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American author and socialist activist John Catalinotto granted an exclusive interview to Investig’Action to talk about his new book, “Turn the Guns Around”. We discuss the resistance to the Vietnam War from within the US army and historical soldier revolts that were decisive in revolutionary uprisings, turning “a weapon of oppression into a tool for human liberation”, and what progressive forces can learn from this.

You have published a new book, “Turn the Guns Around”. Can you give us a general idea of what it’s about?

“Turn the Guns Around” is a history, and it’s a history in two ways. In one way it’s a history of the period between 1962 and 1975, when the US was carrying out a colonial and anti-communist war against the Vietnamese people. And during that war, a movement that was opposed to war, that was opposed to racism, grew up within the US armed forces. This caused an enormous amount of problems for the Pentagon and for the officers of the military. It forced them to really change a lot their policies. This movement played a role in the victory (defeat from the US government’s perspective) in Vietnam. Of course the greatest sacrifice and the greatest struggle was waged by the Vietnamese people themselves, but the opposition inside the US military played a role in that final victory.

The other way is that I brought up other historical events where movements inside the military led to actual political or social revolutions, or combinations of those, which included the Paris Commune, the two Russian Revolutions of 1917, the revolt of the German North Sea Fleet in 1918 and the revolt inside the Portuguese military in 1974. And I did that in order to provide for new generations of activists in the United States an understanding of what the capitalist state is, and of the relationship between the military and the state. So it’s a history that combines those two ideas.

“Turn the Guns Around” – Interview with John Catalinotto (Part 1)
http://www.investigaction.net/en/turn-the-guns-around-interview-with-john-catalinotto-part-1/

“Turn the Guns Around” – Interview with John Catalinotto (Part 2)
http://www.investigaction.net/en/turn-the-guns-around-interview-with-john-catalinotto-part-2/