Edited by Luke Stewart
Haymarket
3/7/2023, paperback
SKU: 9781946511744
Staughton Lynd was one of the principal intellectuals and activists making the radical argument that the U.S. intervention in Vietnam was illegal under domestic and international law.
Lynd was uncompromising in his courageous stance that the U.S. should immediately withdraw from Vietnam, and that soldiers and draftees should refuse to participate in the war based on their individual conscience and the Nuremberg Principles of 1950.
Lynd did not just write about opposing the war, he was one of the chief proponents of direct action and civil disobedience to confront the war machine at the university, in the halls of power, and in everyday life through refusing to pay income taxes.
As Staughton Lynd's speeches, writings, statements and interviews demonstrate, there were coherent and persuasive arguments against the war in Vietnam based on U.S. and international law, precedents from American history, and moral and ethical considerations based on conscientious objection to war and an internationalism embraced by American radicals which said: "My country is the world, my countrymen are all mankind."
Reviews:
"Staughton Lynd led a truly exemplary life." -- Noam Chomsky
"This collection could not come at a more important moment, in the wake of Staughton Lynd's death, documenting his tireless writing and speaking to end the cruel US war of aggression against the Vietnamese people, an important intervention at this time of United States' renewed war mongering in the South China Sea." -- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, writer and historian, author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
"Over the course of their long and fruitful lives, Staughton and Alice Lynd have modeled what it means to be engaged citizens of a democracy. This rich collection of Staughton's writings and speeches in opposition to the Vietnam War affirms his place in the front rank of the American radical tradition. Trenchant and scathing, they have lost none of their power in the ensuing decades." -- Andrew Bacevich, author of On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century
"My Country Is the World is a brilliant and incisive text, taking us back to Staughton Lynd's days at the leadership, politically, personally and even spiritually, of the anti-Vietnam War movement. Lynd was the voice of the deep sentiments for peace, beyond the usual left-of-center opposition to the very heartland of opposition. He found that heartland before any others, and his contribution was vast." -- Paul Buhle, Senior Lecturer, Retired American Studies, Brown University
About the Editor:
Luke Stewart is a historian focusing on the antiwar movements during the Vietnam War and the global war on terror. He has co-edited Let Them Stay: U.S. War Resisters in Canada, 2004-2016. He currently lives in Nantes, France.