Counter Recruitment, Peace Activists, and Military Service in the Post-Vietnam-War Era United States

FAIN: FT-285311-22

Amy Jennifer Rutenberg
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Ames, IA 50011-2000)

Research and writing an essay on the history of peace activism related to military service between 1970 and 2008.

My book will unravel the complicated history of peace activism related to military service between 1970 and 2008. Activists identified complex interconnections among individual responsibility, institutional discrimination, and the moral, ethical, and political challenges of democratic citizenship, and they tied those themes to the personal and political decision to avoid military service. I will use the records of individuals and of peace organizations to analyze their actions and rhetoric and records of civilian and military agencies relating to national defense and foreign policy to evaluate the efficacy of that activism. My research will illustrate the impact of peace activism on U.S. foreign and domestic policy and behavior. Specifically, I will use this award period to research the topic of counter recruitment, or activists’ efforts to divert voluntary enlistments, at two archives in the Philadelphia area.