Oleo Strut (coffeehouse) explained
The Oleo Strut was a GI Coffeehouse located in Killeen, Texas, from 1968 to 1972.[1] Like its namesake, a shock absorber in the landing gear of most large aircraft and many smaller ones, the Oleo Strut’s purpose was to help GIs land softly.[2] Upon returning from Vietnam to Fort Hood, shell-shocked soldiers found solace amongst the Strut’s regulars, mostly fellow soldiers and a few civilian sympathizers. The GIs turned the Oleo Strut into one of Texas’s anti-war headquarters, publishing an underground anti-war newspaper, organizing boycotts, setting up a legal office, and leading peace marches.[3]
The coffeehouse was an organizing center for the support of the Fort Hood 43, a group of Black soldiers who had been disciplined for refusing to perform riot control duty at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.[4] [5] [6]
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External links
Notes and References
- Book: Estados Unidos. Congress. House. Committee on Internal Security. Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, Ninety-second Congress, Second Session. 1972. 1972. U.S. Government Printing Office.
- Web site: If War is Hell, then Coffee Has Offered U.S. Soldiers Some Salvation. .
- Book: H. Bruce Franklin. Vietnam and Other American Fantasies. September 2001. Univ of Massachusetts Press. 1-55849-332-8. 107–.
- Book: David L. Parsons. Dangerous Grounds: Antiwar Coffeehouses and Military Dissent in the Vietnam Era. 13 March 2017. University of North Carolina Press. 978-1-4696-3202-5. 45–.
- News: Opinion | How Coffeehouses Fueled the Vietnam Peace Movement. The New York Times. 9 January 2018. Parsons. David L..
- Book: Jonathan Neale. The American War: Vietnam 1960-1975. 2001. Bookmarks. 978-1-898876-67-0.
