Understanding Rebellion in the Military During Wartime

军队中的叛乱有多种形式，包括兵变、破坏、战斗拒绝、非法吸毒和擅离职守（擅离职守）。这种行为会受到严厉的惩罚，尤其是在战时。这项研究调查了这种叛乱何时出现，以及他们何时成功地改变了战争决策和政策。本研究的重点是上个世纪发生在美国领导的越南战争（1965年至1975年）期间的一次最著名但研究不足的叛乱。尽管叛乱有风险和代价，美国大兵还是领导了军队内部的兵变、袭击军官、军事监狱骚乱、反战抗议和其他类型的叛乱。到1970年，整个军队的纪律崩溃促使美国政府撤出了地面部队，并在1973年完全结束了征兵。尽管军事叛乱在塑造战争、政治控制和国家-社会关系方面具有重要意义，但人们对军人何时以及如何叛乱知之甚少，也不知道为什么他们在回应不满时选择了截然不同的策略。本研究对来自不同背景和服役历史的越南退伍军人进行了大约300次深入的半结构化访谈。根据扎根理论和过程追踪方法的原则，在定性软件中使用两阶段过程对转录的访谈进行编码，以揭示引起反叛及其各种形式的中观和微观层面机制。这些数据由档案和二手资料补充，包括报纸报道和政府文件，以核实和详细说明采访数据。从政治和军事科学、犯罪学和心理学、历史和区域研究以及和平研究的跨学科角度出发，本项目的研究结果增加了公众知识，改善了决策，并推进了对军事忠诚和异议的研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Rebellion in the military takes a variety of forms, including mutiny, sabotage, combat refusals, illegal drug use, and going AWOL (absent without leave). Such actions are severely punished, particularly during wartime. This study investigates when such rebellions emerge and when they succeed in changing warmaking and policy. This research focuses on one of the most notable but understudied rebellions over the last century, which occurred during the US-led war in Vietnam (1965-75). Despite the risks and costs of rebelling, American GIs led intra-military mutinies, attacks against officers, military prison riots, anti-war protests, and other kinds of rebellions. By 1970, disciplinary breakdown across the military prompted the US government to withdraw its ground forces and end the draft altogether in 1973. Despite the importance of military rebellion in shaping warmaking, political control, and state-society relations, however, little is known about when and how service members rebelled, or why they choose very different tactics when responding to grievances. This study conducts approximately 300 in-depth, semi-structured interviews of Vietnam veterans of varied backgrounds and service histories. Transcribed interviews are coded using a two-stage process in qualitative software, according to the principles of grounded theory and process tracing methods, to uncover the meso- and micro-level mechanisms giving rise of rebellions and their varied forms. These data are supplemented with archival and secondary sources, including newspaper reports and government documents, to verify and elaborate on the interview data. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from political and military science, criminology and psychology, history and area studies, and peace studies, this project’s findings increase public knowledge, improve decision making, and advance the study of military loyalty and dissent.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.