My Whirlwind Lives: Navigating Decades of Storms
A quest to turn the tide after decades of storms.
Both a memoir and manifesto, My Whirlwind Lives describes my personal-political odyssey, first as a Vietnam era war resister, then as an anti-imperialist activist and "Green New Deal revolutionary." Following is a summary:
Part 1: My stormy dawn of awareness about the war and racism, my departure to Canada, the "transition life" of American war exiles and expatriates in Canada, and the dramatic story of our long campaign for universal, unconditional amnesty - culminating in an intensive and victorious showdown at the 1976 Democratic National Convention.
Part 2: The post-Vietnam War decades, with "close-ups" on the Portuguese and Nicaraguan revolutions, and their impact on me: the "whiplash" of optimism following the Vietnamese victory, then grim realization of Reaganite reaction and endless war.
Part 3: The Green New Deal - a revolutionary program to save the planet. I suggest the rightist view that it's a "watermelon - green on the outside but red on the inside" - is essentially true. It's not really a "socialist plot," but it indicts capitalism as the source of the problem, and then provides a road map to save the planet and help people end the capitalist never-never land.
There's an Afterword essay on the current moment: "Up From the Ashes: A New and Stronger Whirlwind." I argue that we are living in a breakthrough moment.
The appendices are reports I wrote about key events and themes in the book: the end of the U.S. war in Vietnam, a 1969 soldiers' sanctuary rebellion in Honolulu, the 1972 Amex->Canada editorial "Amnesty and the War," a review of several books by veterans of U.S. wars, details of GI and veteran suicides, the changing faces of military resistance.
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I lived in Toronto, Canada, from August 1968 until August 1974. The first half of my book is the story of those years. All of it is original, although some brief sections rely on the Amex Archives, at the University of Wisconsin. I have lived in New York City since 1974, except 1987 to 1990, when I lived and worked with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. From 1965 to '68 I studied, first at University of San Francisco and then San Francisco State College. I left SF State in January 1968, and went to Canada in August of that year. I was born in Cottonwood, Idaho, and grew up in Pendleton, Oregon. I graduated from high school in 1964, with a scholarship to study at the University of Oregon in Eugene, but instead I went to a Jesuit seminary in Los Gatos, California, where I lasted just four months - didn't much like silent penitence or the prospect of lifelong celibacy! While in Canada I completed a BA in English at York University. I returned to the USA in 1974, first to work as a full-time organizer for the National Council for Universal Unconditional Amnesty. I then got "an honest job" as a typesetter, then moved to desktop publishing. I took this skill to Nicaragua, where I worked as a volunteer consultant for the Sandinista newspaper Barricada, and later for several other progressive publishers there. As detailed in my book, I have been a dedicated activist for social change ever since 1968.
My Whirlwind Lives is a fast-paced and fascinating tour of a life filled with politics, passion and purpose. Knight takes us through decades of turmoil in the U.S. and overseas, and decades of movement building against war, injustice and destruction of the planet.
The book is infused with Knight's sweeping vision of a more humane world and his infectious sense of optimism.
Read it and act.
- Medea Benjamin, Co-founder, CodePink
From the movement against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, to the revolutions in Portugal, Africa, and Latin America, to today's movement for the Green New Deal, these stories of how real change happens are full of inspiration and valuable lessons.
- Jeff Paterson, Founder, Courage to Resist
Dee Knight has written a most compelling account of his personal odyssey and political evolution. This life story shares much with that of thousands of young people whose lives and world views changed when they were pushed to participate in unjust U.S. wars.
- Gerry Condon, Vietnam era GI resister and former president of Veterans for Peace
"Our best hope for today is to connect with China.
Dee Knight's book is the path to hope."
Dee Knight's book recounts the history of US soldiers and civilians' resistance to our country's wars of aggression, from the perspective of a lifelong leader of that resistance. From resistance in the United States, to Canada and Nicaragua, Dee Knight has been there, and done that. Today America's number one target is China, and Dee has set his sights on resisting this new Cold War 2, a war which could turn hot at any time.
American peace activists' efforts during the Vietnam war and our connections to the Vietnamese can now become a model for how building such connections to China can promote peace rather than war. This will benefit both countries rather than following a path toward misunderstanding, hatred, and mutual destruction.
Our best hope for today is to connect with China, debunk the American demonization and propaganda against China and bring the truth to the American public, and hopefully prevent a possible World War 3. The model we used to connect with Vietnam in time of war should now be a model to connect with China before any war, preempting war and pivoting to peace instead. The alternative is a war that could possibly turn nuclear and end the world and all of humanity. Read Dee Knight's book and see the path to hope.
Michael Wong, Co-chair, Veterans For Peace China Working Group, Co-founder of Pivot To Peace
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