Truth to Tell Memorial Day Special: Honor Those Who Served in War and Those Who Opposed War

Memorial Day is a time to honor the men and women who have served in the United States military—especially during times of war. But what about those who fought to prevent those wars or end them once they had started?  Shouldn’t we remember them and the movements they created, as well?

Minnesota’s rich history of anti-war protest goes back to late 19^th-century imperialist adventures in Cuba, Central America, and the Philippines. In 1916, the citizens of Minneapolis elected its first and only socialist mayor, Thomas Van Lear, a union leader who shared with many Minnesotans a deep skepticism about U.S. participation in World War I, the “the war to end all wars.” Over time, the tactics, demographics, and  hair styles of protestors may have changed, but the willingness to raise the essential question remains constant: Why war? Why this war?

Tune in to Truth toTell on Memorial Day for Britt Aamodt’s powerful radio documentary, Riot Spring:  The University of Minnesota and the Anti-War Protests of May 1972, followed by a discussion of the  movement against the Reagan-era military interventions in Nicaragua and El Salvador with our special guest,  Anne-Winkler Morey,  a professor of Latin American history and participant in the Central American Solidarity Movement of the 1980s.