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Bay Area Action: Vietnam Vets Day

By VVAW

(The following article comes from members of the Bay Area VVAW Chapter who were also active on April 22, Vietnam Veterans Day.)

Our action was held at the largest recruiting station in Northern California, a large building where all of the services have offices. We set up our table, banner and picket signs on the busiest corner which happened to be at the entrance to the Marine Office. For the first hour we passed out leaflets and sold newspapers. We learned the Chapter banner against the storefront window of the Marines, and decorated their combat-attired, cardboard display Marine with a VVAW patch above his left pocket and a copy of THE VETERAN in his hand as though he was selling the paper with us.

We talked to hundreds of people at the busy corner. A woman who had 4 sons sent to Vietnam came up and told us how great it was to see us there; she always had to wait at the bus stop at that corner and look at young people going in to the recruiters to be used and then thrown away, like her sons were. While we were there, nobody went in to see the recruiters!

After an hour, a Marine out of uniform came out and insisted that we remove our banner and sign from "his" window. We refused. He then actually offered to help us move our display one door down in front of the Army office!

Soon he was joined by 2 other Marine NCO's in uniform who threatened us, but we threatened right back. We loudly proclaimed our right to be there, and the people at the corner bus stop defended us. The Marines turned tail and went inside, saying they would "Call the Cops." A VVAW member talked about how we were used once to serve the interests of the rich--and how the Marine NCO's were serving the same interests by trying to stop us from talking about our experiences. We also talked about Vietnam Vets Day going on in Chicago and about what was happening with "Agent Orange."

Eventually, federal police arrived and we moved the banner to our table, after pointing out to the people standing nearby that the police were doing the same thing as the Marines.

We finally left after the crowds thinned out, having talked to hundreds of people and having in effect closed down the recruiters for the day. While our numbers were small, our effect was much larger than the numbers indicated--a big victory in a small battle with small forces!

West coast vets interested in contacting VVAW, either write the VVAW National Office or Bay Area VVAW

P.O. Box 31433
San Francisco, CA 94131

Phone (415) 282-0318