1969-1970-GI Resistance Emerges: An Uphill Struggle
During the Vietnam War, the early voices of dissent from U.S policy in Indochina were heard primarily on university campuses like Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. But protest soon spread to Fayetteville and Ft. Bragg.
On the post, a number of unauthorized, ephemeral "underground papers" appeared, but had limited circulation.
By 1969, informal discussions on and around the post had brought together a nucleus of GI activists who organized GIs United Against the War in Vietnam. By that summer the group published the first, crudely mimeographed issues of an underground paper, Bragg Briefs.
Official reaction was unsympathetic: one of the first editors of the paper was quickly transferred to a post above the Arctic Circle.
But the paper persisted and published many powerful articles and striking images. In midsummer 1970, Haymarket Square GI Coffeehouse opened on Hay Street, in downtown Fayetteville.
Click on the Thumbnails below for larger images:
From left, above: "God On Our Side"; "Get Paid to
Kill"; and "Haymarket Square Coffeehouse Opens"
Below: "I Want Out"; and "Is Ft. Bragg Running You Down?"
