In April of 1971, thousands of GI’s took part in what was called, Dewey Canyon III. The 5-day series of peaceful protest dubbed a “limited incursion into the country of Congress.” One such moment took place across the Patomic River, at the Arlington National cemetery. Chaplain Jackson H. Day, 4th Infantry Division, delivered a memorial service outside the locked gates of the cemetery, in which he offered this moving statement:

“Maybe there are some others here like me who wanted desperately to believe that what we were doing was acceptable, who hung on the words of "revolutionary development" and "winning the hearts and minds of the people." We had been told that on balance, the war was a good thing and we tried to make it a good thing; all of us can tell of somebody who helped out an orphanage, or of men like one sergeant who adopted a crippled Vietnamese child; and even at My Lai the grief of one of the survivors was mixed with bewilderment as he told a reporter, "I just don't understand it... always before, the Americans brought medicine and candy."

I believe there is something in all of us that would wave a flag for the dream of an America that brings medicine and candy, but we are gathered here today, waving no flags, in the ruins of that dream. Some of you saw right away the evil of what was going on; others of us one by one, adding and re-adding the balance sheet of what was happening and what could possibly be accomplished finally saw that no goal could be so laudable, or defense so necessary, as to justify what we have visited upon the people of Indochina.”

The “operations” culminated on the steps of the capital building, as Senators George McGovern and Philip Hart held hearings on atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers inside, veterans outside, walked up to the microphone, one after another, spoke their peace and chucked their decorations and medals onto the steps of the capital.

PHOTO: These images depict the Dewey Canyon III operations on April 23rd 1971, in which scores of soldiers hastily returned their decorations and medals, one by one, on the steps of the capital building in Washington D.C. The events commenced as one soldier exclaimed, “We don’t want to fight anymore, but if we have to fight again it will be to take these steps.”