A new nationwide campaign from Veterans For Peace is bringing a powerful message directly to U.S. service members: the duty to refuse unlawful orders. Rooted in the legacy of Vietnam-era resistance and led by longtime anti-war advocate and national President of Veterans For Peace, Susan Schnall, the effort connects past and present in a call for accountability, conscience, and courage within the military.
Read morePoet Biographies: Poetry of the War in Vietnam and Its Consequences
As the Waging Peace in Vietnam exhibit visits Colorado University- Boulder, accomplished poets will gather for reading poems of war, memory, and reconciliation. Their works help us to understand the war in Vietnam and its profound consequences.
Exhibit, Symposia, Poetry, and Films On War and Its Consequences At University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado- Boulder will host the Waging Peace in Vietnam exhibit along with film screenings, panel discussions, poetry readings and more.
Read moreRon Carver Interviewed by Talk Vietnam
Spring 2023, Ron Carver traveled to Saigon for the launch of the Vietnamese-language edition of the Waging Peace in Vietnam companion book, published by the War Remnants Museum. Talk Vietnam interviewed editor Carver along with veterans Ronald L. Haeberle and John Kent for their monthly magazine-style, tv show, produced in English and screened on Vietnam’s public television on the anniversary of the reunification of Vietnam. The show tells the story of how the exhibit came about and the impact of the thousands of US soldiers and veterans who opposed the war.
Read moreRon Haeberle Reaches Agreement With Son My Memorial Museum
Son My 1968. (Photo: Ronald L. Haeberle)
While in Vietnam this month, we took time to meet with government officials in Quang Mai to negotiate an agreement allowing the Son My Memorial Museum to display Ron Haeberle’s iconic My Lai Massacre photographs as long as the museum abides by international museum standards, recognizes Haeberle as the photographer and holder of the copyright, and uses historically accurate captions.
Read moreTime to Thank the Veterans Who Dissent
While it is important to honor all who serve America in so many ways, on Veterans Day, the day originally called Armistice Day to celebrate the end of WWI, the war America hoped would end all wars, we must especially honor the veterans who oppose war. John Kent, one of the Navy officers who refused to fly combat missions in Vietnam, writes in Juneau, Alaska’s daily paper about the soldiers in Alaska who published their own newspapers opposing America’s war in Vietnam.
Read moreRENEW: Clearing Landmines in Vietnam
Horrific. 54 years after our troops massacred 504 innocent souls in My Lai, Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam, grand children of the survivors and thousands of other children daily risk mutilation and death from the hundreds of thousand of landmines and bombs we left behind.
Donations to the Friends of Project RENEW organization can help expand efforts to address this tragic situation.
Read moreRecent Essay Contest Winners Announced
At each university exhibit venue, in cooperation with the local chapter of Veterans For Peace, we offer a prize for the best student essay addressing the theme, "What the Waging Peace in Vietnam exhibit means to me, and its lessons for today."
Here, we share the winning essays from visits to the University of San Diego, San Diego State University, and the University of San Francisco.
Revealing Memoir Contends With a Father’s Legacy of War
A highlight of our month-long exhibit at the University of San Francisco was our closing event on April 26, where Craig McNamara launched his new memoir, Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, From Vietnam to Today (Little Brown). Craig is the son of Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson who was known as the architect of the War in Vietnam.
Read moreA Letter to Russian Soldiers: An Appeal to Follow the Path of Justice and Truth
In a direct appeal, former American soldiers who opposed U.S. wars in Vietnam and Iraq are urging Russian soldiers to "listen to their conscience" when ordered to fight an illegal war of aggression against the people of Ukraine. Signers are asking the United States and the governments of Europe to grant asylum and provide legal assistance for Russian soldiers who refuse to participate in Putin's war.
Read moreTwo New Pop-up Exhibits Highlight the Patriotism of GIs who Exposed the Horrors of the War
We have recently developed two new small exhibits to complement our main touring exhibit. Entitled My Lai: A Massacre Took 504 Souls, and Shook the World and Dissent and Resistance Within the Military, respectively, they will pair well with the original exhibit and we intend for them to be displayed concurrently at the same venue or at another venue nearby. Sharing the exhibits will allow for maximum local exposure to a greater audience.
Read moreProminent Poet Offers Review of Book Recounting Experiences of POWs
Dissenting POWs tells the little-known story of who spoke out against the war and why – which for co-author Tom Wilber is a very personal tale. One dissenter profiled in the book is his father Gene, a career officer in the Navy and squadron commander shot down over North Viet Nam in 1968.
This fascinating book was reviewed by Vietnam veteran and poet W.D. Ehrhart. He comments on the book’s illumination of the history of those who spoke out against the war while in captivity.
Read moreYour Donations Helped Those Who Lost Everything
In just a few weeks, Central Vietnam was battered by six typhoons, leaving incredible destruction and loss of life. Since much of Vietnam has yet to fully recover from the war, the country was especially vulnerable to these climate change enhanced storms. We were able to raise funds to provide relief.
Read moreDisputed Photographs Ordered to be Removed from Museum
There is good news on efforts to stop the harassment of photographer Ron Haeberle. The highest ranks of the government in Hanoi have ordered the Son My Memorial Site museum to stop defaming Haeberle, to acknowledge that he holds the copyright, and to remove his photographs from the museum until the museum agrees to change the label…
Read moreMy Lai Photograph at Center of Contention for Historical Truth
Famed My Lai photographer Ron Haeberle requested that the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, and the Son My Memorial Museum in Quang Ngai Province, correct the caption to one of his iconic photos, taken during the 1968 massacre. He wanted historically accurate captions, and, while the War Remnants Museum complied, the Son My Memorial Museum has refused to do so…
Read moreNorth Carolina Triangle Essay Contest Winner
Left to right: Edgardo Colon-Emerick, Director Duke Divinity School's Center for Reconciliation; Micah Latimer-Dennis, Essay Contest Winner; Carolyn Forche, Guest Judge; Douglas Ryder, President, Veterans For Peace Eisenhower Chapter.
The Waging Peace in Vietnam Exhibit organized an essay contest for North Carolina Triangle area students with a $500 prize provided by the Triangle Area Veterans for Peace. The contest was seeking the best essay on the prompt: “Waging Peace in Vietnam: What it means to me and its lessons for today.”
Read moreUsing Essay Contests to Draw Students In
Left to right: Zaynab Quadri, Essay Contest Winner; Linda Yarr, Director of GWU’s Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia;
The Waging Peace in Vietnam exhibit, companion book, and website were created to increase understanding of the GI Movement and encourage scholars and students to include it in their writing and teaching.
This is why, as much as possible, we are touring the exhibit on university campuses and why we wrote the companion book. We continue to receive enthusiastic and appreciative responses to this exhibit strategy from activists and antiwar Vietnam veterans as we travel the country.
In Washington, DC, we decided to add an essay contest to our outreach efforts to encourage students to take a closer look and reflect on what they have learned by viewing the exhibit and/or reading the book.
Read moreAPM 'Soldiers for Peace' feature
Powerful stories by antiwar veterans.
Podcast: Mike Wong, “All of a sudden, this all became very real”
“When I was in medic training, the My Lai Massacre hit the front pages. … All of us, including me, were devastated by it. We were utterly horrified by it. It left no doubt what we should believe about the war. Then with my lawyer, I went and turned myself in to the Presidio stockade, and refused orders to Vietnam.”
Podcast: Doug Rawlings, “It was a very thin line and you could very easily step across it”
“Moral injury is the realization years later that you were part of it, that you are culpable for some of these things. So I refer to some guys as sociopaths and stuff like that. But where was I? Why didn’t I intervene…Why didn’t I stop that? I didn’t.”