Resistance Inside the Army

The abbreviation or acronym RITA (sometimes written in low case, "rita") stands for "Resistance Inside the Army", "Resister Inside the Army", or "Resist! Inside the Army".

It was first invented by the American Private Richard (Dick) Perrin, RA 11748246, in September 1967. It was soon widely used to describe "the resistance inside the American military" during the Vietnam War, and up to the present as a concept for similar "Resistance" movements in other armies. The term is also sometimes projected backward historically, to earlier wars when the term did not yet exist, but the phenomenon arguably already did.

Such RITA movements distinguish themselves from other components of anti-war movements, such as draft resistance or desertion, by the fact of their activists being soldiers and intending to go on being ones.

A definition of RITA was given in 1968 by PFC Terry Klug and published in the G.I. paper ACT (whose publication, as an "unauthorised" paper written by and for soldiers, was itself a major act of RITA). It was written during the Vietnam War and is still used up to the present with necessary adjustments for other countries and later wars such as the present Iraq War.

As can be seen from the context, "RITA" can refer for both the phenomenon of "Resistance inside the army" and a person who is a "Resister inside the army".

What is a Rita? A Rita is a Resister Inside the Armed Forces, an American Serviceman who resists imperialistic aggression in S.E. Asia. His reasons may be political, pacifistic or whatever.

What is a Full-Time RITA? A full-time Resister is a soldier who has temporarily left the Armed Forces to work against his country's inhuman aggression in S.E. Asia. He does not consider himself a deserter; usually he has the intention of returning after the war. He is neither unpatriotic nor anti-American. He is merely an individual acting in the ways that he believes to be right and for the best human interests.

what is a FRITA? A friend of RITA, an American, European or other civilian, who helps Ritas operate.

What do RITAs do? They organize resistance to the war such as the growing American Servicemen's Union (ASU) inside the Armed Forces. They provide a source of truth for G.I.'s by distributing G.I. papers such as the BOND and by writing and editing the ACT. The RITA newsletter ACT is put out by full-time resisters for the sole purpose of presenting the truth to American Servicemen who at one time or another will be called upon to serve the war machine.

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