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Madelyn Moore: Rest In Peace

By Jim Davis

I was present at the creation of the legend of VVAW, the week before Dewey Canyon III, when I joined Madelyn Moore in the DC VVAW Office. The office building was adjacent to the now well-known mall, which became the site of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall.

I was a member of the United Farm Workers union, led by Cesar Chavez. The UFW's New York office was located at Broadway and 27th streets, right around the corner from the VVAW National Office. The lettuce boycott was ending and the spring anti-war demonstrations were coming up, so I met with Al Hubbard and Scott Moore, as well as Madelyn, and joined VVAW.

Madelyn ran the national office in New York and took care of the logistics so that Al Hubbard, John Kerry, Mike Oliver, and other national VVAW officers could plan the demonstrations. She was in DC for Dewey Canyon III, in charge of setting up the office there. I spent some of my time helping her, but as we got into the week of demonstrations, which preceded the week that all of the other anti-war groups were going to come to DC, I was mostly on the mall and involved in the activities.

Mike Oliver did a really smart thing when he sent a letter around to all the police precincts stating the VVAW did not come to DC to hassle "their brothers in uniform, the police, or to break any laws or engage in deliberate misconduct."

Later when Nixon's people tried to declare the occupation of the mall illegal and remove the vets, the police chief at the mall refused to enforce the court order. When asked about what he was going to do about the demonstrators—about a thousand vets milling about—he said, "What demonstrators? I don't see any demonstrators."

I particularly remember standing near the senate steps when everybody took turns throwing away their medals. Rusty Tillman said, "We broke through! We finally broke through with this!" John Kerry was sitting on the grass with his girlfriend, later his wife. His head was down and he was crying. Ron Dellums, the African American congressman, said, "I guess I don't need these either," and threw away his medals form the Korean War.

But that week's events are too well known to recapitulate here.

I saw Madelyn back in New York at the VVAW office after the May Day demonstration where a group of us, including Al Hubbard, were arrested for "Operation Chickenshit" at the Pentagon.

She was still in charge of everything. After the exhilaration and success of Dewey Canyon III, her presence kept things under control. My areas of expertise were organizing demonstrations and fundraising. I worked with Al and Scott on the former and with Madelyn on the latter. When Scott left in the summer, I took over his desk, which was in the room with Al. Then when Madelyn left in the fall I took over her office. I left the next year, 1972, to work on Bella Abzug's congressional campaign. I stayed active in electoral politics and was the Executive Director of the New York chapter of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) in 1976 and after that I left politics for good.

Then came the US war in Iraq. Since I've been fairly lucky in life, I send donations to Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), as well as VVAW. So I guess you could say, that in a way, I'm back where I started—being a fundraiser for VVAW, as well as for this group of younger vets.

I was really saddened to hear of Madelyn's death. She didn't seem that old at the time I remember her, and her spirit and goodwill made her seem that much younger. One of the few really good people you meet in your life.