Veterans Of War Veterans Of Peace

" Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace" is a harvest of creative, redemptive storytelling-nonfiction, fiction, and poetry-spanning five wars and written by those most profoundly affected by it. This poignant collection, compiled from Kingston's healing workshops, contains the distilled wisdom of survivors of five wars, including combatants, war widows, spouses, children, conscientious objectors, and veterans of domestic abuse. " Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace" includes accounts from people that grew up in military families, served as medics in the thick of war, or came home to homelessness. All struggle with trauma - PTSD, substance abuse, and other consequences of war and violence. Through their extraordinary writings, readers witness worlds coming apart and being put back together again through liberating insight, community, and the deep transformation that is possible only by coming to grips with the past. For more than 15 years, National Book Award-winning author Maxine Hong Kingston has led writing-and-meditation workshops for veterans and their families. The contributors to this volume are part of this community of writers working together to heal the trauma of war through art. Maxine Hong Kingston's books-" The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, The Fifth Book of Peace," and others-have won critical praise and national awards. President Bill Clinton presented her with a National Humanities Medal in 1997.

Autobiographical accounts and fictional writing by veterans and other trauma victims, including survivors of gang violence, domestic violence, and drug abuse.

How American Soldiers Opposed and Resisted the War in Vietnam While mainstream narratives of the Vietnam War all but marginalize anti-war activity of soldiers, opposition and resistance from within the three branches of the military made a real difference to the course of America’s engagement in Vietnam. By 1968, every major peace march in the United States was led by active duty GIs and Vietnam War veterans. By 1970, thousands of active duty soldiers and marines were marching in protest in US cities. Hundreds of soldiers and marines in Vietnam were refusing to fight; tens of thousands were deserting to Canada, France and Sweden. Eventually the US Armed Forces were no longer able to sustain large-scale offensive operations and ceased to be effective. Yet this history is largely unknown and has been glossed over in much of the written and visual remembrances produced in recent years. Waging Peace in Vietnam shows how the GI movement unfolded, from the numerous anti-war coffee houses springing up outside military bases, to the hundreds of GI newspapers giving an independent voice to active soldiers, to the stockade revolts and the strikes and near-mutinies on naval vessels and in the air force. The book presents first-hand accounts, oral histories, and a wealth of underground newspapers, posters, flyers, and photographs documenting the actions of GIs and veterans who took part in the resistance. In addition, the book features fourteen original essays by leading scholars and activists. Notable contributors include Vietnam War scholar and author, Christian Appy, and Mme Nguyen Thi Binh, who played a major role in the Paris Peace Accord. The book originates from the exhibition Waging Peace, which has been shown in Vietnam and the University of Notre Dame, and will be touring the eastern United States in conjunction with book launches in Boston, Amherst, and New York.

Guys Like Me introduces us to five ordinary veterans from different generations who have done extraordinary work as peace activists. Michael A. Messner reveals how the horror and trauma of the battlefront motivated onetime warriors to reconcile with former enemies, crusade for justice, and heal themselves and others.

History has told us something about our war dead but very little about our war wounded. Veterans with a Vision provides a vibrant, poignant, and very human history of Canada’s war-blinded veterans and of the organization they founded in 1922, the Sir Arthur Pearson Association of War Blinded. Serge Durflinger details the veterans’ process of civil re-establishment, physical and psychological rehabilitation, and social and personal coping and describes their public advocacy for government pension entitlements, job retraining, and other social programs. This book captures the spirit of perseverance that permeated the veterans’ community and highlights the accomplishments of the war blinded as advocates for all Canadian veterans and for all blind citizens.

Fighting for Peace brings to light an important yet neglected aspect of opposition to the Iraq War—the role of veterans and their families. Drawing on extensive participant observation and interviews, Lisa Leitz demonstrates how the harrowing war experiences of veterans and their families motivated a significant number of them to engage in peace activism. Married to a Navy pilot herself, Leitz documents how military peace activists created a movement that allowed them to merge two seemingly contradictory sides of their lives: an intimate relation to the military and antiwar activism. Members of the movement strategically deployed their combined military–peace activist identities to attract media attention, assert their authority about the military and war, and challenge dominant pro-war sentiment. By emphasizing the human costs of war, activists hoped to mobilize American citizens and leaders who were detached from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bring the wars to an end, and build up programs to take care of returning veterans and their families. The stories in Fighting for Peace ultimately reveal that America’s all-volunteer force is contributing to a civilian–military divide that leaves civilians with little connection to the sacrifices of the military. Increasingly, Leitz shows, veterans and their families are being left to not only fight America’s wars but also to fight against them.

Examines US foreign and domestic policy through the narratives of post-9/11 US military veterans and the activism they are engaged in. While veterans are often cast as a “problem” for society, Fight to Live, Live to Fight challenges this view by focusing on the progressive, positive, and productive activism that veterans engage in. Benjamin Schrader weaves his own experiences as a former member of the American military and then as a member of the activist community with the stories of other veteran activists he has encountered across the United States. An accessible blend of political theory, international relations, and American politics, this book critically examines US foreign and domestic policy through the narratives of post-9/11 military veterans who have turned to activism after having exited the military. Veterans are involved in a wide array of activism, including but not limited to antiwar, economic justice, sexual violence prevention, immigration issues, and veteran healing through art. This is an accessible, captivating, and engaging work that may be read and appreciated not just by scholars, but also students and the wider public. “There is currently no book on the market that does what this book does (and could do) and I welcome it. There are books on veterans, of course, but there are none that focus in particular on veterans’ activism written by a veteran activist and academic. The book is in many ways a testament to our time and a kind of generational story that I am sure many veterans will relate to.” — Synne L. Dyvik, University of Sussex

This is the first scholarly study of soldiers and guerrillas demobilized after the civil war in Mozambique (1979-1992). The book examines former soldiers' - from both sides - return to civilian life, and how their identity as veterans plays out in the political sphere.