In recognition of their 40th Anniversary National Conference held at Roosevelt
University, August 4 was declared Vietnam Veterans Against the War Day
in Chicago in a resolution adopted by the Chicago City Council and signed
by Mayor Daley. The resolution urged everyone to be aware of the special
events arranged for the day. It was attended by about 200 veterans from
across the country and their supporters.
The all-day conference included an activist panel, a keynote address by
VVAW National Coordinator Barry Romo, a special speakers’ panel, an art
panel, a veterans’ poetry panel, an Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW)
panel, and a special reports panel. Saturday’s festivities wrapped up with
dinner and a party, with musical performances into the late hours. The
conference concluded Sunday with brunch at the Vietnam Veterans Art Museum
in Chicago.
VVAW is engaged in resisting what it calls wars for empire. VVAW members
have first-hand experience of the horrors of war and the struggle for their
rights as citizens and soldiers. They have singular insight into the lies
used to justify war. Many of them are fiercely patriotic, but it is a patriotism
that recognizes that a patriot to the nation can be a traitor to humanity.
VVAW’s four decades of accomplishments include:
opposing the invasion of Iraq
setting up memorials to the fallen
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establishing its own military counseling service
counter-recruitment
opposing the unilateral and indiscriminate bombing in Afghanistan
organizing “standdowns” to assist homeless vets
opposing other military interventions such as U.S. military aid to Columbia
protesting Saddam Hussein’s atrocities
participating in the broader struggle for equal rights
teaching the lessons of Vietnam
opposing the use of Agent Orange and advocating for those exposed to it
“Many vets feel guilty,” says Ray Parrish, VVAW’s only GI counselor. “Lots
of us say we have a blood debt and for a lot of us the only way we can
redeem ourselves is to do the work we do, to be peaceniks. Counseling veterans
and active duty personnel and helping people is useful for me and others
and bestows a sense of redemption. It is doing something to counteract
what we’ve been part of.”
Parrish spoke on the special speakers panel about his 28 years of experience
heading up the military counseling program. The VVAW Military Counseling
Service brochure says that people call on it when they need help dealing
with rage, anxiety, nightmares, hatred, depression, guilt, frustrations,
fears, or flashbacks; and when they are told that they have an “attitude
problem.” Free and confidential services offered include:
discharge counseling
legal, medical, and mental health referrals
VA claim and discharge upgrade help
stop-loss and recall info
help with conscientious
objection
Parrish says that the vet knows that no matter what his [or her] job was
in uniform, they were part of an organization that killed people and has
blood on its hands. Parrish is a Vietnam-era vet who was a radio intercept
operator stationed in Turkey and a Russian linguist. He says he didn’t
load bombs onto airplanes or drop them, but that his work aided the wanton
slaughter. Horace Cole- man said that on his return from Vietnam to the
South Bronx in 1970 he had a greater fear of the Bronx than he did of Vietnam.
(Coleman, a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, spoke on the poets’
panel and handed out a free volume of his poetry.)
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) was heavily represented at the conference.
IVAW speaks with respect for the work that VVAW has done before them. Eugene
Cherry, a medic in Iraq, spoke on the IVAW panel. Cherry witnessed many
burned and mangled corpses of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians in Iraq.
He had repeatedly sought treatment for his developing mental health problems
and was just as often ignored. On leave Cherry went AWOL, suffering from
post-traumatic distress disorder (PTSD) and major depression. Cherry received
treatment privately that he could not get from the Army, not hiding his
whereabouts. The Army made no effort to apprehend him. After 16 months
of treatment Cherry returned to his post to clear up his status. He was
arrested and threatened with court martial. A guilty verdict could have
resulted in as much as a year in prison, and would have entailed denial
of any veterans’ benefits. Eventually, with the help of IVAW, the Army
dropped the charges and granted him a general discharge under honorable
con ditions.
Culpability
It’s a relatively simple task to separate the soldiers’ welfare from that
which motivates their behavior, which is to say, the will of their so-called
leaders. It’s a little more difficult to adopt a blanket “support the troops”
mentality, especially when that “support” is too often limited to a bumper
sticker. Vietnam vet Bill Erhart, who spoke on the poetry panel, helped
me to split another shade of gray in my consciousness. “For years [the
VVAW] slogan, ‘Honor the Warrior, Not the War,’ has bothered me. I was
not a warrior. I was an 18-year-old kid with a rifle. I was terrified.
I never did anything in service to my country for which I wanted to be
honored until I turned against the war. So I want you to know that that
slogan doesn’t apply to me.” This was indicative of the free- spirited
insight displayed throughout the conference.
John Prados is the author of 15 books, 4 of them about Vietnam, including
Hidden History of the Vietnam War and Valley of Decision: The Siege of
Khe Sanh, and a history of the National Security Council. Prados, who spoke
on the art panel, has also made a sample collection of tapes of all the
presidents themed around U.S. involvement in Vietnam: Kennedy and Dien
Bien Phu; the secret duplicity of Johnson’s escalation of the war, “surge”
in modern parlance; Nixon’s secret bombings and illegal invasions. Prados
also reports for The Veteran, the bi-annual publication of VVAW. He thinks
that generally VVAW has been treated pretty respectfully in the past and
written about positively. Recently, however, he thinks there is a new tide
rising, a movement that maintains we actually would have won the war if
not for the anti-war movement. Prados says that the movement he represents
has to be aware of, and on guard against, rewriting history.
Ward Reilly, who spoke on the activist panel, is a 1971-74 era vet who
deployed to Germany. He joined VVAW as an active-duty infantryman in 1972
and was “very much involved in the GI resistance movement my entire three
years.” He deserted with two others as a political statement and was court-martialed.
He is also a member of Veterans for Peace and has been to many of their
conferences, but this was his first VVAW conference. Reilly urged everyone
to pressure their congressional representatives to mandate that if they
vote to go to war, they should then personally fight in it.
Ahndrea Sprattling is a student at Harold Washington College in downtown
Chicago who wants to pursue foreign language interpretation or cultural
studies. She was part of a contingent of young grass-roots activists that
attended the conference. Sprattling is not a vet, but she said she learned
about the conference on the IVAW website and wanted to hear of the experiences
of VVAW members and how they built the antiwar movement in the 1960s. Sprat-
tling says she is concerned about her teenage cousins joining the military.
She is concerned that they might waste their lives on a war that is as
senseless as Vietnam. She says the conference made her feel more urgently
the need to work together to stop this war.
Kurt Hilgendorf, a young history teacher at an inner-city high school in
Chicago, was on the special speakers’ panel. He noted that the kids from
his racial and economic class, lacking opportunities beyond flipping burgers
for minimum wage, are a prime target of military recruiters. He said his
students have no job opportunities. They uniformly are against Bush and
are anti-war, but the military still looks attractive to them. “Vets need
to come into the schools and speak. They need to talk about PTSD. I had
Barry [Romo, VVAW national co- ordinator] and Aaron [Hughes, president,
Chicago chapter of IVAW] come into my class and speak. It was very powerful.
Kids were very interested and asked great questions. It tells the kids,
‘Hey you really don’t want to go to the military.’”
Jimmy Massey spoke on the IVAW panel. He was featured in Patricia Foulkrod’s
film, The Ground Truth, in which he spoke of his experience in Iraq in
2003, such as when he told his superior officer he’d had a bum day. His
officer asked what he meant. Massey replied that he’d seen four civilians
killed. His officer replied that it was, on the contrary, a good day. Massey
said that that was not the Marines he had signed up for.
Massey told the history of IVAW from its July 2004 founding until today’s
17 chapters and 400 members. Massey offered a six-point plan of what should
be done:
withdraw all American troops and support services from Iraq immediately
turn over all responsibility except financial to the international community
pay reparations
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recognize the World Court and turn over to them everyone who is responsible
for starting this war
let corporations show their patriotism by sacrificing their profits
vote out of office every congressperson and senator that supports the war
VVAW was started in 1967 by Vietnam vets who marched together in the April
15 anti-war mobilization. In 1970 they conducted Operation RAW (war spelled
backwards), a simulated combat patrol from Morristown, New York, to Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania, after which are modeled the current IVAW “Operation
First Casualty” demonstrations of mock urban warfare and guerilla theater
in cities across the country. They held the Winter Soldier Investigation
into Vietnam war crimes; led Dewey Canyon III, a dramatic 1971 VVAW “invasion”
of Washington, DC, named after Dewey Canyon I and II, two secret U.S. invasions
of Laos. They defied orders they not camp on the mall. Led by Gold Star
Mothers, they placed wreaths in Arlington Cemetery and demonstrated at
the Pentagon and Supreme Court. VVAW supported GI opposition to the Vietnam
War, exposed government repression, and supported reconciliation with Vietnam.
VVAW sees a similar model in Iraq as was exhibited in Vietnam and is working
hard to bring the troops home, especially in collaboration with IVAW and
Veterans for Peace.
There is no peace without justice is both a stated principle of VVAW and
one that was on full display at the conference, from its formal ceremonies
to casual conversations. It is also on display throughout the organization’s
activities and publications.
Z
Travis McLaughlin is an activist and freelance writer living in Chicago.
