United States Servicemen's Fund
The United States Servicemen's Fund (USSF) was a support organization for soldier and sailor resistance to the Vietnam War and the U.S. military that was founded in late 1968 and continued through 1973.
[1]: p.61 [2]: p.24 USSF described itself as supporting a GI defined movement "to work for an end to the Viet Nam war" and "to eradicate the indoctrination and oppression that they see so clearly every day.
"[3] USSF was started by several prominent anti-Vietnam War activists, including Army Captain and medical Doctor Howard Levy, initially working clandestinely from Leavenworth military prison where he had been sentenced for refusing to train Green Beret medics on their way to Vietnam; Fred Gardner, ex-Army reservist and founder of the first GI antiwar coffeehouse; Dr. Benjamin Spock and Professors Noam Chomsky; and Robert Zevin.
[4]: p.25 In 1967, Gardner moved to Columbia, South Carolina, near Fort Jackson, the U.S. Army's largest training base and site of Dr. Levy's resistance and court-martial.
[8] This led in mid-1968 to the formation of the Summer of Support (SOS) headed by soon to be Chicago Seven defendant Rennie Davis, which channeled money and people power towards more GI coffeehouses.
"[4]: p.27 The next two to three years were the height of the GI antiwar movement and USSF played a key role by supporting it financially and helping to tie it together through bulletins, newspapers, staff training and traveling activists who facilitated communication between projects.
A list of USSF sponsors and contributors shows that it was supported by many of the most prominent people in the antiwar movement, including (in addition to those mentioned above) Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, William Sloane Coffin, Ossie Davis, David Dellinger, James Forman, Betty Friedan, I.F.
As the GI movement grew, USSF was able to use its connections among GIs and with mainstream reporters to help spread stories the U.S. military was attempting to keep hidden.
He recalled passing GI stories on to the news media about secret B-52 bombing runs from Guam which, once revealed, generated increased antiwar sentiment.
[18] At a press conference in New York City, Fonda and Dr. Levy announced their plans to kick off the Tour in Fayetteville, North Carolina, near the Fort Bragg Army base.
[19]: p.275 All told, "between March and December of 1971, the show toured to over 64,000 troops, playing near, but never on, bases in North Carolina, California, Washington, Texas, Idaho, New Jersey, Okinawa, Japan, the Philippines, and Hawaii."
[20]: pp.75, 2 & 53 The historian Sarah King, quoting a The Washington Post reporter, described the show's popularity as "notable, considering the fact that 'it wasn't easy' for active-duty military personnel to attend FTA.
Their 1971 pamphlet The New Army listed almost thirty coffeehouses, movement centers, and local projects that had been created and were receiving USSF financial support.
The newspapers spread the word among GIs, "facilitated communication between individual projects", and gave activists and troops the sense that they were part of a broader GI movement".
During 1971 USSF began encouraging local projects to begin organizing GI wives and members of the Women's Army Corps or WACs.
In January 1973, the District Director of the Manhattan IRS office wrote that after "careful review" they did not think USSF met the definition of "educational" as set for by income tax regulations and rulings.
[28] The Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit legal advocacy organization focused on civil liberties, mounted a fierce defense of USSF.
[29] The USSF responded publicly in About Face saying it provided GIs "only a forum; it is the men and women of the military who control and determine the point of view.
"[30] By mid-1973 the IRS had backed down, dropping its revocation procedure, although according to Lauter it continued to audit the tax returns of USSF staff members, including his own.
Lauter, in a letter written to the New York Times, revealed that in March 1971 USSF files had been stolen containing confidential information about the organization's contributors and expenses.
[27][13]: p.184 The UFO antiwar coffeehouse in Columbia, South Carolina, which was the first of its kind and helped USSF get established, had its doors chained shut and its staff arrested by the local police after only a year of operation.
City leaders weren't just angry at the antiwar activities, prior to the arrests they made it clear that they were not comfortable with the counterculture atmosphere and interracial gatherings at the UFO.
In addition to providing logistical and financial support, it helped offer "a coherent narrative and sense of unity for troop dissent and embedded the existence of 'the GI movement' into the public consciousness."
[10]: pp.92–93 Historian Richard Moser has argued that USSF "enabled an international network of soldiers and veterans to pursue antiwar work among GIs.
[4]: p.25 Lauter spoke to how USSF projects helped GIs get "a taste of their own political power", and "perhaps most importantly [learn] a different kind of solidarity from the battlefield".
