Editing Howard Zinn (section)

===Vietnam===
Zinn wrote one of the earliest books calling for the U.S. withdrawal from its war in [[Vietnam]]. ''Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal'' was published by Beacon Press in 1967 based on his articles in ''[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]]'', ''[[The Nation]]'', and ''[[Ramparts (magazine)|Ramparts]]''. In the opinion of [[Noam Chomsky]], ''The Logic of Withdrawal'' was Zinn's most important book:

<blockquote>He was the first person to say—loudly, publicly, very persuasively—that this simply has to stop; we should get out, period, no conditions; we have no right to be there; it's an act of aggression; pull out. It was so surprising at the time that there wasn't even a review of the book. In fact, he asked me if I would review it in ''Ramparts'' just so that people would know about the book.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/28/howard_zinn_1922_2010_a_tribute|title=Howard Zinn (1922–2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove|work=Democracy Now!|date=January 28, 2010}}</ref></blockquote>

Zinn's diplomatic visit to Hanoi with Reverend [[Daniel Berrigan]], during the Tet Offensive in January 1968, resulted in the return of three American airmen, the first American POWs released by the North Vietnamese since the U.S. bombing of that nation had begun. The event was widely reported in the news media and discussed in a variety of books including ''Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam 1963–1975'' by Nancy Zaroulis and Gerald Sullivan.<ref>{{cite book|title=Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam 1963–1975|publisher=Horizon Book Promotions|year=1989|isbn=978-0-385-17547-0}}</ref> Zinn and the Berrigan brothers, Dan and [[Philip Berrigan|Philip]], remained friends and allies over the years.

Also in January 1968, he signed the "[[Writers and Editors War Tax Protest]]" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the war.<ref>{{cite news|title=Writers and Editors War Tax Protest|date=January 30, 1968|work=[[New York Post]]}}</ref>

In December 1969, radical historians tried unsuccessfully to persuade the [[American Historical Association]] to pass an anti-Vietnam War resolution. "A debacle unfolded as [[Harvard University|Harvard]] historian (and AHA president in 1968) [[John K. Fairbank|John Fairbank]] literally wrestled the microphone from Zinn's hands."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2010/1002/1002tim1.cfm|title=Forty Years On: Looking Back at the 1969 Annual Meeting|first=Carl |last=Mirra]|date=February 1, 2010|magazine=Perspectives on History|publisher=American Historical Association}}</ref>

[[Daniel Ellsberg]], a former [[RAND Corporation|RAND]] consultant who had secretly copied ''[[The Pentagon Papers]]'', which described the history of the United States' military involvement in Southeast Asia, gave a copy to Howard and Roslyn Zinn.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ellsberg autobiography, Zinn autobiography}}</ref> Along with [[Noam Chomsky]], Zinn edited and annotated the copy of ''The Pentagon Papers'' that Senator [[Mike Gravel]] read into the [[Congressional Record]] and that was subsequently published by [[Beacon Press]].

Announced on August 17<ref name="nyt081871">{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F50D14F9355B1A7493CAA81783D85F458785F9|title=Church Plans 4-Book Version of Pentagon Study|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=1971-08-18|access-date=2007-12-30|format=fee required|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214182649/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50D14F9355B1A7493CAA81783D85F458785F9|archive-date=December 14, 2013}}</ref> and published on October 10, 1971, this four-volume, relatively expensive set<ref name="nyt081871"/> became the "Senator Gravel Edition", which studies from [[Cornell University]] and the [[Annenberg Center for Communication]] have labeled as the most complete edition of the Pentagon Papers to be published.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Pentagon Papers: A Critical Evaluation|first=George McT.|last=Kahn|journal=[[American Political Science Review]]|volume=69|issue=2|pages=675–684|date=June 1975|doi=10.2307/1959096|jstor=1959096|s2cid=144419085 }}</ref><ref name="usc-resources">{{cite web|url=http://www.topsecretplay.org/index.php/content/resources|title=Resources|work=Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers|publisher=[[Annenberg Center for Communication]] at [[University of Southern California]]|access-date=2007-12-30|archive-date=2008-01-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111124450/http://www.topsecretplay.org/index.php/content/resources|url-status=dead}}</ref> The "Gravel Edition" was edited and annotated by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and included an additional volume of analytical articles on the origins and progress of the war, also edited by Chomsky and Zinn.<ref name="usc-resources"/>

Zinn testified as an expert witness at Ellsberg's criminal trial for theft, conspiracy, and espionage in connection with the publication of the ''Pentagon Papers'' by ''[[The New York Times]]''. Defense attorneys asked Zinn to explain to the jury the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from World War II through 1963. Zinn discussed that history for several hours, and later reflected on his time before the jury.

<blockquote>I explained there was nothing in the papers of military significance that could be used to harm the defense of the United States, that the information in them was simply ''embarrassing'' to our government because what was revealed, in the government's own interoffice memos, was how it had lied to the American public.... The secrets disclosed in the Pentagon Papers might embarrass politicians, might hurt the profits of corporations wanting tin, rubber, oil, in far-off places. But this was not the same as hurting the nation, the people.<ref name="Zinn2010">{{cite book|first=Howard|last=Zinn|title=You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kQAWYJcoQc0C&pg=PA161|year=2010|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0-8070-9549-2|page=161}}</ref></blockquote>

Most of the jurors later said that they voted for acquittal. However, the federal judge who presided over the case dismissed it on grounds it had been tainted by the [[Richard M. Nixon|Nixon]] administration's [[Daniel Ellsberg#Fielding break-in|burglary of the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist]].

Zinn's testimony on the motivation for government secrecy was confirmed in 1989 by [[Erwin Griswold]], who as U.S. solicitor general during the Nixon administration sued ''The New York Times'' in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971 to stop publication.<ref name="latimes">{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-21-op-blanton21-story.html |title=The lie behind the secrets|last=Blanton|first=Tom|date=2006-05-21|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2013-07-28}}</ref> Griswold persuaded three Supreme Court justices to vote to stop ''The New York Times'' from continuing to publish the Pentagon Papers, an order known as "[[prior restraint]]" that has been held to be illegal under the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]]. The papers were simultaneously published in ''[[The Washington Post]]'', effectively nullifying the effect of the prior restraint order. In 1989, Griswold admitted there had been no national security damage resulting from publication.<ref name="latimes" /> In a column in ''The Washington Post'', Griswold wrote: "It quickly becomes apparent to any person who has considerable experience with classified material that there is massive over-classification and that the principal concern of the classifiers is not with national security, but with governmental embarrassment of one sort or another."

Zinn supported the G.I. anti-war movement during the U.S. war in Vietnam. In the 2001 film ''[[Unfinished Symphony: Democracy and Dissent]]'', Zinn provides a historical context for the 1971 anti-war march by [[Vietnam Veterans against the War]]. The marchers traveled from [[Battle of Bunker Hill|Bunker Hill]] near Boston to [[Lexington, Massachusetts|Lexington]], [[Massachusetts]], "which retraced [[Paul Revere]]'s ride of 1775 and ended in the massive arrest of 410 veterans and civilians by the Lexington police." The film depicts "scenes from the 1971 Winter Soldier hearings,<ref>{{cite book |title=Winter Soldier Investigation |year=1971}}</ref> during which former G.I.s testified about "atrocities" they either participated in or said they had witnessed committed by U.S. forces in Vietnam.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/unfinished.pdf|title=Cineaste|pages=91, 96|access-date=2010-03-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622090809/http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/unfinished.pdf|archive-date=June 22, 2011}}</ref> Zinn also took part in the [[1971 May Day protests]] (with among others [[Noam Chomsky]] and [[Daniel Ellsberg]]).<ref>{{cite web|author-link=Daniel Ellsberg|last=Ellsberg|first=Daniel|date=28 January 2010|url=https://www.truthdig.com/articles/a-memory-of-howard|title=A Memory of Howard|work=[[Truthdig]]|access-date=26 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=29 April 2021|url=https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/04/spring-offensive-mayday-1971-nixon-vietnam-antiwar|title=How 1971's Mayday actions rattled Nixon and helped keep Vietnam from becoming a forever war|work=Waging Nonviolence |access-date=26 December 2021 |last1=Levering |first1=Robert }}</ref>

In later years, Zinn was an adviser to the Disarm Education Fund.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://disarm.org/who-we-are/disarm-staff|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615172614/http://disarm.org/who-we-are/disarm-staff|url-status=dead|archive-date=2010-06-15|title=Disarm Staff|work=DISARM Education Fund|access-date=2020-04-07}}</ref>