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GI Resister: The Story of How One American Soldier and His Family Fought the War in Vietnam

by Dick Perrin with Tim McCarthy

170 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0251; ISBN 1-55212-851-2; US$19.00, C$22.00, EUR15.50, £11.00

G.I. Resister is the powerful and intriguing memoir of Dick Perrin, a U.S. soldier who fought against American involvement in the Vietnam war.

Special Note: Dick Perrin and G.I. Resister are mentioned in Jane Fonda's autobiography, My Life So Far (Random House, April 2005)

Read more!

about the book      about the author      excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book G.I. Resister has to do with a nation so deeply cleaved by the ill-fated and unjust war in Vietnam that a generation later the United States has only just begun to heal. Perrin's story is a part of that, both in the hurt and the healing.

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About the Author The author has lived in Saskatchewan, Canada, for the last 32 years. He has been employed as an auto mechanic, political organizer and house renovator. He has three children. Papers, etc. relating to the book are now archived at UMass Boston. You can see how they have arranged it all at this site: www.lib.umb.edu/archives/perrin.html

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Excerpts

On the way home, Dick told me that he was not going back. Not going back? "No, I'm not going back." I was silent for a time and he seemed to take that as a sign of disapproval. "You don't have to get involved if you don't want to," he said. But I told him I was only thinking about how we might manage it and that, as it happened, we were heading for France that afternoon. Still, there was a cold sensation gripping my gut that reminded me that deserting the military, especially in wartime, was serious business and that young Dick Perrin was taking a possibly irrevocable leap that would land him God knows where.
(from the Foreword, page 2)

*****

I sure didn't want to be part of the killing and dying in Southeast Asia. Too many people I respected were saying it was wrong, that horror called the War in Vietnam. And they had reasons that made sense. Others talked about patriotism and defending the greatest country in the world. At the time I found something attractive in all the arguments and the upshot was that I enlisted.
(from pages 27-28)

*****

As they told their stories, you could watch them turn surly, aggressive, angry. They were kind of scary, a little spooky. It has taken me years to understand where that comes from in a man. The source, it seems to me, is fear, being downright scared. Maybe it is the fear of knowing what kinds of ugliness you are capable of, maybe the fear that you are losing control of a situation.
(from page 31)

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And I even got a letter signed by the commander, Colonel Richard Kerr. "Having been selected from a large group of your fellow soldiers is truly an honor, particularly in this early stage of your Army service," the letter said.

Man, Did I feel on top of the world that day. And wouldn't my Dad be proud!
(from page 33)

*****

Such an enormous struggle it was to experience a profound face-off between the values of what I considered my manly duties and the other values I thought one should embrace, values such as compassion and understanding. Shouldn't there be a damn good reason to allow oneself to be sent off to a distant land to kill people?
(from page 33)

*****

That night was another turning point, one of those thunderbolts that stop your life in its tracks, illuminate the possibility of another way. Sitting there in the dark, under a tree at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, I was determined to find out what in the world was going on. And why.
(from page 41)

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We arrived in Paris that noon. I needed help and we didn't have any contacts, so we looked up addresses in the phone book and started making the rounds of leftist political parties and publications... everyone was suspicious.

Finally late in the afternoon, when we were both dragging our asses a bit, some students at the Sorbonne told us about the Quakers. We drove around until we found the address.
(from page 66)

*****

I turned on the radio and heard that Black Power leader Stokely Carmichael was in Paris... the idea hit me: Why not appear at a news conference with Stokely?
(from page 74)

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Another new arrival at our house caught my attention because he was so neatly dressed and looked much "straighter" than most of the others. I think his name was Scott, but remember well that his family name was Udall. I asked him if he was related to Stuart Udall, who was U.S. Secretary of the Interior in Kennedy's cabinet. He said, "Yeah, he's my dad." I nearly fell off my chair.
(from page 132)

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The amazing turn in all of this is the role my mom was playing. Both my parents had undergone a major transformation... that was probably the first turning point. The second one came in December 1973, when Gloria Emerson interviewed them for The New York Times.
(from pages 140-141)

*****

Anyway, in the days that followed Mom and Dad drove me around Vermont, visiting friends, colleagues and relatives, showing off their prize, the fruition of their amnesty work. And you know, I think they were proud of me.
(from page 157)

*****

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Catalogue Information

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