Gainesville, FL—August 31, 2013 marked the fortieth anniversary of the acquittal of seven Vietnam War veterans and one supporter indicted for conspiracy to violently disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention. The trial and Gainesville’s role in the peace movement gained national attention when charges were filed against seven activist veterans and one supporter organizing through Vietnam Veterans Against the War, John Briggs, Scott Camil, Alton Foss, John Kniffin, Peter Mahoney, Stanley Michelson, William Patterson, and Don Perdue.
In 1972, Vietnam Veterans Against the War organized to attend the Miami Republican National Convention and planned a non-violent demonstration to garner public support for peace, meeting with Miami police and conservative groups in advance to prevent conflicts similar to those seen in 1968 at the Democratic National Convention. FBI investigators and informants inside of the organization, however, testified that VVAW had other violent motives and plans.
In the ensuing trial, the eight activists were prosecuted by the federal government for planning acts of violence and acquitted of all charges on August 31, 1973 in a trial that was highly publicized across the country.
As part of the three-day celebration marking the acquittal anniversary this year, the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program conducted over a dozen interviews with surviving members of the Gainesville 8, the VVAW, unindicted co-conspirators, defense team, and family of jury members.
Scott Camil, Regional Coordinator of the VVAW in the Southeast, remembered his opening statement in the trial:
“The evidence will show that the seven of us who went to Vietnam spent a total of 111 months over there, received 57 medals and citations, and were all honorably discharged. The evidence will also show that we threw our medals away out of shame, because we knew that what they stood for was wrong. For myself, the throwing away of the medals I once cherished was the cutting of the umbilical cord between myself and the government lies, such as, ‘We are helping the people of Vietnam…’”
In the oral histories, interviewees remember the actions of agent provocateurs sent to Gainesville by the Nixon administration, memories of brotherhood in Vietnam, and the raw energy inside the VVAW house on 8th Street before the indictment. Veterans of the war and the peace movement also urged University of Florida students and budding community activists to pick up the thread of “truth-telling and organizing.”
Collected oral history interviews from the weekend are recorded in the Gainesville 8 Project at SPOHP. Interview documents, video, audio and transcripts from the anniversary interviews will be made available to students, researchers, and the general public through the UF Digital Collection.
For more information about this event and the Gainesville 8 Project, contact the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at 352-392-7168.
Press Release
The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida
September 11, 2013