Thread by @VetsAboutFace

THREAD: Heard of the Uprising at Long Bihn Jail? Stories of effective resistance to the US military have been suppressed to keep military & civilian folks alike from challenging warmongering-for-profit. Time to educate and agitate.
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Vietnam became the first completely integrated US war at the start in 1954. The Black community was re-enlisting nearly four times more than whites, and volunteering to fight in dangerous combat units, to receive higher pay.

Black ppl have participated in every US war, yet they've cont to endure hostility not only frm the so-called enemy but frm fellow service-members. Integration into the military of marginalized | oppressed comm doesn't necessarily lead to an improvement of the institution itself.

Dr King said, "The bombs in Vietnam exploded at home." The Vietnam War deepened black consciousness on the intersection of imperialism & racial oppression & the “paradox of fighting for democracy abroad when they did not have it at home.”

After Dr. King was assassinated, Black troops grew increasingly upset with the war & the systemic racism/discrimination both back home and in Vietnam. White soldiers applauded the murder of Dr. King, racist graffiti and Ku Klux Klan material were tolerated on some bases.

Dissolution by both the racism of the war & discrimination within the ranks, between 300-500 Black troops decided to stop fighting and left to live underground in a downtown backstreet that became widely known as “Soul Alley.”

Troops like Lance Corporal William L. Harvey voiced concern to a Washington Post reporter: “Vietnam is a white man’s war. Black men should not go, only to return and fight whites at home.”

Worried about stories of this #GIResistance leaking out, the US gov did everything it could to cover up the unrest. President Johnson, in response to the growing veteran & soldier, led the anti-war movement, once deceptively said, “You don’t hear the boys in Vietnam protesting.”

The military made makeshift stockades to hold & punish resisters like the notorious Long Binh Jail outside of Saigon. It gained a reputation for sadistic guards and squalor conditions. It is no mistake that 90% of the prisoners at Long Binh Jail were Black. #SystemicRacism

The DAP handshake was created in Long Binh Jail by Black GI’s to retain “unity and survival in a racially turbulent atmosphere" & to communicate complex information. To DAP someone up was to risk court-martial. Link: s.si.edu/2S8YD1i

Gary Payton, a Black GI, abandoned his post in Vietnam after a white soldier called him a racial slur. Sentenced to 6 months for going AWOL, he was given only two 15-minute breaks from his cell. He survived eating lettuce rolled up in water.

Soon after, he was assigned to drive a truck outside of the stockade. His job, burn the camp's feces with kerosene. A group of inmates persuaded him to bring back an extra can of kerosene into the camp every other night.

At LBJ, Black GI's were fed up w the daily abuse & beatings by guards. On Aug 29, 1968, at 12am, they rose up & seized the camp, setting it ablaze & repelled attempts by MP’s to regain control for about 1 wk. 1 man was killed, 7 buildings & 19 tents were torched. #DemilitaRISE

While in the end, the Black GIs unfortunately subdued, the Uprising at Long Binh Jail was the largest soldier revolt in Vietnam & demonstrated the power that #GIResistance could have in disrupting the Military-Industrial Complex. Join Us to #DropTheMIC → bit.ly/DTMweb

Artwork feat in today’s #DropTheMICTour Graphic is by Emory Douglas. He oversaw the art direction & production of official Black Panther Party newspaper, which was “an instrument for social change and a vehicle for revolutionary art.” Short Doc: vimeo.com/128523144

The powerful anti-war legacy of troops and veterans has been intentionally suppressed. It's time to educate and agitate. Join #DropTheMIC --> bit.ly/DTMweb