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We Want You To Join!!

By VVAW

Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Point Man of the Vets' Movement

VVAW is recruiting. If you are reading THE VETERAN and, especially, if you are reading this article, we want you to join. If you are already a VVAW member (and we hope you are) maybe you can find someone else interested in the activities of VVAW to join up.

There are, to be honest, a lot of things VVAW cannot do for you. If you are one of the Vietnam vets who is into "coming-home parades" and "welcome back ceremonies," if your thing is more memorials and monuments, then we are probably not the right organization for you. Not that we condemn parades or monuments—we've helped build the memorials and marched in the parades. But we've usually done so with the understanding that better VA care or a realistic jobs program will help vets far more than another obelisk. And we've been fortunate enough to draw distinctions between some real attempts to honor vets and the charades put on by a few self-serving veterans looking for titles, money, prestige or careers.

VVAW can't do much to help you through VA red tape or get you better care in a VA hospital. We have, for years, fought as vocally and visibly as possible for better VA care, to remind the public (even when Vietnam vets were not as popular as we seem to be today) that there was an obligation to those who served even if we served even if we served in an unpopular and useless war. VVAW did, we hope, have some influence on the formation of they system of vets outreach centers and in keeping the centers alive when the government planned to ax them.

An, unfortunately, VVAW can't do much to help vets find a job, something that the government should have been doing ever since we got home. Of course we can give you a job with VVAW, but all that promises is a lot of hours (as many as you have to donate) and no money at all; in fact you will probably end up having to pay for all the things you need to do the job. Some VVAW chapters have, at various times, been able to act as a vets referral service because potential employers have gotten in touch with us to find vets.

For some VVAW members in the past their VVAW work has been a recommendation to a job as a professional vet: That's why many vet outreach centers, various college vets affairs offices, state and federal vet jobs are often occupied by VVAW members, past and present. For some years, during and after the war, a veteran who wanted to do something for other vets had few places to turn and VVAW was one of them. The American Legion and VFW had not yet figured out that their futures would depend on attracting Vietnam veterans, and there weren't other Vietnam vet groups. VVAW offered not only the comradeship of other vets, but such programs as the first of what would become post traumatic stress rap groups. And so, a vet activist might well have VVAW on his record.

Finally, if you're looking for good place to drink cheap beer and trade war stories, VVAW can't afford halls or bartenders. We have downed a beer or two and we have traded a few war stories (some of them true); in fact, if you've got a few war stories you would like to tell, send them to THE VETERAN for "Recollections." And cheap beer? Well, at the last Chicago chapter fund-raising party, planned to raise money to help send some vets to Nicaragua, not only did people bring their own beer, but then VVAW sold it back to them!

While there are many things VVAW cannot do for you, there are some vital things that we can do. And we do them well.

VVAW has always been in the lead in telling and showing vets that we were not to blame for Vietnam. We didn't send ourselves to Vietnam; we never had anything to gain from that war. Look instead at the government and the corporations, which profit, in some way or another, from wars like Vietnam and then put the blame squarely where it belongs. When VVAW had a demonstration, we would tell the media or anyone else who would listen who was to blame for the war. Among veterans' groups that set us apart.

And, at a time when Vietnam vets were considered crazy or dangerous or just too spaced out to be taken seriously, VVAW was raising as much noise as possible about care for Vietnam vets and our particular problems. VVAW chapters seized offices of VA officials to demand proper treatment for all vets; we lobbied Congressmen, we talked and we shouted. The VA always knew we were around and that we were watching them.

VVAW members are at their best using the experience of Vietnam to do what we can do to prevent another Vietnam. And any project that VVAW is involved in will go better with additional members. Especially involved members, though we certainly realize that not everyone has the time or the interest to get involved in all of our activities. Fifty people writing a letter to a particular Congressman about why we shouldn't give aid to the CIA-sponsored "contras" in Nicaragua means more than 30 people: that's just simple arithmetic. One hundred vets at a Veterans Day ceremony better underlines Vietnam vets' concerns about future Vietnams than do 75 vets. Again, its just arithmetic. And VVAW needs your help. In fact, we all need all the help we can get since it is not likely that anyone else is going to do the things that need to be done—just look at the articles in this paper to see how the U.S. government is treating vets and how it's dealing with the rest of the world.

Joining VVAW will make you a part of the effort to use our experience and our credibility to change how that government functions. When our experience lets us talk to one high school student and change his or her mind about the military, we've taken a step forward. When we can confront the recruiters who would send our children off to do the same things we did, only in Central America instead of Vietnam, we've taken another big step. A picket line outside a move glorifying war and macho-military image is still another step, as is sending a delegation of veterans to Nicaragua to show that we support their efforts to determine the future of their own country without U.S. intervention of dictation.

We want you to become a part of all these things either with your support, or better, with your self and your family. We need to know that the things we are saying, in THE VETERAN or elsewhere, represent the ideas and positions of many Vietnam veterans; we need to know that the actions we carry on have the support of you and others.

There's a membership application form in the newspaper. If you want more copies, let us know. If you are already a member, find someone else—perhaps the person who now reads THE VETERAN when you're done with it. If you live in one of the places where VVAW does not know; there may well be other groups in the area who are pursing some of the same or similar activities. Or we might know of other vets in the vicinity who have similar interest and want to get involved.

Fifteen years ago there were some 2000 Vietnam vets who took part in some or all of Operation Dewey Canyon III in Washington; since that time we're heard from as least 10 times that number who were "there" for the event. And that is fine because it shows that many vets who were not there for whatever reason still believe that the medals were thrown away in part for them—and they were right. And if there are few activities today as striking as was Dewey Canyon III, VVAW is still just as involved in working for vets and for freedom form more Vietnams. Join up. We need your help.