What our movement could stop

Debra Sweet | April 4, 2023

joeu
We're interested in hearing from anyone who watched the new documentary The Movement & the Madman, streaming now on PBS.org. It premiered last week and pulled together the largely unknown and shocking story that Nixon and Kissinger activated the military in fall 1969 to use nuclear weapons on what was then North Vietnam. The film shows evidence that the anti-war Mobilization to stop the war, with huge protests on October 15 and November 15, curbed their plans.  

Joe Urgo, one of the speakers for WeAreNotYourSoldiers, is interviewed in the film, where he describes being based by the Air Force near Atlantic City in October 1969 when nuclear weapons were loaded into jets and kept on the tarmac. He noted being "freaked out" that his unit was told nothing as they went on Def Con 2, the last stage before war.
Debra heard Joe speak Sunday outside the Times Square military recruiting center, where he signed up for the Air Force in 1966. They joined a protest of revcoms demanding NO World War III - No US/NATO War on Russia! Stop the Threats to China! Joe told of guarding nuclear weapons, then being sent to Vietnam, and then back to guarding the nukes. His time in Vietnam changed his understanding which led him to Vietnam Veterans Against the War and a trip to HIroshima to meet hibakusha, people who lived through the U.S. nuclear attack.

There's a lot more to Joe's story, and I hope to share video of it soon.

But the huge need now is to wake people up to the danger of nuclear war built into the U.S./NATO war on Russia fought over Ukraine, and the U.S. military encirclement of and threats to China. Write us about that also!

About

World Can't Wait mobilizes people living in the United States to stand up and stop war on the world, repression and torture carried out by the US government. We take action, regardless of which political party holds power, to expose the crimes of our government, from war crimes to systematic mass incarceration, and to put humanity and the planet first.