A Matter of Conscience: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War

A Ferocious Place: Long Binh Jail

Long Binh Jail — nicknamed LBJ — was the U.S. Army's largest prison in Vietnam, and many soldiers feared it more than the battlefield. Overcrowded, brutal, and seething with racial tension, it held men imprisoned for resisting an increasingly unpopular war — going AWOL, defying orders, refusing to fight. In the summer of 1968, that tension exploded. Black inmates rose up, overwhelmed the guards, and took control of the stockade. In this episode of A Matter of Conscience, we go inside LBJ — through the voices of two veterans imprisoned in the stockade. You'll hear what it meant to arrive at the stockade, survive the conex boxes baking in 105-degree heat, navigate the racial fault lines that divided the prison, and still find moments of defiance, humor, and humanity. One of those veterans is our own Bill Short, who was imprisoned there in 1969.Click here for show notes for this episode.

War is Hell: In Country Resistance, Part 2

In this powerful episode of A Matter of Conscience, veterans of the Vietnam War bear witness to the unthinkable — and reveal the moral courage it took to refuse complicity. From infantry soldiers surviving ambushes, to a military intelligence officer who risked his life to stop the torture of prisoners, to a whistleblower threatened into silence after reporting war crimes, these are stories of young men — barely out of their teens — confronting the darkest extremes of warfare.We’ll also hear from two Vietnamese women, survivors of the My Lai massacre, whose devastating testimonies put a human face on a U.S. military atrocity that shook the world. This is not a comfortable listen, but it is a necessary one to understand why many U.S. soldiers came to oppose the war they were fighting.Check out the show notes. 

The Quiet Mutiny

In this episode, we take you to the battlefields of Vietnam, where many young soldiers faced a moral conflict while just trying to stay alive. This is the first part of our look at resistance on the battlefield. GIs, like George Silver and Roy Barrington, practiced “search and evade” tactics where they would avoid engaging with the enemy. And, the military had to confront the prevalence of drug use fundamentally driven by a collapse of morale amongst troops. Warning: this episode has disturbing descriptions of combat.For show notes, photos, and more, visit our website.

BONUS EPISODE: First person with Peter Hagerty

In 1969 Peter Hagerty, Navy ROTC instructor, inspected a destroyer the way he was supposed to.He followed the rules. The ship was in bad shape. He told his superior that the hairline crack on the barrels of the guns could cause an explosion. He said he would not approve the ship for battle. The captain told Peter, "you're a goddamn agitator” and said he would court-martial him.He found an attorney to defend him as he refused to go to Vietnam. Hagerty, motivated by guilt that his class background spared him from fighting the Navy in court, became involved in GI rights for men who went AWOL.For show notes, glossary, photos, and more, visit amatterofconscience.com

Breaking the Chain of Command

Resistance among military officers takes courage. Most officers have earned their promotion from following orders. To say “No” an officer might be risking their career. In this episode, we showcase the stories of two officers, also pilots, who disobeyed orders during the Vietnam War: Charlie Clements, U.S. Air Force and John Kent, U.S. Navy. We explore how they made the decision to rebel and the consequences of that non-conformity.  For show notes, photos, and more, visit our website.