"Sir! No Sir!" Documentary Film About GI Resitance to Vietnam War

The Friedrich Engels Institute of Marxist War and Military Analysis presents the suppressed story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam. This award-winning documentary details one of the most vibrant and widespread upheavals of the 1960's and 1970s–one that had profound impact on American society, yet has been virtually obliterated from the collective memory of that time. It demonstrates how the movement of women and men in the U.S. armed forces was the most instrumental force in the U.S. for stopping the government's direct participation in the Vietnam war.

In the Army alone, 55% of soldiers were involved in some form of anti-war activity. By the Pentagon’s own figures, 503,926 “incidents of desertion” occurred between 1966 and 1971; officers were being “fragged” (killed with fragmentation grenades by their own troops) at an alarming rate; and by 1971 entire units were refusing to go into battle in unprecedented numbers. In the course of a few short years, over 100 underground newspapers were published by military personnel around the world; local and national antiwar GI organizations were joined by thousands; thousands more demonstrated against the war at every major base in the world in 1970 and 1971, including in Vietnam itself; stockades and federal prisons were filling up with soldiers, marines, sailors and air force members jailed for their opposition to the war and the military.

If anything, the lessons taught in "Sir! No Sir!" have even more relevance in today's situation of U.S. international militarism. For those who have not seen the film it is a provocative and thoughtful experience. For those who have already seen it, the exhilaration of this victory will be relived.