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Burglar for Peace: Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left's Resistance to the Vietnam War
Burglar for Peace is the incredible story of the Catholic Left—also known as the Ultra Resistance—from the late 1960s to the early ’70s. Led by the Catholic priests Phil and Dan Berrigan, the Catholic Left quickly became one of the most important sectors of the Vietnam War-era peace movement after a nonviolent raid on a draft board in Catonsville, MD, in May 1968. With an overview of the broader draft resistance movement, Burglar for Peace is an exploration of the sweeping landscape of the American Left during the Vietnam War era as we accompany Ted Glick on a journey through his personal evolution from typical, white, middle-class, American teenager to an antiwar, nonviolent draft resister. Burglar for Peace is the first in-depth, inside look at two of the major political trials of Catholic Left activists.
- GenresReligionNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2020
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September 21, 2020
A Sixties War Resistance Story with Lessons for Today’s Battles
A review of “Burglar for Peace: Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left’s Resistance to the Vietnam War,” by Ted Glick
Ted Glick is a legend within the American climate movement. He’s occupied ledges and dropped banners above climate-denying federal agencies. He’s fasted for long periods – once for 42 days -- to draw attention to social injustices, including global warming.
These are just a few examples in a man’s life dedicated to “disruptive nonviolence” for a higher purpose. In May 1969, at the age of 19, Glick dropped out of college and returned his draft card to the Selective Service, refusing to kill his “Vietnamese brothers.” In 1970, he went to federal prison for 11 months for breaking into draft board offices and destroying draft records. In prison, he was deeply moved -- and forever changed -- by the disproportionate incarceration of blacks and the sytemic discrimination he saw within the prison hierarchy itself.
Now a veteran leader at the group Beyond Extreme Energy, Glick – who is white – was nonetheless the first person to send me a “defund the police” email after the death of George Floyd.
All of which is to say Glick’s new autobiography “Burglar for Peace” is not just a dramatic and eminently readable personal story of war resistance. It chronicles, through Glick’s life, the arc of resistance on most of the biggest social issues of our time, including – presciently – the Black Lives Matter protests now.
The subtitle of the book is “Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left’s Resistance to the Vietnam War.” Those lessons include a commitment to “high risk” actions that are nonetheless totally nonviolent – and therefore very powerful. Glick writes, “I hope and pray that my writing this book…(will help us) create a world based on justice, equal rights, a deep connection to the natural world, and active love.”
I had the pleasure of working with Ted Glick for about a decade at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. While technically his boss, I always felt like Glick’s student, in awe of his personal history and hard-earned skills. By the time I met him in 2005, he was not deeply religious. But I have never met a more consistently kind and kind-hearted human being. In ten years I never heard Ted say anything negative or personally critical toward another staff member or others in the broad and often fractious climate change movement. Not once.
But make no mistake, Glick is and has always been a social-justice bad ass. Over the course of these 200 fast-moving pages, Glick chronicles a life of making “good trouble,” as Congressman John Lewis says. After hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak in the mid 60s, Glick anguished over his privileged life as a freshman college student in Iowa while the world burned around him. A highlight of the book is a multi-week exchange of letters between Glick and his parents in New York State. They are shocked that he is considering dropping out of school to organize against the war. But, in a foreshadowing of the persistent lifelong activism to come, Glick uses a mix of facts and anecdotes and philosophy and religion to educate his folks. Then he takes the next big step. He finally wins them over with his personal commitment and sacrifice. He drops out of school, exposes himself to the draft, and devotes his entire being to stopping the war.
Much of the rest of the book chronicles Glick’s journey to the inner circle of the Catholic Left, led by the famous anti-war brothers, Philip and Daniel Berrigan of Baltimore. Glick masters the suspenseful art of breaking into Selective Service offices, usually entering during regular business hours then hiding in a closet with food and a Bible until nightfall, then letting other “burglars for peace” into the office. They would then gather and later destroy all the draft records they could find before sunrise.
This works until it doesn’t. Glick and seven colleagues are caught on September 6th, 1970, in Rochester NY. Facing felonies, they decide to stage their own defense before a judge and jury. Glick’s retelling of the trail represents the book’s apex, featuring dramatic verbatim testimony where Glick, under oath, plays the role of questioning the other defendants. They describe the horrors of the Vietnam War and their religious and spiritual duty to sacrifice their own freedom and well-being for the sake of the innocent. “Hope it makes a difference in your lives,” one defendant tells jurors as the trial concludes with guilty verdicts.
That simple line summarizes why social and environmental activists worldwide do what they do, of course. A desire to make a difference, to change lives for the better. After serving 11 months in prison, Glick decides to broaden his activism to building a movement that is more than just anti-war. In a public falling out with Catholic Left leader Philip Berrigan, Glick declares that he is publically moving “away from simplistic views of violence and war and toward an understanding of class, sex, and race” as the foundations of most social wrongs. He winds up organizing in places as disparate as East Harlem and Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
Later, in 1992, in an act that best demonstrates the prophetic nature of much of Glick’s career, he engaged in a punishing 42-day water-only fast to protest the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus. He wrote at the time that he and other fasters were “calling for an open acknowledgement of the devastation to Native and African peoples and the environment that began with Columbus’s arrival in the Americas.” Fast forward to July 2020 and we see activists toppling a statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore and throwing it into the Inner Harbor. Those “radical” seeds had been planted 28 years earlier.
By 2003, Glick’s career pivoted completely to climate activism following the horrific European heat wave that claimed at least 35,000 lives. “I understand that there are other very important issues, and that there are often interconnections among them, but the fact is that there is a definitive time urgency to the climate issue,” Glick writes. “There are climate tipping points after which it will be extremely difficult for humanity to recover from the devastation we have caused. If human society does not rapidly shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy and serious energy efficiency in addition to other actions to protect and sustain our natural environment, we face a disastrous future.”
Ted now brings to the climate movement many of the tactics he learned during his Vietnam resistance. He organizes disruptive protests at the meetings of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a rogue body that is radically pro Trump and pro fossil fuels. Activists stand up one at a time, minutes apart, to loudly object at hearings, turning the meetings into spectacles. The same tactic was used by Glick in 1974 when, obscenely, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was given a “peace” award before a crowd of thousands in DC. Today, Kissinger is widely viewed as a war monger. And today, FERC is increasingly known as a reckless, illegitimate outfit ripe for overhaul. Thank you Ted Glick.
But perhaps the biggest single lesson of the book, again, is that black and brown lives really do matter. We cannot solve the climate crisis without environmental justice, Glick writes. Published before the murder of George Floyd, the book includes in its final pages a passage on “Unlearning White Supremacy.”
“Burglar for Peace” is a thoughtful, intense, and ultimately satisfying account of an activist life lived well. It’s a life that has made a difference in my own life and that of so many others, including millions who will one day live free of climate ruin and senseless wars – hopefully -- because of Glick’s sacrifices and inspiring labor for so many decades.
(Mike Tidwell is founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. He is the author of six books of nonfiction, including “Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast”)
A review of “Burglar for Peace: Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left’s Resistance to the Vietnam War,” by Ted Glick
Ted Glick is a legend within the American climate movement. He’s occupied ledges and dropped banners above climate-denying federal agencies. He’s fasted for long periods – once for 42 days -- to draw attention to social injustices, including global warming.
These are just a few examples in a man’s life dedicated to “disruptive nonviolence” for a higher purpose. In May 1969, at the age of 19, Glick dropped out of college and returned his draft card to the Selective Service, refusing to kill his “Vietnamese brothers.” In 1970, he went to federal prison for 11 months for breaking into draft board offices and destroying draft records. In prison, he was deeply moved -- and forever changed -- by the disproportionate incarceration of blacks and the sytemic discrimination he saw within the prison hierarchy itself.
Now a veteran leader at the group Beyond Extreme Energy, Glick – who is white – was nonetheless the first person to send me a “defund the police” email after the death of George Floyd.
All of which is to say Glick’s new autobiography “Burglar for Peace” is not just a dramatic and eminently readable personal story of war resistance. It chronicles, through Glick’s life, the arc of resistance on most of the biggest social issues of our time, including – presciently – the Black Lives Matter protests now.
The subtitle of the book is “Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left’s Resistance to the Vietnam War.” Those lessons include a commitment to “high risk” actions that are nonetheless totally nonviolent – and therefore very powerful. Glick writes, “I hope and pray that my writing this book…(will help us) create a world based on justice, equal rights, a deep connection to the natural world, and active love.”
I had the pleasure of working with Ted Glick for about a decade at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. While technically his boss, I always felt like Glick’s student, in awe of his personal history and hard-earned skills. By the time I met him in 2005, he was not deeply religious. But I have never met a more consistently kind and kind-hearted human being. In ten years I never heard Ted say anything negative or personally critical toward another staff member or others in the broad and often fractious climate change movement. Not once.
But make no mistake, Glick is and has always been a social-justice bad ass. Over the course of these 200 fast-moving pages, Glick chronicles a life of making “good trouble,” as Congressman John Lewis says. After hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak in the mid 60s, Glick anguished over his privileged life as a freshman college student in Iowa while the world burned around him. A highlight of the book is a multi-week exchange of letters between Glick and his parents in New York State. They are shocked that he is considering dropping out of school to organize against the war. But, in a foreshadowing of the persistent lifelong activism to come, Glick uses a mix of facts and anecdotes and philosophy and religion to educate his folks. Then he takes the next big step. He finally wins them over with his personal commitment and sacrifice. He drops out of school, exposes himself to the draft, and devotes his entire being to stopping the war.
Much of the rest of the book chronicles Glick’s journey to the inner circle of the Catholic Left, led by the famous anti-war brothers, Philip and Daniel Berrigan of Baltimore. Glick masters the suspenseful art of breaking into Selective Service offices, usually entering during regular business hours then hiding in a closet with food and a Bible until nightfall, then letting other “burglars for peace” into the office. They would then gather and later destroy all the draft records they could find before sunrise.
This works until it doesn’t. Glick and seven colleagues are caught on September 6th, 1970, in Rochester NY. Facing felonies, they decide to stage their own defense before a judge and jury. Glick’s retelling of the trail represents the book’s apex, featuring dramatic verbatim testimony where Glick, under oath, plays the role of questioning the other defendants. They describe the horrors of the Vietnam War and their religious and spiritual duty to sacrifice their own freedom and well-being for the sake of the innocent. “Hope it makes a difference in your lives,” one defendant tells jurors as the trial concludes with guilty verdicts.
That simple line summarizes why social and environmental activists worldwide do what they do, of course. A desire to make a difference, to change lives for the better. After serving 11 months in prison, Glick decides to broaden his activism to building a movement that is more than just anti-war. In a public falling out with Catholic Left leader Philip Berrigan, Glick declares that he is publically moving “away from simplistic views of violence and war and toward an understanding of class, sex, and race” as the foundations of most social wrongs. He winds up organizing in places as disparate as East Harlem and Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
Later, in 1992, in an act that best demonstrates the prophetic nature of much of Glick’s career, he engaged in a punishing 42-day water-only fast to protest the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus. He wrote at the time that he and other fasters were “calling for an open acknowledgement of the devastation to Native and African peoples and the environment that began with Columbus’s arrival in the Americas.” Fast forward to July 2020 and we see activists toppling a statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore and throwing it into the Inner Harbor. Those “radical” seeds had been planted 28 years earlier.
By 2003, Glick’s career pivoted completely to climate activism following the horrific European heat wave that claimed at least 35,000 lives. “I understand that there are other very important issues, and that there are often interconnections among them, but the fact is that there is a definitive time urgency to the climate issue,” Glick writes. “There are climate tipping points after which it will be extremely difficult for humanity to recover from the devastation we have caused. If human society does not rapidly shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy and serious energy efficiency in addition to other actions to protect and sustain our natural environment, we face a disastrous future.”
Ted now brings to the climate movement many of the tactics he learned during his Vietnam resistance. He organizes disruptive protests at the meetings of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a rogue body that is radically pro Trump and pro fossil fuels. Activists stand up one at a time, minutes apart, to loudly object at hearings, turning the meetings into spectacles. The same tactic was used by Glick in 1974 when, obscenely, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was given a “peace” award before a crowd of thousands in DC. Today, Kissinger is widely viewed as a war monger. And today, FERC is increasingly known as a reckless, illegitimate outfit ripe for overhaul. Thank you Ted Glick.
But perhaps the biggest single lesson of the book, again, is that black and brown lives really do matter. We cannot solve the climate crisis without environmental justice, Glick writes. Published before the murder of George Floyd, the book includes in its final pages a passage on “Unlearning White Supremacy.”
“Burglar for Peace” is a thoughtful, intense, and ultimately satisfying account of an activist life lived well. It’s a life that has made a difference in my own life and that of so many others, including millions who will one day live free of climate ruin and senseless wars – hopefully -- because of Glick’s sacrifices and inspiring labor for so many decades.
(Mike Tidwell is founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. He is the author of six books of nonfiction, including “Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast”)
June 2, 2020
Early Review: Burglars for Peace, Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left's Resistance to the Vietnam War
I have known author and activist Ted Glick for more than 5 years; we have become friends. I was honored to quote him in my new book, “How to Talk to Your Kids about Climate Change: Turning Angst Into Action. He and I have worked closely on various campaigns on the climate crisis but, I didn’t really KNOW Ted, or at least not his history and how he came to be who he is today, until I read the book, Burglar for Peace. Ted is a leader. He observes, he watches and he leads by his actions and through his convictions. Ted certainly isn't afraid to speak out, or to share his wise counsel and his advice. Ted's calm, thoughtful and insightful presence fills the pages of his new non-fiction book, Burglar for Peace. When Ted gave me the opportunity to read an early version of the book, I jumped at the chance - even though my days seemed to be overflowing and I wasn’t sure when I would truly have the time to read it; I knew it was something I should do. As it turns out it was something I am so glad to have been able to do at this moment in our shared and collective history. As our country heaves with sadness, grief, angst and upheaval, this book has helped ground me, at the same time as it guides us all on ways to be heard and to make positive change. I have learned so much; not only about Ted, but about how history can inform, add agency and hope in our present day. The book is inspiring, it offers big and small steps to take as organizers; Ted also reminds us that even when we are bystanders, we must not look away to the injustices we are witnessing. Our country is going through a painful upheaval right now, it’s difficult and heartbreaking to observe, to watch, and to be a part of. Ted’s book reminds us that injustices, prejudice and racism, have all reared their ugly heads in our near past. His book shows us that there are well planned and well thought out lessons we can use as guides for today. We can find comfort and resolve in knowing these lessons are tried and true - we can turn to them today, put them to action and expect results. Add this book to your wish list; read it, learn, and take hope.
I have known author and activist Ted Glick for more than 5 years; we have become friends. I was honored to quote him in my new book, “How to Talk to Your Kids about Climate Change: Turning Angst Into Action. He and I have worked closely on various campaigns on the climate crisis but, I didn’t really KNOW Ted, or at least not his history and how he came to be who he is today, until I read the book, Burglar for Peace. Ted is a leader. He observes, he watches and he leads by his actions and through his convictions. Ted certainly isn't afraid to speak out, or to share his wise counsel and his advice. Ted's calm, thoughtful and insightful presence fills the pages of his new non-fiction book, Burglar for Peace. When Ted gave me the opportunity to read an early version of the book, I jumped at the chance - even though my days seemed to be overflowing and I wasn’t sure when I would truly have the time to read it; I knew it was something I should do. As it turns out it was something I am so glad to have been able to do at this moment in our shared and collective history. As our country heaves with sadness, grief, angst and upheaval, this book has helped ground me, at the same time as it guides us all on ways to be heard and to make positive change. I have learned so much; not only about Ted, but about how history can inform, add agency and hope in our present day. The book is inspiring, it offers big and small steps to take as organizers; Ted also reminds us that even when we are bystanders, we must not look away to the injustices we are witnessing. Our country is going through a painful upheaval right now, it’s difficult and heartbreaking to observe, to watch, and to be a part of. Ted’s book reminds us that injustices, prejudice and racism, have all reared their ugly heads in our near past. His book shows us that there are well planned and well thought out lessons we can use as guides for today. We can find comfort and resolve in knowing these lessons are tried and true - we can turn to them today, put them to action and expect results. Add this book to your wish list; read it, learn, and take hope.
September 27, 2022
An honest first-person inside account of 1960s and early ‘70s anti-Vietnam War activities by a dedicated, young, idealistic, and very courageous activist. While a student in college, Ted Glick became extremely disenchanted with the government’s policies in Southeast Asia and made the difficult decision to leave college and devote himself wholeheartedly to joining the anti-war movement. His book details behind-the-scenes activities of this movement, and encompasses not only the activities of the Catholic Left, of which Daniel and Philip Berrigan are the most well-known participants, but also is representative of the activities of many resistance groups active during that time.
It is a personal account, detailing difficult interactions with his parents, who nevertheless did their utmost to understand and accept Ted’s decision, to his final chapters where, from the distance of history, time, and perspective, he evaluates his actions as a young man and how they relate to our present issues and problems in the 21st century.
During his tenure as an activist his clandestine and illegal activities included raiding draft offices, destruction of draft files, and entering an FBI office, his book at times reading like an espionage novel. Ted shares journal entries and letters from prison and during his hunger strikes which are helpful in understanding his thoughts and feelings about his situation; he continued organizing in prison in spite of the environmental and personal limitations.
Burglar for peace is a slice of history, but also the story of the beginning of a life of commitment to making our world a better place for all. A very important book.
It is a personal account, detailing difficult interactions with his parents, who nevertheless did their utmost to understand and accept Ted’s decision, to his final chapters where, from the distance of history, time, and perspective, he evaluates his actions as a young man and how they relate to our present issues and problems in the 21st century.
During his tenure as an activist his clandestine and illegal activities included raiding draft offices, destruction of draft files, and entering an FBI office, his book at times reading like an espionage novel. Ted shares journal entries and letters from prison and during his hunger strikes which are helpful in understanding his thoughts and feelings about his situation; he continued organizing in prison in spite of the environmental and personal limitations.
Burglar for peace is a slice of history, but also the story of the beginning of a life of commitment to making our world a better place for all. A very important book.
February 7, 2021
Ted Glick’s “Burglar For Peace” is an inspirational story from a remarkable man. It follows his actions, along with the actions of the Catholic left, against the Vietnam War through non violent civil disobedience. These actions resulted in imprisonment for him, and a number of others, but they also helped put an end to a war that resulted in an estimated 2.5 million deaths.
This forthright and personal account of Ted’s psyche and experiences as a young man deeply concerned about violence and inequities in our society, along with the ethos of the 1960’s, are covered in detail. His description of the non violent actions to thwart the war machine, educate the public, stop the war, and the resulting trials, and time in prison are told from the heart, and are gripping.
Ted continues to fight against the corporate and government forces that are destroying our climate, oppressing many, and dividing us by race, class and sex. His fight remains our fight. “Burglar For Peace” is an inspiration for all of us to continue that good fight.
This forthright and personal account of Ted’s psyche and experiences as a young man deeply concerned about violence and inequities in our society, along with the ethos of the 1960’s, are covered in detail. His description of the non violent actions to thwart the war machine, educate the public, stop the war, and the resulting trials, and time in prison are told from the heart, and are gripping.
Ted continues to fight against the corporate and government forces that are destroying our climate, oppressing many, and dividing us by race, class and sex. His fight remains our fight. “Burglar For Peace” is an inspiration for all of us to continue that good fight.
June 27, 2020
I was born in 1961 and occasionally try to explain to people that I’m not a boomer, without much success. I should ask them to read this book. I did not face the decisions Ted did as he came of age during the war against Viet Nam. But if I had, I don’t think I could have made them with such grace and courage. I have read more about Baltimore history than the average person and so, of course, I have read about the catholic left—it was fascinating to see in depth the perspective of one of their ultra resistors. I felt like I was there with Ted during the draft board raids and trials and fasts and protest actions. I am late arrived to climate activism, but his lessons learned ring true to me.
January 11, 2021
A highly recommended book documenting the years of Ted Glick's anti war resistance and peace activism with the Catholic Left during the Vietnam War years. The author's personal accounts of actions taken to resist the war machine are powerful, including his reflections on his 11 months in prison and a 34 day hunger strike. Any reader cannot help but be moved by the author's resilience, courage and commitment to peace and justice.
The book offers a fascinating window on the organizing activities of the Catholic Left and the actions taken to resist the war. Perhaps most memorable are the excerpts from the author's journals as he shares his feelings during his trial and subsequent imprisonment. Compelling reading!
The book offers a fascinating window on the organizing activities of the Catholic Left and the actions taken to resist the war. Perhaps most memorable are the excerpts from the author's journals as he shares his feelings during his trial and subsequent imprisonment. Compelling reading!
March 18, 2021
I work with Ted Glick in 350NJ-Rockland and I am always impressed by his commitment to climate and environmental justice and his organizational skills for getting things done. But I did not know how he developed them and his early history in the anti-war Catholic Left. "Burglar for Peace" is a well written and very absorbing memoir about those years and the people who were willing to go to prison to stop the Vietnam War. Ted's use of court transcripts and his personal diaries from that time make the book all the more compelling and intimate. Whether you are an activist or not, I think that you would enjoy reading "Burglar for Peace" because it is about a person who makes sacrifices to stay true to his beliefs. We can all appreciate that challenge.
February 11, 2021
Ted Glick's memoir is much more than an account of how the Catholic Left rose in opposition to the US war on Vietnam. It's an “insider’s view” of multiple currents running through the sixties: the draft resistance movement, the student movements, the religious and spiritual-based activism, the civil rights movement, the prison reform movement, along with the ideological conflicts and power struggles that were happening within these movements. It's also the story of the evolution of an activist, as Glick chronicles how he decided to drop out of college and commit to fulltime opposition to the war. Quoting from the letters he wrote home at the time, we see his growing orientation to a values-centered life in service of political change, a commitment that remains solid even through prison time, lengthy hunger strikes, and rifts in relationships with respected fellow activists. An inspiring account of finding one's calling and a fascinating window into those passionate times.
June 23, 2020
This book by a life long values driven movement veteran for peace, first details his heroic acts of civil disobedience and then his recognition that organizing for building power is more effective for long term change.
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