Entire U.S. platoons refused to fight on live television during Vietnam

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.isreview.org/issues/09/soldiers_revolt.shtml

Acts of mutiny took place on a scale previously only encountered in revolutions. The first mutinies in 1968 were unit and platoon-level rejections of the order to fight. The army recorded 68 such mutinies that year. By 1970, in the 1st Air Cavalry Division alone, there were 35 acts of combat refusal.42 One military study concluded that combat refusal was "unlike mutinous outbreaks of the past, which were usually sporadic, short-lived events. The progressive unwillingness of American soldiers to fight to the point of open disobedience took place over a four-year period between 1968-71."43

The 1968 combat refusals of individual units expanded to involve whole companies by the next year. The first reported mass mutiny was in the 196th Light Brigade in August 1969. Company A of the 3rd Battalion, down to 60 men from its original 150, had been pushing through Songchang Valley under heavy fire for five days when it refused an order to advance down a perilous mountain slope. Word of the mutiny spread rapidly. The New York Daily News ran a banner headline, "Sir, My Men Refuse To Go."44 The GI paper, The Bond, accurately noted, "It was an organized strike...A shaken brass relieved the company commander...but they did not charge the guys with anything. The Brass surrendered to the strength of the organized men."45

This precedent--no court-martial for refusing to obey the order to fight, but the line officer relieved of his command--was the pattern for the rest of the war. Mass insubordination was not punished by an officer corps that lived in fear of its own men. Even the threat of punishment often backfired. In one famous incident, B Company of the 1st Battalion of the 12th Infantry refused an order to proceed into NLF-held territory. When they were threatened with court-martials, other platoons rallied to their support and refused orders to advance until the army backed down.46

As the fear of punishment faded, mutinies mushroomed. There were at least ten reported major mutinies, and hundreds of smaller ones. Hanoi's Vietnam Courier documented 15 important GI rebellions in 1969.47 At Cu Chi, troops from the 2nd Battalion of the 27th Infantry refused battle orders. The "CBS Evening News" broadcast live a patrol from the 7th Cavalry telling their captain that his order for direct advance against the NLF was nonsense, that it would threaten casualties, and that they would not obey it. Another CBS broadcast televised the mutiny of a rifle company of the 1st Air Cavalry Division.48

When Cambodia was invaded in 1970, soldiers from Fire Base Washington conducted a sit-in. They told Up Against the Bulkhead, "We have no business there...we just sat down. Then they promised us we wouldn't have to go to Cambodia." Within a week, there were two additional mutinies, as men from the 4th and 8th Infantry refused to board helicopters to Cambodia.49

In the invasion of Laos in March 1971, two platoons refused to advance. To prevent the mutiny from spreading, the entire squadron was pulled out of the Laos operation. The captain was relieved of his command, but there was no discipline against the men. When a lieutenant from the 501st Infantry refused his battalion commander's order to advance his troops, he merely received a suspended sentence.50

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[NYC]

1. Thanks for posting this.

I wonder if soldiers in Iraq know about this? Everybody seems to say the troops would never mutiny. What if they would?

[sangha]

2. Thanks, Don

That as very interesting. I had known of dissension (ex. "fragging") in the ranks during VietNam, but I hadn't known about this.

[Poll_Blind]

3. Interesting article, thanks for posting that! n/t

n/t

[David__77]

4. Role of left in supporting GIs

Left activists helped organize military unions and distribute literature to the troops. A poll in the 1969 or so showed that about 40% or so of Black GIs supported a revolutionary organization such as the Black Panther Party.

Events call for leadership. I hope that many progressives on DU are equipping themselves to fill that role.

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

5. thanks for article....

...remember it as if it were yesterday.

I was young, not yet of draft age, yet my older draft age
first cousins were anti-war, AND i followed the war news like
my life depended on it.

LBJ had been my idol, but that changed to hatred with
the occupation of Vietnam, and my realization that the US
govt was killing soldiers near my age at a astonishing rate.

Years later my friend, who was a grunt in 101rst,
(he lost his twin brother to a mine in Vietnam)
a least a decade AFTER the war ended, opened up
a little to describe the living hell he was living
in his troubled memory......told me tha MY Lai was a
common event...he hated LBJ...called him THAT GOD DAMNED
FUCKER repeatively.....


So the hatred the troops have for Bush Rummy & Wolfowitz
is nothing new to the troops.

As a soldier--When you finally wake up, and see that your govt
fucked you up,and lied to you, and doesnt give a rats ass about
you, you dont care who hears what you say. Be it a general,
or some political hack like Rumsfeld, or your Chief-Liar-In-Chief.

You are living in Hell, You are mad as HELL, You hate the bastards
who sent you there based on lies.

And you hate that you are being used to protect corporations'
financial interests like VP-oil Whores' Haliburton.

Cynicism, hatred, lies are brewing a deep hatred of the
military brass and the White House bastards who used you.

[HootieMcBoob]

6. This is beginning to look more and more like Vietnam

Hopefully this will wake the people in the military up. The Republicans are NOT your friends, they are your enemy!

There was a great article in Army Times recently about how the repug congress is scewing them by cutting benefits. It said bush had better start putting his money where his mouth is. I remember it ended by saying "money talks and we all know what walks."

[jmcgowanjm]

7. a vet told me of negotiations w/ his col. in nam

the soldier was discussing how many stripes he would lose for not advancing on a position.

the soldier was on the ground. The col. was in a chopper.

[9215]

8. The anti-war movement entered

the ranks. As soldiers learned the true nature of the war they revolted and they were backed by a large anti-war movement. Noam Chomsky wrote some stuff about how the anti-war movement effected the military.

[usual_suspect]

9. Mutiny

In 1970, I was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. A group of us APC drivers were taken to a commander’s call in a small room. We were told that we would be providing security for Richard Nixon for a speech he would be giving.
Yes, we were to take fully armed armored personnel carrier on to the campus of Kansas State University. I asked them what we were to do if the students blocked our way. He said we were to carry on with our mission. I thought for a wile an said” Sorry sir, I’m not going to do that.” After what seemed to be an eternity, a guy in the back said” Your fucken’ right we’re not going to do that.” Needless to say, he didn't give his speach.
I don’t know what they did to the others but they sent me to Viet Nam.

[9215]

10. Whew!

Hell of a story. Goddamn sends goosepimples up my spine when I think of how easy it is to be a victim in such circumstances. It would be real interesting to research the decision making process that got you sent to Vietnam.

I think you did right my man, but I think you already know that.

[sugarcookie]

11. Kick

n/m

[Mountainman]

12. Here is some examples of what we did, not mutiny but similar

This was at Long Bhin in Vietnam. Long Bhin was an Army base. It contained all the support troops and their work places.

Our first sergeant drove his jeep into town and got drunk. He forgot that he had driven and hitched a ride back. Somehow he got a new jeep and painted his identification numbers on it. He tried to cover up what had happened. The MPs got the first jeep and learned that there was a second one. So they gave the first jeep to us grunts and we painted some phony numbers on it and drove around like we were back in the states. The sergeant could do nothing about it. As he went through the gates everyday he had to pay bribe money to the MPs.

The company next to ours was a junk yard company. They were given the destroyed tanks and trucks and took them apart and sent the usable parts to Okinawa. They yard looked like a junk yard. Some general flew over and did not like the way it looked. He said that he was going to have an inspection in two weeks and things better look better. The junk yard company could not ship the junk out fast enough to get the place cleaned up so they took bulldozers and dug holes and buried everything and covered them over with asphalt paving. We were forced to help them do it. So anytime any of us were facing and article 15 or court martial we threatened to tell congress about the buried equipment. We never were bothered after that.

I was on CQ one night when a bunch of guys called be out to look at something. The company commander had gotten drunk and tried to make it to the latrine. This was around midnight. He was sitting on the ground with only his underwear on which was down around his ankles. He was covered with his own shit because he shit right there and couldn't get up. He was passed out so some of the guys got their cameras and took a bunch of pictures. The captain never bothered us again after that.

[Paranoid_Portlander]

13. Many more Vietnam combat refusals at...

... www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~rgibson/girevolts.htm "Breakdown of the U.S. Army in Vietnam." There really is a dash in the link after www, not a dot.

[ieoeja]

14. "What are you going to do? Send me to 'Nam?"

Quote from an Army Ranger to an officer in Vietnam while refusing his order.

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

15. thanks for that link

sent it to my nephews of dmilitary raft age