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Odyssey For Peace

By Larry Rottman

All men are created equal, they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable right, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
--Vietnamese Declaration of Independence

As the early evening sun streamed through the windows of the DRV Embassy in Moscow, it fell upon two NVA nurses. In the hushed silence of the banquet room, they were singing a hauntingly-beautiful song about the hazards and rewards of mending the bodies and clothes of wounded liberation soldiers. One of the women was incredibly lovely, her long black hair framing high cheekbones and huge warm eyes. The other women had no face. It had been completely burned away by American napalm. The twin sisters were holding hands tightly and singing with hands held high. I was crying.

In the city square of Bologna, 10,000 people stood quietly on the cobblestones for over 3 hours. At least half were older people, many of whom had been partisans during WWII. As the program continued many wept openly, and no one left. And at the conclusion, the people exploded with applause. They pressed forward to shake hands, to touch, to embrace and be embraced. A women offered a baby to be kissed. An old man kept crying, "Thank you, thank you." A policeman with tears running down his cheeks tore off his badge and pressed it into my hands so tightly it cut the skin.

The sound of traffic on Georges Mandel Avenue faded into the background as Mr. Vo Ahh Minh introduced us to members of the permanent PRG delegation to the Paris Peace Talks. On the wall of the second floor reception room of the PRG Information Bureau were beautiful paintings from Vietnam, and on the coffee table was a small vase made from the aluminum of a U.S. Phantom jet. "This is a copy of our new 7-Point Peace Plan," Mr. Minh said, "We want to go over it with you in detail." And after over two hours of note-taking and discussion, I knew that the 7-Point Plan was the single most important issue facing the world today.

Theses are only 3 experiences out of a month-long European speaking tour recently undertaken by 6 American veterans of the Indochina War. We began our trip as rather unassuming participants in the International Commission of Inquiry into U.S. War Crimes in Indochina. We six vets (Kenneth Campbell of Philadelphia, Pa; Nathan Hale of Coatesville, Pa; Randy Floyd of Arlington, Texas; Danny Notley of St. Paul, Minn; Bart Osborn of Washington D.C.; and myself), represented the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Citizens Commission of Inquiry, and were originally scheduled to testify in Oslo and then return directly to the States. But out testimony led to invitations from other countries, and before we knew it, our 5 days in Norway turned into a month-long European "Odyssey for Peace" on behalf of the U.S. Veterans anti-war movement.

Our travels took us to the Soviet Union, Finland, Norway, England, France, and Italy. In all these countries we spoke formally and informally with government officials, students, workers, and of course, the media. And although we went to Oslo with prepared testimony on U.S. War Crimes in Indochina, our discussions became more and more political and personal as the trip progressed.

Generally speaking, our experiences can be broken down into three categories: Discussions with the Indochinese; escapades with U.S. Agents (and their counterparts); and encounters with the Europeans.

For all of us, the most moving involvement came as a result of our intimate contact with the Indochinese delegations to the Oslo conference. For over a week, in 3 different countries, we traveled, ate, and met with these delegations. It was our first encounter with "the enemy" since our tour in Vietnam, and at the outset we veterans were uncomfortable and tense. The Indochinese delegations represented a microcosm of the liberation fighters, and thus included women and children. Some of the Asians were scarred or disabled as a result of the war, and that made it even more difficult for us. But from the outset, the delegations neither took advantage of their injuries nor exploited our guilt. Rather, they talked of friendship and the beauty of their country. They were more poetic than diplomatic, and it wasn't long before we were exchanging ideas quite freely. It was hard not to show emotion when the young man I borrowed a comb from casually mentioned that it was made from a downed Phantom jet. It makes me wonder what kind of war this is when I can feel bad and good about using that comb, even though I know it probably cost an American life. It would have been so much easier if the Indochinese had hated us--but they refused to do so, thereby forcing us to deal with them not as ex-adversaries, but as human beings. Throughout military training, we were all taught that Asians were "gooks," "slopes," "dinks"; some kind of sub-human creature that is godless, gutless, and emotionless. And although most GI's don't swallow that line completely, believing it just a little makes it possible to establish and maintain a good body count (not to mention excusing personal participation in all the My Lai's, big and small). But our involvement with the Indochinese destroyed forever any doubts we may have had about their "humanism", for they are the most gentle, beautiful people we have ever met. The Pentagon genius who predicted the U.S. would defeat the NFL in 3 years had obviously never met an Indochinese guerilla. Not only are they gentle and beautiful, but they are also totally dedicated to the liberation of their country. And we needed only a few hours of conversation with them to realize that the only way the liberation movement could ever be destroyed would be impose a "Carthagenian Peace" on them. As fighters they are stoic, determined, and patient. As one young soldier told me, "China has come and gone, Japan and France have come and gone, soon the U.S. will have come and gone. And as ever, Vietnam remains." When we parted at the airport, with the Asians returning to the front lines of a war we only spent a year in, we both felt a great loss. We had become friends, despite the fact that the American government has decreed we must be enemies. And our friendship with our Indochinese brothers and sisters has much more of a basis for understanding that does our relationship with the U.S. war society. None of us will ever again kill another person merely because out government orders us to.

As our small group of veterans traveled from country to country, we always had a company in the form of U.S. agents. Why they were lurking about is quite unclear, since everything we did was public. But lurk they did. Our first encounter came in a hotel lobby in Oslo, when we were approached by a clean-cut type wearing GI glasses and military low-quarter shoes. He began casually inquiring about out activities, especially our participation in the conference, while passing himself off as an American draft resister. One of the guys told him flat out that he "looked, acted, and smelled like an agent." He left abruptly. I followed, and watched him get into a police car and drive away. From then on it was pure "Keystone Cops." Usually it was a guy (sometimes actually wearing a trench coat!), but twice we were followed by a women. On the train from London to Paris, one really obvious guy tried to take our picture. We responded by all getting out our cameras and crowding around this compartment to take his. In Paris, we were all taken into custody by French police and "unidentified U.S. Officials" for waving to Madam Binh as she arrived at the Peace Talks to present the 7-Point Plan. Three of our group were taken to jail, but later released. No charges of course. At a press conference in Rome, a man who was know as an agent was pointed out to us. He supposedly represents, "Radio Free Europe" which had recently exposed as a C.I.A. front. We made a little sign saying, "Welcome C.I.A." and showed it to him. He left. Other than Paris and U.S. Customs at J.F.K., no physical action was taken against us by the agents--and to be truthful, they provided us with hours of comic relief, which helped ease the tension of a pretty serious trip.

Next to our meetings with the Indochina delegations, our most important contacts were those made with the European people. We were all surprised by the amount of concern they showed about a war that only very indirectly effects them.

In Norway, the students and the workers are actively engaged in opposing U.S. Involvement in SE Asia. For example, in Oslo the student-worker's club hold regular seminars on the war, with good attendance and participation.

The anti-war movement is also strong in England, with current emphasis there being support of the active duty American GI's stationed around London. Recently, one of the GI leaders, Captain Culver, was court-martialed for helping deliver an anti-war petition to the U.S. Embassy.

The French movement, which used to be very together, has practically ceased to exist as an effective force. They have been so fractionalized by Maoists, anarchists, Trotskytes, Marxist-Leninists, etc. that any unified action seems impossible. Most students and workers seem to be opposed to the war, but are more concerned about ideological infighting than anything else.

Surprisingly enough, the Russians have a great deal of concern about the Indochina War. During a tour of the Kremlin, we met a traveling troupe of drama students who sang a song for us from a skit they produced called, "Hands off Vietnam." To the bemused amazement of dozens of Soviet tourists and Russian guards, we responded by singing Country Joe's "I Fell-Like-I'm Fixin'-To-Die-Rag." And although it was apparent that a lot of the USSR "anti-Vietnam War" sentiment is government manipulated, the young people (and others too) have opinions that are obviously not based on "the party line", but on a person moral and humanitarian principles.

The strongest and best-organized anti-war groups we met were in Italy. Them movement is centered around the Italian-Vietnam Committee, a coalition of communists, socialists, Christian-Democrats, and other groups--and has very strong support from organized labor. The solid foundation of this movement seems to be the partisans from WWII. These people know what was is, they know what atrocities are, they know how it is to live in an occupied country. They remember the American military fondly, for it was through the mutual efforts of the allies and the Italian resistance that Facism was finally overthrown. But the average middle-aged Italian is now confused about the U.S. They see our involvement in S.E. Asia as a direct parallel to the Nazi occupation of Italy. And many feel that the U.S. is now employing the same kind of Fascist tactics it fought so hard against in WWII. They want to believe that Americans are good people, but they see U.S. intervention in Indochina as a direct contradiction to that belief. When we explained to the Italians that over 70% of the American people want the war to be over, they were relieved, but perplexed. "If your country is a democracy," they asked, "then why isn't the war over?" This was one of many question we couldn't answer. Another question frequently asked was, "How, in the light of the recently-revealed 'Pentagon Papers', can Nixon continue to promote and support the war?" The message we tried to give everyone was that the Indochina War was not the American people's war, but the American government's war. We tried to explain how our profit mad, conscious-less corporate war machine had taken over U.S. Foreign policy in S.E. Asia, but we confessed we were at a loss to provide any quick solutions. Wherever we went in Italy, from Rome to Florence, to the small industrial town of Prato, we were well received.

And that goes pretty much for the entire trip. The only overt hostility we encountered was from American tourists. A Shell Oil executive and his wife told us in the Moscow metro that we were "the kind of scum we came here to get away from."

We were refused service at Peppy's Pizza Pub in Oslo, run by an American named Lou Jordan, because we were "dirty and uncouth". A woman from Florida on tour with the "Farmer to Farmer" program in Russia, called us "communist dupes" in the dining room of the Hotel Ukraine (she was wearing a gold Republican elephant pin and a giant rhinestone American flag pin). Most U.S. Citizens who attended our press conference or meetings refused to believe we were all vets. The American tourists returning from Moscow on our flight were so obnoxious that we finally concluded they were a part of a C.I.A./American Legion/V.F.W./ Plot to sabotage the cultural exchange program.

We've been back less than two weeks now, and we're still assimilating the events and effects of the trip. Why did we go? Because we were asked, and we felt that we had a message on behalf of American for the Europeans. What did we accomplish? We don't know. We hope we destroyed some myths about the motivations for, and kind of methods employed, in the war. We hope we conveyed to many people the spirit of social revolution burning in the country. And we hope we had some effect on bringing some foreign pressure to bear on the Nixon administration to end the war immediately.

How well we attained these objectives will probably never be known, for our trip was only a tiny diplomatic effort on behalf of the movement in America. If we can base our success or failure on invitations from other countries, then we did well. To date we have been approached by eight other nations, asking that we bring our message to them. But it could hardly be said that we are flushed with victory, since the war goes on.

Perhaps the most important points we have made is to help prove that concerned and dedicated people in the movement, can and do have a role, however small, in helping shape world opinion. Many have gone before us, and the only precedent we set was that of being the first contingent of veterans of an ongoing war to publically denounce that war on an international scale. It seemed the very least we could do.