Shot in 1968, this is a critical yet sympathetic examination of the anti-war…
Investigation of a Flame

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- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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"Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house... The time is past when good men can remain silent, when obedience can segregate men from public risk, when the poor can die without defense."
— The Catonsville Nine
On May 17, 1968 nine Vietnam War protesters, including a nurse, an artist and three priests, walked into a Catonsville, Maryland draft board office, grabbed hundreds of selective service records and incinerated them with homemade napalm.
INVESTIGATION OF A FLAME is an intimate look at this unlikely, disparate band of resisters - the Catonsville Nine as they came to be known - who broke the law in a poetic act of civil disobedience. The publicity and news coverage from the ensuing trial helped galvanize an increasingly disillusioned American public.
INVESTIGATION OF A FLAME explores this protest - an action more common in the 1960's - within in the context of these extremely different times, times in which foes of Middle East peace agreements, abortion and technology resort to violence to access the public imagination.
Filmmaker Lynne Sachs has combined long unseen archival footage with a series of informal interviews of Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Howard Zinn, John Hogan, Tom Lewis, and Marjorie and Tom Melville to encourage viewers to ponder the relevance of such events today.
"This is a documentary about the protest events that made Catonsville, Maryland, an unpretentious suburb... a flash point for citizens resistance at the height of the war."—New York Times
"A highly personal, compelling 'anti-documentary' record of a once celebrated, now forgotten protest."—San Francisco Weekly
"To those who think that everything in a society and its culture must move in lock step at times of crisis, INVESTIGATION OF A FLAME might seem to be off-message. But the film is in essence patriotic... saluting U.S. democracy as it pays homage to the U.S. tradition of dissent."—The Baltimore Sun
"Very well done (and it told me things I didn't know). A fine job of mixing the interviews, original footage... In particular, it makes clear what civil disobedience REALLY means."—Professor James Patterson, Ford Foundation Professor of History, Brown University
"Artfully revisits this footnote to recent history... Sachs cannily avoids the usual documentary dance of talking heads and file footage by interspersing impressionistic shots. [The film] provides a potent reminder that some Americans are willing to pay a heavy price to promote peace."—Baltimore City Paper
"Excellent and Highly Recommended!. Contributes to a better understanding of the non-declared war era."—Historical Media Review
Citation
Main credits
Sachs, Lynne (film producer)
Sachs, Lynne (film director)
Sachs, Lynne (director of photography)
Sachs, Lynne (editor of moving image work)
Distributor subjects
American Studies; Christianity; Civil Rights; Cold War Era; Conflict Resolution; Ethics; Political Science; Politics; Religion; Social Movements; Vietnam EraKeywords
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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:0
00:15.279 --> 00:16.969
If I should leave.
00:23.700 --> 00:25.500
To remember all the
00:30.969 --> 00:31.969
long day.
00:38.799 --> 00:39.939
And just got
00:58.689 --> 01:03.689
Tonight, the cup of peril is full in Vietnam.
01:04.999 --> 01:08.388
Tonight, as so many nights before.
01:09.080 --> 01:14.910
Young Americans struggle and young Americans
die in a distant land.
01:16.029 --> 01:22.230
Tonight, as so many nights before, the American
nation is asked to sacrifice the blood of its
01:22.230 --> 01:25.430
children and the fruits of its labor for the
love of its freedom.
01:28.739 --> 01:35.580
And just as our country's
01:35.580 --> 01:37.769
independence rests in large measure.
01:38.760 --> 01:43.599
On confidence in America's word and in
America's protection.
01:43.720 --> 01:49.199
We would undermine the independence of another or
abandon much of Asia to the domination of
01:49.199 --> 01:50.199
communism.
01:56.160 --> 02:01.150
And we do not intend to abandon Asia to
conquest.
02:09.699 --> 02:15.889
The ancient Israelites used to believe that
in the stream of blood in a person's body,
02:16.378 --> 02:23.029
the spirit reigned, a pretty accurate depiction
of the reality.
02:23.809 --> 02:30.250
Yeah, and in biblical lore too, blood is
the sign of the covenant.
02:30.899 --> 02:36.300
Between God and, not too many years ago,
Vietnam was peaceful,
02:36.339 --> 02:37.979
if troubled and full of anger.
02:38.869 --> 02:45.550
And I certainly didn't like the idea of.
02:46.539 --> 02:51.669
An old general sitting behind the lines.
02:52.929 --> 02:55.949
Serving me up on a platter in Vietnam.
02:56.800 --> 02:58.389
And if.
02:59.350 --> 03:04.419
The Vietnamese were being killed, you could do
a commensurate.
03:05.160 --> 03:07.699
You would do something strong, something risky.
03:12.679 --> 03:18.779
The world was getting worse and young draft
resisters had actually started to burn their
03:18.779 --> 03:22.250
draft cards, which meant they were sent to Allenwood
for two years.
03:22.619 --> 03:29.539
They really led the way, those 18-year-olds, 17-
year-olds who went to prison.
03:30.830 --> 03:34.710
And we said, well, let's do something to
these draft records.
03:35.460 --> 03:37.580
And that's how we
03:38.350 --> 03:42.869
emerged with the idea of putting blood on those
records, first of all to show what they are,
03:42.910 --> 03:46.229
they are blood. Blood is real, that's not paper.
03:54.440 --> 04:00.830
All of us active in the interfaith peace
mission walked in to the door
04:01.350 --> 04:07.880
of the main Selective Service headquarters in
Baltimore with little
04:07.880 --> 04:11.080
containers of blood in our pockets.
04:11.979 --> 04:16.369
And we had looked at the place before
because we wanted to be sure, you know, that
04:16.369 --> 04:22.779
there would be no, if there were armed guards,
we just wanted to be
04:23.279 --> 04:29.670
clear about what we were doing, and then what we
would do, it would be nonviolent, uh
04:30.480 --> 04:32.320
uh,
witness
04:38.739 --> 04:44.750
This covenant, this agreement between God and
us is sealed in Christ's blood.
04:45.079 --> 04:49.649
This is the blood of the covenant, as he said
before he went to his execution.
04:50.760 --> 04:54.160
Uh, but anyway, this was all misunderstood.
04:55.260 --> 05:01.549
And you are using blood, and it was
denounced and, uh, misinterpreted and
05:01.549 --> 05:06.260
ridiculed.
So since we're so strongly opposed to the war,
05:06.429 --> 05:09.660
we started
thinking about other symbols.
05:14.329 --> 05:19.179
And then we published an ad against the war.
I think it's the biggest ad published against
05:19.179 --> 05:21.160
the war in the whole time.
05:21.500 --> 05:26.320
Two pages, yes, a two-page spread in the Baltimore
Sun.
05:26.359 --> 05:32.190
We knew that Johnson read that paper,
that's one of the three or four papers he read,
05:32.480 --> 05:35.399
so we joked about it, you know, our little
vision of
05:36.350 --> 05:40.869
Johnson taking a crap the next morning and
opening the Baltimore Sun and seeing a
05:40.869 --> 05:44.149
two-page spread with a promise that more was to
come.
05:45.239 --> 05:48.950
And we will stay until aggression has stopped.
06:02.519 --> 06:06.309
Well, this is the story of the infamous
incident at Catonsville,
06:06.320 --> 06:09.320
Maryland, in May of '68.
06:10.399 --> 06:16.899
My brother's involvement, of course, went back
to '67 because he and three others had
06:16.899 --> 06:21.029
already poured their blood on draft files in
the inner city of Baltimore.
06:22.450 --> 06:25.119
Um, and they were out.
06:26.059 --> 06:30.299
Awaiting sentencing, and Philip came up to
Cornell and
06:31.359 --> 06:34.480
stayed overnight. I guess we stayed up most of
the night talking.
06:35.529 --> 06:38.640
And he said, uh, some of us are going to do it
again.
06:40.279 --> 06:44.619
And you're invited.
Whereupon I began to quake in my boots.
06:47.160 --> 06:51.609
It had really never occurred to me that I would
take part in something that
06:52.769 --> 06:55.850
serious, as far as consequences went.
06:58.100 --> 07:00.950
But the idea of putting myself into the
07:02.339 --> 07:03.579
furnace of the king,
07:04.850 --> 07:06.320
uh, or being thrown there,
07:07.339 --> 07:09.910
was pretty shocking and new.
07:11.230 --> 07:17.769
So I told Philip, give me a few days to think
this over and pray over
07:17.769 --> 07:20.290
it, and I'll let you know.
07:21.260 --> 07:26.200
So I did, I went through some very serious soul
searching and, um,
07:28.079 --> 07:29.470
talk to my family.
07:30.829 --> 07:36.679
And, um, couldn't see, I, I will put it
negatively, I couldn't see any reason not to do.
07:36.679 --> 07:41.279
It.
I didn't want to do it, but I couldn't not do it.
08:00.049 --> 08:04.440
By the time the Kingsville 9 action happened,
they had switched from blood to fire.
08:16.170 --> 08:19.609
The enemy is no longer closer to victory.
08:20.549 --> 08:23.019
Time is no longer on his side.
08:24.049 --> 08:27.890
There is no cause to doubt the American
commitment.
08:47.400 --> 08:52.539
And decency and unity and love. Amen.
08:55.479 --> 09:00.780
And reunite, identify what they're in.
09:11.289 --> 09:12.650
Unite by taking our matches.
09:14.320 --> 09:15.320
Approaching the fire.
09:22.320 --> 09:28.950
The idea of going into a selective service
office, taking out files and then
09:28.950 --> 09:34.659
taking them outside where there would be no
danger to the building or to any people, and
09:34.659 --> 09:40.659
burning them with napalm—that would be homemade
napalm, according to the handbook that
09:40.659 --> 09:42.090
the Green Berets had.
09:42.489 --> 09:49.330
And it says it was just gasoline and soap
suds.
09:49.330 --> 09:51.059
Not soap suds, but
09:51.479 --> 09:56.599
Ivory flakes, the soap powder, and you
stir it into the gas.
09:56.640 --> 09:59.960
You're supposed to actually heat the gas, and
we figured the heck with that.
10:00.039 --> 10:03.599
But they just stirred it into the gas until it
jelled a little bit.
10:04.640 --> 10:07.809
Which was our napalm.
10:08.539 --> 10:13.400
The idea of it though, how it sticks, sticks
to people,
10:13.469 --> 10:19.030
you know, and you can't pat out the fire; it's
just going to stick to you and continue to burn
10:19.030 --> 10:23.789
you is, to me, just overwhelming to think
about that and using that.
10:26.229 --> 10:28.299
Bureaucracy is fantastic.
10:28.789 --> 10:31.900
We walked in and nobody would look at us.
10:32.549 --> 10:34.270
Tom came up and started reading.
10:35.080 --> 10:40.150
We are a group of clergymen and laymen
concerned about the war.
10:41.270 --> 10:43.359
And nobody would look up.
10:45.460 --> 10:48.659
Based on the situation now, we can't participate.
10:50.020 --> 10:56.429
I was sitting at my desk doing my work, and
these two ladies were
10:56.950 --> 10:58.340
in the office with me.
10:58.869 --> 11:02.630
I noticed a gentleman came up in the hall
outside there, and I said,
11:02.710 --> 11:04.299
Yes, sir, may I help you?
11:04.869 --> 11:08.950
And so then, right on top of him, came
another man.
11:10.400 --> 11:13.880
And then
he started to come in; he looked right,
11:14.059 --> 11:16.789
he looked, looked in here, and then he looked
over there,
11:17.479 --> 11:19.469
and he said, uh,
11:20.359 --> 11:23.080
Uh, they walked into the office, and I said,
Well, what can I do for you?
11:23.090 --> 11:26.150
And with that, then all the rest of them came
all of a sudden,
11:27.000 --> 11:31.739
quickly.
And, uh, the one man with the trash burner,
11:32.369 --> 11:39.320
he went around to my files and stood there and
started dumping files into this trash burner,
11:39.690 --> 11:43.679
and this one I tried to prevent it, and this
one man,
11:44.409 --> 11:49.179
uh, attempted to stop me from doing it and, uh,
he did,
11:49.450 --> 11:50.729
he did succeed.
11:51.289 --> 11:53.690
I, I felt that.
11:54.580 --> 11:57.820
That we were doing the right thing by being
there because.
11:58.590 --> 12:05.369
I was sold on the idea that we were trying to
fight communism in that part of the of the
12:05.369 --> 12:11.840
world and that China and the other countries
might be involved and that I thought
12:12.530 --> 12:19.409
I figured that we were a free country and and
and and had all the uh all
12:19.409 --> 12:23.239
the benefits of being in a free country and I.
12:23.909 --> 12:28.619
was all for helping out any country that could
fight communism,
12:29.229 --> 12:36.020
so I never even thought about being in the
draft board except for helping my country
12:36.309 --> 12:40.909
and the boys that were going over and actually
fighting for that war.
12:40.989 --> 12:42.659
I was trying to help them.
12:44.020 --> 12:50.820
Particularly ones that had gone for long years
before and had to have some relief by
12:50.820 --> 12:56.979
sending them new recruits, that's what happened
when you drafted new people you were able to
12:56.979 --> 13:00.750
send them the people that were already over
there finding some help.
13:00.979 --> 13:03.059
Poor old Mrs.
Murphy, they grabbed her.
13:03.260 --> 13:07.340
I think there was a tussle and there was a
throwing like she was defending her turf and in
13:07.340 --> 13:10.489
order to get to the records they had to get her
out of the way.
13:11.049 --> 13:13.460
Um, I mean that's an assault.
13:13.710 --> 13:17.409
That's not the way you, it's not the way, uh,
we're supposed to react to each other as
13:17.409 --> 13:21.320
citizens.
We'll take you to the station.
13:22.349 --> 13:28.159
You had to draft people in order to
13:29.010 --> 13:33.849
replenish our forces in Vietnam where we had
half a million troops.
13:35.460 --> 13:40.559
So when you started messing with selective
Service, you were messing with the core of the
13:40.559 --> 13:41.559
whole war effort.
13:48.979 --> 13:50.169
We're all part of this.
14:01.580 --> 14:04.690
a symbolic message ring home to the American
people that.
14:06.390 --> 14:11.169
American people throughout the world and
especially Vietnam are suffering from napalm.
14:12.609 --> 14:14.159
These files are also.
14:15.380 --> 14:21.250
Napalm He lives in the Saint Peter. Amen.
14:28.049 --> 14:33.190
We think also of those negotiating in Paris and
we ask through this action that they take their
14:33.719 --> 14:39.440
work seriously, especially the Americans, and
understand that Americans are able to undergo
14:39.840 --> 14:42.710
some risk in the name of justice.
14:44.489 --> 14:45.969
In the name of the dead.
14:47.799 --> 14:51.390
It was like just trying to put a log in the
path of the government,
14:51.479 --> 14:56.760
you know, to try to stop it, to stop and
reconsider what's going on here,
14:56.919 --> 15:02.280
you know.
And, you know, it's like a minuscule
15:02.280 --> 15:06.989
little log that you're getting into,
but, uh.
15:07.789 --> 15:13.429
What I wanted to do, anyway, I said, it was like
it was similar to children on a bus coming
15:13.429 --> 15:18.219
down the hill on the bus, and it was a runaway
bus, and then what you really had to do was like
15:18.590 --> 15:22.679
uh.
Something was gonna, you had to smash into it,
15:22.809 --> 15:27.289
into this other vehicle that was
gonna smash into the children in order to stop
15:27.289 --> 15:31.799
it so that you would prevent the kids from
getting injured or hurt.
15:32.750 --> 15:35.859
And I still think that Catonsville was.
15:36.559 --> 15:38.630
That was, uh.
15:39.510 --> 15:44.140
Just a little attempt at trying to stop
the war.
15:44.299 --> 15:48.000
3210.
15:48.510 --> 15:54.109
We have commit, we have, we have lift off, lift
off at 7:51.
16:11.210 --> 16:13.030
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven.
16:13.520 --> 16:19.760
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
16:19.760 --> 16:24.340
against us, and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
16:25.000 --> 16:30.729
Amen.
You might say almost the residue of Pope John
16:30.729 --> 16:37.440
the 23rd's ideas are spread throughout the
Catholic,
16:37.609 --> 16:41.159
you know, American Catholic world, and
these guys all kind of came up.
16:41.890 --> 16:46.320
To meet the brigands, so it's kind of
interesting that he kind of called them out.
16:46.530 --> 16:51.530
What does that mean?
What does Pope, Pope John the 23rd was the guy
16:51.530 --> 16:56.250
who, um, the first thing he did when he went to
the Vatican was open up the curtains and say,
16:56.289 --> 17:01.880
let's let some light
into this church. He, more than any pope,
17:01.880 --> 17:08.719
since or before, called for the resuscitation of the social gospel, that the
church has to be about fighting poverty and
17:08.719 --> 17:12.589
fighting oppression and fighting war.
17:12.959 --> 17:17.239
So I, I think that, um, I mean you can ask them
themselves, but I think all these folks are
17:17.239 --> 17:22.920
definitely children of John the 23rd
spiritually, and that's one kind of liberation
17:22.920 --> 17:28.168
theology.
Uh, which Pope John Paul has really quashed
17:28.659 --> 17:32.808
came to the fore, you know, the whole idea that
the gospel has to be a living thing,
17:33.298 --> 17:34.609
even revolutionary.
17:39.280 --> 17:44.719
Well, this was a former priest and former nun,
and they had met in Guatemala and fallen in
17:44.719 --> 17:51.640
love, married, and came back. Their whole
focus, as far as the child was concerned and the
17:51.640 --> 17:57.959
action, was to shed light upon the
betrayal of Guatemala by the US government.
18:03.390 --> 18:05.339
She's up there in the mountains, and what am I
gonna do?
18:06.599 --> 18:13.079
Stand around and baptize and say mass? You
know I can't do that, so she got me more
18:13.079 --> 18:15.800
involved in Guatemala, and I got her involved in
Catonsville.
18:15.849 --> 18:18.400
It's kind of the reverse of it, you know, she
said.
18:19.380 --> 18:22.800
Well, the only way we can maintain our
relationship is that
18:23.619 --> 18:24.839
that we go through it together.
18:29.819 --> 18:36.800
I was still full of the possibilities of a real
revolution taking place and a change
18:37.050 --> 18:41.479
where there would be greater justice, and
then I just started thinking,
18:41.530 --> 18:45.250
how does anyone dare go against the power of
the United States?
18:45.310 --> 18:49.369
The United States isn't with you, even though
your cause is just.
18:50.410 --> 18:52.819
Uh, forget it.
Not only are we killing people,
18:53.670 --> 18:56.750
mm, violent, physical war.
18:57.630 --> 19:03.199
But we are also killing them through the
extension of our economic-political empire.
19:04.089 --> 19:08.969
Let us also pray for all those people that are
dying from hunger and starvation throughout the
19:08.969 --> 19:12.680
world, so that Americans can have a higher
standard of living.
19:15.170 --> 19:20.609
When people started calling me a communist,
then I said, now I understand you're a communist
19:20.609 --> 19:24.930
when you're looking for social justice. You're a
communist when you're looking for the rights of
19:24.930 --> 19:31.530
the underdog. Uh, that's the way they use the
label, and so that for me became a
19:31.530 --> 19:36.560
huge change, and I began to see US foreign
policy in a whole different light.
19:40.469 --> 19:42.939
Now we're looking straight down over Australia
now.
19:43.930 --> 19:49.880
All right.
Part of the world.
19:51.390 --> 19:52.880
With him, fantastic.
19:56.189 --> 19:59.739
That each one of us, I think that each one of
the, each one,
20:00.199 --> 20:04.140
carries his own impression of what, of what he's
seen today.
20:04.869 --> 20:06.420
I know my own impression and.
20:12.680 --> 20:19.079
But we were frankly worried about the state of
euphoria that was beginning to set in on the
20:19.079 --> 20:23.109
public mind about how easy this particular
thing was.
20:24.199 --> 20:25.869
You'll light a match at the pad.
20:26.520 --> 20:27.709
The bird goes up.
20:28.479 --> 20:31.189
Everything's great.
Guys come back down again.
20:31.520 --> 20:36.479
You've got some heroes.
I remember our one friend who gave us a flag.
20:37.130 --> 20:44.069
And he, you remember him, Rita, and he, I thought
he had three little children and
20:44.069 --> 20:48.780
he was a helicopter pilot and he was very, he
was a recruiter too,
20:49.030 --> 20:55.760
but then they called him back to active service
as a helicopter pilot and he died. He was killed
20:56.069 --> 21:02.949
in the war and things like that happened all
during our time of service and we were strictly
21:02.949 --> 21:06.020
for the men who served and for our country.
21:06.469 --> 21:10.540
So we, whether or not the government was right
or wrong,
21:10.790 --> 21:13.530
I'm not, I'm not in a position to know.
21:13.910 --> 21:19.910
I had to take it, take what was told to me at
that time and what I understood.
21:20.930 --> 21:26.449
At that time, so I don't know whether it was
right or wrong or why or who or what.
21:26.810 --> 21:30.290
We just try to help, we just try to help
out.
21:31.099 --> 21:37.160
To make our boys as safe as we could and send
them people to help them when we could.
21:48.079 --> 21:53.810
So.
I can see
21:56.760 --> 22:01.229
It is young men dying in the fullness of their
promise.
22:03.319 --> 22:08.390
It is trying to kill a man that you do not even
know well enough to hate.
22:10.630 --> 22:12.900
It is a crime against mankind.
22:13.930 --> 22:16.449
so long on the fires of war and death.
22:18.599 --> 22:25.449
Napalm, which was made from information and from
a formula
22:25.910 --> 22:32.209
in the United States Special Forces handbook
published by the
22:32.819 --> 22:35.849
School of Special Warfare of the United States.
22:39.660 --> 22:42.339
We all had a hand in making the napalm.
22:43.030 --> 22:44.209
It was used here today.
22:50.890 --> 22:54.800
These were folks who went to burn records that
they felt had no right to exist.
22:55.449 --> 23:00.969
Well, if everybody who feels that certain
records don't have a right to exist or are entitled
23:00.969 --> 23:04.880
to do that, uh, there is not only anarchy,
there is a,
23:04.890 --> 23:10.290
uh.
Uh, tearing of the social fabric that is,
23:10.329 --> 23:14.510
that is intolerable, and I didn't feel any, uh,
uh.
23:15.420 --> 23:20.319
Uh, sense of guilt or or or.
23:21.040 --> 23:26.270
Uh, regret at, uh, prosecuting what I regarded
as, uh,
23:26.280 --> 23:33.079
as excessive, arrogant in attempts to inflict
their views on
23:33.079 --> 23:37.729
others. Uh, that's not the way a democracy is, uh,
supposed to work.
23:37.760 --> 23:41.479
You, you, um, you can't burn what you hate.
23:42.849 --> 23:47.170
We regret very much, uh, I think all of us, the
inconvenience and even the suffering that we
23:47.170 --> 23:48.939
brought to these clerks here.
23:50.000 --> 23:55.859
It was done so quickly and we had hoped that
they wouldn't be so excitable over a few files.
23:56.349 --> 24:01.069
It's very hard to bring home to people exactly
what they're doing by being custodians of such
24:01.069 --> 24:07.400
files.
And, uh, we certainly want to see publicly
24:07.400 --> 24:08.790
our apologies for hurting them.
24:11.300 --> 24:18.180
And we tried to interpose ourselves between
them and those who were, uh, gaining the
24:18.180 --> 24:21.170
draft files here on the ground from the
cabinets themselves.
24:22.939 --> 24:29.819
Um, but I think we, in a sense, we, uh, we were
a little unsuccessful because we did have to
24:29.819 --> 24:33.329
struggle a bit with them, and I'd just like to
repeat what Dan has said.
24:33.339 --> 24:36.339
We sincerely hope we didn't injure anyone.
24:39.540 --> 24:43.469
Um, when I tended to be too damn angry.
24:44.479 --> 24:49.050
All the time I was ashamed of this country and
what we were doing in Vietnam.
24:49.760 --> 24:55.689
And I was ashamed to be an American and I was
angry as hell over it.
24:56.260 --> 25:01.219
You know, and while I would never raise a hand
against another human being.
25:01.979 --> 25:05.329
Uh, there was too much contempt in me.
25:06.030 --> 25:10.050
And, and, and too much hatred of the system
here.
25:11.150 --> 25:17.750
Forgetting, of course, that the system is made up
of people and, uh, according to our tradition and
25:17.750 --> 25:23.420
our religion and according to our scripture,
we're obligated to love the people.
25:24.189 --> 25:29.349
We're obligated to love even our enemies.
We're obligated to love the people and there
25:29.349 --> 25:32.270
wasn't much of that in my makeup in those days.
25:33.609 --> 25:38.209
Um, yet at the same time I was deeply convinced
even then.
25:39.410 --> 25:46.140
Of the necessity for direct action and, uh, now
uh I know that it
25:46.140 --> 25:51.810
is the only, uh, it's the only resource that, that
people have.
25:58.709 --> 26:04.349
Well, the Catonsville episode called to mind
then the life of a great Catholic lawyer,
26:04.390 --> 26:08.260
the patron saint really of, uh, of all lawyers,
uh, Thomas More.
26:08.390 --> 26:12.219
And the scene, um, that, uh, makes this point.
26:12.969 --> 26:17.760
Uh, best is a scene in which More is about to
be betrayed by a,
26:18.130 --> 26:22.729
a disappointed office seeker, and More's
family urges More to arrest him because he's
26:22.729 --> 26:29.569
bad, and More, the lawyer, says there's no law
against that and his self-righteous
26:29.569 --> 26:35.449
son-in-law Roper says there is God's law.
More says then let God arrest him and the
26:35.449 --> 26:38.969
impatient son-in-law says what sophistication
upon sophistication.
26:39.449 --> 26:42.010
Sheer simplicity, says More.
The law, Roper,
26:42.130 --> 26:45.479
the law.
I know what's legal, not what's right,
26:45.729 --> 26:47.209
and I'll stick to what's legal.
26:48.569 --> 26:51.640
Roper says you said man's law above God's?
26:52.280 --> 26:55.920
No, far below, says More, but let me draw your
attention to a fact,
26:55.969 --> 26:57.760
Roper.
I'm not God.
26:58.170 --> 27:02.810
The currents and the eddies of right and wrong,
would you find such plain sailing?
27:02.930 --> 27:04.189
I can't navigate.
27:04.569 --> 27:09.489
I'm no voyager, but in the thickets of the law,
there, I'm a forester.
27:09.500 --> 27:12.560
I doubt there's a man alive who could follow me
there, thank God.
27:12.609 --> 27:16.400
He said, and his wife then says, while you talk,
he's gone.
27:16.609 --> 27:17.969
The bad guy is getting away.
27:18.689 --> 27:23.380
And go he should, says Moore, if he was the
devil himself until he broke the law.
27:23.819 --> 27:28.579
And Roper, now outraged, says, so now you give
the devil the benefit of law.
27:30.130 --> 27:35.010
More, yes, what would you do, Roper?
Cut a great row through the law.
27:35.910 --> 27:38.630
This country's planted thick with laws from
coast to coast,
27:38.790 --> 27:40.660
man's laws, not God's.
27:40.869 --> 27:43.699
And if you cut them down and you're just the
man to do it,
27:43.859 --> 27:47.760
do you really think you could stand upright in
the winds that would blow then?
27:47.829 --> 27:51.150
Yes, I'd give the devil benefit of law for my
own safety's sake.
27:58.579 --> 27:59.729
Take you to the station.
28:02.569 --> 28:03.969
Right in the back of the paddy wagon.
28:08.709 --> 28:15.459
12:45.
28:16.520 --> 28:19.369
6789.
28:27.380 --> 28:33.489
Okay, these individuals were
28:33.489 --> 28:38.079
uh, were certainly at the very least guilty of.
28:38.859 --> 28:45.079
malicious destruction of property and at the
very worst possibly even treason,
28:45.579 --> 28:50.380
uh, the country was engaged at that time in a
in a,
28:51.459 --> 28:57.609
a war, even though it was undeclared war, and,
uh, certainly this,
28:57.739 --> 29:00.630
this action would give aid and comfort to the
enemy.
29:08.750 --> 29:11.300
In the race to the moon, in the race to the moon.
29:13.339 --> 29:17.479
Oh, Mr.
Spaceman, you sure have started something.
29:17.689 --> 29:18.930
Oh, Mr. Spaceman.
29:19.709 --> 29:25.989
Don't you know you got my heart thumping? Oh Mr.
Spaceman, I wanna be a spaceman too.
29:27.140 --> 29:28.469
No, sir, it's the palm of my pal.
29:35.359 --> 29:36.719
Oh, Mr. Basman.
29:37.550 --> 29:39.469
Don't you know you got my heart thumping?
29:39.670 --> 29:44.130
Oh, Mr.
Spaceman, I'm not really very far behind with
29:44.130 --> 29:46.390
an A with an A.
29:47.650 --> 29:53.010
There wasn't a single dinner conversation
in Catholic families that didn't refer to that
29:53.010 --> 29:58.089
action where people weren't arguing
passionately about it one way or the other.
29:58.979 --> 30:03.599
And it split so many people and so many
families, churches,
30:03.760 --> 30:08.520
clubs, whatnot in Catonsville because some of
the people would say.
30:09.750 --> 30:13.319
It's wonderful what they did, that's
what needed to be done.
30:13.459 --> 30:15.020
Vietnam is not where we should be.
30:15.770 --> 30:19.699
The other part would say they shouldn't have
done it.
30:19.750 --> 30:24.229
It's a crime, they shouldn't have done it.
Everyone I knew thought the government was
30:24.229 --> 30:30.719
doing the right thing.
And after that we began to have questions
30:30.719 --> 30:32.650
and we began to have concerns.
30:33.609 --> 30:36.569
Ground action during the day was reported light
and scattered.
30:37.400 --> 30:42.380
The most significant engagement in the past few
days took place near a US special forces camp
30:42.380 --> 30:45.170
in the central lowlands.
It came after enemy troops.
30:45.250 --> 30:51.689
As the trial progressed, I began to develop a
lot of feelings for what they were doing,
30:51.810 --> 30:56.010
how much courage it took for them.
30:57.020 --> 30:59.890
To do what they did.
31:01.989 --> 31:06.579
They surely knew it was going to change
their whole life.
31:07.400 --> 31:09.119
I'm sorry.
Oh, it's okay.
31:12.040 --> 31:14.790
I could never be that courageous.
31:16.410 --> 31:23.109
Never. We strategized from the start.
31:24.140 --> 31:30.469
Our whole idea was to dispense with bullshit
and with the niceties of the courtroom to
31:32.589 --> 31:34.530
draw the thing tight like a spring.
31:34.859 --> 31:36.489
Each of you tell your story.
31:36.739 --> 31:39.260
Where have you been with your life and how did
you come here?
31:47.469 --> 31:52.890
And the whole process, the way the judge handled
the trial really gave us a
31:52.890 --> 31:54.760
tremendous opportunity to speak.
31:55.010 --> 31:57.439
He asked me, well, why didn't you do this in
Guatemala?
31:57.609 --> 32:01.160
You know, I really relaxed then and I
laughed out loud.
32:01.180 --> 32:02.329
I said, because I'd be dead.
32:03.030 --> 32:06.770
You don't demonstrate in a country that doesn't
let people speak out.
32:07.060 --> 32:09.579
I mean, that's one of the advantages of being an
American.
32:09.699 --> 32:11.650
Why am I an American?
Why am I here?
32:12.099 --> 32:18.260
Because I do have the opportunity to speak, even
if this is civil disobedience.
32:18.670 --> 32:21.939
Being willing to take the punishment for it,
but allowing me to do it.
32:21.989 --> 32:24.500
They walked two miles, about 3,000 of them.
32:24.869 --> 32:29.449
The march was peaceful, differing only from an
ordinary parade by the chants of 'End the War,'
32:29.510 --> 32:33.699
and 'The Draft.'
Well, on a dolly, you know, they rolled in
32:34.390 --> 32:39.229
these boxes, these wooden boxes that were the
size of infant caskets.
32:40.369 --> 32:44.959
And I had seen infant caskets with the bodies
of infants in Vietnam,
32:45.079 --> 32:46.079
burned infants.
32:46.760 --> 32:51.310
And so I just went like that, and that's where
the poem started.
32:52.790 --> 32:57.250
And what was it if the people in the courtroom,
did they know who,
32:57.410 --> 33:00.449
how is it described? What was it?
Can you tell me what was in those boxes?
33:01.410 --> 33:06.640
And the boxes in the courtroom, well, there
were nothing but burned, half-burned ashes and
33:06.640 --> 33:10.569
papers and so on and so forth, and they
introduced those in evidence as though they
33:10.569 --> 33:15.949
were important, you know,
and they were nothing.
33:16.140 --> 33:19.359
I mean, we had burned papers instead of children.
That was our crime.
33:21.300 --> 33:26.459
In Baltimore today, 9 Catholic War protesters
were sentenced to federal prison for burning
33:26.459 --> 33:31.209
draft card records.
The prison terms range from 2 to 3.5 years.
33:31.589 --> 33:34.150
Much of the active opposition to the Vietnam
War.
33:34.219 --> 33:38.579
Nixon was invading Cambodia and bombing Laos
and Cambodia,
33:38.660 --> 33:41.449
and the war was worse than when we started.
33:42.280 --> 33:44.930
It had advanced into those other countries, you
know.
33:45.540 --> 33:48.619
There was huge turmoil on the campuses all over
the country,
33:48.660 --> 33:51.420
strikes and occupations and so on.
33:52.319 --> 33:58.329
And a few of us decided when we were summoned.
33:59.109 --> 34:04.140
To give ourselves up, that that would be like
taking military induction.
34:05.359 --> 34:09.540
They were worsening their criminal war and we
were giving ourselves in, said,
34:09.620 --> 34:10.929
What is this, you know?
34:11.409 --> 34:13.810
So I went underground, a delaying tactic.
34:14.949 --> 34:17.570
It was to call more attention to the war.
34:18.870 --> 34:23.449
And in the process, give Mr.
Hoover a headache.
34:24.188 --> 34:25.289
And a backache.
34:25.779 --> 34:26.948
And that rationale
34:28.050 --> 34:32.840
really caught fire both when the Catholic left
and then throughout the country, and it
34:32.840 --> 34:34.070
emboldened a lot of people.
34:34.280 --> 34:39.919
If Catholic priests can go out and make a
statement like that about the war,
34:40.080 --> 34:44.469
surely in some small way I can do something.
I can,
34:44.479 --> 34:49.149
if only to speak up in some gathering and
express my opposition to the war.
34:53.959 --> 34:59.300
I've been underground, if you can call it that,
for only a short time.
34:59.949 --> 35:04.590
I was supposed to show up at the Federal
Marshal's offices in Baltimore on Thursday,
35:04.750 --> 35:06.840
April 9th at 8:30 a.m.
35:07.189 --> 35:10.820
To begin serving my sentence, which is 2 years,
I think.
35:12.149 --> 35:17.709
We'd gotten together, the remaining 8 of us,
about a week or so before that,
35:17.750 --> 35:22.229
and the decision that came out of that meeting
was that we would do our own thing.
35:22.919 --> 35:27.570
I hadn't intended at all to show up, but then
neither had I intended to,
35:27.939 --> 35:30.250
so to speak, go underground.
35:31.760 --> 35:35.780
I don't think the feds are looking very hard
for us because we're certainly not the ten most
35:35.780 --> 35:42.500
wanted, and yet in one sense, I think we must be
very irritating to them, and this perhaps is
35:42.500 --> 35:44.139
our greatest impact.
35:52.520 --> 35:55.840
The idea of jail doesn't bother me that much.
35:57.090 --> 36:02.689
The idea of cooperating with the federal
government in any way at all irritates the hell
36:02.689 --> 36:08.770
out of me.
My alternatives are to go to jail,
36:09.379 --> 36:15.020
go above ground with an assumed identity, stay
underground, or leave the country.
36:16.260 --> 36:18.659
Anyway, I choose.
The government is choosing for me.
36:19.530 --> 36:25.350
But what we're questioning is their right, and
they lost that right because of the obscenity
36:25.350 --> 36:32.129
and the insanity of their actions, which are
growing more and more obscene and insane.
36:34.409 --> 36:37.969
Mr.
McKinley, he didn't do no wrong.
36:39.600 --> 36:40.919
You rode on down to Buff.
36:42.840 --> 36:46.780
But he didn't stay too long.
36:56.649 --> 37:02.389
I believe if we're really confronting the
empire as Christians,
37:02.399 --> 37:08.189
and that's, that's what we're called to do, uh,
that's, that's a very clear biblical message.
37:09.659 --> 37:11.810
And, um,
37:12.449 --> 37:18.449
that we have to be prepared for disruption if
we're about
37:19.580 --> 37:24.739
bringing change through nonviolence, then we
should think seriously about being free enough
37:24.739 --> 37:25.739
to go to jail.
37:36.629 --> 37:40.300
The train was the train running on down the
line.
37:42.080 --> 37:43.310
Blowing out of every station.
37:45.080 --> 37:46.209
McKinley is a.
37:53.120 --> 38:00.060
time.
And so they took me to
38:00.060 --> 38:03.419
a restaurant to have a real meal for the first
time.
38:04.449 --> 38:07.229
And they handed me the menu and they said, What
would you like to order?
38:07.520 --> 38:10.870
And I couldn't believe it, but I could not
order.
38:11.000 --> 38:15.520
I could not think for myself.
I could not figure out this is what I would
38:15.520 --> 38:18.590
like.
It's not like, oh boy, I'm finally out,
38:18.600 --> 38:19.629
this is what I want.
38:19.959 --> 38:21.070
I just couldn't.
38:21.280 --> 38:24.399
And they looked over and they said, Well, just
take your time,
38:24.479 --> 38:28.639
you know, pick whatever you want.
And finally the tears came to my eyes and I
38:28.639 --> 38:30.419
just felt so helpless.
38:30.939 --> 38:35.290
It was like the first time that I was able to
do anything for myself because you can't even
38:35.649 --> 38:38.929
get an aspirin, you know, when you have a headache, you just go to the medicine camp and
get an aspirin, and you're all set.
38:38.929 --> 38:40.439
Get an aspirin, and you're all set.
38:40.729 --> 38:45.060
Here you have to put in a request and beg, and
it's a
38:45.100 --> 38:48.729
it's a very dehumanizing kind of experience.
39:01.129 --> 39:02.330
The rationale
39:03.659 --> 39:09.610
of those actions of going to jail was at first to fill up the jails, where, you know, it's not gonna
fill up the jails.
39:09.610 --> 39:10.889
Fill up the jails.
39:11.790 --> 39:14.260
Second, it would radicalize people.
39:15.030 --> 39:18.229
Third, it would build communities out of the
39:19.389 --> 39:22.510
people coming out of jail, going into jail to
build communities.
39:22.590 --> 39:25.350
I don't think it succeeded on any of those scores
there.
39:26.560 --> 39:30.919
I can't achieve identity with the poor except
when I'm in jail.
39:31.199 --> 39:36.419
I always tend, when I start feeling sorry
for myself,
39:36.750 --> 39:43.739
I always tend to think about what it would
mean
39:43.739 --> 39:50.500
if I stopped; so that's a terrible prospect, and
I've never been able to acclimate to that,
39:50.510 --> 39:55.159
and I won't.
I hope that I can keep going until, until I
39:55.159 --> 40:00.149
die.
I very definitely see myself as a criminal.
40:01.169 --> 40:06.310
I think if we're serious about changing
society, that's how we have to see ourselves.
40:08.260 --> 40:09.889
We're all out on bail.
40:10.800 --> 40:12.469
And let's all stay out.
40:31.080 --> 40:35.199
And if you look back on their lives, they never
really stopped.
40:36.620 --> 40:38.129
They never really stopped.
40:39.520 --> 40:44.300
And there are not many people around like that.
40:46.280 --> 40:52.840
They felt so strongly about what they were doing and about
what
40:52.840 --> 40:54.750
the government was doing.
40:56.159 --> 40:59.040
That they were willing to risk everything.
41:00.280 --> 41:02.520
Now Roosevelt's in the White House.
41:05.389 --> 41:07.179
And McKinley's in the graveyard.
41:08.739 --> 41:11.149
And taking his rest.
41:14.489 --> 41:21.350
The Vietnam War produced the largest and most
significant movement against war in American
41:21.350 --> 41:26.350
history, so I could see this myself in the course of the war as
acts of civil disobedience multiplied.
41:26.350 --> 41:27.870
Disobedience multiplied.
41:36.750 --> 41:39.860
He's Roosevelt.
He's in the White House drinking out of a
41:39.860 --> 41:44.139
silver cup.
And McKinley's in the graveyard.
41:45.209 --> 41:51.479
And you'll never wake. Yeah. time.
42:01.510 --> 42:02.739
Mr. McKinley.
42:03.520 --> 42:08.189
It just rolls on down to Buffalo.
42:09.560 --> 42:11.300
But he didn't stay too long.
42:11.909 --> 42:18.590
What Catonsville did was they became a kind of
model for
42:18.669 --> 42:22.629
you know, all the others. You know, there was
the Catonsville 9, and there were the Milwaukee
42:22.629 --> 42:28.550
14, and, you know, there were the Camden 28, and
there were the Boston 5.
42:46.580 --> 42:51.820
One unit moves up the hill and drops a violet
smoke bomb to designate their point of contact
42:51.820 --> 42:53.120
with the enemy at the top.
42:54.590 --> 43:00.159
With the enemy positions marked, Allied planes
roar over the hill and send napalm flaming
43:00.159 --> 43:01.820
along through the enemy bunkers.
43:07.830 --> 43:13.919
Enemy troops moved into one little village only
300 yards away and started mortaring the camp.
43:14.600 --> 43:19.090
Most of the villages were out of the way when
American airstrikes were called in to silence
43:19.090 --> 43:23.310
the mortars.
Now the villagers move their few remaining
43:23.310 --> 43:26.000
possessions to a hamlet even closer to the camp.
43:26.729 --> 43:30.469
Pigs and chickens and whatever is left where
their houses used to be.
43:30.679 --> 43:35.760
The special forces know they will have to work
hard later on to regain the full confidence of
43:35.760 --> 43:38.989
these villagers.
But even with the air attacks,
43:39.120 --> 43:43.120
it is still to Hatan that these mountain people
turn for security.
43:43.810 --> 43:48.189
Intelligence indicates that this is to be the
night of the attack on the base camp,
43:48.590 --> 43:52.270
so the special forces want to take outpost 4 by
nightfall.
43:53.300 --> 43:58.030
But the special forces unit still can't
dislodge the enemy after three tries.
43:58.780 --> 44:02.300
So a mobile strike force is sent up to assist in
the assault.
44:03.239 --> 44:05.520
I'm gonna throw a smoke right below me and
everything.
44:06.929 --> 44:09.419
Enemy.
I say everything below the smoke is enemy, over
44:09.419 --> 44:16.399
the whole hillside below me.
Was that
44:16.399 --> 44:16.649
Fred?