You are here

Home

E. Resistance Movements Against Specific Wars

Opposition to specific wars has quite often been spearheaded by pacifist and anti-militarist groups, and has usually included conscientious objection and draft resistance. But, depending on the political context and the war, opposition has often been much broader and involved a wide range of protests by those not subject to conscription. Moreover, significant resistance movements to specific wars has sometimes involved open conscientious refusal to obey orders by military personnel (either individual or collective) and/or desertion, as well as organized protest by veterans. Prolonged wars perceived by many as unjust, like the French war in Algeria 1954-62 and the US-led war in Vietnam, 1961-73, have evoked extensive and often radical forms of protest. There is a large literature on the Vietnam War (see E.1. below). But the English literature on French resistance to the Algerian war – in particular the nonviolent resistance to the draft and the military conduct of the war – is unfortunately limited. But perspectives on this important topic are:

Evans, Martin, The Memory of Resistance: French Opposition to the Algerian War 1954-1962, Oxford, Berg, 1997, pp. 250

Focuses particularly on those who actively supported the Algerian guerrilla movement the FLN (the Jeanson network), but includes references to the September 1960 ‘121 Manifesto’, in which intellectuals asserted the right to refuse to take up arms in the war. Not an overall history of opposition, but using oral reminiscences to show motivation for resistance.
Porter, David, Eyes to the South: French Anarchists and Algeria, Oakland CA, A.K. Press, 2011, pp. 550

Examines range of anarchist approaches in both France and Algeria and also covers period after independence.

See also:

Dan Lainer-Vos, Social Movements and Citizenship: Conscientious Objection in France, the United States and Israel, (D.2.b. Conscientious Resistance and Legal Frameworks)
Jolyon Howorth; Patricia Chilton, Defence and Dissent in Contemporary France, (D.1. General: National and Transnational Movements), Part I
John Talbott, The War Without a Name: France in Algeria 1954-62, (A. 4.a. Civil Resistance to Military Coups), Clear account of the politics surrounding the war of liberation and French responses. Chapter 5 ‘Against Torture’ describes resignation of General de Bollardiere in protest and criticisms by reservists, as well as opposition from intellectuals. Chapter 8 ‘Barricades and Manifestoes’ covers French settler intransigence as well as draft resistance and desertions, the ‘121 Manifesto’ and the Jeanson FLN-support network.
E.1. Resistance to the Vietnam War, 1961-73

Introduction

The evolution of the US-led War in Vietnam was complex. To understand events in Indo-China it is necessary to go back to 1945, when Japanese occupation of the area ended. The Communist-led guerrillas under Ho Chi Minh then established an independent state, whilst the French attempted to restore their former colonial empire and took control of South Vietnam. The French were decisively defeated by the Communist Vietminh forces in 1954 at the battle of Dien Bien Phu, and withdrew. But the US took over support for a South Vietnamese anti-communist state, and the international agreement, reached at the Geneva Conference of 1954, to create a unified Vietnam through elections, was ignored. As the South Vietnamese government struggled to resist internal guerrilla opposition by the National Liberation Front (‘Vietcong’), and the increasing pressure from North Vietnam, the US government supplied military ‘advisors’, and from 1963 sent increasing numbers of US troops. The Australian government also agreed to send troops to Vietnam. In 1965 the US began to bomb North Vietnam.

Resistance to the US role in the war (initiated largely by pacifists from 1961) became widespread in 1965, when the first teach-ins were held, both in the US and around the world. Opposition was especially strong in Australia, where there was resistance to the draft, and in Japan, where US bases were used in prosecuting the war. Canadians became involved in offering refuge to US draft resisters. Protests against the war in countries not directly involved often took the form of marches and confrontations outside US embassies. In the US itself, in addition to frequent large demonstrations and student direct action against the military presence on campuses, there was also widespread draft resistance (eg. burning draft cards) and acts of solidarity with draft resisters. Resistance also grew significantly inside the armed forces, with the development of underground newsletters and organizations as well as public protest and acts of defiance, and also desertions. Vietnam veterans also became involved in militant opposition to the war.

US bombing, and dropping of chemicals to defoliate the Ho Chi Minh trail, spread beyond Vietnam to Laos. Even more controversially, the US under Nixon began in 1969 an undeclared war of bombing and military incursions against what it claimed were North Vietnamese/National Liberation Front bases in neutral Cambodia. This secret war destabilized Prince Sihanouk, who was eventually ousted in a military coup. After the US Administration launched an invasion of Cambodia in spring 1970, without consulting Congress, opposition increased dramatically – about a third of colleges and universities were closed down by mass protests. At Kent State university in Ohio confrontation between the students and the National Guard led to four students being shot dead.

Some books written at the time of the war or immediately afterwards are not now in print (though some have been republished). Many are, however, available second hand and will still be in libraries covering the history of the period. Some are excerpted or available in full online, as we have indicated in relation to some titles.

There is a large literature on the origins and development of the French and then American wars in Indo-China; only a few selective references are listed below:

Charlton, Michael ; Moncrieff, Anthony, Many Reasons Why: The American Involvement in Vietnam, [1978], London, Hill and Wang, 1989, pp. 250

Based on BBC series of programmes and consisting primarily of interviews with wide range of those involved in first French and then US policy on Vietnam, and individuals prominent in opposition. Covers period 1945-1973. Chapters 7 and 8 discuss protests inside US and the leaking by Daniel Ellsberg of The Pentagon Papers, which revealed in detail secret internal policy making.
McCarthy, Mary, Vietnam, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1968, pp. 119

Influential account by US novelist of her visit to Vietnam, in which she argued that the US was fighting a war it could not win, and called for withdrawal.
Shawcross, William, Side Show: Kissinger, Nixon an d the Destruction of Cambodia, [1979], London, Andre Deutsch and Fontana, 1980, pp. 467

Detailed analysis of the evolution of the US war on Cambodia.
Sheehan, Neil ; Smith, Hedrick ; Kenworthy, E.W. ; Butterfield, Fox, The Pentagon Papers as published by the New York Times, New York, Bantam Books, 1971, pp. 677

Based on extensive Pentagon files on conduct of war and US role, leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, then an official in the Pentagon.
Wintle, Justin, The Vietnam Wars, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991, pp. 202

A brief history and analysis of the wars in Vietnam from the 1945 declaration of independence to the US withdrawal in 1973.
E.1.a. International Protest
Arrowsmith, Pat, To Asia in Peace: The Story of a Non-Violent Action Mission to Indo-China, London, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1972, pp. 188

Account by participants in British team demonstrating opposition to US war in Vietnam and its extension to Cambodia. The team planned to share the hazards of US bombing in the hope of deterring it. They were received in Cambodia (but not North Vietnam); some later demonstrated at a US base in Thailand.
Dumbrell, John, Vietnam and the Antiwar Movement: An International Perspective, Aldershot, Avebury, 1989, pp. 182

Chapters include: ‘Kent State: How the War in Vietnam became a War at Home’; ‘Congress and the Anti-War Movement’; ‘US Presidential Campaigns in the Vietnamese Era’; ‘Opposing the War in Vietnam – the Australian Experience’; ‘Vietnam War Resisters in Quebec’; ‘Anger and After – Britain’s CND and the Vietnam War’.
Feinberg, Abraham L., Hanoi Diary, Ontario, Longmans, 1968, pp. 258

Rabbi Feinberg’s account of his participation in a mission to North Vietnam in 1966-67 to investigate and publicize the effects of the US bombing. The other participants in the mission were the veteran US pacifist and socialist, A.J. Muste, Rev. Martin Niemoller, the Protestant pastor incarcerated in Dachau during part of World War II for opposing Hitler, and Rt Rev Ambrose Reeves, former Bishop of Johannesburg exiled for speaking out against apartheid.
Havens, Thomas, Fire Across the Sea: The Vietnam War and Japan, 1965-1975, Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1987, pp. 330

Covers growth of a major anti-war movement of rallies and marches against Japanese government support for the US in the war and the use of US bases in Japan.
Weiss, Peter ; Coates, Ken, Prevent the Crime of Silence: Reports from the Sessions of the International War Crimes Tribunal founded by Bertrand Russell, London, Allen Lane, 1971, pp. 384

Young, Nigel J., An Infantile Disorder? The Crisis and Decline of the New Left, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977, pp. 490

The New Left became closely associated with opposition to the Vietnam War, and there are frequent references to this opposition in the US and UK, including a critique in chapter 9 ‘Vietnam and Alignment’, of New Left support for North Vietnam, pp. 163-88.

See also:

Devi Prasad, War is a Crime Against Humanity: The Story of War Resisters’ International, (D.1. General: National and Transnational Movements), pp. 371-85, which also includes in full the eloquent WRI Statement on Wars of Liberation.
E.1.b. Australia
Forward, Roy ; Reece, Bob, Conscription, 1964-1968, In , Conscription in Australia Brisbane QLD, University of Queensland Press, , 1968, pp. 79-142

Hammell-Greene, Michael E., The Resisters: A History of the Anti-Conscription Movement 1964-1972, In , Australia’s Vietnam: Australia in the Second Indo-China War Sydney, Allen and Unwin, , 1983,

Noone, Val, Disturbing the War: Melbourne Catholics and Vietnam, Richmond VIC, Australia Spectrum, 1993, pp. 333

Peacemaker, Australia’s Draft Resistance and the Vietnam War – Statement by Michael Matteson and Geoff Mullen, Peacemaker, Vol. 33, issue 9-12 (Sept-Dec), 1971

Statements by two anarchists in the draft resistance movement, who went underground and then to jail, commenting critically upon it. An introduction by Takver notes the important role played by individual anarchists and anarchist groups in the anti-war movement.
Summy, Ralph V., Militancy and the Australian Peace Movement 1960-67, Politics (Journal of the Australasian Studies Association), Vol. 5, issue 2 (Nov.), 1970, pp. 148-162

See also his MA thesis:  , Militancy and the Australian Peace Movement: A Study of Dissent Sydney, MA Thesis, University of Sydney, , 1971, pp. 273

York, Barry, Power to the Young, In , Staining the Wattle Ringwood VIC, McPhee Gribble/Penguin Books, , 1988, pp. 228-252

E.1.c. South Vietnam - Buddhists

Opposition to the war within South Vietnam was demonstrated most dramatically by Buddhist monks, but students and academics also protested.

Halberstam, David, The Making of a Quagmire, [1965], (revised edition), London, Rowman and Littlefield, 2007, pp. 248

Includes helpful information on the Buddhist resistance in 1963, see especially pp. 194-243 in original edition.
Roberts, Adam, Buddhism and Politics in South Vietnam, World Today, Vol. 21, issue 6 (June), 1963, pp. 240-250

Account of the 1963 Buddhist revolt, its origins and aftermath. See also later article by Roberts assessing the political potential of the Buddhists: , The Buddhists, the War and the Vietcong World Today, 1966, pp. 214-222 . Both articles now available online: http://www.jstor.org (but only via contributing libraries).
Thich Nhat Hahn, Lotus in a Sea of Fire, New York, Hill and Wang, 1967, pp. 128

Well known theorist of nonviolence puts the Buddhist case.
E.1.d. USA
Bannan, John F. ; Bannan, Rosemary, Law, Morality and Vietnam: The Peace Militants and the Courts, Bloomington IN, Indiana University Press, 1974, pp. 241

Explores the conflict between law and morality, and case for civil disobedience, with reference mainly to six well known prosecutions, including: the Fort Hood Three (GIs who refused to be posted to Vietnam); Dr Spock and others in 1967-68 charged with conspiracy to violate draft laws; and Daniel and Philip Berrigan and five other who burnt draft files at Catonsville in 1968.
Bingham, Clara, Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and The Year America Lost and Found its Soul, New York, Random House, 2016, pp. 655, pb

The book focuses on 'year' August 1969-1970, and explores the roots of the movement against the Vietnam War in the Civil Rights Movement, citing testimony of those involved.
Boardman, Elizabeth Jellinek, The Phoenix Trip: Notes on a Quaker Mission to Haiphong, Bournsville, Celo Press, 1985, pp. 174

Diary of a participant in this defiance of the US prohibition on taking supplies to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Boyle, Richard, The Flower of the Dragon: The Breakdown of the US Army in Vietnam, San Francisco CA, Ramparts Press, 1972, pp. 283

Traces the growth of disillusionment with the war amongst American GIs and the increasingly militant opposition within the US forces. Extracts published as pamphlet ‘GI Revolts: The Breakdown of the US Army in Vietnam’, available online: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/richard-boyle-gi-revolts-the-breakdown-of-the-u-s-army-in-vietnam
Chatfield, Charles, Ironies of Protest: Interpreting the American Anti-Vietnam War Movement, In , Twentieth-century peace movements: Successes and failures Lewiston NY, Edwin Mellen Press, , 1995, pp. 198-208

Argues radical left never had a cohesive centre and that when movement most confrontational, its liberal wing was working most effectively with the political system. Suggests the movement became associated with social and cultural iconoclasm, which appeal to sections of middle classes, but that the broader public eventually opposed both the war and the antiwar protest, because ‘both seemed to threaten the established social order’.
Cortright, David, Soldiers in Revolt: The American Military Today, reissued as Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War, Haymarket, 2005, Garden City NY, Anchor Press, 1975, pp. 364

De Benedetti, CharlesChatfield, Charles, The Antiwar Movement of the Vietnam Era, ed. Chatfield, Charles, Syracuse NY, Syracuse University Press, 1990, pp. 495

Detailed and well researched account. Final chapter by Charles Chatfield analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the movement and influence on US policy. Concludes that anti-war activists contributed to the growth of public disaffection with the war, but could not harness it, but that both Johnson and Nixon Administrations adapted their policies in response to pressure from dissenters.
Foner, Philip S., American Labor and the Indochina War: The Growth of Union Opposition, Re-issued as US Labor and the Vietnam War, 1989., New York, International Publishers, 1971, pp. 126

Traces the emergence of (belated) trade union opposition from a November 1967 conference in Chicago, attended by 523 trade unionists from 38 states and 63 international unions, which established the trade union division of the peace organization SANE. Includes a chapter on labour-student alliances.
Hall, Simon, Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and the Antiwar Movements in the 1960s, [2004], Philadelphia PA, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006, pp. 280

Using archival research, explores both how the Civil Rights Movement reacted to the Vietnam War, and also examines relations between black groups opposed to the War and the wider peace movement, and difficulties that arose.
Halstead, Fred, Out Now! A Participant’s Account of the American Movement Against the Vietnam War, [1978], Atlanta, GA, Pathfinder, 2001, pp. 886

Traces the rise of the anti-Vietnam War movement, including accounts of the ideological and institutional rivalries between organizations, and covers all the major demonstrations and civil disobedience actions from the Students for a Democratic Society March on Washington in 1965 to US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973.
Hill, Simon, Rethinking the American Anti-war Movement, New York, Routledge, 2011, pp. 208

Structured in sections covering key events and key individuals in movement against Vietnam War, and includes a chapter assessing strength and weaknesses of movement. Extensive footnotes and bibliography.
Hunt, Andrew E., The Turning: A History of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, [1999], 2nd edition, New York, New York University Press, 2001, pp. 296

Covers origins and development of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and key events, as well as attempts to recruit Afro-American veterans and the role of women in the organization.
Lynd, Alice, We Won’t Go: Personal Accounts of War Objectors, Boston, Beacon Press, 1998, pp. 332

Deals with conscientious objection in US during the Vietnam War, 1961-1975.
Menasche, Louis ; Radosh, Ronald, Teach-ins USA: Reports, Opinions, Documents, New York, Praeger, 1967, pp. 349

Records how the Teach-In movement began modestly in a mid-West campus in 1965 but spread across the country, engaging many students and professors, and released a vast quantity of material about the Vietnam War. For first teach-in see: ‘History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century: 1965 First ‘Teach-in’ held at University of Michigan: New Tool for Further Education is Born’:

http://schugurensky.faculty.asu.edu/moments/1965teachin.html
Moser, Richard R., The New Winter Soldiers: GI and Veteran Dissent During the Vietnam Era, New Brunswick NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1996, pp. 252

Draws on interviews and personal stories to examine how the ideal of the ‘citizen soldier’ encouraged thousands to move towards opposition to the Vietnam war.
Powers, Thomas, The War at Home: Vietnam and the American People, 1964-1968, Boston MA, G.K. Hall, 1984, pp. 348

Argues that, although all forms of opposition had some effect, those that involved the greatest self-sacrifice tended to work best. However, these sacrifices had most impact first time or two, before the public came to accept and then ignore them. Concludes that opposition to the war did not cause US failure, but forced the government to recognize this failure.
Sale, Kirkpatrick, SDS: The Rise And Development Of The Students For A Democratic Society, New York, Random House, 1973, pp. 752

Traces emergence of Students for a Democratic Society from 1960-1970, with a major focus on campaigns against the Vietnam War, including the 1965 March on Washington.
Simons, Donald L., I Refuse: Memories of a Vietnam War Objector, Trenton NJ, Broken Rifle Press, 1997, pp. 184

A personal account which includes a brief summary of the course of the war and statistics on the scale of draft resistance and desertion.
Small, Melvin, Johnson, Nixon and the Doves, New Brunswick NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1988, pp. 319

Focus on the presidents and their relationship with the Vietnam Anti-War Movements between 1961 and 1975.
Small, Melvin, Covering Dissent: The Media and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1994, pp. 228

Taylor, Clyde, Vietnam and Black America, New York, Anchor Books, 1993, pp. 335

Includes essays, articles and poems by black opponents of the war, including Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, and (in a section ‘The Black Soldier’) extracts from the diaries of black GIs and the Statement of Aims of ‘GIs United Against the War in Vietnam’. Taylor notes how the advice to African Americans from some leaders to ‘prove themselves worthy’ by taking part in the war in Vietnam became increasingly discredited.
E.2. Opposing Wars Against Iraq: The Gulf War 1991 and US-led Invasion 2003

There were important differences in the origins and justification of these two wars. In 1991 Iraq had invaded Kuwait, and in the new atmosphere of detente the Soviet Union did not block a vote in the UN Security Council. So the western war had UN backing, and after defeating Saddam Hussein’s army, the victorious forces limited themselves to liberating Kuwait. Views of the justification for the war in leftist and liberal circles varied, although there was quite significant opposition.

In 2003 the US-led invasion of Iraq was justified by the dictatorial and dangerous nature of the regime and, in Britain in particular, was presented as necessary to prevent Saddam Hussein potentially using his stockpile of weapons of mass destruction (although their presence was not proven at the time of going to war, and subsequent attempts by weapons inspectors to find them indicated the stockpiles did not exist). British troops participated in the invasion and subsequent occupation, along with other more symbolic contingents from the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ forged by the US Administration. Many governments opposed the invasion, it was not supported by the UN , and there were very large demonstrations reflecting unusually widespread opposition in Britain, Europe and elsewhere. There was also growing resistance inside the US. Individual soldiers conscientiously refused to fight in both Iraq wars, and bereaved families became prominent in protest in both the US and Britain. Although the movement against the war in 2003 and against the continuing occupation of Iraq was the more politically significant, so far the literature is fairly limited.

Bennis, Phyllis, Challenging Empire: People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power, Northampton, MA, Olive Branch Press, 2005, pp. 288 pb

Bennis, a Fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and expert on Middle East and US foreign policy, examines critically the US doctrine of pre-emptive war and willingness to bypass the UN in the context of  the global mobilization against the US-led 2003 attack on Iraq. 

See also: Bennis, Phyllis, 'February 15, 2003, The Day the World Said No to War', Institute for Policy Studies, 15 Feb 2013. 

https://ips-dc.org/february_15_2003_the_day_the_world_said_no_to_war/

Celebrates the mass global protests, but focuses in particular how opposition of  Germany and France to the war enabled the 'Uncommitted Six' in the UN Security Council - Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Mexico and Pakistan - to resist pressure from the US and UK and to refuse to endorse the war.
Brittain, Victoria, The Gulf Between Us: The Gulf War and Beyond, London, Virago, 1991, pp. 186

Published immediately after the war to discuss key issues raised. Gives background information and comments on the conduct of the war, in particular the killing from the air of large numbers of Iraqi troops flying white flags. On opposition to the war see: Grace Paley, ‘Something about the Peace Movement: Something about the People’s Right Not to Know’, which comments on the US-based opposition, including references to soldiers refusing to support the war, pp. 64-5 and 70-71.
German, Lindsey ; Murray, Andrew, Stop the War: The Story of Britain’s Biggest Mass Movement, London, Bookmarks, 2005, pp. 286

Book by organizers of the Stop the War Coalition, created in 2001 after the September 11 attacks in the USA, which demonstrated against the Afghan War. It played a central role in mobilizing up to a million people to march in London in February 2003 and continued to demonstrate against the presence of western troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the role of the Socialist Workers Party in the Coalition was sometimes criticized, it succeeded in mobilizing large numbers of British Muslims in peaceful protest and in drawing in people from a broad political spectrum.
Jimenez, Manuel, Mobilizing Against the Iraq War in Spain: Background, Participants and Electoral Implications, South European Society and Politics, Vol. 12, issue 3, 2007, pp. 399-420

Taylor, Ian, Media Relations of the Anti-War Movement: The Battle for Hearts and Minds, New York and London, Routledge, 2016, pp. 268

An examination of how the anti-Iraq War movement in the UK tried to secure press coverage as part of their campaign. The focus is on local anti-war groups and their relationship with the local press and examines such questions as the influence of the social composition of the movement on their approach to the media. Taylor also assesses how local journalists and media viewed the campaign.
Walgrave, Stefaan ; Rucht, Dieter, The World Says No to War: Demonstrations Against the War on Iraq, Minneapolis MN, University of Minnesota Press, 2010, pp. 312

Yukich, Grace ; Ortiz, David ; McVeigh, Rory ; Myers, Dan, The Iraq War Protests 10 Years Later, Mobilizing Ideas, 2013

Assessments of degree of success or failure, unintended consequences, and lessons to be learned about movements. Contributors include David Cortright, William A. Gamson, Kathy Kelly, Lisa Leitz and Eric Stoner.

See also:

Roger C. Peace, A Just and Lasting Peace: The US Peace Movement from the Cold War to Desert Storm, (D.1. General: National and Transnational Movements)
Bernadette Meaden, Protesting for Peace, (D.1. General: National and Transnational Movements)
Robert Burrowes, The Persian Gulf War and the Gulf Peace TeamIn Moser-Puangsuwan; Weber, Nonviolent Intervention Across Borders: A Recurrent Vision (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment)
E.3. Opposing Other Wars and Occupations

This section covers opposition and resistance to a variety of very different wars and military action: the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia; the 1971 Pakistani military repression of East Bengal’s movement for independence and subsequent war between India and Pakistan which created Bangladesh. It also covers opposition to the US Administration’s active support for the Contra war against the left-wing government of Nicaragua in the 1980s and to the wars in former Yugoslavia that led to its disintegration in the early 1990s. The East Timorese resistance to Indonesia occupation in the 1990s is referenced in Vol. 1 (E.II.2.c.), but a transnational solidarity protest against the occupation is cited below. All these examples of resistance, protest or solidarity are listed together here because the available references are limited.

Carter, April ; Randle, Michael, Support Czechoslovakia, London, Housmans, 1968, pp. 64

Account of four transnational teams going to Warsaw Pact capitals to protest against the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion.
Coulson, Meg, Looking behind the Violent Break-up of Yugoslavia, Feminist Review, issue 45, 1993, pp. 86-101

Examines post-1945 history of Yugoslavia and causes of its breakdown. Notes emerging feminist peace and ecological movement in the 1980s and the role of women in ongoing opposition to the war, including Serbian women demonstrating against the war with Croatia and demanding return of their husbands and sons.
Gorbanevskaya, Natalia, Red Square at Noon, London, Andre Deutsch, 1972, pp. 285

On the demonstration in Red Square, Moscow, against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, and subsequent trial and sentences.
Kronlid, Lotta ; Needham, Andrea ; Wilson, Joanna ; Zelter, Angie, Seeds of Hope: East Timor Ploughshares: Women Disarming for Life and Justice, London, Seeds of Hope, 1996, pp. 59

Account by four women who ‘disarmed’ a Hawk fighter-bomber bound for Indonesia at the time of the war against East Timorese resisters. In July 1997 Liverpool Crown Court acquitted the four, accepting that under international law their action aimed to prevent a crime.
McMillan, Andrew, The Voyage of the Lusitania Espresso, In Moser-Puangsuwan; Weber, Nonviolent Intervention Across Borders: A Recurrent Vision (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment), Honolulu, Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace, pp. 73-100

Critical account by Australian participant of Portuguese initiated act of solidarity with East Timorese victims of Indonesian occupation and repression: to sail a boat from Darwin to Dili in 1992 and lay a wreath in Santa Cruz cemetery in memory of 50 killed there attending a funeral in November 1991.
Mladjenovic, Lepa ; Litricin, Vera, Belgrade Feminists 1992: Separation, Guilt and Identity Crisis, Feminist Review, issue 45, 1993, pp. 113-119

Reviews development of Yugoslav feminism from 1978 and notes strains created by vigils against the war in Croatia and later in Bosnia. See also:  , Compilation of Information on Crimes of War against Women in ex-Yugoslavia – and Actions and Initiatives in their Defence Belgrade, Women in Black, , 1993

Needham, Andrea, The Hammer Blow: How 10 Women Disarmed a Warplane, London, Peace News Press, 2016, pp. 310

The book tells the story of how ten women disarmed a Hawk jet at the British Aerospace Warton site near Preston, in England in 1996, which was bound for genocide in East Timor and were acquitted. 
Operation Omega, Operation Omega, In Hare; Blumberg, Liberation without Violence: A Third Party Approach (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment), London, Rex Collings, pp. 196-206

After Pakistani repression of the 1971 East Bengali independence movement and outbreak of the India-Pakistan war, a transnational team tried with some success to take relief supplies into East Bengal. Their aim was to provide practical aid to refugees and protest against Pakistani army repression. At the same time US activists blocked arms supplies to Pakistan (see also  Taylor, Blockade: A Guide to Nonviolent Intervention (E.3. Opposing Other Wars and Occupations) ).
Peace, Roger C., A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign, Manchester, University of Manchester Press, 2012, pp. 328

History of the 8 year anti-Contra campaign, its links in Nicaragua and its impact on deterring the US President from sending troops to oust the left-wing Sandanista government. See also on border monitoring:  Griffin-Nolan, Witness for Peace: A Story of Resistance (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment)  and shorter version in  Moser-Puangsuwan; Weber, Nonviolent Intervention Across Borders: A Recurrent Vision (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment) , pp. 279-304.
Schweitzer, Christine, Mir Sada: The Story of a Nonviolent Intervention that Failed, In Moser-Puangsuwan; Weber, Nonviolent Intervention Across Borders: A Recurrent Vision (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment), Honolulu, Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace, pp. 269-276

Attempt in 1993 to set up a transnational peace caravan in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
Schweitzer, Christine ; Johansen, Jorgen, What Can Peace Movements Do?, Wahlenau, Irene Publishing, 2016, pp. 142

The authors examine how far peace movements can stop wars, summarizing a number of attempts to do so in the past – for example in the 1905 conflict between Norway and Sweden – as well as more recent better known movements: against the Vietnam War, and against the Iraq wars of both 1991 and 2003. Their case studies include the movement to resist US support for the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s, and the Women in White in Liberia 2002-2003.
Taylor, Richard K., Blockade: A Guide to Nonviolent Intervention, Maryknoll NY, Orbis Books, 1977, pp. 175

Account of how a nonviolent fleet of canoes and kayaks blocked Pakistani shipping at East Coast ports of the USA to oppose US support for Pakistan’s repression in East Bengal. Part 2 is a manual for direct action.

See also:

Maja Korac, Linking Arms: Women and War in Post-Yugoslav States, (F.6. War and Women's Resistance), for women’s resistance to wars in ex-Yugoslavia.