Title: GI Civil Liberties Defense Committee Records
Inclusive Dates: 1968-1971

Creator:

• GI Civil Liberties Defense Committee

Call Number: Mss 486; PH Mss 486

Quantity: 1.2 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 6 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of the GI Civil Liberties Committee, an organization (1968-1971?) which defended the constitutional liberties of members of the military who opposed U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam. Included are correspondence, press materials, and research files on the legal cases with which GICLDC was involved. The legal files consist of military forms, statements and affidavits, clippings, letters of support and other correspondence (including two letters from Bella S. Abzug and George S. McGovern). They best represent the case of the members of GIs United Against the War in Vietnam known as the “Fort Jackson 8.” Also present are good records of the litigation concerning Edmund Jurenas, Joseph D. Miles, and Allen Myers. Internal correspondence is generally routine, though it includes interesting exchanges between the national staff and lawyer Leonard B. Boudin, numerous individual soldiers, and committee sponsor Ruth Gage-Colby.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00486

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The GI Civil Liberties Defense Committee was a fund-raising and public information organization formed to defend the constitutional liberties of members of the military who opposed U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam. Much of the history of the GICLDC is quite sketchy, but it is known that it was organized by the fall of 1968, as its first press release was issued in September of that year. First national secretary was Matilde Zimmermann; she was succeeded by Stacey Seigle in November 1969. A host of notables including James Baldwin, Carl and Anne Braden, Noam Chomsky, Ruth Gage-Colby, Carleton B. Goodlett, Dick Gregory, Staughton Lynd, Floyd B. McKissick, and Norman Mailer lent their names to the group as sponsors, and until his death Bertrand Russell served as honorary chairman.

GICLDC headquarters were located in New York City, from which point it was able to cooperate closely with the Student Mobilization Committee Against the War in Vietnam and its GI Press Service. It also developed close working relationships with the Civil Liberties Legal Defense Fund, GIs United Against the War, and a number of GICLDC local chapters. In conjunction with these organizations and through its own activities GICLDC was instrumental in bringing many members of the military to the anti-war movement and in securing justice in individual cases. At the same time, publicizing the abridgements of soldiers' civil liberties helped to broaden the civilian support of the peace movement.

GICLDC's first success was the 1969 acquittal of Allen Myers, editor of the Fort Dix underground newspaper. The committee subsequently aided in other litigation, the most notable of which was the defense of the members of GIs United known as the “Fort Jackson 8.” Thanks to the publicity brought to bear on the case by GICLDC, charges against the group were dropped and all were given dishonorable discharges.

The records of the GICLDC represent a significant, though under-documented, aspect of the history of the anti-war movement of the late 1960's. Included are correspondence, press materials, research files on the various cases with which the group was involved, and miscellany. Taken together with a file of underground GI newspapers collected by GICLDC which were separated to the Library, the collection provides a fairly complete record of activities and concerns. Substantive documentation on the legal cases themselves, however, is not included. Beyond its evidentiary value, GICLDC's incoming correspondence provides a useful reflection of the anti-war sentiment in the military.

CORRESPONDENCE, which mainly dates from early 1969 through 1970, concerns a variety of topics ranging from occasional exchanges with lawyer Leonard B. Boudin who represented the “Fort Jackson 8,” to exchanges with individual soldiers reporting on sentiment on their respective posts, seeking counsel, or discussing development of their defenses. The outgoing correspondence, which was most often handed by Stacey Seigle and less frequently by Matilde Zimmermann, concerns assemblage of the sponsors list and routine arrangements for a fund-raising speaking tour by members of the “Fort Jackson 8.” Although the list of sponsors includes many prominent names (there are routine notes from Noam Chomsky, Jules Feiffer, Floyd McKissick, and Bertrand Russell), the correspondence suggests that only Ruth Gage-Colby of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was actively involved in the organization.

The public information aspect of GICLDC's activities is represented in a file of PRESS MATERIAL. These consist of press releases, primarily dating from September 1968 to January 1970, concerning the cases of Myers, Joseph D. Miles, and the “Fort Jackson 8.” There are also a few miscellaneous flyers, and releases issued by six GICLDC chapters. Five numbers of the GICLDC Newsletter, 1969-1971, have been transferred to the Library.

Actual involvement in litigation is best represented in the LEGAL DEFENSE RESEARCH FILES. Arranged alphabetically by post, with subdivisions as necessary for individuals, the files include copies of correspondence, military forms, statements sand affidavits, clippings, and letters of support. The files of the Edmund Jurenas case include official letters of inquiry from a number of national legislators, the most interesting of which were written by Bella S. Abzug and George McGovern. Like the press releases, the bulk of the research files concern the “Fort Jackson 8,” although there are good records of the Jurenas, Miles, and Myers cases.

MISCELLANY includes financial records for 1969, lists of sponsors, and photographs. The photographs include images of a protest parade against the Vietnam Conflict, probably in New Jersey, created by photographer Jack Fuerstein and an image of soldiers at Fort Jackson, S.C.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Stacey Seigle and the Library of Social History, via Barbara West, New York, New York, March 28, 1978. Accession Number: M78-137

Processing Information

Processed by Patricia Kryson Geschwent (Intern) and Carolyn Mattern, September 1979.

Mss 486 Box   1 Folder   1-3	Series: Correspondence, 1968-1971
	Series: Press Material	⇧
Box   1 Folder   4-5	Press releases, 1968, 1971
Box   1 Folder   6	Flyers, undated
Box   1 Folder   7	Regional office materials
Box   1 Folder   7	Cleveland, Ohio, 1969
Box   1 Folder   7	Columbus, S.C., 1969
Box   1 Folder   7	Detroit, 1969
Box   1 Folder   7	Los Angeles, Calif., 1969-1970
Box   1 Folder   7	Minneapolis, Minn., 1969
Box   1 Folder   7	Philadelphia, Pa., 1969
Box   1 Folder   8	Leaflets and notes re Department of Defense, undated
	Series: Legal Defense Research Files	⇧
Box   1 Folder   11	Fort Benning, Ga.
Box   1 Folder   11	Darby, Larry, 1969
Box   1 Folder   11	Glover, Edwin L., 1968-1969
Box   1 Folder   11	Goodman, James E., undated
Box   1 Folder   12	Fort Bliss, Texas, 1970
Box   2 Folder   1	Fort Bragg, N.C.
Box   2 Folder   1	Miles, Joseph, 1969
Box   2 Folder   1	Penn, Fredrick, 1969
Box   2 Folder   1	Riley, Jack, 1969
Box   2 Folder   2	Bragg Briefs, 1969-1970
Box   2 Folder   3	Fort Dix, N.J. (Myers, Allen), 1967-1969
Box   2 Folder   4-5	Fort Greely, Alaska (Jurenas, Edmund), 1971
Box   2 Folder   6	Fort Hood, Texas
Box   2 Folder   6	Bower, Robert H., 1969
Box   2 Folder   6	Chase, Richard, 1969
Box   2 Folder   6	Kos, Walter M., 1968-1969
	Fort Jackson, N.C. (”The Fort Jackson 8”), 1969
Box   2 Folder   7	General legal papers
Box   2 Folder   8	Letters of support
Box   3 Folder   1-2	Clippings, circa 1969
Box   3 Folder   3	Camp Lejeune, N.C. (Kukiel, Robert), 1969
Box   3 Folder   4	Miscellaneous legal materials, undated
	Series: Miscellany	⇧
Box   1 Folder   9	Financial material, 1969
Box   1 Folder   10	Sponsor lists, undated
PH Mss 486	Photographs