A Matter of Conscience: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War | Podcast Guru

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A Matter of Conscience is the story of the Vietnam War that the U.S. government and military don't want you to know. Hosts Bill Short and Willa Seidenberg reveal a hidden history of the war born out of personal experience. As an Army infantry platoon sergeant, Bill was serving in heavy combat in South Vietnam in 1969 when he refused to keep fighting. He was imprisoned in South Vietnam by the U.S. Army and court-martialed twice. The podcast shares the stories of GIs who took individual and collective action while in uniform to oppose the war—including refusing to go to Vietnam or to fight in the field, publishing underground GI newspapers, sabotaging operations, going AWOL (Absent Without Leave), and even deserting. These deeply personal stories remain highly relevant today in light of current wars and issues of free speech, the meaning of patriotism, and following your conscience.

Recent Episodes

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 LB...

35 MIN

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...

43 MIN

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 disturbi...

39 MIN

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 backg...

18 MIN

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.

46 MIN