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Letter to Army on Westmoreland

By VVAW

(After watching the "CBS Reports" program on William Westmoreland, VVAW wrote the following letter to the Judge Advocate General of the Army.)

Dear Sir:

On behalf of the membership of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, I am writing to ask what you, as the U.S. Army's chief law enforcement officer are doing with regard to the criminal activites of Ex-General William Westmoreland as revealed, with substantial evidence, on CBS Special Reports on the 23rd of January. It is an insult to the memory of our friends who died as well as to every Vietnam vet that Mr Westmoreland should not only remain free but should be drawing a military retirement which we as taxpayers are helping to pay.

From the evidence presented on the program, it is clear that then-general Westmoreland knowingly falsified figures on enemy troop strength in South Vietnam in order to be able to fall in line with the political expediency advocated by then-President Johnson. Such falsification could well have led to continuation of the war with 27,000 additional American deaths, hundreds of thousands of non-fatal casualties, to say nothing of cases of Agent Orange poisoning and post-traumatic stress disorders. There's no way to tell how many U.S. troops were killed or wounded during the NLF Tet Offensive in 1968 because they were given falsified intelligence figures. For all of this Mr Westmoreland is responsible.

None of us who served in Vietnam expected 100% accurate intelligence reports, nor did we seriously blame any commander who made an honest error in judgement even though we were the ones most likely to suffer as a result. Westmoreland's criminal coverup, however, does not fall into that category.

Vietnam veterans, and particularly the survivors of those who died in Vietnam await with great interest information on your investigation and your plans for prosecution.

Peter H Zastro
VVAW National Office