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VVAW Anniversary: 10 Proud Years of Struggle

By VVAW

VVAW just celebrated its 10th anniversary. On June 1, 1967 the first organizational meeting was held in New York City, consisting of vets from that area. Prior to that several veterans had met at an anti-war demonstration and realized that they had a common bond, being in Vietnam and seeing that they were now opposed to it. With these humble beginnings VVAW became one of the most powerful forces of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In its first years VVAW mainly was an organization of veterans who spoke at rallies, or forums and educational. Because of its very nature, an organization of veterans, people listened and listened well. Veterans began to hear about it and many joined. But it wasn't until 1970 that the organization made its first big leap, by conducting what was to become the first of many mock-search and destroy missions through cities and towns across the country. This march was called Operation RAW (Rapid American Withdrawal) and began in Morristown, New Jersey and ended with a rally in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Over 100 vets from the Northeast marched simulating what it was like in Vietnam.

Shortly after this a nationwide investigation was called where veterans from ever service and every area in Vietnam could talk about their actual combat experiences in order to show that war crimes, the type Calley was convicted of, were not isolated incidents, but were rather standard operation procedures, encouraged by the US military, and in face, ordered by the Brass to win the war in Vietnam for the US ruling class.

This investigation was called Winter Soldier Investigation and was held in Detroit, Michigan in early 1971. Over 150 vets from all across the country testified about what they had seen and done. Even though the media blacked out this important exposure of US military strategy in Indochina, it provided enough impact on the vets involved to arm them to go back to their local areas and lay the basis for building an actual nationwide organization.

Officially VVAW became a national organization in mid-February of 1971 at a meeting in New York City with representatives coming from as far away as California and Washington State.

VVAW's first national demonstration was one of the results of that meeting. It was decided that a demonstration of Vietnam veterans at a week-long encampment in Washington DC would break the media silence and would focus the anger felt by the vets at the state power of the ruling class--the Federal government.

Operation Dewey Canyon III was named to bring up the fact that DCI was a secret invasion by the US military into Laos, up to then a neutral country in Southeast Asia. DCIII was highlighted by over 1,000 veterans throwing away their war medals at the Capitol steps in anger over the continuing war. This entire five day demonstration was perhaps the single most powerful anti-war demonstration in the US, firmly establishing VVAW as one of the leading forces in the anti-war movement. It gained for the struggle against the war an invaluable force--veterans who served in the war and who had turned against it because of their direct experiences.

All during the next few years, VVAW was active in going against the ruling class and winning victories in the process. In December of 1972 fifteen VVAW embers seized and held the Statue of Liberty during the bombing raids of Haiphong Harbor. This action was splashed across the papers all over the world. In France activists torch a replica of the statue on the Seine River in Paris in solidarity.

When the Vietnamese, the Cambodians and the Laotians won their war for freedom it was a great victory for us too.

In addition to VVAW's anti-war work, it has always been an organization that has linked up its work with the struggle of the great majority of people who are fighting back against oppression. As early as 1971, VVAW supported the B lack people of Cairo, Illinois who had organized a boycott of the white-owned stores in their fight against national oppression. VVAW organized convoys of food and clothing to Cairo to support their boycott.

From 1972 to 1975 VVAW waged a nationwide campaign to free Gary Lawton, a Black man falsely accused of murder in Southern California. After years of struggle waged by people across the country, with support from places as far away as Japan, Gary Lawton was freed. VVAW defended its own members who were constantly framed by the Federal police agencies with outrageous charges. The most famous of these was the case of the Gainesville Eight; members of VVAW accused of planning to blow up bridges in Miami during the Republican National Convention there in 1972. A year-long campaign to free them culminated n the summer of 1973 when all these ridiculous charges were beaten.

More recently, VVAW joined with other organizations in building a demonstration in Philadelphia on the country's 200th birthday. This demonstration was the first time in decades that workers from different industries from steel mills to auto plants and from the coal mines to the docks joined together in a powerful fist telling the ruling class that on their birthday; 200 years of their rule, that "We've Carried the Rich for 200 Years, Let's Get Them Off Our Backs!"--the main slogan of the demonstration. VVAW proudly joined their ranks, marching in cadence to the tune of the working class, waging the Battle of the Bicentennial and firmly choosing sides in the fight against all oppression.

And through all the years, VVAW has seen that the real strength of the organization lies in the fact that as veterans we have common experiences with the system that send us off to fight and die in Indochina. VVAW had been waging fights against cuts in veterans benefits, against rotten hospital conditions, against bad discharges given for veteran's resistance to the war or to the repression of the military, for universal and unconditional amnesty for all war resisters and has waged a major campaign around extending and expanding the GI Bill.

VVAW has 10 proud years of struggle behind it. During this time there have been ups and downs, but through it all VVAW has become wiser and more able to fight against the enemy that oppresses the vast majority of people. As a continuing major part of our work we see the need to fight for veteran's benefits, and to fight against any future wars waged by the ruling class to save its system. We won't fight anymore Vietnam-type wars and we won't fight for the ruling class in another world war with the Soviet Union as they battle it out for who gets control of the world's markets. A major slogan of VVAW is "Fight the Rich, Not Their Wars!" and we mean every word of it.