Free The Army tour

The FTA Tour ("Free The Army", a play on the troop expression "Fuck The Army", which in turn was a play on the army slogan "Fun, Travel and Adventure") was an anti-Vietnam War road show designed as a response to Bob Hope's USO tour. It was first organized in April 1970 by activist Fred Gardner, and actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland. The tour, referred to as "political vaudeville" by Fonda, visited military towns along the West Coast, with the goal of establishing a dialogue with soldiers about their upcoming deployments to Vietnam. Barbara Garson was also a contributor to the show.

The resulting dialogue was turned into a film called F.T.A., directed by Francine Parker,^[1] and released into theaters in 1972. In efforts to reach out to everyone in the United states, both pro and anti war, the documentary served not just to inform people of what was really happening overseas but also to remind them of a thing called morals.^{[citation needed]} Touring the US and Asia the idea was to invoke in people a sense of hatred and resistance for the war, while at the same time entertain beloved GIs who had grown opposed to it. This was done with a number of skits and melodies that gave everyone a good laugh but had a very serious and meaningful undertone. The performances mocked the US's so called principles of “democracy” and “free world” by pointing out the hypocrisy in such claims.

There were also numerous soldier appearances on the documentary that allowed them to share their experiences while at war, speaking of everything they had to see, do, or watch be done while in Vietnam. This documentary was only in theatres for a week before it was pulled, for what reason or by whom no one really knows.^{[citation needed]} Though after being pulled from circulation the film hadn’t been seen for years until now,^[when?] FTA still had an enormous impact. ^[2] Footage and discussion of the FTA Tour is included in the 2005 documentary film Sir! No Sir!.

Since then, the director of Sir! No Sir!, David Zeiger, has been involved in resurrecting the original documentary film F.T.A.. It was shown publicly in Los Angeles in early 2009 at the American Cinematheque with a panel that included two of the original performers in the show. F.T.A. also had its broadcast premiere on the Sundance Channel on February 23, 2009. The DVD of F.T.A. is now sold on the Sir! No Sir! website.

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