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"What   does   k-I-l-|   spel'?"
"Kill,"  wtss  the   c'jvioua,   thotifih
not to-   loud,   reply of nOnt of th«
tr«ii,i?es bcend i ah i ;is  bayonet:.
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"What  does  L-i-l-
"KH ! !" This  time,
"What?"
"Kill!"
'I   can't   hear   you!"
"K\ I I !" A deafening
'Kill!   Kill!   Kill!...
tp^ I !""
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We Won't Go
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Koveasnt  petn.se
uve
>nly recently become award that tr.c
current of disaffectior  trl th Army life  ^r.or.-' servicemen is
making them open to outside political contacts. SI organising  projects are a little -sore  than a year and a  i n %|i 1
of then are only now goin;. through the process of eval-
".ost
USting  the  affects  of  their  first contacts With  soltiie-'S
So*a are still in the planning stage.
Of the  different political  approaches  that groups era) •to-
cloying to reach the 31 constituency,   the type most visible
•includes    h«  very  similar programs  of  th*  nar  r.osis'cero'
League :r.a the Resistance. Although the WRL and the  fcjii-
tar.ee have  ver:<  different origins,   their political programs
ana the  problems  they have  encountered witn  them are  so  similar  that we can discuss the two group... together.
it first glance it appears that URL and ;iesistar.qe work
with ul's has beer, extremely successful. In the last year,
the trickle of solder.-, coming to their offices has grovr. to
& floou which threatens
svamo tr.a.Tu
is very success
with SI counseling has raised serious problems f r ooth organization.; because their political ideas so Infrequently
appeal to the Interests and understanding of their constituency.
The problem stems from the fact thac the nost typical
soldier who gets in touch with th-3 two groups,  the sVMDL,   is
also the raost difficult to deal with politically-. Ihe c_jor~
ity of soldiers consciously opposed to their military duty
(Including some AWOL's) have a fairly clear understanding of
wMt Uiey can and can't do in the service to lisdt its demands cr. tl.em. They rr^y be ambitiour and try to get a cis-
otaarge]  they nay aim to avoid coxba.;; cr they uiy slr.ply
want to get an easier Job or cuty station. Whatever it 1^,
though,  thej have a plan, & calculation of how good it is,
and generally soae  control over their oituation.
Not so the harccore A'.'CL's. These Mn haven't beer, able
to handle their r-ilitary experier.cu froa the beginnings  It
is not just Vietnam that lakes them this way. Many CiVs get
homesick and don't recover or they are upset by the brutality of training and discipline,  viciour.  sergeants and officers.  They- become den&ralizea by their inability to "adjust"
to the military and start using drugs as an escapa. "Vyir.^
to pull themselves together,  they gc AWOL once or twice for
short pc-riods and get thrown in the stockade for their
trouble. Jirially they have had it and decide to split for
j;ood „
In nary cascs thasa guys were clearly ''unfit" for military duty even before they enlisted. Thev are usually lb to
20 years old, working or lower riddle cjjils kids a They come
from broken hor.es and are often high -ichool dropouts, /lost
are r.ot frcn the big cities,  but the small towns of the .•id-
west,  Great Plains and Far West, and have had in this previous,  perhaps sheltered,  backgrovnd, nothing to prepare
then for the shock of army life in wartiiea. When they final-
ly froak out and leave their bases,   they have no real plans
in Bind or anyone to  -urn to for help, family, friends,
clergymen are usual?^,- far away aiV.d perhaps uneynpethetic. If
they show up at the WRL and Resistanco counselors, it is
probably becauao they have heard tnty can gat help fttw then*
About thair politics or those of the ;-'<oven»r.t in general
Ihese are ths .t^.-'. t/KL and nesistanoe had oee.". hoping to
initiate into the "cotasunity of open resistance." k dKt or-
ganiaing panphlet says "The hope for any resistance _»veMnt
1^ that each individual soldier must beooae aenre of the \n-
portanoa and responsibilities c:' his life, and must realise
the neaning of nhat this country is attempting to do to and
witn hirs."
Ihis is a Large ordei', asking a young nan, pushed headlong in a few short nsnths from high school student to fugitive from ths nilitary,   to see the social questions raised
cy his experience, ae ."~.s   .xway: soon his diletna as a personal or.s anc one or two  contacts with a counselor under
n't
;hlig
lor hia its
crisis circuir.star.ces probably
political eontexta
a well-p ibiielsed and draaatio oonfrontation between soldiers ana the nilitary in wiiich irfRL and the .esistar.ee wero
Involved highlights the probleas inherent in "resistance"
tactics. Inst July 9th, ^-'s representing all the servioe
branches publioly resigned from the nilitary and chained
themselves to clergymen  Lr. a 2ar. .-Vancisco sanotuary. lo far
7 of the 9 have been ecurt-anrtialeda some of them receiving
up to four years in jail. Ihe soldiers and the two organisations were prepared   'cr the sentences aver, before   the sanotuary,  but ir. the wake o:   t.-.j trials they wore disappointed
by the lack of response   to  the well-publicized case- among
locally based servicemen. GI's around the   lay Ar< a followei
the  proceedings at tne  sanotuaiy closely.  3ut while oust of
the troops who volunteered thi   information said they had to
admire tVio guys ?c? their stand,  they coulu?.» t sec then-
selves doing itt Others, less Impressed, felt it Uas Jui t
foolhardy.
'.he difficulty with -iesistanco and URL politics is that
they denand,  In theory at lea3t,  too much of their 01 constituency. It is not fair for their, as a croup out-jide the
nilitary and isolated from the soldiers' eirouastances to
"rejistar.ie" to  its   fe
"ope., resistance"  involve
define for then the  terms of their
ir.iny Glss public demonstrations of
too large and unrealistic a comitnent to take seriously. To
others, even those personally opposf-d to military duty,
their political Meaning totally escapes them.
While there have in fact beer, only a few cases of open 01
opposition to the military,  the Resistance and WRL insist
these are,  nevertheless,  important because of the publicity
they t^et. A decisive par" of encouraging troop initiative to
become Involved is the knowledge spreading through the ranks
that othor soldiers ±.r<. opposing the nilitary system. The
impact of Howard Levy's activities and the publicity about
his trial,  for instance,  had very powerful repercussions
throughout .lis post,   Fort Jaokson,  ana was a clear encoui —-
ageaent to troops to take more aggressive  stands toward Army
authority or. their own behalf.
Internal publicity about resistance and opposition is an
important factor  in -ievelopirj anvon.;  soldiers the personal
3olf-cor.fider.c8 and political comaitaer.t to becor-o active.
The necessity for outside support and assistance in generating this kind of publicity is obvious, out outside supporc
basing  its  strate/y or. e.\   o       g  troops  to oppress  their
personal discontent with military dut:  in explicit political
and ethical actions is currency premature, hora likely the
31•s are going to find a level of oppostion    to the service
better suit. .   •   theii  | •■ experiences, interests
eapabllitiss,
: cvlath».n