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From the National Office

By Joe Miller

Welcome to the new issue of The Veteran, the semi-annual newspaper of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). In these pages you will find reports of local and national activities of our membership and supporters, as well as accounts from the vaults of VVAW history and reviews of various works by our members. Hell! We even write poetry!

As you read these pages, a new political administration has been elected in DC. No matter who "won" this time around, we're not going away. We shall not stop working for peace and social justice at home and abroad. We've got to keep their feet to the fire!

VVAW was established in 1967 during the Johnson Administration, and we had hundreds of our members in the streets during the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. We fought like hell during the Nixon Administration to end the war and end attacks on the civil liberties of Americans. That continued through Ford and into the Carter Administration, where we fought to protect and extend GI and veterans' benefits. This period saw the ultimate recognition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a direct result of the efforts of VVAW and our supporters. We did not stop our activism around the issues of Agent Orange and normalization of relations with Vietnam through two terms of Reagan, one of Bush I, or even during two terms of Clinton. In that forty-year tradition, no matter who sits in the Oval Office or which party dominates Congress, the veterans' movement will cut them no slack.

Furthermore, as active supporters of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) since its establishment in 2004, we join our brothers and sisters in their demands for:

• Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq;

• Reparations for the human and structural damages Iraq has suffered, and stopping the corporate pillaging of Iraq so that their people can control their own lives and future; and

• Full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health), and other supports for returning servicemen and women.

We call upon all members and supporters of VVAW, all readers of this newspaper, to join with us and with IVAW to keep on fighting for peace and social justice. The lives of our brothers and sisters in uniform and those of oppressed peoples around the world depend upon our continued struggle. There can be no honeymoon period for the new administration!