Jeff Sharlet
Overview
Jeff Sharlet (1942-1969) was a Vietnam veteran who wanted to give the GI anti-war movement a voice during the Vietnam era. Once returning home from the war, Sharlet sought out to create change through demonstrations on college campuses. Upset by the lack of voice given to veterans who opposed the war, he launched the newspaper, Vietnam GI, in 1969 which would reach the hands of thousands of GIs in Vietnam and the United States.
Jeff Sharlet while in the United States Army during the Vietnam War (Courtesy of Robertsharlet, CC BY-SA 3.0).
Background
Jeff Sharlet grew up in New York in a middle class family, where he attended a military academy for his high school years. Upon graduation from high school, he began college, but realized he wanted to enlist in the United States Army. However, he was under the assumption that he would be able to learn a European language and be stationed in Europe. To Sharlet’s dismay, the Army sent him to a base in the Philippines where he translated Vietnamese radio calls from the Vietnam People’s Army (Wikipedia, Jeff Sharlet).
Although he was a peace activist during the Vietnam war era, Jeff Sharlet had also served in the United States Army Security Agency during the war, previous to his involvement with activism. Sharlet was in charge of translating Vietnamese radio calls at a US air base in the Philippines, but was moved to Vietnam multiple times during the course of his tour. While serving in the war, Sharlet grew uneasy with the politics behind US involvement in Vietnam and viewed the conflict as a civil war that did not need US intervention (Wikipedia, Jeff Sharlet).
Once his three-year tour was completed, he returned home and attended Indiana University where he assisted in organizing the school’s chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). It was during his time in SDS where he grew even more passionate about giving a voice to those who opposed the war, specifically Vietnam veterans. While attending Indiana University, Sharlet participated in and helped organize many on-campus protests with fellow SDS members. After graduating from Indiana University, Sharlet was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Graduate Fellowship and planned to pursue his PhD in political science at the University of Chicago. However, after the first semester he decided to pursue Vietnam activism full-time and withdrew from the graduate program (Wikipedia, Jeff Sharlet).
Vietnam GI
Sharlet launched Vietnam GI in 1968 which was tailored toward Vietnam veterans and those who were currently enlisted. The newspaper was a hit here in the states along with GIs overseas in Vietnam. Through that paper Sharlet encouraged negative peace because he wanted to give a voice to the GI anti-Vietnam war movement. His goal was to show that Vietnam veterans and GIs were opposed to the war in hopes that change would occur. His activism fits into the theme of negative peace because he began protesting against the war in 1964 when it had already been going on for nine years. He worked long hours on the newspaper and received hundreds of addresses to soldiers in Vietnam who all wanted to read the popular newspaper (Hunt 1999). He would continue working in peace activism during the Vietnam war era until he died in 1969 (Wikipedia, Jeff Sharlet).
Front page of Vietnam GI from March 1968 addressing the TET offensive. (use under Fair Use Law, Courtesy of Wikipedia).
Front page of Vietnam GI in 1968 addressing the issue of weaponry used in the Vietnam War (Used courtesy of "Searching for Jeff" blog, https://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/06/vietnam-gis-mission.html ).
Veteran Voices
In one of his interviews in Vietnam GI, Sharlet talked to a Platoon Sergeant who had spent about a year in Vietnam. The man stated that he first believed in the war, but then stated, “I got to see the people and got to talk to the people. I finally saw that it wasn’t worthwhile, and that they actually don’t want our help because it actually isn’t help” (Sharlet, Vietnam GI 1969). This was similar to Sharlet’s view of the war once he had served overseas in that he had lost faith in the United States’ mission in Vietnam. This soldier also started to question whether or not the US was actually helping or hurting the people in Vietnam.
Along with interviewing many soldiers himself, Sharlet made sure his opinions about the war were known, especially when he voiced his concern about the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. One quote in particular displayed his feelings of opposition to the war: “we are veterans of the Vietnam War. From our experience we know the Administration has lied to us and other Americans. Our being there had nothing to do with helping the Vietnamese people. Instead, we were there to keep in power a group of corrupt generals in Saigon who are hated and feared by most Vietnamese” (Sharlet, Vietnam GI 1968).
Sharlet did not support the war, and like many veterans, he saw no need for Americans to lose their lives over a civil war that was not theirs. Throughout Vietnam GI, Sharlet states that the US does not belong in the war and should withdraw involvement in hopes that one day they would remove themselves from the war.
An editorial written by Jeff Sharlet which discusses his opposition to the Vietnam War (Used courtesy of "Searching for Jeff" blog, https://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/06/vietnam-gis-mission.html ).
References
Jeff Sharlet, David Komatsu. 1969. “Vietnam GI", Independent Voices. Vietnam GI, 1–8.
Jeff Sharlet, David Komatsu. 1968. “Vietnam GI", Independent Voices.Vietnam GI, 1–4.
"Jeff Sharlet (activist)." Wikipedia, 29 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sharlet_(activist).
Hunt, Andrew E. The Turning : A History of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. New York: NYU Press, 1999.