A memoir by an American peace activist, released in Vietnamese onJanuary 22, give readers a perspective on the American war that isdifferent from combat and violence.

Originally published as Felonfor Peace (2005), Toi Pham vi Hoa Binh reveals what it was like tooppose the war in the US – a nation fiercely divided by theconflict.

The author, Jerry Elmer, was an active leader in theanti-war movement; his memoir is the first work by an American peaceactivist to be published in Vietnam.

"I believed that what mycountry was doing here in Viet Nam was immoral, because we werefighting against a people who wanted nothing more than freedom andindependence," Elmer said. "I also believed that what my country wasdoing was illegal, because it violated international law against wagingwars of aggression."

Even though he might not be able to stop these crimes, Elmer vowed to ensure that they would not be ignored.

"I might not be able to end the war; but I could certainly break the silence. That is what I tried to do," he said.

Elmer publicly refused to register for the draft when he turned 18in August 1969, at the height of the American War – a felony then (andnow).

Over the next 18 months, he burglarised the offices of 14separate draft boards in three states. In each of these raids,protesters destroyed the files of men eligible to be drafted and wipedout the draft boards' cross-reference system, thereby rendering thosedraft boards inoperable.

"Elmer shows Vietnamese readers – andall present-day readers – the huge and disastrous nature of the war thatour people had to deal with," historian Duong Trung Quoc writes in thebook's introduction.

"This war also traumatised Americawhile it was being conducted as well as long after it ended. And to acertain extent it still serves as a profound lesson to remind the USof the consequences every time its government engages in foreignintervention."-VNA