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Staughton Lynd was one of the principal intellectuals and activists making the radical argument that the U.S. intervention in Vietnam was illegal under domestic and international law. Lynd was uncompromising in his courageous stance that the U.S. should immediately withdraw from Vietnam, and that soldiers and draftees should refuse to participate in the war based on their individual conscience and the Nuremberg Principles of 1950.
Lynd did not just write about opposing the war, he was one of the chief proponents of direct action and civil disobedience to confront the war machine at the university, in the halls of power, and in everyday life through refusing to pay income taxes.
As Staughton Lynd’s speeches, writings, statements and interviews demonstrate, there were coherent and persuasive arguments against the war in Vietnam based on U.S. and international law, precedents from American history, and moral and ethical considerations based on conscientious objection to war and an internationalism embraced by American radicals which said: “My country is the world, my countrymen are all mankind.”
"This collection could not come at a more important moment, in the wake of Staughton Lynd’s death, documenting his tireless writing and speaking to end the cruel US war of aggression against the Vietnamese people, an important intervention at this time of United States’ renewed war mongering in the South China Sea." —Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, writer and historian
"My Country Is the World is a brilliant and incisive text, taking us back to Staughton Lynd's days at the leadership, politically, personally and even spiritually, of the anti-Vietnam War movement. Lynd was the voice of the deep sentiments for peace, beyond the usual left-of-center opposition to the very heartland of opposition. He found that heartland before any others, and his contribution was vast." —Paul Buhle, Senior Lecturer, Retired American Studies, Brown University
Luke Stewart is a historian focusing on the antiwar movements during the Vietnam War and the global war on terror. He has co-edited Let Them Stay: U.S. War Resisters in Canada, 2004-2016. He currently lives in Nantes, France.