“Four of us from the same platoon desert[ed] together, which is the ultimate military crime,” shares Ward Reilly, US Army Vietnam era GI resister

“It’s very hard for people to believe that their country would try to kill them,” explains former National Guard member Zels Johnson.

“I told my command officer that I wasn’t going to, I was refusing my orders [to Vietnam] … In his rage, he thought if he court-martialed me, he’d have to stay in the Army past his discharge date.”

Michael Uhl led a combat intelligence team with the 11th Infantry Brigade in Vietnam during 1968-69. Afterwards, he helped expose the Phoenix Program.

“Speaking out against [the war], as an active-duty GI, would incur some risks. I might have to pay a price, but I had to do it because business as usual was not an option.”

“We were holding demonstrations, and sometimes the demonstrations became very militant. Yet, the war kept on going.”

“The My Lai Massacre hit the front pages…. I went and turned myself in to the Presidio stockade, and refused orders to Vietnam.”

“Why didn’t I intervene and stop this guy from smacking around this papasan or these guys from gang raping this 16-year-old villager? Why didn’t I stop that? I didn’t.”