IN BRIEF: I Refuse to Kill: My Path to Nonviolent Action in the Sixties
Reviewed by Gail Whiffen
June 1, 2026
By Francesco Da Vinci. Self-published, 2026. 277 pages. $24.99/paperback.
Originally published in 2021, this historical memoir of a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War era was reissued by the author earlier this year. “It is a story of courage and integrity, of progressing from protester to peace activist,” writes Patience A. Schenck in her 2022 review in Friends Journal. “In telling his story, the author’s mission is to honor COs, past, present, and future.”
Francesco Da Vinci’s story is part coming of age and part personal and political awakening to the power of nonviolence. Da Vinci transports the reader back to the 1960s, “a time like no other in US history, when, against all odds, a generation of peacemakers stopped a war.” The book also includes numerous black-and-white photographs, many taken by the author himself, that document momentous events he was present for such as the 1967 March on the Pentagon and the launch of the Poor People’s Campaign in May 1968.
Da Vinci’s embrace of nonviolence is not informed by religious beliefs, a stand that is harder to defend before an already skeptical draft board. After many setbacks and delays, Da Vinci is finally granted CO status. As a result, his case helped strengthen the applications of other COs who were applying on the basis of “spiritual but not religious” rather than on the basis of a traditional organized religion.
In the epilogue, he includes text from his official statement of conscientious objection to war, responding to the government’s prompt to describe “the nature of your belief.” Da Vinci writes convincingly, “The basis of my religious belief is the sanctity of life, which is reflected beautifully in the philosophy of nonviolence. Therefore, I chose nonviolence—active love—as my religion, my political philosophy, and my way of life.”In 2023, Da Vinci received a nomination for the U.S. Peace Prize. Today he lives and works in Los Angeles, Calif., where he is developing a documentary film based on I Refuse to Kill. Friends who are interested in historical accounts of conscientious objection will be inspired by this courageous memoir.
Gail Whiffen is associate editor of Friends Journal.
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