GI Underground Press

“The GI Underground Press was an underground press movement that emerged among the United States military during the Vietnam War. These were newspapers and newsletters produced without official military approval or acceptance; often furtively distributed under the eyes of ‘the brass’. They were overwhelmingly antiwar and most were anti-military, which tended to infuriate the military command and often resulted in swift retaliation and punishment. Mainly written by rank-and-file active duty or recently discharged GIs, AWOLs and deserters, these publications were intended for their peers and spoke the language and aired the complaints of their audience. They became an integral and powerful element of the larger antiwar, radical and revolutionary movements during those years. This is a history largely ignored and even hidden in the retelling of the U.S. military’s role in the Vietnam War.During the Vietnam War an unprecedented flowering of underground newspapers occurred throughout the U.S. and internationally. They became key platforms for antiwar, civil rights, black power and anti-establishment sentiment and politics at a time when the more established press would rarely carry these messages. During the same period, U.S. soldiers turned against the war and the military in increasing numbers and began producing their own underground press. In March 1969 the four U.S. military branches told the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee they had counted over 40,000 desertions during the 1967 fiscal year and over 53,000 in 1968. A 1971, then classified, internal report commissioned by the Pentagon reported that 58 percent of the Army enlisted men surveyed ‘cited the Vietnam War as the major cause of their dissident activities,’ with 38 percent complaining about ‘the way the Army treats the individual.’ Several military specialist were also sounding the alarm and warning about the possible collapse of the U.S. Armed Forces. In 1969 this phenomenon had become so evident it prompted the New York Times to comment, ‘a startling number of servicemen – some so sophisticated that they cite the Nuremberg trials as their guide – have decided to do their own thinking.’ Inspired in part by some of the early and more well-known of the civilian underground papers, like the Los Angeles Free Press and the Berkeley Barb, which started in 1964 and 1965 respectively, the GI versions began to emerge shortly thereafter. …”
Wikipedia
GI Movement Underground Newspapers at Fort Lewis
Underground GI newspapers (antimilitarist) 1965-1975