Download PDF of this full issue: v54n2.pdf (38.8 MB)

Hell, No, We Didn't Go!

By Gerald R. Gioglio (reviewer)

Hell, No, We Didn't Go! Firsthand Accounts of Vietnam War Protest and Resistance
by Eli Greenbaum
(University Press of Kansas, 2024)

"Once the possibility of being drafted entered our brains, it burrowed in, made itself comfortable, and disturbed our thinking and behavior."

With these introductory words, Eli Greenbaum begins his important and very fine piece of work. The author, keeping an eye clearly focused on the civilian resistance, explains, "People's lives were dramatically changed on the battlefields of Vietnam…and in this war, lives were also considerably changed in draft board offices across the country."

Right, those of us who were in the military tend to dwell on those complicated, sometimes horrific days, especially those who spent time in Vietnam or prison. But what of the run-up to becoming a member of the military?

This book will bring you back to those difficult days when, for better or worse, the choices we would make dramatically changed our futures. Trust me; it will help you see the things you have done in life and those you failed to do in a completely new light. Expect to identify with some of the stories. The ones closest to your experience may bring a tear to your eye, expect that some may piss you off due to the inequity of the system, but most of all, expect many of these tales to help you understand just what the Hell happened to our generation.

The book is part memoir and part oral history. It features powerful first-hand accounts told in compelling personal vignettes from several men who came up against the Selective Service System during the Vietnam era.

The interviewees include several the author met in and around Detroit, Michigan. He was referred to others and soon found that potential interviewees contacted him to share their Selective Service stories. The author reports that the men discuss how they "avoided, evaded, and resisted" the draft.

As a former draft counselor, I have to say that virtually every situation a young man could confront while dealing with the draft is covered in these pages. Some folks legitimately qualified for various exemptions, others were refugees who left the country, kids who went underground, absolute resisters who went to prison based on their beliefs, guys who enlisted in the National Guard or active duty on the promise of getting a better deal from recruiters, middle and upper-middle-class kids, with and without connections, who got sympathetic doctors to fudge letters for them, and my favorites both in the military and among the civilian resistance, Conscientious Objectors. The author admits that finding and getting cooperation from people of color proved problematic and is the only shortcoming in this otherwise stellar presentation.

The book consists of an Introduction and three Chapters that detail the author's confrontation with his local draft board and provide comprehensive information on Selective Service law and its workings. The following eleven chapters are from folks who agreed to share their stories. Here are personal accounts from now mostly retired men that vividly describe their youthful thinking and fears. Tales told with honesty and passion, recalling the events of the 1960s as if they were discussed yesterday. Many of these interviewees then performed a lifetime of civilian service in non-military jobs such as teaching or mental or physical health. Several continued their peace activism. For this, we can truly say, "Thank you for your service."

The author ends the book by presenting various Selective Service System data, includes a helpful Bibliography, and offers suggestions for further reference. Most importantly, he treats us to his perspective, giving an excellent review of the effects of the draft on the personal lives of young men and how all those doubts and worries could be dismissed in response to a national call to service in a just war. Greenbaum poses questions that many in his book struggled with, "when do we have the option to refuse…more …when do we have an obligation to refuse?" He concludes, "We believe—and still do…It was our duty to refuse."

Sure, that pre-military experience may have taken second place in the minds of most of us who were drafted or enlisted. But I am suggesting this part of the story needs to be told—not only to help us come to grips with it but to correct the historical record and to be made available to those young men and women who may someday be caught up in conscription should that system ever again raise its ugly head.

This reviewer understands that many VVAW members are now purging libraries and are not buying as many books as in the past. But no excuses, Hell, No, We Didn't Go! is also available as a Kindle e-book. Either way, I encourage you to get a copy of Eli Greenbaum's work. It will take you back to a distressing time before your military experience, to the days when you and the women you loved were on tenterhooks, wondering just how you should confront the prospect of being drafted. You will see yourself in several of the stories. You will be moved, and you will be reassured that our actions as civilians, as in-service war resisters, and as anti-war veterans were the right thing to do. And, you will be convinced that most confrontations with the draft discussed by these men were also part of the patriotic resistance to that bloody, murderous war.

In this book, Eli Greenbaum captures the story of the past, which most males of our generation would like to forget. But thankfully, this important book keeps the story alive, one that documents the perseverance and patriotism of those civilians who—whether they realized it or not at the time—stood up to the system and screamed Hell No! By quoting Martin Luther King, I humbly suggest that if "the arc of the moral universe is long, but bends toward justice," then the men in Eli Greenbaum's book joined us in being "the benders."

Finally, consider this. The Vietnam War is as far away from Generation Z as World War I was to us. So, consider keeping this story alive by gifting copies to your grandchildren… to inform them, prepare them, and keep them on guard.

Gerald R. Gioglio is a member of VVAW and the author of Marching to a Silent Tune: A Journey from We Shall to Hell No (2022) and Days of Decision: An Oral History of Conscientious Objectors in the Military During the Vietnam War (1989).