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Operation Dewey Canyon IV: Vets March on Wash.

By VVAW

Operation Dewey Canyon IV will take place in Washington DC on the 12th through the 15th of May. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Bonus March by World War I vets in 1932, and the 11th anniversary of Operation Dewey Canyon II (when Vietnam vets threw away their medals on the Capitol steps in protest against the war still raging in Vietnam), DC IV will be a peaceful and forceful veterans counterattack to the many threats to veterans coming from the Reagan administration.

Few veterans want to get out their fatigues of their boots and hit the streets again; many of us thought that our war was over. And we wouldn't do it if we thought there was any choice. But even though a high percentage of the American people are sympathetic of the problems faced by Vietnam vets, little or nothing has happened on a number of programs which might help solve some of these problems.

Faced with children affected by our exposure to Agent Orange, faced with the problems we now suffer because of Agent Orange exposure, we expect out government—which was so ready to send us off to fight—to help with testing, treatment and compensation for Agent Orange victims—but they won't. Yet they seem all too ready to send our children off to fight another war in El Salvador.

Hundreds of thousands of Vietnam and Vietnam-era vets are laid off or can't find jobs. Yet the government cut back on programs which could help. Tens of thousands of Vietnam vets in prison get nothing. And the widows and orphans of Vietnam vets face more cutbacks. What we're offered is "Vietnam Veterans Memorial" with a "Follow-Me" statue—follow me right into another Vietnam!

DC IV will focus the opinion of vets and supporters around the country. Give us what we need—however wrong it was, we did what we were asked to do. And we've got to get what we need ourselves, since no one will do it for us!