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Objectives of VVAW

By VVAW

1. To demand an immediate cessation of fighting and the withdrawal of all American troops from Indochina. We cannot allow one more human being to be killed in Indochina.

2. To demand Congress enact legislation for the immediate termination of all funds being utilized by the United States government, its allies and the Central Intelligence Agency to support their illegal operations in Latin America, Africa, China, Europe, and the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.

3. To demonstrate that our military tactics dehumanize soldiers and civilians, and to make clear the United States prosecuting an illegal, unjust and immoral war in Indochina.

4. To show Americans that their society is structured by racism which lets us view all non-whites as less than human. This racism pushes our minorities through inferior schools and into the combat arms. Thus, we send our minorities off to die in disproportionately high numbers while we kill Asians indiscriminately. We demand that the military recognize its complicity in America's domestic and international racism.

5. To make clear that the United States has never undertaken an extensive open investigation of American war crimes in Indochina. We demand that the United States government, in its war in Indochina, affirm the principles of Nuremberg. As former GI's, we recognize the responsibility of the individual soldier to refrain from committing war crimes. We also recognize that the responsibility and guilt of war crimes committed in the name of America lies with our policy makers at all levels.

6. To demand that all active-duty servicemen and women be afforded the rights as citizens that are guaranteed by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights that are presently denied them by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. We are appalled that servicemen and women are treated as less-than-first-class citizens. We endorse the efforts of our active-duty sisters and brothers in their struggle to democratize the military.

7. To support all military personnel refusing to serve in wars of aggression at home and abroad. We demand Congress enact legislation for the immediate repatriation with full amnesty to those brothers and sisters who are in prison or in self-exile by reason of their refusal to serve in the military. We support all persons refusing to be drafted.

8. To demand immediate legislation to provide proper care and service for all veterans in V.A. hospitals; to make available job training and placement for every returning veteran; and to provide the funds and means necessary for their educational and vocational endeavors.

9. To affirm that the membership is not only concerned with ending this war, but changing the domestic social, political, and economic institutions that have caused and permitted the continuation of war.