The U.S. war machine may seem to some to be unstoppable, but there are always those with the courage to resist, to organize.

Today we speak with an anti-war activist who has dedicated his life to this fight.

We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago,

but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to the Real Story on the Socialist program. I'm Brian Becker, and I'm joined by Brian Wilson.

Brian is a Vietnam veteran. He is a writer, a lawyer, a peace activist. On September 1st, 1987,

Brian Wilson lost his legs while participating in a peaceful act of civil disobedience at a railroad track

at the Concord Naval Weapons Station to block the shipment of weapons to the terrorist-contra fighters in Nicaragua. His latest book is, Don't Thank Me for My

Vietnam Awakening to the Long History of U.S. lies. Brian Wilson, welcome. Thank you.

Brian, I've known you for quite a while for a couple decades and of you for even longer.

We've worked together on issues like peace for Korea.

Yeah.

And working with others to try to hold the U.S. government officials and others accountable

for war crimes committed against the Korean people between 1950 and 53. But that's only a part of the

story. You have been involved in almost every mass movement and sometimes movements that were

not so massive, demanding peace and exposing U.S. foreign policy. I want to read to you from an article in the Los Angeles Times.

It's from September 3rd, 1987. It's an Associated Press article. And I want to just frame this

conversation with you by reading a little bit from this article 33 years ago because it sort of sets the

stage for what many younger people might not know about, but those of us who are older certainly

do know about. Here it is. Angry demonstrators returned Wednesday to the Concord Naval

Weapons Station where a Vietnam veteran protesting U.S.

armed shipments to Central America lost both legs a day earlier when he knelt in front of an

oncoming munitions train, standing directly over the blood-spattered rails where the train struck 47-year-old S. Brian Wilson,

...