Daniel J. Berrigan

When I turned to the NY Times this morning, as I do nearly every morning, I was saddened to learn of the death of Father Daniel J. Berrigan. He was a man – a Jesuit – a Catholic Priest – who had an enormous impact on my life and my thinking. And, Father Berrigan had a huge sense of fairness, righteousness and justice.
by Charlie Leck

I was surprised to learn from the obituary that Father Daniel J. Berrigan was born here in Minnesota in 1921 – to a father of Irish descent and a mother of German nationality. He came to my attention in the early sixties while I was struggling about the questions of racial injustice and about the senselessness of our nation’s war in Vietnam. Berrigan spoke boldly and clearly about both of these issues. And certainly, he must be regarded as one of the most important historical figures who early-on condemned the Vietnam war as gruesome, cruel and unnecessary.

Berrigan’s protest against the war was not just an academic matter, but he took to the streets and was willing to defy legal standards in order to awaken the nation to the “unrighteousness” of this war.

For instance, he and his brother, Philip, (also a priest) were arrested in 1967 for stealing draft records in Baltimore and pouring blood upon them. In 1968, Daniel and historian, Howard Zinn, traveled to Hanoi during the Tet Offensive to receive three American airmen who were being held as prisoners of war. After that he stepped up his very visible protests against the war and became a very recognized clergyman against our activities in Vietnam.

Because of Berrigan (and the young William Sloan Coffin, Jr.), I spoke from the pulpit of my church sometime during 1968 against the war and declared that Christians were called by Christ to stand in opposition to such unjust and unnecessary combat. I firmly believed it then and believe it as rigorously today.

Berrigan, however, took his protest to a new level. He accused and charged that America’s churches and synagogues were standing silent in the face of this unjust and unnecessary war.

Beginning in 1968, more and more prominent clergyman, all across America, began to speak up against the war and also joined protestors by marching in the streets, clogging traffic and making it difficult to enter or exit the entrances to federal buildings. I took part in such marches in 1968 and 1969 and Berrigan and Coffin were my constant inspirations.

So, I spent a few silent moments this morning thinking again of the toughness and faithfulness of Daniel J. Berrigan who died at the age of 94.

I recommend the obituary in the NY Times to you.

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When a war is wrong!

What is the most awful matter about a war that is wrong? It is asking warriors to kill people who do not deserve to be killed! It is those who kill who must live with the action and not the unfeeling government that sent them into war.
by Charlie Leck

“A nation that sends its young into war has an absolute responsibility to care completely for them when they return from such horror – a responsibility to heal up their physical, psychological and spiritual wounds and to never, ever abandon them – no matter the cost!”

I was among the protesters of the war in Vietnam. I took my stand in 1965. I was impressed with the arguments presented by Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.. I also had hours of discussion with an ethics professor in the graduate school I attended. I did not lightly take to the streets to protest this outrageous war.

The basic and underlying premise that was used to justify the war was wrong. The hawks, who promoted war against North Vietnam, claimed that the Asian nations would fall like dominoes into the hands communism if the war was lost by “democracy.”

History is on the side of the protesters. There are not any of us who do not believe that we were fighting against the war in order to stop the shipment of young lives into battles that severely endangered them. We did not oppose the service men and women. We supported them and protested for them. We were anxious for the day that they could be proudly brought home. We were willing, if necessary, to be criticized, beaten and even arrested. Often called cowards by unthinking people, my fellow protesters were among the bravest young men and women I have ever encountered.

The matter of war is the most serious decision a nation and its government ever makes. It was in the Korean War that administrations began avoiding their constitutional requirement to leave matters of declaring war to the Congress. We began to give our military actions other names – like “police actions!” Nonsense! They were wars!

A nation that sends its young into war has an absolute responsibility to care completely for them when they return from such horror – a responsibility to heal up their physical, psychological and spiritual wounds and to never, ever abandon them no matter the cost!

This morning I read a remarkable short editorial in the Christian Science Monitor (a publication that is regular reading for my wife and she pointed out this piece of wisdom). It concluded in this manner…

“Some happy day, war itself will be a fading memory. Until then, let’s never forget that the decision to go to war is a decision to put men and women into peril. At a minimum, we must keep faith with them afterward. And we can do better than the minimum. We can think long and hard – and longer and harder still – the next time we ask them to fight.”

History has shown that we should not have asked Americans to spill their blood and lose their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. To say so is not unpatriotic. To recognize the truth and to save the loss of American lives is the height of patriotism.

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1971 and the War in Vietnam Goes On

 Everyone supported the troops in Vietnam in the 1970s but very few people supported the war! That support was waning by the day and the presidency of Richard M. Nixon was crumbling and forced him into actions he never would have authorized in 1972 had the protesters in the streets not been so seriously damaging his policies.

by Charlie Leck

I loved the troops who were fighting for us in Vietnam. I respected them and thought them the bravest men about whom I’d ever heard. And, I wanted them brought home because I’d figured out that the war they were fighting was both unjust and internationally unneeded. I started speaking out publically about the war in 1968 and that year I joined the McCarthy movement against it and supported Gene McCarthy’s campaign for the Presidency.

Few people on the streets of America understood the war. They bought the simplistic explanation of the politicians who supported it – that we were fighting communism and its expansion. In fact, it was much more complex than that and the war had very little chance of U.S. success and thousands of American troops and innocent civilians were dying for undefined causes. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had erred in sending troops as advisers to South Vietnam’s military and President John F. Kennedy compounded the mistakes by increasing the number of troops and allowing them to take actions beyond providing advice. After Kennedy’s death (1963), President Lyndon Baines Johnson kicked the war into another gear and began pouring funds and troops into the effort to accomplish the unaccomplishable.

I began thinking seriously and thoughtfully about these questions in 1965. Led by a graduate school professor I greatly admired, I began reading the real histories of modern Vietnam and realized it was wrong and immoral to support the cruel and dictatorial government of South Vietnam. I began to have sympathy for the small groups that had begun to protest.

In the summer of ’67, emboldened by the growing size of the protest (yes, I’m admitting my earlier cowardice) I stepped out into the street to join my first protest. Along with hundreds of other people, I walked along Washington Avenue in Minneapolis, singing the songs of protest and urging other people to wake up and join us. The size of the protests in every city in America were now growing from hundreds to thousands. President Johnson’s response was to step up the bombing of the Vietnam countryside, killing more and more totally innocent citizens.

The first great break in the protest movement happened one March night in 1971, when a small band of young people found the courage to break into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. They stole documents that showed how furiously the FBI was working to stop the protesters in virtually any manner they could. I urge you to look at the short documentary video that the New York Times has produced called A HEIST THAT CHANGED HISTORY. It is a remarkable and absolutely intriguing report about young protesters, including Bonnie and John Raines, who broke into that FBI office and uncovered amazing and embarrassing evidence of activities that the FBI used to quash descent. Were the activities of the protesters criminal? Well, yes! Also noble and brave? Indeed!

By this time, Richard M. Nixon had become the President of the United States. He whole-heartedly supported the activities of J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI.

When the young protesters turned their evidence over to the Washington Post, holy hell broke out in America. President Nixon became apoplectic and began giving orders to find the people responsible. It is easy to trace the line between this event to Nixon's eventual break-in at the Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate Building in Washington.

You’ll be amazed as you watch this video that shows the young people responsible for the break-in at the FBI office in Media. Watch it here!

In addition, a new book, The Burglary, written by the reporter, Betty Medsger, to whom the young protesters turned over their stolen evidence, is now on the market and is amazing reading. And, Johanna Hamilton has done a documentary about the incident that I am told is really extraordinary. I plan to see it soon.

I hope you’ll watch this NY Times video. If you do, as you watch it, think about the recent “crimes” of Edward Snowden and allow yourself to wonder – just wonder – about whether it was a crime or an act of heroism.

More than 47,000 American troops died in the Vietnam War and more than 171,000 additional brave military men were wounded. Don’t tell me I “disrespected” the troops by protesting the war. I loved them and wanted them home where they belonged! And, with all my heart, I admire those brave American citizens who recognized the tragedy of that war and stood up to protest against it. My feeling of respect for Bonnie and John Raines is enormous.

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Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.