03/27/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 03/27/2024 16:23
Marquette will host "Waging Peace in Vietnam: U.S. Soldiers and Veterans who Opposed the War," a traveling exhibition and program highlighting resistance during the Vietnam War by active-duty U.S. service members and veterans, April 1-17.
The exhibition, which will feature "Dissent and Resistance Within the Military" on display at Raynor Library, is co-sponsored by the Marquette Center for Peacemaking and will also host speakers, a musical performance, and films to promote healing and reconciliation.
The exhibition documents the little-known history of how the "GI Movement" for peace unfolded and how opposition and resistance from within all branches of the military helped bring about the end of the war. It has been touring for four years, with exhibitions at 24 university campuses throughout the U.S. and Vietnam.
"Waging Peace in Vietnam" and its companion book show how the GI Movement grew from the numerous anti-war coffeehouses springing up outside military bases and hundreds of GI newspapers giving an independent voice to active soldiers, to the strikes and near-mutinies on naval vessels and within the Air Force.
Events at Marquette during the exhibit's run include:
All events are free and open to the public. A full schedule and individual event registration where necessary is available online at the Center for Peacemaking website.
Related exhibits will simultaneously be on display at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison and Polk Library on the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus. Milwaukee Veterans for Peace, Peace Action of Wisconsin, United Nations Association of Greater Milwaukee, and the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice are co-sponsors of the Marquette exhibit.
Housed within the Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, the Center for Peacemaking contributes to instruction, research and community engagement at the university. For the past 10 years, the center, through its Peace Works program, has helped behavioral reassignment schools, traditional schools, Catholic schools and youth-serving agencies teach young people to modify behaviors while simultaneously working to increase young people's connections to their schools and protective factors from violence.