Presidio mutiny

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Presidio mutiny
Part of the G.I. movement
The Presidio 27 sit-down protest on October 14, 1968. Private Walter Pawlowski is reading their demands.
DateOctober 14, 1968
Location
Presidio of San Francisco
MethodsSit-in
Resulted inArrest of protesters
Lead figures

Keith Mather

Walter Pawlowski

Randy Rowland

The Presidio mutiny was a

court martials for the participants (known as the Presidio 27) drew international attention to the extent of sentiment against the war within the U.S. military, and the mutiny became "[p]erhaps the single best known event of the domestic GI movement".[1]

Prelude

Several events and the overall conditions in the stockade set the stage for the protest. First, there was the death of Richard Bunch, a prisoner in the stockade, who was killed by a guard on October 11 with a shotgun blast to the back while walking away from a work detail. That evening there was a vocal protest inside the stockade against the killing; Keith Mather later called it "a miniature riot". On Sunday the 13th, prison officials held a memorial service and all the prisoners went "because he meant something to us." During the service the "chaplain stated it was justifiable homicide." This infuriated the prisoners who knew Bunch had been shot in the back and, according to one of the prisoners, "We started throwing chairs in every direction and yelling." Further heightening the tension, conditions in the stockade were overcrowded, with up to 140 prisoners housed in a space intended for 88, and there were charges of mistreatment by guards. One of the guards recalled later that the "place was extremely overcrowded...The conditions were atrocious."[2][3]: p.74 [4]: p.54 & 58 

The protest was set into motion, however, by a group of four

AWOL soldiers who turned themselves in at the end of a large anti-war march in San Francisco on October 12 near where the Presidio is located.[5] The military had made attempts to prevent service members from participating in the march, ordering up mandatory formations and special maneuvers which would keep men on base.[6] Nevertheless, a large contingent of several hundred active duty and reserve servicemen marched at the front of the parade.[6] The four AWOL soldiers (Linden Blake, Keith Mather, Walter Pawlowski, and Randy Rowland),[1] having been put in the stockade, met with prisoners over the weekend and convinced them to participate in a protest over prisoner conditions and against the war.[5]

The Presidio 27 sit-down protest on October 14, 1968 with Private Walter Pawlowski standing and reading their demands just prior to arrest

The protest

The protest was carried out during the morning formation on Monday the 14th. Twenty-eight prisoners broke ranks and sat in the grass, singing "We Shall Overcome".[7] One of them returned to ranks when challenged, but the remainder continued to sing, with Pawlowski reading a list of demands.[5] After the first orders to disperse were ignored, the camp commandant came and read the articles of mutiny. One of the protesters, Randy Rowland recalled later that fire trucks pulled up around them. He said, "We didn't know it at the time but later we found out they told the firemen to squirt us, and the firemen said no, we fight fires, we don't do this shit." Eventually the protest was broken up by military police in riot gear with "gas masks and their big sticks." They removed the protesters one at a time.[2][5][4]: p.56 

Button created by the supporters of the Presidio 27 soldiers who sat-down to protest their conditions and the Vietnam War in 1968

The trials, escapes and appeals

The protesters were all charged with mutiny, one of the most serious and rarest military offense, which carries a potential

Sixth Army.[2][9]

On appeal, the long sentences for mutiny were voided by the

Ft. Riley, Mather's lawyer Howard DeNike described his client as America's "last prisoner of conscience from the Vietnam War."[12]

Aftermath

Free the Presidio 27 - April 5 1969 New York City Peach March

The Presidio mutiny was the first of a number of protests and riots that drew attention to anti-war dissent within the military.

Captain Howard Levy, another early resister to the Vietnam War, eventually being decided by the Supreme Court in the controversial Parker v. Levy (1974).[14]

The book The Unlawful Concert by Fred Gardner (Viking Press, 1970) reviews the affair in detail. The Line, a 1980 movie, depicted a fictionalized version of events.[15] The episode is also examined in the 2005 documentary Sir! No Sir!, which examined the extensive military resistance to the Vietnam War.

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ a b c d Moser, Richard R. (1996). The New Winter Soldiers. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 74.
  2. ^ a b c d "Mutiny in the Presidio". Time. February 21, 1969. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
  3. ^ a b c d Gardner, Fred (1970). Unlawful Concert: An Account of the Presidio Mutiny Case. New York, New York: The Viking Press.
  4. ^
    ISBN 1879886324
    .
  5. ^ a b c d e Rowland, Randy. "The Presidio Mutiny". National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force. Archived from the original on 2008-11-19. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
  6. ^ a b Cortright, David (2005). Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War. Chicago: Haymarket Books. pp. 57, 58.
  7. ^ a b c "Presidio Mutiny Case - Barbed Beauty". St. Petersburg Times. April 12, 1969.
  8. ISBN 9781613321072
    .
  9. ^ Jeschke, Paul R. (January 28, 1969). "G.I.s Face Mutiny Charge Amid Protest in California". Columbia Missourian. UPI. p. 11. Retrieved 2008-11-25. [dead link]
  10. ^ Crowley, Walt; William Crowley (1997). Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle. University of Washington Press. p. 287.
  11. ^ Thompson, Erwin N. "Chapter XXI: Sixth U.S. Army, 1946-1980" (PDF). Defender of the Gate: The Presidio of San Francisco: A History from 1846 to 1995. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
  12. ^ "Vietnam War's "Last Prisoner of Conscience" Prepares for Freedom". Associated Press. April 9, 1985. Archived from the original on April 9, 2023.
  13. ISBN 9041100369
    .
  14. ^ Richard Parker. "Parker v. Levy (1974)". The First Amendment Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-04-01. Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University
  15. ^ Berg, Rick (1990). "Losing Vietnam: Covering the War in an Age of Technology". In Dittmar, Linda; Gene Michaud (eds.). From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American Film. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
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