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Earned Re-Entry Is Not Amnesty!

By VVAW

"What do you think of Ford's earned re-entry plan?"

"I think it stinks. It's a sham!"

"I'm not going back..(Unless) we get a universal and unconditional amnesty. I feel very strongly about what I did."

These and other comments represented the feelings of a wide cross section of the exile population in response to the announcement of Gerald Ford's earned re-entry program. Shortly after this announcement and the pardon of Richard Nixon, exiles from Canada, Sweden, England and France met for a conference in Toronto, Ontario on September 21-22. The conference acted on this program of punitive clemency and resoundingly rejected Ford's deal. The exile organizations announced that the only way to win universal and unconditional amnesty was to boycott Ford's program in order that the American people would understand that resistance to imperialist wars, such as the Indochina war, is correct. The boycott means that the exile organizations are refusing to have any part of the earned re-entry program and in connection with the stateside amnesty movement, will mount a campaign to mobilize mass, popular pressure for a real amnesty. This will involve every possible tactic, by people who need amnesty.

The exile conference also unanimously passed a resolution that the fight for universal and unconditional amnesty must include the demands to end the war in Indochina, a single-type discharge for all veterans and full benefits for all veterans.

The boycott was accounted at a press conference following the meeting of the exiles; Fritz Efaw of the London chapter of VVAW/WSO read the statement. He was joined by two coordinators of the National Council for Universal and Unconditional Amnesty (NCUUA) who accounted their full support for the exile resolution. (VVAW/WSO is one of the groups belonging to NCUUA.)

While the unanimity of the exile groups was apparent, the Ford program was floundering. The governments own figures show that there is widespread contempt for the clemency. Most Americans accept the fact that the clemency was designed to win support for the pardoning of Richard Nixon for his crimes against the people of the USA and the people of the world. Americans realize that the punitive, limited clemency was not designed for those who resisted the war in Indochina.

In desperate attempts to inflate the figures and sell the unpopular, punitive plan, the government has resorted to trickery and deceit. On September 22, the Army announced that 75 deserters were turning themselves in "en masse" under the Ford program. The fact is that these 74 resisters were rounded up before the announcement and did not return voluntarily to accept the clemency.

In another attempt to popularize the program, the administration, through the Department of the Army, ordered those just calling for information on the program to turn them in to Fort Benjamin Harrison. The letter from Norman Nelms, commanding officer of the Joint Clemency Processing Center, stated in part, "you are directed to proceed and report to Fort Benjamin Harrison."

Confusion and contradictory statements pervade the clemency program as well. In early October, the Defense Department announced that the so-called 'deserters loophole' would be closed and that AWOLs would be prosecuted under Article 83 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which reads "if a false statement to obtain discharge is given the military, control can continue under the code." The next day, the DD announced that this provision would not be adhered to and that AWOL resisters would be free to refuse to do alternative service once they received their dishonorable discharge. In any event, when viewing the punitive nature of the clemency program, few military resisters have accepted this loophole.

One result of the entire nature of the program and the general disapproval of it is that Camp Atterbury, Indiana, the site of the processing center for war resisters who accept the plan, has been closed down and all operations have moved to nearby Fort Benjamin Harrison.

While the government continues to confuse, distort and contradict itself around the specifics of the program, one thing that stands out clearly is that the clemency in neither universal nor unconditional. Those people who resisted the imperialist war in Indochina did so for a variety of reasons, but in every case the clear fact that the war was wrong stands out and that resistance to the war was correct. In light of this correctness exiles, veterans and civilians should not be punished in any way for their deeds.

The war in Indochina continues to rage on. The US-Thieu regime in Vietnam continually suppresses the right of the Vietnamese people to determine their future direction. With relation to the war in Indochina, the only crimes committed are the crimes of the US corporations and their front men in the government and the military who perpetuate the dictorial regimes of the likes of Thieu and Lon Nol in Cambodia.

While Richard Nixon is given universal and unconditional amnesty for his role in the war in Indochina and against the American people, the government tries to punish resisters for correctly fighting the imperialist system. Clemency discharges, undesirable discharges, alternative service and jail sentences are an attempt to diffuse the rising fight against imperialism.

The boycott called by the exiles and supported by a majority of people is one way in which we can expose the system that continues to exploit and oppress the people of Indochina and elsewhere around the world, including here in the United States. A full universal and unconditional amnesty would mean that resistance to wars of aggression by the US is correct. Unity in this struggle is necessary; and unity around the boycott is essential.

HONOR THE BOYCOTT