Understanding Rebellion in the Military During Wartime

军队中的叛乱形式多种多样，包括兵变、破坏、拒绝战斗、非法吸毒和擅离职守(未经许可擅离职守)。这种行为受到严厉惩罚，特别是在战争期间。这项研究调查了这种叛乱何时出现，以及它们何时成功地改变了战争安排和政策。这项研究的重点是上个世纪发生在美国领导的越南战争(1965-75年)期间的最引人注目但未被充分研究的叛乱事件之一。尽管叛乱的风险和代价很大，但美国大兵领导了军队内部的叛乱、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-社会关系方面很重要，但人们对服役人员何时以及如何叛乱，或者为什么他们在回应不满时选择非常不同的策略知之甚少。这项研究对不同背景和服役历史的越战老兵进行了大约300次深入的、半结构化的访谈。根据扎根理论和过程追踪方法的原理，转录访谈在定性软件中采用两个阶段的过程进行编码，以揭示导致反叛及其各种形式的中观和微观层面的机制。这些数据辅以档案和二手资料来源，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、历史和地区研究以及和平研究的跨学科视角出发，该项目的发现增加了公众知识，改善了决策，并推动了对军事忠诚和不同意见的研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.