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We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now

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I heard this book discussed on Lew Rockwell's podcast, and purchased it. As I began to read through it, I was amazed that no matter the date or the particular circumstance that instigated the individual treatise, each was relevant to contemporary events. The same lies today's war party uses to pervert and exploit citizens' inherent patriotism have been used by the purveyors of endless conflicts throughout United States history.

I will leave an in-depth review to those more qualified, but I was pleasantly surprised by Alexander Campbell's "Address on War", William Jennings Bryan's assailing of imperialism, everything about Randolph Bourne's famous dissecting of the State's need for perpetual war, and Helen Keller's wisdom. The entire book is filled with extraordinary quotes from these and many other clear-headed individuals from our storied past.

Regardless of the various authors' backgrounds, political ideologies, etc., there is a unbreakable thread of moral/intellectual valor that permeates this compilation. These men and women, "in heart and conscience free," with integrity, fought against daunting odds. They often suffered for speaking the truth. We who oppose war today for religious/moral reasons or political pragmatism (or both) have been given their writings as an invaluable heritage. Many thanks to Murray Polner and Thomas Woods, Jr. for editing this book, for making these articles accessible to the greater public, and for preserving these priceless gems of wisdom for other generations. We look forward to a sequel!

THOSE WHO DARED TO SAY NO TO WAR is a collection of essays edited by Thomas Woods (a conservative whatever that term means) and Murry Polner who is supposed to be a "leftest." These essays were written by thoughtful men and women who spanned the political spectrum. Some of these essays were written by devout religious men and women. Some were written by pacificists while others were written by career military men who were officers. Readers should note that each section of the essays has an introduction written by the editors helping to explain the historical background the these essays.

The first essays dealt with the War of 1812. Danial Webster's speech opposing military conscription to fight the British is an eloquent defense of individual liberty and a serious attack on military conscription which Webster argued was slavery and outright murder. Webster carefully diagnosed military conscription as a means of separating husband and wife, father from children, etc. Webster was not shy in explaining that to conscript men to invade Canada, or anywhere else for that matter, was a clear violation of freedom and an advance toward slavery. Webster proved prophetic in this speech.

The second section of this book dealt with essays that expressed opposition to the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). An interesting item in these essays was the later Pres. Abraham Lincoln's speech opposing the U.S. unprovoked invasion of Mexico in 1846. William Goodell's essay that the Mexican-American War was a war for the expansion of slavery is true. Contrary to standard shallow textbook accounts, Goodell is bluntly clear that the Mexican authorities made no move whatsoever to start hostilities with the U.S. Goodell cited others whose investigations came to the same conclusion.

The following section dealing with the Civil War. Two essays are from clergymen from the Confederacy and the North who opposed the Civil War and suggestions that members of the cloth should not serve as chaplins. One essay contained a plea to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, to honor the pleas of conscientious objectors to not participate in the armies of the Confederacy. The best essay was written by Lysander Spooner, a peaceful anarchist, who was clear in his assessment of the actual causes of the Civil War. Spooner argued that Northern bankers and industrialists were never opposed to slavery as long as the Southern plantation class cooperated with tariffs, Northern banking interests including loans for slaves, and other Northern economic and political schemes. However, once the Southern leaders said no to these Northern intersts, the Northern elite suddenly opposed slavery. One should note that Spooner was an active Abolishionist.

The following section contained selections opposing the U.S. provocation of the Spanish-American War. One very interesting essay was written by William Graham Sumner who argued that the Spanish ultimately won this war even though their military performance was disasterous, and the early fighting ended in less than a year. Sumner's thesis was that the new imperialists, the Americans, were becoming like the Spanish imperialists of the 16th. century in that the Americans were becoming the new imperialist forgetting their past political tradition of a Constitutional Republic. Another short but intersting piece was written by an unidentified mother from Kentucky titled "A Lament from Kentucky." American mothers should read this essay. The essay titled "The Pesky Anti-Imperialist" was a good retort to those who whine that those who oppose military intervention are somehow un-American. Wendall Garrison, who wrote this essay, effectively argued that his use of his First Amendment Rights was as American as could be. He also stated that his reminder that Americans were to have a limited republic based on the U.S. Constitution was as American one could be. His one comment deserves repeating when he wrote, "...Anti-Imperialism is only another name for old-fashioned Americanism..."(page 99).

The essays re World War I were prophetic. Robert La Follette delivered prophetic remarks about Pres. Wilson's insanely idealistic reasons for U.S. entry into this war. La Follette was blunt when he stated that those who did the fighting, dying, tax paying, etc. were not the same wealthly men who profitted from the war or any war. La Follette's statement that the taxes that paid for the wealthy bankers' loans would exponentillay increase, and if enough folks became alert,there could "be hell to pay." La Follette excorated those who claimed Wilson was one the side of freedom. The Russians were ruled by an authocracy while the British had a hereditary monarch. Wilson claimed he wanted to spread freedom and justice while the Americans were subjected to high-handed violations of Freedom of Speech and lynch mobs murdering dissenters. This was certainly something that Wilson and the American should never have been proud of in "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." One of the essays following LaFollette's remarks was written by Ralph Bourne who coined the phrase, "War is the health of the state." Bourne stated simply and clearly that war gives power to governments to violate rights and use rigid compultion at the expense of most Americans.

The essays re World War II begin with Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy who was chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. This brief quote expressed Adm. Leahy's opposition to the use of nuclear weapons against the Japanese when they were already begging to surrender. The MacArthur (Gen. MacArthur)Memorandum, sent to the President in February of 1945, stated the Japanese wanted to quit which was relayed by the Soviets to MacArthur who in turn sent this suggestion to the President. The essays begin with Jeannette Rankin who was the only member of Congress to vote against the U.S. declaration of War during World War I and II. Rankin was aware that U.S. entry into W.W. I was due to fears of American bankers that should W.W. I end in a stalemate that these bankers would get the money they lent to the allies which was never paid anyway. The essay, taken from the journal LIBERATION in 1958, was perceptive. Rankin reported the documents of conversations between Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Pres. Roosevelt promised he would put such economic pressure on the Japanese that with British and Dutch help would goad the Japanese into firing the first shot to start U.S.entry into World War II. As an aside, a vast literature has been written that has been thoroughly documented. The essay titled "ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE WAR" was very perceptive. The usual assumptions that love, freedom, etc. would ensue were false illusions. Big Communist vastly expanded as did communist concentration camps and mass murder regimes.

Two of the essays worth noting re the Cold War were written the late Sen Howard Taft and his severe criticism of Pres. Truman's assertion that the President could send U.S. Troops anywhere without a congressional war declaration or approval. Sen. Taft detailed the problems and possible disasters that could result from such a carte blanche grant to the President or anyone else in power. This essay was followed by Pres. Eisenhower's Farewell Speech in which Eisenhower warned Americans of the dangers and expense of "The Military-Industrial Complex." The sad fact is that too many Americans have such short memories that this serious warning has been neglected.

The essays re the Vietnam War are just as important. One good essay was written by General David M. Shoup who was the former Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. He argued that U.S. authorities should mind their own busness. The other essays argued that the nonsense that the U.S. should have supported the South Vietnamese elite in the name of freedom. This was farce when the reality that there was no freedom in South Vietnam. The fact is the Vietnam war was a small civil war due to U.S. refusal to honor the terms of the Geneva Accords made in 1954 when the French were forced to leave Vietnam.

The essays dealing with "The War on Terror" and the disasters incubating in Iraq and Afghanistan are good. The arguement that U.S. policy makers have squandered American good will due to stupidity, international ignorance, and insane hubris makes historical sense. These essays state clearly that U.S. policy makers have made enemies out of allies and have underminded U.S. foreign policy and economic well being for a long time. Hopefully, the American citizenry will become alert to all of this.

This is a book worth the time. The essays were written by diverse men and women who know what war does to people. One minor criticism is that the editors, who did a good job of writing and editing, should have included Gen. Smedley Butler's book titled WAR IS A RACKET. Smedley Butler was the first American to be awarded the Medal of Honor twice, and he also received France's highest military honors during World War I. The book is long, but the introductory essays are helpful to understand the historical context of the collections of essays. Thoughtful readers will gain insight to the possible disasters that could befall the U.S.

Agree with the pacifist position or not, this book has compiled a number of brilliant and convincing essays and speeches against the wars in which the United States has been involved from 1812 to today. Although the editors are libertarians, the focus on the book is more on the antiwar writings of the contributors than on any conservative/libertarian agenda. For example, one of the most compelling speeches included was by Eugene Debs, the Socialist candidate for president (and vehement opponent of World War I) at the beginning of the last century. The thing that I found to be of most value was the fact that the underlying arguments against war -- whether the American Civil War, either of the World Wars, or today's current conflicts -- are the same: war is immoral, war is expensive, war doesn't permanently solve any problems (let alone bring peace), and, at base, war is simply wrong.

I have just finished reading, "We who dared to say no to war: American antiwar writing from 1812 to the present," edited by Murray Polner and Thomas Woods.

It was a breath of fresh air in our present climate of fetid war fever. Let me say that it is not the American history you find in taught in school.

The anti-war writings are not just from the usual run-of-the-mill pacifists like Howard Zinn and the Berrigan brothers, but include some of the most prominent figures in our history, including John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Robert Follette, William Jennings Bryan, Robert Taft, Henry Wallace, Jane Addams, Helen Keller, Pat Buchanan, and Julia Ward Howe, who gave us both Mother's Day and the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and Katherine Lee Bates who wrote "America the Beautiful."

The writings are surprisingly relevant to modern politics. Most interesting are the primary-source materials dealing with the War of 1812, which was an invasion of Canada. Webster and Adams both railed against this war as a violation of everything the Declaration of Independence stood for.

Many of the writers refer to the Americans' penchant for war and how easily politicians can stir them up. They not only make a strong moral case against war but refer to the commercial pressures behind the war. I did not know, for example, that northern manufacturers were eager for Lincoln to secure southern markets.

I noted that several presidents, like Lincoln, who stood out against the Mexican-American War, and Woodrow Wilson dropped their anti-war stance once elected to office. Sound familiar?

Especially relevant were the wars against Mexico and the Philippines. Modern anti-war activist often refer to those crimes.

The Libertarians have a very strong showing in this anti-war tradition. Paul Craig Roberts of the National Review writes: "Why did Bush destroy Iraq?" He writes: "Every reason we have been given for the Iraqi invasion has proved to be false....

"Despite all the hoopla about democracy and elections, no Iraqi government has been able to form and the country is on the brink of civil war. Some Middle East experts believe that violence will spread throughout the region.

"The brutal truth is that America's responsibility is extreme. We have destroyed a country and created political chaos for no reason whatsoever.

"Seldom in history has a government miscalculated as badly as Bush has in Iraq. More disturbingly, Bush shows no ability to recover from his mistake. All we get from him is pigheaded promises of victory that none of our military commanders believe."

Writer Harvey Wasserman, in an article entitled: "Four bloody lies of war from Havana 1898 to Bagdhad 2003," writes:

"A mirror image of the earlier war in the Philippines, Vietnam may rank as the greatest of all American catastrophes. It split and alienated a generation, poisoned American politics, spawned a toxic cadre of dirty tricksters, and marked the downturn of the American economy. The war destroyed Johnson's Great Society and has rendered every American tangibly poorer in more ways than can be counted."

"Nixon's 'dirty trickster' disciples Karl Rove and Dick Cheney have now poisoned the nation with yet another ghastly lie of war. Their hopeless Iraqi slaughter has become the modern definition of cynical deceit, human butchery, and economic ruin. Exactly what will happen to us and to the liars that have dragged us into this latest bloody quagmire remains to be seen.

"But history does not indicate a pretty outcome."

Libertarian Llewellyn Rockwell, Jr. writes in "The Glory of War:"

"The bloom on the rose of war eventually fades, leaving only the thorns." He says war give meaning to the lives of Americans, acting like a devil's sacrament. "It promised to bind us not with God but with the nation state. It grants not life but death. It provides not liberty but slavery. It lives not on truth but on lies, and these lives themselves are said to be worthy of defense. It exalts evil and puts down the good. It is promiscuous in encouraging an orgy of sin, not self-restraint and thought. It is irrational and bloody and vicious and appalling. And it claims to be the highest achievement of man.

"It is worse than mass insanity. It is mass wallowing in evil."

"And then it is over. People oddly forget what took place. The rose wilts and the thorns grow but people go on with their lives.... Maybe in a few years, once the war is out of the news forever and the country we smashed recovers some modicum of civilization, we can revisit the event and proclaim it glorious. But for now, let's just say it never happened."

I have found a new Bible. This book will save your soul.

This book stands on it's own as an example of truth vs. error. The voices in it are surprising, because, without exception, these are educated and ethically based denouements of international intrigues, imperialism, wars of opportunity and so-called "just" wars, including the opinions of those who fell for the state propaganda and false promise of glory in prior wars. If a scrupulous and ethical person takes a stand, it behooves anyone who claims to follow Christ to listen and examine their own motivations and what influences them.

I was happy to see the inclusion of the views of two Restoration leaders (Alexander Campbell and David Lipscomb). I was surprised to discover that I am not a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or Independent person, but more of a Socialist than I ever realized. Socialism and Communism of the "Red" variety have too long been mistaken for each other. True Christianity is Socialist in tenor and practice. I was gratified to see Helen Keller's wise advice and surprised to see Fleet Admiral Wm. A. Leahy's objection to the use of the atomic bomb, General Eisenhower's warnings about the burgeoning Military-Industrial complex whose very survival depends on excuses for military interventions. Reagan was once a hero of mine, but I am of the view that he was working more for the complex and American Imperialism than he was for US, as were the presidents who followed him, including Clinton. Americans are hated by many countries because of our intervention in other affairs that were not asking us for assistance. Look at how Afghanistan turned out due to our intervention. Did we really accomplish anything by humiliating Russia who was as justified as we were to be involved there?

It takes a whole lot more courage to stand for what is right regardless of the consequences than to compromise with anything that offends one's conscience. I have a few new heroes now, thanks to this book. What passes for Socialism today is hypocrisy in many forms. One sees evidence of this when people can protest against war and refuse to cooperate with conscription, yet declare that killing unborn babies is ethical and right, or says that one group of people deserve more rights or protection than others. A good example is the trend to create "hate" laws. These are as unconstitutional as racism or gerrymandering are, yet these misguided ideas persist, methinks, to discredit any anti-war views.

Anyone who wonders why Americans tend to rally to war and unite against others so easily needs to read Randolph Bourne's treatise about the evils of a "United States" mentality, which has simply been a herd reaction promulgated by propaganda and lies throughout America's long history of violence against others for the sake of advantage, not justice.

This book is a wonderful treasure trove of essays and speeches against war all collected into one place. This is a great book edited by the great Dr. Tom Woods and Murray Polner. Within its pages you will find brave men and women who stood against the tides of popular sentiment to say NO. The war of 1812, the Mexican war, the war between the states, the Spanish-American war, the Philipine-American war, WWI, WWII, the cold war, the war in Vietnam, the war in Afghanistan and in Iraq are all represented and general essays against the military-industrial complex and warfare round out this book. The is a great book and a great sampling of American history. There are some essays and speeches in this collection that are a must-read for every thinking American. Murray Rothbard's "War, Peace, and the State" is essential. I can also heartily recommend the great list at the end of the book by Butler Schaffer of Great AntiWar Films. More than anything, walking away from reading this book will fill you with a sense of conviction over the immorality of warfare and make you feel deep disgust for both the political left and the political right in our country that are both entrenched into the warfare state. The Dems and the Repubs truly are the "War Party." More than touching the emotions, this book will make you think. In this book you get a broad sampling of leftists, rightists, paleolibertarians, etc. If you have the slightest inclination that there is something terribly wrong with the current "American" view of war, this book is invaluable.

Arrived promply and in good condition. The book has interesting information about the war protestors of all the wars we have been engaged in.

This book is excellent. It cuts directly through mountains of false education and propaganda, and looks at the real interets of our people and our country, and should be a wake up call to every American to stop supporting the culture of death that totally unnecessary wars have inflicted on us. There have been times when we needed to fight, but relatively speaking they have been few, and far more often we have gone to war and slaughtered ourselves and others with no cause whatsoever. The culture of war and the culture of death have overtaking our country with great power and it is well past time to stop it. Mr. Power and Mr. Woods have done an outstanding job is bringing this truth to light.

Paleolibertarian Thomas Woods and leftist Murray Polner have collected numerous anti-war speeches and essays given at various times in American history. America's march toward empire was slow and steady, but along the way many people - both on the left and the right - opposed war. Some of these people were generally pacifists, and others isolationists.

Of particular interest is Jeanette Rankin, a Representative from Montana, who voted against entry into World War I and II. I'd heard of her, but there were plenty of others with whom I wasn't familiar.

I take a generally isolationist position, although I can't agree with all the opinions expressed in this book. I believe the war against the Taliban government of Afghanistan was just. Afghanistan was providing sanctuary to terrorists it knew were planning to attack the US. The US was within its rights to overthrow that government.

I was disappointed that the book doesn't contain a section concerning the US's attack on the Serbs and its involvement in the Balkans.

Wonderful collection of primary resources. Extremely rich source of history. If you are familiar with primary resources (speeches, letters etc.) then you can handle this. If you are expecting a historic narrative this is not the book for you.

The best sources are from the War of 1812 which is barely discussed in school. It was actually an invasion of Canada. The rhetoric from the era mirrors almost exactly the rhetoric of the Iraq Invasion.

The strength of this collection is that it is assembled by two authors, one progressive (Polner) and one libertarian (Woods). It is a must that both ends of the political spectrum join together in opposition to war.