, the GI Movement against the Vietnam war grew not only among soldiers who were stationed in Vietnam, but also among officers and noncommissioned soldiers at home in America. The GI Movement was unlike any other movement in history because it not only had to develop organizing tools that were unique to the movement itself, like the GI Underground Press and the GI Coffeehouse; but, it also brought a number of the main political and social issues being dealt with throughout greater society (antiwar feelings, racism and drug use) directly into the lives of members of the military.

The GI Movement was one of the most effective social movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s.  With their growing activism, members of the military were responding not only to a controversial war in Vietnam, but they were also beginning to speak out against inequality and oppression throughout the U.S. Armed Services.

According to an issue of Armed Forces Journal from 1971:

“The morale, discipline and battleworthiness of the U.S. Armed Forces are, with a few salient exceptions, lower andworse than at any time in this century and possibly in the history of the United States.”

Acts of resistance had been present during every war previously fought by the United States, but it was not until America entered Indochina in the 1960’s that “the fraggings, mutinies, desertions, and other symptoms of collapsing morale would alone qualify the Vietnam period as the most disruptive in American history.”

In 1966 the “Fort Hood Three”, privates James Johnson, Dennis Mora and David Samas, refused to take part in a war they considered “unjust, immoral and illegal” while also rejecting going AWOL because of its “dishonorable” nature. This action was one of the first instances of resistance by members of the military. The roots are evident in their joint statement:

We have decided to take a stand against this war, which we consider immoral, illegal, and unjust… We represent in our backgrounds a cross section of the army and of America. James Johnson is a Negro, David Samos is of Lithuanian and Italian parents, Dennis Mora is a Puerto Rican. We speak as American soldiers.

The Fort Hood Three inspired a number of other military members to perform their own individual acts of resistance.  It is important to recognize that radical political organizing in America has always been a challenge. However, organizing within the military presented the greatest challenge of all; hence one of the unique factors of the GI Movement was its ability to successfully form a cohesive group of dedicated activists who varied in both race, class and political parties. Entering into the military institution meant that “restrictions on a soldier’s civil liberties are nearly absolute” while also “public assembly, distribution of literature, the wearing of political symbols – all such means of political expression are strictly forbidden on post.”

There is nothing wrong with addressing a court with a legal question.  It must be done properly and within a legal process.  Be familiar with history.  It tends to repeat itself.

Orly Taitz puts the life of U.S. soldiers in direct and irrefutable jeopardy



References:

UPA Collections from LexisNexis Academic
US Army Surveillance of Radicals in the United States
The Johnson Administration’s Response to Anti–Vietnam War Activities
White House Aides’ Files
White House Central Files
The FBI Files on the American Indian Movement
Federal Surveillance of the Red Scare and the Black Extremist Organizations
Civil Rights During the Johnson Administration
Papers of the White House Conference on Civil Rights
Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
The Communist Party USA and Radical Organizations
FBI Reports From the Eisenhower Library
Communist Activity in the Entertainment Industry
FBI Surveillance Files on Hollywood
Yippies - Youth International Party
Right-wing groups in civil disturbances
Young Chicanos for Community Action
Student Mobilization Committee (SMC)
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Young Socialist Alliance
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Veterans For Peace in Vietnam
Vietnam Moratorium
Vietnam Day Committee
Veteran Stars and Stripes for Peace
Vietnam GI - newspaper
Youth International Party (Yippies)
Youth Mobilization Committee
Youth Socialist Alliance
Weathermen
Fort Hood Three
Jane Fonda
Directorate for Civil Disturbance Planning and Operations organization and functions
Demonstrations and protests Armed Forces Day 1: 0001 Inauguration Day
March Against Death 10
Communist Party of the United States of America
Peace and Freedom Party
Progressive Labor Party
Socialist Workers Party