Men against Power: Antistatism, Grassroots Organizing, and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War ...

232 Pages·2014·1.31 MB·English

by  Rachel Glassford

Men against Power:
Antistatism, Grassroots Organizing, and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War

by

Ryan J. Kirkby

A thesis
presented to the University of Waterloo
in fulfillment of the
thesis requirement for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
History

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2014

© Ryan J. Kirkby 2014
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including
any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners.

I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public.
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ABSTRACT

This dissertation examines the history of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) from
its founding in 1967 through to the early 2000s. Whereas past scholars have interpreted
VVAW’s activism as motivated by the therapeutic promises of protest, disenchantment with U.S.
foreign policy, and reverence for the peace and justice movements of the 1960s, the present
analysis situates VVAW in the context of the larger antistatist movement that emerged during the
unraveling of liberalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It argues that VVAW’s activism, in
addition to its clear antiwar purpose, represented an antistatist response to the top-down,
technocratic features of the postwar liberal state. In doing so, it has three aims. First, it seeks to
revive scholarly consideration of VVAW, an organization that is well known but has generated
surprisingly little attention from historians since the late 1990s and early 2000s. Second, and
equally important, it purposes a new perspective for understanding the postwar period, one that
reinterprets sixties activism as part of a longstanding dialogue in American history regarding the
limits of state power in an increasingly centralized system. Finally, this study projects a view of
sixties protest that transcends simplistic categorizations of “liberal” and “radical,” as well as
“left” and “right,” in order to draw out the cross-pollinating tendencies that existed between the
postwar state’s various critics, not least their mutual appeals for greater community control and
decentralized ways of organizing.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It goes without saying that a lot of time and energy went into completing this dissertation. Less
obvious is the number of people who helped me along the way. My first debt of gratitude goes to
my advisor and mentor, Andrew Hunt. From my earliest days in graduate school to the bitter end
he has been a steadfast source of inspiration and support. An expert on VVAW, he helped me
navigate the challenges of re-telling its history by sharing his insights on the organization and
offering me some hard-to-find newspapers and publications from his own personal collection.
His guidance, criticism, and feedback sustained me when times were tough and carried me
through to the finish. Finding out that we shared a mutual interest in film noir, classic Hollywood
cinema, and the works of Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Raoul Walsh brought an added depth
to our meetings over the years, helping to cultivate a very real friendship. Needless to say, this
project would have suffered in his absence.
The other members of my dissertation committee deserve equal thanks. Darren Mulloy
has been a fixture of my academic career going back to my days at Wilfrid Laurier University.
His keen intellect, perceptive criticism, and thoughtful encouragement improved the quality and
scope of my argument at every stage, and made me better a scholar. I am likewise grateful to
John Sbardellati and Brian Orend for their discerning questions and feedback at my defense.
They have given me much to consider as I prepare this project for publication. A profound
thank-you also goes to John McMillian who provided invaluable support and criticism as my
external reader. Having him serve on my dissertation committee was a tremendously positive
experience, one I won’t soon forget.
One of the great pleasures of writing a dissertation is spending time in the archives. I am
deeply appreciative of the many librarians and archivists who assisted me at the Wisconsin State
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Historical Society, where the bulk of VVAW’s records are held, and to the good people in charge
of the Joseph A. Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan. The generous financial
assistance provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario
Graduate Scholarship program, and the University of Waterloo made such research trips
possible, and helped me withstand the lean years of graduate school. I am also indebted to Jan
Barry, Barry Romo, Lee Thorn, and Terry DuBose for answering my calls and sharing their
stories, and to Robert Sharlet who happily responded to my questions about his brother, Jeff
Sharlet, one of the unsung heroes of the antiwar movement. John Lindquist and Annie Bailey
were interviewed too late to have their oral testimonies integrated into the dissertation, but I wish
to thank them here with the promise that the content of our discussions will be more thoroughly
incorporated into the manuscript at a later date. I would also like to acknowledge Richard
Stacewicz whose oral history of VVAW remains a largely untapped goldmine for sixties
scholars.
During the course of writing this dissertation I presented my findings at a number of
conferences where I received excellent feedback. My sincerest thanks to Stephen Ortiz and
Jennifer Mittelstadt for reaching out to me at the 2014 Organization of American Historians
annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, and listening to my ideas. Their enthusiasm for my project
and astute suggestions gave me added confidence down the homestretch. Thank you as well to
Robbie Lieberman and Heather Fryer who edited an article I wrote for Peace & Change: A
Journal of Peace Research, much of which found its way into Chapter Two. Their thoughtful
commentary and attention to detail proved most helpful, offering sound advice on how to refine
my argument and streamline some of my prose.
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Many thanks go to all the wonderful students, faculty, and staff who comprise the Tri-
University History program. In particular, I wish to single out Matt Roth, Lorene Bridgen, Jill
Campbell-Miller, Jonathan Crossen, Mark Sweeney, and Ian Haight for their friendship,
laughter, and irreverence. Researching and writing a dissertation can be a lonely, soul-crushing
endeavor. Sharing the past six years together with them has been one of the pleasures of my life.
Additional appreciation goes to Donna Hayes who on countless occasions guided me through the
university’s laborious bureaucracy with patience and aplomb. Her warmth and resourcefulness
never went unappreciated. Special thanks are also extended to James Walker, David Monod, and
Richard Reid for their interest in my intellectual development and for making the first years of
my Ph.D. so rewarding.
Finally, I wish to thank my family. To my parents, Terry and Brenda, and my two
brothers, Tyler and Brett: I owe you more than you will ever know. We have suffered a great
deal together these past few years, often at a cost we would rather not pay. Thank you for your
unyielding love and encouragement, and for your assistance through bad times and good.
Growing up I was naïve and assumed all children came from such supportive families. I know
differently now and no longer take what we have for granted. To my in-laws, Larry, Twyla,
Sarah, and Ian: Thank you for accepting me into your world and making me a part of your
family. Larry and Sarah deserve special mention. Historians themselves, they never failed to
provide advice as I stumbled my way through the often opaque and intimidating world of
academia. I also owe an enormous debt to my four grandparents, two of whom passed away in
the final months before this dissertation was finished and one before it even began. Not a day
goes by that I don’t reflect on their loving kindness.
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My deepest debt of gratitude goes to my wife Rachel. Words cannot express how much
you mean to me. You are the single greatest source of happiness in my life. Thank you for
believing in me and my ability to complete this project, and for tolerating all my inadequacies.
Thank you for accompanying me on my trips to Madison, for the late nights watching TCM, for
our quiet breakfasts together, and most of all for the many moments of laughter spread
throughout the years. I will never be able to repay you for the love and emotional support you
have given me, but I plan to keep trying.
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For Rachel,
Who suffered with me and paid her dues
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv
DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................. viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... ix
EPIGRAPH ......................................................................................................................................x
INTRODUCTION: The Antistatist Context ....................................................................................1
CHAPTER ONE: Unlikely Rebels ................................................................................................20
CHAPTER TWO: Years of Protest ...............................................................................................49
CHAPTER THREE: Back at War .................................................................................................87
CHAPTER FOUR: Standing Strong ............................................................................................123
CHAPTER FIVE: From Revolution to Reform...........................................................................161
EPILOGUE ..................................................................................................................................200
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................211
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“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”

— Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979)
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