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VVA & 'The Temple of...'

By VVAW

In the course of elections, many campaigns and causes run aground or get relegated to political backburners. One example in the area of Vietnam veterans' activities is the drive by Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) to obtain congressional recognition which would afford it the same status as the VFW, the American legion and other such traditional groups.

Congressional recognition entitles these organizations to have offices in VA facilities, represent vets as service officers, and opens numerous paths to political financial connections.

VVA will probably gain such status, but for the present the VFW is leading the charge to bar the door.

The decision to petition Congress for recognition was put forward at the first national convention of VVA in November of 1983. The actual application (HR4772 and S2266) appeared in March of this year. Sponsored primarily by December in the House, the application immediately came under fire from the Republican members of the House. The Republicans were guided by literature circulated by the VFW and National Commander Clifford Olsen.

Using heavily slanted, conservative articles from such publications as "Soldier of Fortune Magazine," the attack centered on Bobby Mueller and his supporters in VVA leadership positions. Bobby, once a highly visible member of VVAW, had incurred the wrath of the righteous veteran right-wing by travelling to North Vietnam to ask for POW/MIA release, and possibly grabbing more public recognition than themselves. In the process of the attack on Mueller and VVA, he was also accused of a number of "terrible" antiwar activities when with VVAW—all of which are true and which we who participated are quite proud of.

While the battle continued in the House, the VFW appeared to attempt to exploit the internal differences in VVA. Claiming 19,000 members, VVA is as diverse an organization as the areas of the country represented. Progressive vets share the same organizational status as the ultra-conservative. As a national organization VVA, in its first convention, emphasized work around MIA/POW's with no hard commitment on U.S. involvement in Central America, the draft and registration, bi-lateral nuclear freeze, or similar political issues. VVA's position on Agent Orange was, however, in line with most of Vietnam vets around the country until they petitioned the court to be the sole representative for Vietnam vets and the disbursement of Agent Orange funds, which didn't sit well with a lot of other organizations that had worked on the issue since 1974. In spite of the conservative attempt, the House passed HR4772 with a near 3 to 1 margin.

Promising a more difficult battle in the Senate, all bets are off until the elections are over. The future for VVA's recognition hinges on several factors. First, will the VFW continue the onslaught? If so, will the political struggle within VVA escalate, giving the VFW, Soldier of Fortune, and who knows who else the ability to drive a wedge deeper into the organization.

With that Congressional recognition, which will be hard won, will come the added responsibility to the government; will the VVA membership be asked to support, wholeheartedly, a war in Central America or elsewhere as the price?