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American Legion and VFW: Marchin' to the Tune of the Ruling Class

By VVAW

Throughout the history of this country, veterans have played an important political and social role. From the Revolutionary War until the present, vets, because of their wartime experiences and the hardships they've faced upon returning to civilian life, have at different times been deeply involved in progressive struggles.

Following the Revolutionary War, farmers, craftsmen and the poor--those who fought the war--returned to civilian life empty handed to find the land and way of life they fought for stolen from them. Groups of veterans rose up in rebellion and were met by the armed forces of the rich, often part of the same army the vets had earlier fought in. Nor was this pattern to change. Vets returned home, war after war, only to find that they had to fight for a living.

But, not all vets came home and took up the "good fight." The US ruling class was not made up of fools. They saw the great potential of veterans organizations that could be used to boost their rule, and set out to do something about it.

1917: World War I battlefields of France. Shaken to the bottom of their bank vaults by the victorious revolution in the Soviet Union, the rich were concerned that millions of the battle weary WWI vets, soldiers who had borne the massive slaughter of European trench warfare, would return home angry and dissatisfied and form the background of an American revolutionary army. Understanding the explosive potential of these troops, Theodore Roosevelt, ex-president, personally went to France and with the help of top military officers, planned and set up the framework of a vets organization that was to be known as the American Legion.

Thus the troops returned home to hundreds of pre-constructed posts around the country, an officer structure straight out of the military and lots of money to be used to make sure that the Legion got off the ground.

The American Legion was created. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, at that time an organization of vets from previous war, came under the same type of leadership and direction. These organizations and others like them that followed have blazed a trail of nationalism, war-mongering patriotism, and open support for the US rulers. The Legion, most reactionary of the pack, openly participated in strike breaking, intimidation, vicious red-baiting, and as general utility bullies for the rich. Throughout the history of these groups many rank and file members have taken progressive stands on the question of war and on the struggles of vets and workers. Just as consistently they have crushed by the various national leaderships.

The present day political role of these organization hasn't changed much from the past. As the danger of a war between the US and the Soviet Union, a war of the super-powers for control of the world, increases, these vets organizations are right out on front street with the people of America, pushing the idea of war as the best thing we can look forward to in the future. Pounding the pavement on every patriotic holiday, they march to glorify war as the people who stand to profit from the wars sit back in satisfaction that these veteran organizations are carrying out the task assigned to them.

A sideline of their political programs is the role of "veterans service organizations" that the American Legion and the VFW, in particular, labor to project to veterans. Taking credit for every major advance that vets have fought for down through the years, they say that they, and they alone, represent the interest of all vets and are in the best position to be watchdogs of vets rights.

On Memorial Day 1976, over 3.7 million vets were cut off the GI Bill. During the months leading up to this cutoff, not one of these "veterans" organizations spoke out against this move by the rich and their puppets in the government. Everyone of these organizations, through their national leadership, spoke out publicly and lobbied actively in Congress for a cut off date in benefits to Vietnam-era vets, and supported the move to limit the length of time from 10 to 8 years of eligibility. Additionally, when the GI Bill was taken from people presently in the military (and future GIs) the leadership of these organizations once again lined up in support of the cutoff.

All these groups want to make a distinction between wartime and peacetime vets; they list their priorities as VA care but this is overshadowed by national defense considerations. As they give lip service to the "terrible" treatment of Vietnam-era vets, they push for a larger military budget, compulsory military training for all Americans, more support for dictatorships in South Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan; they leap to the defense of the Panama Canal, and vehemently oppose any form of amnesty for draft resisters.

Recently the American Legion held parades round the country to attract Vietnam vets into their organization. The parades were dismal failures that brought out very few Vietnam vets. When questioned about the lack of Vietnam veterans in their membership, the Illinois Commander stated: "It's always like this after every war. Don't worry, they'll come around after they mellow."

Mellow? What kind of crap is that? Vietnam vets have had a bellyful of their wars and we've seen what we have to look forward to when we come home--high unemployment, filthy butchershops called VA hospitals, crummy benefits that get slashed everytime we turn around. Mellow, hell! We're fighting mad.

These turkeys must be blind if they think we're going to jump in line with them and their rubber-stamp policies of the US ruling class. You don't need a crystal ball to see that another war is around the corner and while these guys in the American Legion, VFW, etc. warm people up for that war, it's up to veterans everywhere to speak out against them, to tell the truth about these wars, about who fights and dies in them and about who gets rich as a result.

Holding high the banner of "vets interests" and talking long and loud of their "fight" to see that "vets get what is coming to them," these organizations take up the questions of vets in the narrowest possible way, attempting to isolate vets as some kind of special interest group. But their actions show that they could give a damn about vets. Their job is to get out on the street, spew patriotic garbage and build for their imperialist wars on command. We refuse their attempts to separate vets from other people we say that vets need decent benefits, and that youth and workers need jobs, not uniforms and rich man's wars.

The vets who marched as the VVAW contingent in the Philly demonstrations on July 1-4 laid it on the line when the chanted "We Won't Fight Another Rich Man's War--It's the Working Class We're Fighting For." Hell yes, we'll build a vets movement, but it won't have anything to do with the one that the rich built and still prop up. The vets struggle we're building is one that fights for what we need to survive and proudly stands on the side of working people.