cross-referenced news and research resources about
draft resister Randy Kehler
By 1969 Ellsberg had become disillusioned with the war, and quietly began attending anti-war events, while still remaining in his position at RAND. He experienced an epiphany attending a War Resisters League conference at Haverford College in August 1969, listening to a speech given by a draft resister named Randy Kehler, who calmly said he was "very excited" that he would soon be able to join his friends in prison[1]. Ellsberg described his reaction:
"And he said this very calmly. I hadn't known that he was about to be sentenced for draft resistance. It hit me as a total surprise and shock, because I heard his words in the midst of actually feeling proud of my country listening to him. And then I heard he was going to prison. It wasn't what he said exactly that changed my worldview. It was the example he was setting with his life. How his words in general showed that he was a stellar American, and that he was going to jail as a very deliberate choice — because he thought it was the right thing to do. There was no question in my mind that my government was involved in an unjust war that was going to continue and get larger. Thousands of young men were dying each year. I left the auditorium and found a deserted men's room. I sat on the floor and cried for over an hour, just sobbing. The only time in my life I've reacted to something like that."
Wikipedia: Daniel Ellsberg
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updated Fri. January 26, 2024
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The Atlantic
February 9, 2018
David S. Meyer, author, The Politics of Protest. The conscientious objector Randy Kehler went to jail for nearly two years to protest against the Vietnam War. Years later, Daniel Ellsberg said that Kehler's sacrifice persuaded him to share the Pentagon Papers.
The Recorder
January 29, 2018
We had almost forgotten the significant role that Randy Kehler of Colrain played in the national peace movement over the years, as far back as the Vietnam War. But arrival of the new movie, “The Post,” brought Kehler back to mind. Daniel Ellsberg, of Pentagon Papers fame, credits Kehler with inspiring his ...
The Recorder
January 19, 2018
COLRAIN — Steven Spielberg's lens may have been focused on The Washington Post in his latest movie, now playing at Garden Cinemas, but it was The New York Times that first began publishing the Pentagon Papers on June 13, 1971, after former military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked the secret ...
New York Times
December 20, 2017
There, a man named Randy Kehler gave a stirring talk about resisting and preparing to be jailed. ... The adjoining rooms were rented for the staff to sleep in, and other writers joined the effort, including the veteran Vietnam reporters Hedrick Smith, E. W. (Ned) Kenworthy and Fox Butterfield, according to Mr.
Reason
December 17, 2017
I was influenced by the example of draft resisters like Randy Kehler, who were on their way to prison for nonviolent resistance to the draft. I concluded that if that was ... He thought it wasn't important to put out the Pentagon Papers, because enough about Vietnam had come out already. What was really new ...
Salon
October 16, 2017
Let me start with somebody like Randy Kehler, a draft resister who said that he was not going to participate in an immoral war, so he went to prison for two years for that principled stand. Indeed, Daniel Ellsberg heard about Kehler, saw him speak, and was so moved — he tells this story often of going into a ...
New Republic
March 3, 2017
We were there offering support to our neighbors, Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner. They had been ... It started as a way to protest the Vietnam War draft, but it's a practice with roots dating back to World War II. ... The Vietnam War originally set Kehler on his course toward refusing to support wartime activities.
Jacobin magazine
May 30, 2016
By 1968, as the Vietnam War grew increasingly unpopular, war resisters, numbering in the thousands, were returning their draft cards to their designated federal buildings, which was seen as even greater act of defiance than card burning because officials would have the resister's name and address ...
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randy kehler
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randy kehler
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