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Winter Soldier Investigation & Dewey Canyon

By VVAW

The early days of 1981 provide VVAW with a time to look back—it was ten years ago that two of the major events in the history of the organization took place. The Winter Soldier Investigation where Vietnam vets talked about their participation in the atrocities of Vietnam was held in Detroit at the end of January and beginning of February of 1971, and growing out of the sparks of this event came the demonstration which we called Dewey Canyon III where Vietnam vets threw their medals on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, straight into the teeth of the government which had sent us off to fight their war.

Both events had an impact way beyond the limited number of vets who took part. Never before in U.S. history had a group of veterans of a war taken a stand against that war while it was still going on, and as some of us were testifying or flinging away the government's rewards for being "good little soldiers," other of our brothers were slogging through the government attempted to portray us as non-vet hippies (until we waved discharge forms at them), or dope-crazed psychos, or pinko freaks, it was clear too the millions who saw us on TV or who talked to us on the streets of every major city in the country that we were the children of the silent majority which was already, in 1971, beginning to turn staunchly against the Vietnam War.

The Winter Soldier Investigation saw vet after vet describe his own, personal participation in war crimes—atrocities which became normal in Vietnam where government policy demanded a body count but didn't care whose bodies were counted—and made it clear that massacres such as My Lai were no just the isolated instances of men gone mad that the government tried to portray them as.

Dewey Canyon III, named after operations in Vietnam which secretly moved into Cambodia (invasions that were adamantly denied by the U.S. government) saw a week's worth of actions around Washington including a fruitless attempt to explain to members of Congress what was happening in Vietnam. But the impact of the final day's throwing away of medals seared its way into the consciousness of the American public.

Whether or not people agreed with what we were saying, VVAW had the advantage that no one could challenge either our right to speak or the credibility of our statements: we had been there, we had fought the war while the rich who profited from it sat comfortably at home, and we knew what we were talking about.

As the Vietnam War recedes into history VVAW still has the experience from which to speak out. And we will-against the draft which sent many of us to fight, and for vets. VVAW's history is part of us, and we plan to live up to it.

Many of those who were part of VVAW during 1971 have dropped away though they are involved in other fights. Ten years after, we look forward to some of them rejoining and getting involved in the struggle to win testing, treatment and compensation for victims of Agent Orange, and no draft. It won't be easy, but we will win.