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Letters

By VVAW

THE VETERAN WELCOMES LETTERS, COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS. PLEASE WRITE TO US. ALSO IF YOU HAVE ANY POETRY, DRAWINGS OR STORIES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE IN THIS PAPER SEND THEM ALONG.

Dear friends,

It was with great pleasure that we received your letter dated April 28. But we regretted that it arrived here later than May 17, the Armed Forces Day, so we could not send you even a cable-message in time to support your activities on that day.

By the way, we also would like to take this opportunity to express our full solidarity with and deep sympathy for your hard struggle against oppression, in-democracy and wretched working and living conditions caused by the imperialist military in the United States.

We, Vietnamese people who have just freed ourselves from the French, and then US oppression and domination, more than anyone else, profoundly sympathize with and highly appreciate your courageous struggle for justice, democracy and social progress. We wish you every success in your activities and we firmly believe that the final victory will certainly be yours. On our part, we always are at your side and fully support your just cause.

Dear friends, in this historic time of great victories, we would like to let you know that we shall never forget the precious political support or the progressive American organizations and people including your organization to our sacred fight for national salvation and are always grateful for it. We think that our victory is also yours.

Please, with our warm feelings to all members in VVAW/WSO.

With you all in struggle,
Vo thi The
General Executive Member of Vietnam Women?s Union

(The following is an excerpt from a letter from a prisoner at the Florida State Correctional Institution in Lowell, Florida.)

"...The efforts toward advising vets of our rights that I have witnessed in the last three months was when a representative of a correspondence training school presented his sales pitch to inmates and agreed to file VA applications for them. Even then, he would only speak to vets with Honorable Discharges. The institution education department provides absolutely no information or assistance concerning GI Bill eligibility or qualification. Like I said before, we remain dependent on usually unanswered correspondence to the VA."

VVAW/WSO:

I am a VA employee and I agree with you thoroughly in your championing the cause of the Vietnam-era Vet. There are a few exceptions, but in general the VA is a rigid, unresponsive, pious, bureaucracy staffed by over-the-hill, got-it-made types. I?m proud to contribute to VVAW/WSO - thanks for one vet organization that really concerns itself with vets, not political back scratching, socializing and trite do-gooder services. I hope you will be successful in maintaining your organization onw that the war is finally over - good luck!

Sincerely,
P.E.

Dear P.E.,

Thanks for your letter and contribution. There is one point that we disagree with in your letter though. While there are some over-the-hill types staffing the VA hospitals, we know that the majority of VA workers are actually interested in helping vets out. Unfortunately the VA overworks, underpays and harasses them much in the same way it mistreats the vets.

Solidarity,
The Veteran