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Free All Political Prisoners!

By VVAW

Political repression has become the American way of life. Every day brothers and sisters are being railroaded to prisons on trumped-up charges leveled against them by the racist judicial system under which we live. Sister Angela has been freed. The power of the people stopped the court system from ripping off Sister Angela, but what about those prisoners whom we don;t hear about thru massive publicity campaigns. What about Billy Dean Smith, Scott Camil, Gary Lawton, Carlos Feliciano, the Harlem 4, the VVAW 600. The racism and repression which is the American way of life keeps their names from the public.

Who is Billy Dean Smith? Bill Dean isnt a halfback for Louisiana State University. He is not a Texas wheeler-dealer-buddy of Lyndon Johnson. Private Smith is a black man about to stand trial for his life for allegedly killing two white American officers in Vietnam by fragging.

Smith is being defended by attorney Luke McKissack, the lawyer who represented Sirhan Sithan, Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver, Charles Manson, and Geronimo Black. McKissack is generating publicity about Smith partly because he needs a great deal of money to conduct the defense. But McKissack has another motive. He hopes that by stimulating public interest in the case, people will begin to ask not "who" but, "Why Billy Dean Smith?" This is a case which represents far more than one innocent man fighting for his life. Billy Dean Smith is a symbol for all of us.

Billy was tenth in a family of twelve children. He spent most of his life in Watts. After graduating from high school in 1967, he worked at an assortment of odd jobs: machinist, car salesman, school bus driver. In 1969 he received his draft notice. Opposed to the war and the Army, Smith walked out of the induction canter prepared to face jail. But his family was against his action and he returned for induction. He was sent to Oklahoma for Advanced Individual Training in artillery and to Vietnam in October 1970.

On the front lines Billy's alienation increased. He wrote home, "They ain't doing nothing over here but killing, killing." This was not the kind of attitude cherished by the Army. His commanding officer, Captain Rigby, along with 1st Sgt. Willis, persistently harassed him. Private Smith received three Articles 15's (non-judicial punishment) within a few months. These included a citation for not shaving even though he was in the bush at the time. Rigby sought an unfitness discharge for Smith because he was unenthusiastic about closing on the enemy and Rigby doubted that he would ever make a good soldier.

At 12:45 the morning of March 15th, 1971, a fragmentation grenade exploded in an officers barracks in Bien Hoa, killing two officers and wounded a third. Rigby and Willis were to have slept in the fragged barracks that night, but had switched barracks with the victims at the last moment. Rigby and Willis were convinced that Billy had done it.

They contacted the Criminal Investigation Division and called a battalion formation. Smith was called to the front of the formation and notified that he was under arrest for murder. No one else was accused or even investigated. In fact, six members of the battalion didnt even show up. No evidence was offered, no witnesses or explanation of possible motive provided. But Billy Dean Smith was under arrest.

"To understand this case you must see what Billy Dean represents," said Louise Monaco, Mr. McKissack's assistant. "The army might as well have picked him at random." She further explained that Smith's case is the first trial in the US for fragging. It is clearly intended as a crackdown of insurrection of in listed men, because fragging has become a serious problem for the Army.

In 1969, the DOD reported 126 fraggings. In 1970 the number increased to 271, causing 34 deaths and 306 injuries. In the first eight months of 1971 there were 238 fraggings. Army officers, like Rigby and Willis, are reportedly switching barracks nightly to confuse would be saboteurs. Some officers are even keeping enlisted men in their barracks overnight as hostages. According to the LA Times, the Pentagon now frowns on the term fraggings because it "doesn't carry the stigma as the proper legal term for murder..."

The Army is concerned for the welfare of its officers, for the efficient operation of the war machine, and for its image. In April, Mike Mansfield introduced the term fragging into the Senate. He warned that the problem has become so severe that the Army must lock up the weapons of soldiers after they leave the combat area. Mansfield argued that taking weapons away from a GI doesn't remove "the atmosphere that drives an American GI to kill his fellow GI or superior."

Mansfield was referring to the pervasive disillusionment of enlisted men with the war. But, according to Louise Monaco, there is another cause of dissent. "The racist persecution of black people by whites, the segregation of bars and recreational facilities, and the vindictive attitude of many whites, particularly southern white, officers against black enlisted men who refuse to act like slaves..." Billy wrote home, "No Vietnamese ever called me nigger."

Smith's attorney sees other issues in the case besides the Army crackdown on enlisted men. They intend to question the legality of the Vietnamese war based on the Pentagon Papers and the entire system of military justice, "from its jury selection process, to court-martial procedures, to the legality of the death penalty." Finally, they intend to question the pre-trial detention system, pointing to Nixon's intervention in the Calley case.

In the middle of all this sits Billy Dean Smith, symbol. He has been confined since his arrest last March and is presently being held in the stockade at Fort Ord. The sum total of the direct evidence against him is hand grenade pin found in his pocket after the fragging. Ballistic experts in Japan tested the marking on the pin and grenade spoon found near the explosion. Clearly the two don't match. But the Army insists they do. They have even blown up one of the two photographs to simulate a match. Initially, the Army has a theory about how Smith had access to a grenade--but ballistics showed the grenade in a the fragging doesn't correspond to the theory. Furthermore, it is common for G.I.s in the front line to carry grenade pins or wear grenade pin necklaces. One soldier told McKissack that he was ordered to hold onto pins he used in combat.

A ballistic expert told McKissack that it is impossible to tell whether a pin and spoon match because "the pins don't make an identifiable mark; only by rubbing it against a concrete wall would it leave a trace." It is even conceivable that the grenade was not an American weapon.

The Army failed to turn up any other evidence against Smith. They took soil from where the alleged fragging took place and soil from Smith's shoes. Again no match. The sole circumstantial evidence against Smith was that he hated the Army, the war, and Rigby and Willis. He allegedly called the two "racists" and stated that he would "get even" with them and that fragging would be a good way to do it. But, as his attorney points out, "Perhaps 90% of the lower enlisted ranks hate the war, the Army and their C.O.'s and feel fragging is too good for them."