Historically, military flips is when serious revolutions start. Incidentally, this almost happened with Vietnam as well.

By the end of the war, around 30% of US officer casualties were fratricide. Think of the level of solidarity there was among the rank and file that nobody in the platoon snitched when somebody put a bullet in the lieutenant’s back.

The wheels were really coming off the US military around 1970 and that’s likely why they left Vietnam. Another year and they’d have an all out mutiny on their hands, led by the same class of people who comprised the vanguard stateside.

At best count, there appear to be some 144 underground newspapers published on or aimed at U.S. military bases in this country and overseas. Since 1970 the number of such sheets has increased 40% (up from 103 last fall). These journals are not mere gripe-sheets that poke soldier fun in the “Beetle Bailey” tradition, at the brass and the sergeants. “In Vietnam,” writes the Ft Lewis-McChord Free Press, “the Lifers, the Brass, are the true Enemy, not the enemy.” Another West Coast sheet advises readers: “Don’t desert. Go to Vietnam and kill your commanding officer.”