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Editorial

By VVAW

The issue of the many problems facing veterans in the United States has been given a great deal of publicity. Unfortunately, all too often the solutions put forth to solve these problems are ones that view the struggles of veterans for a better way of life in utter isolation from the rest of the American people. VVAW/WSO feels that this is very serious mistake. Veterans, and the problems facing them, are not separate from the rest of society. While vets clearly have particular needs and demands, we cannot allow the fight to obtain them to be carried out in isolation from the fight to solve the many problems facing the whole country.

Indeed, the problems facing the American people today, veterans and non-veterans alike, are directly a result of the system of imperialism we are all forced to live under. If it were not for our involvement in Indochina, there would be no Vietnam veterans in need of vets' benefits in the first place. Thus, demanding veterans' problems is like putting a band-aid on a cancerous sore. Veteran reforms can be won and should be fought for; but the struggle must be carried out in a united effort with the rest of the American people against the common enemy--US imperialism.

Advocating strictly veteran reformist demands that do not tie the issues into the larger struggle of the American people against imperialism will lead the veterans' movement up the same blind alley that traditional veterans' organizations have followed for over fifty years. We cannot put the so-called 'interests' of veterans ahead of the interests of the rest of the people in this country: Veterans are an inseparable part of US society and their interests and welfare are the same as the rest of the American people. Reformist veteran's demands are not going to stop another war in Indochina! While we must continue to struggle for a solution to the very real problems facing vets--for the right of decent medical care, disability compensation, education, jobs, housing, and so forth--the struggle must be carried out with the understanding all people in the US have these same rights.

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