No Greater Cause chronicles the height of the anti-Vietnam war movement in the Bay Area. Footage shows the massive confrontations in Oakland between police and anti-draft protestors in l967; the rally of 100,000 against the war at Kezar Stadium in April, l967. On October 12, 1968, GI's for Peace organized and led a San Francisco march to end the war in Vietnam. Vietnam veteran Donald Duncan told demonstrators, Protestors are the best friends the soldiers in Vietnam have. Harvey photographed this march led by active duty soldiers in uniform in full defiance of U.S. Army orders not to do that. The march reflected the increased numbers of soldiers rebelling against the war. During 1968, there were 155,536 individuals who were Away Without Leave (AWOL) from the U.S. Army. Of those 53,357 were designated desertions. On October 14, 1968, two days after the march, 27 prisoners in the Presidio brig staged a sit down protest over conditions there. Newspaper headlines read Mutiny in the Presidio. The sit down protesters sang We Shall Overcome and were charged with desertion with a possible death penalty. No Greater Cause presents the speeches of the GI's at the October 12th march and rally at the Civic Center in San Francisco, CA. Included with the movie, is Faces of Vietnam Protest, Harvey Richards' color film of the massive anti-war marches in San Francisco in 1969 and 1970 accompanied by excerpts from the Beyond Vietnam speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.
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