[Through Howard Zinns example, his activism, and the enduring
relevance of his writings, we can commit, on the centennial of his
birth, to reiterate one of his central messages: war is not the answer
to conflict in the 21st century. ]
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HOWARD ZINN AT 100: THE ENDURING LEGACY OF THE PEOPLE’S HISTORIAN
 
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Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
August 25, 2022
Democracy Now!
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_ Through Howard Zinn's example, his activism, and the enduring
relevance of his writings, we can commit, on the centennial of his
birth, to reiterate one of his central messages: war is not the answer
to conflict in the 21st century. _

Howard Zinn, Poster Boy NYC (CC BY 2.0)

 

August 24th marked six months since Russia launched its war on
Ukraine, with millions displaced and tens of thousands of civilians
and soldiers killed. That same day, August 24th, marked the centennial
of the late historian Howard Zinn’s birth. Zinn was an author,
professor, and anti-war activist. His seminal book, A People’s
History of the United States, revealed a different, dissident
perspective on the historical arc of the Western hemisphere, from
Christopher Columbus’ arrival in 1492 to the so-called “War on
Terror.” First published in 1980, A People’s History has become a
standard text, with over 2 million copies in print. Howard Zinn died
in 2010, at the age of 87. His words, more than a decade after his
death, are still worth hearing in a world wracked by war, racism and
inequality.

“War poisons everybody who engages in it,” Howard Zinn said in a
2006 address in Madison, Wisconsin. The United States was waging two
major wars at the time, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and supporting
ongoing conflicts elsewhere. Howard Zinn continued, “We’ve had a
history of war after war after war after war. What have they solved?
What have they done?”

Howard Zinn volunteered to serve in World War II, becoming a
bombardier. He participated in the bombing of Royan, a small town
along the coast of France, in April, 1945:

“This was a few weeks before the war was going to be over, and
everybody knew it was going to be over,” Zinn said on the Democracy
Now! news hour in 2005. “There was a little pocket of German
soldiers hanging around this little town of Royan on the Atlantic
coast of France, and the Air Force decided to bomb them — 1,200
heavy bombers, and I was in one of them, flew over this little town of
Royan and dropped napalm — first use of napalm in the European
theater. We don’t know how many people we killed, how many people
were terribly burned as a result of what we did. But I did it, like
most soldiers do, unthinkingly, mechanically, thinking we’re on the
right side, they’re on the wrong side, and therefore we can do
whatever we want, and it’s OK.”

Howard Zinn visited the French seaside resort in 1966 to speak with
survivors. He wrote a detailed history of the raid and its
consequences. “It was…a very great sobering lesson about so-called
good wars.”

In Zinn’s 2006 Wisconsin speech, he described “the different ratio
of civilian-to-military deaths in war… in World War I, 10 military
dead for one civilian dead; in World War II, it was 50-50, half
military, half civilian; in Vietnam, it was 70% civilian and 30%
military; and in the wars since then, it’s 80% and 85% civilian.”

Howard Zinn taught at Spelman, a historically Black women’s college
in Atlanta, during the height of the civil rights movement. Among his
students were author Alice Walker and Children’s Defense Fund
founder Marian Wright Edelman. Zinn explained on Democracy Now!, “At
Spelman, I got involved with my students in the actions that were
going on in the South, the sit-ins, the demonstrations, the picket
lines.” His solidarity got him fired. In 2005, Professor Zinn was
invited back to Spelman to deliver the commencement address.

Howard Zinn became a prominent opponent of the war in Vietnam. In
1968, he and activist priest Father Daniel Berrigan flew to North
Vietnam, coordinating the first release of U.S. prisoners of war held
there. When renowned whistleblower Dan Ellsberg released the Pentagon
Papers, the U.S. government’s secret history of its involvement in
Vietnam, Howard Zinn and his late wife Roz hid a copy of the documents
in their home. His dedication to peace and anti-war activism continued
unabated throughout his life.

August 24th, in addition to the anniversary of Zinn’s birth, is also
the day that Ukraine marks its independence from the Soviet Union.
This year, independence celebrations were banned across Ukraine for
fear of Russian attacks. Russia did attack a rail station on that day,
in the eastern Ukrainian village of Chaplyne, killing at least 25
people, including children. On the same day, President Joe Biden
announced an additional $3 billion in military aid to Ukraine,
bringing the total in U.S. military aid to Ukraine since Biden took
office to $13.5 billion.

Howard Zinn is not here to condemn this war, or any of the others now
being fought. But through his example, his activism, and the enduring
relevance of his writings, we can commit, on the centennial of his
birth, to reiterate one of his central messages: war is not the answer
to conflict in the 21st century.

* Howard Zinn
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* Afghanistan
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* Iraq War
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* Ukraine
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* History
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