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Bad Paper Veterans: Single-Type Discharge!

By VVAW

Hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans came home from that war with "bad paper" —discharges in the several categories called by the military "less than honorable." Vietnam vets had a hard enough time getting a job when we came home; a bad discharge made it almost impossible. And the option open to other vets—school on the GI Bill—was not open to "bad paper" vets since almost all vets benefits were automatically cancelled for those with a less-than-honorable discharge. In short a person could spend his two or three years in the military, have spent a tour in Vietnam, have gone through all the rest of the nonsense that all GI's went through, have gotten a bad discharge toward the end of his time, and ended up wit absolutely nothing—he couldn't even join the American Legion.

The military has long used its discharge system as a mighty club over the heads of its troops. When troops, individually or collectively, refuse to go along with whatever the latest idiocy the military comes up with there's always some officer around to threaten a bad discharge. And since the military in Vietnam had more than its normal share of idiotic plans, there were more troops who resisted them and more vets with bad discharges.

Of curse there were crimes committed by members of the military—crimes under normal civilian law. No one wants a bunch of murderers or rapists running around in uniform or out. But during the years after Vietnam VVAW heard similar stories again and again: the Black GI with a racist company commander finally got rid of him with a bad discharge for some kind of insubordination. Or the GI who wanted more than anything else to get out of the military and was finally offered the option of a bad discharge—and never told what some of the consequences might be. Or the thousands of GIs who got a bad discharge for drug use—something which would be considered barely even a misdemeanor in many states under civilian law.

Vets with bad discharges along with civilian war resisters were the focus of a large-scale amnesty movement both during and after the Vietnam war. In homes and storefronts around the country, volunteers worked with vets trying to get discharges upgraded, a long and tedious process clogged with red tape and paper work. And large demonstrations demanded amnesty. President Ford, having already granted the most unpopular of amnesties (that which he gave to Nixon) tried to balance that act with an amnesty for some categories of civilian war resisters. More government concessions followed including automatic discharge upgrading for some categories of bad discharges.

But throughout this period VVAW continued to press for its demand of a single-type discharge for all vets. Take away from the military the power to judge a person's life and decree that a particular individual will suffer under a bad discharge for the rest of his life. Give all vets something like a certificate of service saying nothing more than that the individual was in the military. More than that, make the certificate retroactive so that veterans who now have only a bad discharge to show for their years of service will have the same opportunities—such as they are—that other vets have.

We've been in the military and seen what the military "justice" system is used for—and we say enough of that. VVAW has always welcomed vets regardless of discharge—Agent Orange didn't chose vets with one kind of discharge to contaminate, the prisons are full of vets with all kinds of discharges, jobs are a problem for all vets, and the experience that makes us oppose intervention in El Salvador and say No More Vietnams is common to vets with honorable and less-than-honorable discharges. Get rid of the system: SINGLE TYPE DISCHARGE FOR ALL VETS!