VVAW Anniversary Conference

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 
• 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 
• 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.