Courage to Resist: Commemorating 50 Years Since Vietnam

As we mark half a century since the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975, we honor all who spoke out and acted on their convictions for peace. Here are just some of their stories.

Were you a conscientious objector, draft counselor, or war resister who took action with AFSC during the Vietnam War? Please use this link to share your story with us! 

Richard Morse, draft counselor 

“Once I got to the University of Connecticut and started a postdoctoral fellowship, I reached out to the AFSC office in Cambridge around spring/summer 1967. They had a course on draft counseling and the law—probably three or four sessions. It was an hour and a half drive each way, but I took that knowledge back to the University of Connecticut and set up a draft counseling center. Together with a lawyer and a psychiatrist and a few others, we started providing draft counseling at the university.  

Typically, I was seeing students—postdocs or graduates—at the University of Connecticut. The counselees all seemed to be trying to work out their feelings about the war and other practical aspects. We shared various options and their implications, ranging from refusal to cooperate with the draft system altogether (resulting in jail) to other less severe options. I recall at least one person who came and shared their experience refusing the draft.  

Conscientious objection included an option to perform civilian alternative service or go into the military as a non-combatant medic. Other options included joining the Coast Guard or National Guard, which would likely have kept you out of Vietnam. Some chose to go to Canada. We would provide information about immigrant status in Canada, although warned that this was typically a permanent move until President Carter agreed with not prosecuting any former Americans wanting to come back and visit family.” 

Peter Woodrow, conscientious objector 

“My father was a CO in World War II. There was strain of Methodists who were pacifists. He declared himself a CO and was part of AFSC’s World War II civilian public service camps. After the war, many COs wanted to work overseas. Many volunteered for overseas service. My father then worked for AFSC in China.  

In college, during the Vietnam War, I went to Oberlin. In fall of ’65, a lot of what I was doing was antiwar organizing. A group of us were intent on resisting the draft. There were lots of strategies that people used. All kinds of ceremonies. In my senior or junior year, people were declaring what they would do—acts of resistance. I didn’t burn my draft card, but I declared myself a resister.  

It was easy for me (to apply for CO status). My agreement was that I wanted nothing to do with the military. I said, if AFSC could handle it (any follow up to the CO application), I would file the application. My draft board was in Media, PA. They had never refused a CO application. So there was no problem to get the status. I filed and was granted CO status and AFSC was satisfied. I worked for two years in Quang Nai.” 

Jane Barton, volunteer in Vietnam 

“I was fortunate to be involved with the AFSC project in Quang Ngai at a time when many of the prosthetists and physical therapists were replacing the AFSC staff. A seed planted by past AFSC staff had come into fruition as Vietnamese staff assumed full time positions.  

During my tenure, I was able to secretly take photographs of political prisoners who had been tortured. In 1973, when I returned from Vietnam, these photographs added witness to a major antiwar campaign highlighting how the U.S. government was funding the imprisonment of thousands of innocent Vietnamese civilians. Amnesty International and AFSC sponsored me on a speaking tour to urge Americans to take action to stop the U.S. government from funding the war. [Friends Committee on National Legislation] scheduled targeted visits to certain members of Congress. The lack of financial support of the South Vietnamese government helped end the war.” 

David Henkel, conscientious objector 

On how I became a CO:  

“At the very beginning, there was this friend of mine on the soccer team, and he ended up also being part of Philadelphia Resistance. ...And that was Bob Eaton. My friend Mike basically chained himself to Bob and a bunch of other people as they were resisting his arrest. And this was in Philadelphia before I really connected with the Service Committee. But it was my friends, and it was a Quaker reality, and I realized that this whole thing was much bigger than I had thought. 

[AFSC’s work] resisted the evils of war and of racism, and then it supported the people who were, who are waging that battle. And so I was able to see the resistance and the support. And to my mind, both of those things have been very important to me—to be able to continue to speak out but also to lend a hand. You’ve got to be able to do both. 

And I guess what I’m wondering about is as we think about what we resisted in our times, whether it was World War II or Vietnam or wherever it was, where does this lead us going forward? Because we are still a country engaged in exploiting other places and people.” 

Jack Malinowski, draft counselor   

Jack was a teacher at St. Joe’s during the Vietnam War era. In the early-mid 1960s, he was involved in antiwar activities. He became a draft counselor and first encountered AFSC during that time. AFSC provided the materials and resources for him to learn how to providing draft counseling for his students. 

“You just didn’t do it blatantly!” Jack said. “It was perfectly legal, as long as [I] wasn’t advocating that students break the law. The federal government had to recognize it was perfectly legal. Info is power. A lot of AFSC related people did that. AFSC offered information for draft counseling. Invaluable stuff—in those days when it was really hard, and the country was split so badly as it is now. War intensified when Nixon was elected.” 

Kent Walton, conscientious objector  

“On Easter Sunday, 1971, I participated in an Atlanta Quaker-sponsored public mailing of my draft card back to my local draft board, in front of Atlanta Selective Service headquarters. This was accompanied by a letter stating my refusal to recognize or accept any draft classification whatsoever. The public mailing included a ceremony where participants (12 of us, I think), compared our draft cards to Judas' holding pieces of silver to betray Jesus. This was a major media event broadcast on the evening news.


The day before, Atlanta Quakers had hosted a ‘last supper’ with David Harris, recently released from prison for draft resistance, where he explained how joining ‘The Resistance’ meant refusing any and all classification from Selective Service.  

Claudia Krich, volunteer in Vietnam   

“At [AFSC’s Quang Nai Rehabilitation Clinic in Vietnam], we served hundreds of injured civilians from all sides of the conflict. Most were amputees, and most injuries were caused by land mines. We also had some children who had white phosphorus burns, some polio, etc. 
In addition to our rehab center work, we also hosted visiting journalists and politicians, who often came specifically to see My Lai, which is near Quang Ngai. We also worked on the women's prison ward with tortured prisoners and took pictures of them and sent them to the U.S. I wrote a number of articles that were printed in U.S. magazines, including The New Republic and Ms. Magazine.” 

Dan Seeger, conscientious objector  

In 1965 the Supreme Court, in the case of The United States of America vs. Daniel A. Seeger, greatly expanded the religious qualifications for allowing pacifists exemption from military service on conscientious grounds. 

In the 1950s, Dan Seeger refused to register for the draft because of his moral beliefs. He was tried and convicted for draft refusal and sentenced to a year and a day in prison. But Dan remained true to his beliefs, pursuing his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Eventually, his efforts would expand who qualifies for conscientious objector status in the United States—and help safeguard the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty for generations to come. AFSC and other groups supported Dan throughout this case.  

“I realized I was bucking the Federal Government, and I felt nervous,” he said, “but I knew that what I was doing was right. I felt it was something that had to be done rather than collaborate in the destruction of other people’s lives.” 

Marjorie Nelson, volunteer in Vietnam  

“When the Vietnam War broke out, I was 24 years old and living in Indianapolis, Indiana. I was studying at Indiana University’s School of Medicine to become a doctor. I grew up as a Quaker and was a conscientious objector. As I heard about the war, I wanted to find a way that I could help. The American Friends Service Committee knew about my interest in serving overseas. And they contacted me and said, ‘Would you by any chance be willing to serve with a project we’re starting in Vietnam?’ and I said, ‘That's an answer to prayer.’” 

What AFSC told me is that they had two projects in Quang Ngai province, which is in central Vietnam. The first one was a rehab center, a rehabilitation center for war-injured civilians, and we would be training local Vietnamese how to, for example, make artificial limbs and braces so that when we were no longer there, there would be skilled people who could continue to do that service. 

The other program that we had then was a pre-K school for refugee children who were living in refugee camps right around the city. Then later we had a program of my going to the provincial prison across the street where we did sick calls for prisoners.” 

Dina Portnoy, war resister 

“I was in college in 1967. I was starting to get knowledgeable about the Vietnam War and various forms of resistance. I was in awe of people who were willing to take big risks and refuse to go into the military. It took courage, especially for people in the military, to take a moral stand against the war. 

After college, I went to London and I worked for War Resisters International and then other war resistance organizations. Eventually I became a teacher because it seemed like teaching in the city was another form of working to change the world. 1967 changed me and changed my path. 

Did we end the war in 1967? No. But within a year or two there were millions of people marching nationally. We got the ball rolling. [In 2016], I marched after the inauguration. It was huge and it was organized so quickly. We could never have done that back then – it took so much longer to grow the movement. People today are lucky because they are more conscious, and they have great tools for organizing at their disposal, but they also continue to have incredible challenges in front of them.” 

Tony Avirgan, war resister 

“After [Vietnam Summer], our group formed Philadelphia Resistance. Over the years, I was arrested 15 times. One time I ended up in jail for 30 days. We ran a printing press. We got intense media coverage. We refused to pay taxes. We held countless rallies—at one such event the police chief punched me in the face. We accompanied men to Canada. We protested with props at sporting events. We even had an infiltrator—a policeman joined our group under cover. 

All of it was our way to defy, slow down, and make it more expensive for the Selective Service System to continue to operate. Each year, more and more people turned against the war. It became more and more unpopular. We found people who agreed with us in the courts and in the military.” 

Ed Wujciak, conscientious objector 

“Anti-war information was not easy to find in those “primitive” pre-internet times, but I did find two good resources: AFSC and the War Resisters’ League. They offered me both a vision of a world without war, and concrete suggestions on how to disassociate from, and hopefully undermine, the war machine. I felt that I was finally home. The draft counseling and information services offered by these groups were a huge help to me and countless others facing the Selective Service.” 

Michael William Murphy, conscientious objector 

“My involvement with the AFSC was brief, but it set into motion a chain of events that completely altered the course of my life. In the beginning of 1970, I graduated from college in Syracuse, New York. I lost my student deferment and was soon called up for my pre-induction examination. I knew I wasn't going to allow myself to be shipped off to Viet Nam: the idea of war seemed insane to me. I was prepared to go to jail if necessary. 

Fortunately, there was an AFSC office in town, so I contacted them. They counseled me, helped me with my application, and recommended getting supporting letters from priests at the Catholic seminary I had attended for three semesters. Thanks to thorough preparation, my interview with the draft board was simple. All they wanted to know was, would I perform my alternative service without giving them any more trouble. I agreed.” 

Are you a conscientious objector or war resister? Share your story.  

Learn more about AFSC's work Resisting the Vietnam War.