Men Against Power: Antistatism, Grassroots Organizing, and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War by Ryan J. Kirkby a Thesis Pres

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. ii 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. iii 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 iv 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. v 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. vi 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. vii For Rachel, Who suffered with me and paid her dues viii 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

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