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The War Comes Home: Don Kemp

By VVAW

After deliberating less than an hour on January 18th, a Waukesha County jury found Donald Kemp, a 26-year old Vietnam veteran, sane when he shot and killed his wife Diane in June of 1971. In pronouncing him sane they upheld his conviction of first-degree, premeditated murder and his sentence is life imprisonment.

In Vietnam, Don's job was to fire on the ARVN, the NLF, the North Vietnamese or the US. Units who had called their own truce in a given area. If an American unit refused to make contact by going the other way, it was Don's responsibility to fire on them and give their position away to the 'enemy'. If the villagers in an area became too 'secure', it was Don's job to kill some village officials to bring some heat on the NLF from the village people.

After Don came home he began having nightmares. He was paranoid about the safety of his family and insisted that they put chain locks on all the doors. He started drinking and taking downers to get rid of his nightmares - flashbacks from Vietnam.

He was admitted three separate times to the VA Hospital and was an inpatient for a total of 23 weeks where he was dopes up on Librium, stelazine and thorazine - the last two, heavy tranquilizers often given to people diagnosed as psychotic. They discharged him as an inpatient on May 5, 1971, and as an outpatient on June 10th because the psychiatrist he had been seeing was leaving the VA and because Don had showed some improvement. That night, while having a flashback/nightmare, he was awakened by his wife whom he then shot thinking that she was 'the enemy'. He shot her with a .22 caliber pistol which he kept under his pillow.

Don can't remember anything about the next five days. June 15th he turned himself in at the VA Hospital, carrying a bottle of rum, the loaded gun and with his kids - ages 3 and 5 - in hand.

On July 7, 1972, Don Kemp was pronounced sane and automatically convicted of first-degree, premeditated murder; he then began serving his life sentence.

While in jail, Don formed a group of other Vietnam vets to deal with the problem of PVS (Post-Vietnam Syndrome or Post-Vietnam Struggle). He also worked on his appeal.

On November 12, his appeal came through. And after refusing all offers of a 'bargain' from the State, the new trial began on January 14th in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Through the use of challenges, DA Richard McConnell eliminated everyone on the jury panel who had themselves served, or had any close relatives serve, in Vietnam. He even eliminated all veterans of any war except one man who was a bomber pilot in WW II. He also challenged all young people - the average age of the jurors was 55.

Judge Clair Voss ruled that the phrase "Post-Vietnam Syndrome" could not be mentioned in court. The five witnesses who testified were all psychiatrists. Three said he was not responsible for his acts at the time of the crime, one said no one could make that decision, and one had no opinion.

In his summation, McConnell called combat neurosis "hogwash and a smokescreen... Mr. Kemp is a fraud, a drunk and a drug addict." Referring to the 30-35 VVAW/WSO people who were coming to court every day to support Don, McConnell said, "These people are here to fool you."

And so Donald Kemp is back in Waupun Prison, sentenced to stay there for the rest of his natural life. He's working on his appeal and has a $3 million law suit against the Veterans Administration Hospital for the murder of his wife.

The VA suit begins to sharpen the focus of the problem because the VA does not recognize PVS as a service-connected disability. The reason it cannot recognize PVS is because the government would then have to admit to what actually happened in Vietnam; and this is the issue we're confronted with.

Throughout the trial the role of the War in Don's actions was not explored. But even as the Waukesha DA admitted, there are psychological casualties in any war, which in itself should command leniency in cases such as this. But the Vietnam experience compounded the problems pronounced by war. The routine murder of defenseless people, torture, defoliation, free fire zones, terror bombing, mass relocations, napalm and white phosphorus and the overwhelming firepower were particular to Vietnam. What was more particular was that our soldiers were fighting for a lie. The brutality of other wars could usually be rationalized by participants because there was some meaning, such as fighting the spread of facism. Not so with Vietnam; we were not fighting for democracy - we were defending a dictator.

And so with the case of Don Kemp the people who govern us have again shown their inhumanity. They refuse to admit what effect the War actually had on Vietnam veterans like Don and that the problems created by the War did not magically disappear with the signing of the Peace Agreement. There are thousands of other vets like Don who may be on drugs, in prison, leading dead-end lives - waiting for America to wake up. A victory for Don will be a victory for us all.