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The Veteran

By VVAW

VVAW has been publishing a national newspaper for 17 years; THE VETERAN, as its been called since 1974, was first published under the name The First Casualty and then as the Winter Soldier.

The first issue rolled off the presses in August of 1971. It may come as a surprise to some, but the lead article was on racism and riots then going on in Cairo, Illinois. Also covered was unemployment, the educational problems of Vietnam vets and the need for counseling for vets' problems with delayed stress (then called Post Vietnam Syndrome).

For the next two years, The First Casualty covered anti-war activity of VVAW as well as printing short stories, poems and drawings by vets and active-duty GI's as well as demands for a decent economic shake for Vietnam vets. In 1973 the name was changed to Winter Soldier; color was added and each issued carried a poster on the back page.

VVAW continued to demand a complete end to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia while abiding by the Paris Peace Accords. At the same time actions around vets multiplied as the VA became a target of VVAW activities.

In 1975, VVAW declared "War on the VA." The war in Indochina was over but the problems of Vietnam veterans were just beginning. The GI Bill, disability pensions, VA care, delayed stress—all these became priorities for the organization because they were priorities for our members. In our newspaper appeared pioneering articles where we analyzed these problems years ahead of other organization's even being founded.

At the same time we never forgot our roots in Vietnam and the war; we never forgot it could happen again. We began to talk about the oppression in South Africa in 1977; we started covering Central America and the dangers posed by U.S. involvement there in 1979.

VVAW can be proud of having the first Vietnam veteran publication. More important, we are proud that the issues—such as delayed stress (1970), Agent Orange (1971), Vets Centers (1972), Watergate (1973) and a host of others—that we first raised are now accepted and have, in some cases, been recognized and dealt with.

We plan to build on that heritage. Help us.