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VVAW Hits Vets' Problems & War: Vietnam Vets' Week

By VVAW

Vietnam Veterans Week, May 28th through June 3rd, proclaimed with much fanfare and trumpets by President Carter, has now come and gone. If you look in your pocket and find there's not another buck there, if you're still looking for a job, if you're bad discharge hasn't suddenly been upgraded, if your Agent Orange symptoms haven't gone away, or if your GI Bill payments still won't cover the food and rent bills, well don't be too surprised. Even with his mystical laying on of hands our President could not cure the problems of the Vietnam vet, even if he had any interest in doing so. And even though a lot of good people worked hard to make Vietnam Vets Week work in various parts of the country, the problems that vets face need much more than a "week" or even a Presidential Proclamation that all is fine.

Carter's original Proclamation declared that of Vietnam vets, "the majority have successfully rejoined the mainstream of American life." Given galloping inflation and imminent recession, that mainstream isn't all that great a place to be right now, but even so it beats the hell out of the backwaters that hundreds of thousands of Vietnam vets are stagnating in. A Proclamation doesn't change that situation one bit, though there are certainly things a President might do which could improve the situation of veterans.

"To those who still bear the wounds, both physical and psychic, from all our wars, we acknowledge our continuing responsibility," the Presidential Proclamation states. Acknowledgement is cheap; it's doing something about it that costs the bucks. A recent report from the Disabled American Veterans in California pinpoints some of the problems there which have been the direct result of Carter's (the same one who issues Proclamations) cuts in VA hospital funds. Vets with less than 50% disabilities are being given appointments at the end of 79 or sometimes in 1980. Some are being referred to private healthcare facilities which they must pay for. Though there is no "waiting list" (because the VA won't use that term) there are numerous vets in "pre-hospital care," which means on the waiting list to get in. Many patients don't even have their own bed; others wear soiled and torn clothing; nurses must singlehandedly watch one whole ward and something more as well as take care of duties off the ward. The result is that doctors are hard to recruit and many doctors and nurses are leaving the VA for other facilities. There's more, but this is a piece of what must be meant by "acknowledging our continuing responsibility."

In fact, pick almost any area of vets' problems and you will find the solution is the same: talk big, make a Proclamation, and cutback where it counts in the real world. In fact, Vietnam Veterans Week turned out to be a chance for presidents and other politicians to make their concerned statements and then go right back to business as usual.

No doubt that's what was planned from the beginning. Give the vets a parade or a Proclamation and maybe they'll forget that they're dying of Agent Orange poisoning or rotting in a scummy VA hospital. The plan didn't work. Because, in many places, Vietnam Veterans Week turned out to be a good thing because vets themselves saw a potential in the idea and worked to make it a reality.

Vets have long seen that to get some of the problems of Vietnam and Vietnam-era vets solved we must first make the American public aware of what these problems are and where they come from. Vietnam Vets Week provided an opportunity to do that in many places.

Once vets themselves got involved in planning and organizing Vietnam Veterans Week activities, their character often changed. VVAW chapters, particularly in the Midwest, took part in these activities and did all we could to make sure that behind the fa?ade of pompous pronouncements there would be some substance. What follows is a report from VVAW in Chicago, and, with somewhat different details, could be repeated for other Midwest VVAW Chapters in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.

The Chicago VVAW Chapter's participation in Vietnam Vets Week marked some notable changes from the past struggles of Vietnam and Vietnam-era veterans.

When plans for Vietnam Vets Week became public, VVAW began to plan activities since there seemed to be nothing else happening in Chicago. In the course of planning, we joined with other Vietnam and Vietnam era vets, both individuals and groups, who represented a wide spectrum of the places that Vietnam vets are coming from. Our initial apprehension about established vets groups fell away as we united on point after point: that the program on Memorial Day (the beginning of Vietnam Vets Week) would not promote war or glorify Vietnam, that recruiters were banned from the entire program and grounds, and that no phony jobs programs would be set up or give their pitch.

The City of Chicago supported the plans of the veterans coalition and placed no restrictions on the coalition, probably for the first time in the history of Chicago VVAW. The VA took no part other than to transport patients to the program from the local VA hospital. The "major" vets organizations—the American Legion and VFW—were significantly absent from the entire process.

The Memorial Day Program, "A Day in the Park" for Vietnam vets went off well. In spite of the media's attempts to downplay the event, it was probably the largest gathering of vets in Chicago. VVAW met and spoke with hundreds of Vietnam-era vets we had never met before. Our speaker on the official program, which was interspersed with music, was Barry Romo from the VVAW National Office. Hitting hard on the war, on the re-institution of the draft, and on abuses that veterans are facing everyday, Romo stated that "A day in the park is nice, but is not going very far to deal with the 'used once and thrown away' attitude that vets are faced with. We don't need only a 'day' when we have to fight every day!"

But Chicago VVAW felt it was not enough just to open Vietnam Vets Week and then leave the balance of the week in the hands of federal press released. We ended the week with the struggle of Vietnam vets in mind.

Setting up a large pictorial display, filled with the combined materials from Chicago and Milwaukee VVAW, vets and VVAW members from Chicago, Wisconsin and Michigan gathered in Daley Plaza in Chicago on June 2nd to illustrate the past, present and future struggles of veterans. VVAW speakers hit on the misconceptions being peddled to the American public about the Vietnam War, the poor medical treatment (especially the neglect of Agent Orange victims), high unemployment among vets, and the particular problems of vets in prison.

The high point of the afternoon was the open microphone which gave vet after vet the opportunity to speak of their own anger and experiences. In addition to many vets, the program attracted many passerby who listened to the program and scanned the displays. Several thousand leaflets detailing the way the Vietnam war is continuing for Vietnam vets were distracted to the public.

Vietnam Veterans Week in Chicago was a success—for Vietnam vets. The planning was taken out of the hands of the "traditional" vets organizations that have made vets activities in Chicago in the past a plug for war—old and new.

In Milwaukee, Memorial Day events were different than they had been in the past. It used to be that VVAW had to stand off to the side of the "official" ceremony and speak out about the real abuses vets faced, or else hold our own ceremony afterwards.

This year, however, VVAW gave a speech at the official ceremony. The VA demanded to see a copy of our speech beforehand. We let them see it, and they had the audacity to give us back a "corrected" version. In their version all mention of the WAR, of Agent Orange and of the abuses vets face were gone, and words of praise from Carter's proclamation were substituted.

VVAW refused to go along with this nonsense and threatened to go to the press and other vets to expose this censorship. The VA quickly backed down.

After VVAW speaker John Lindquist gave the speech, mothers of vets who had died in Vietnam came over to congratulate him. Saying that it was about time VVAW was allowed to participate in the event, the mothers thanked him for saying what they had felt all along.

From there, VVAW went to the American Legion sponsored march and for the first time were allowed to march in the parade. Our presence changed the whole event. The parade was set up to push "patriotism" but that was changed as banners and chants made it clear that these vets were against wars for profits and demanded testing for Agent Orange and NO new draft.

People all along the way stood and cheered. Vets joined the contingent from the side lines, and even the parade officials had to admit that the VVAW section got a longer and louder applause than any other contingent.

Vietnam-era veterans got to flex their muscles for a change and the results were significant. We were able to learn from and contribute to a growing unrest among younger vets. We were able to break through the harassment and hostility of the City; we were further able to break through barriers we set up among ourselves—among smaller vets groups—to organize and push forward what will become a growing vets movement in the U.S. today.