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Letters to VVAW

By VVAW

I am a freelance writer doing research for a children's book on the Vietnam War, which will be published by Marshall Cavendish, New York, in 2003. The book will be a part of "American Voices," a series that tells the story of key events in U.S. history, through letters, editorials, diaries, and other documents of the times. I would like to include a leaflet, pamphlet, petition, or some other document distributed by VVAW during the Vietnam War years, accompanied by a brief discussion of your organization and mission. (A bit of personal history: my brother Jeff Schomp, who served in Vietnam from 1970-71, was a member and supporter of VVAW; also, I had some correspondence with Joe Miller of VVAW in 1999, when I was researching and writing the book "Letters from the Homefront: The Vietnam War" - that book has recently been published, and included an acknowledgment of his helpfulness.)

I hope to hear from you, and would be happy to provide any further information on my current project.

Thanks,

Virginia Schomp
<virichip@warwick.net>

Dear Comrades,

I was a draft resister in the Vietnam War, living as an exile in London. After meeting the VVAW members attending a conference in Paris as the time of the signing of the Paris accords in 1973, a group of resisters, vets and others in London formed the London chapter of VVAW.

Three years later I became a delegate to the Democratic convention, where I was nominated for vice president by Ron Kovic in order to speak abut the need for amnesty for resisters, deserters and vets with less-than-honorable discharges. You may recall that event, immortalized in the final scene of the film version of Kovic's autobiography.

VVAW was there that evening, sharing in a brief moment of triumph for the anti-war movement and the subsequent legal relief it brought. The unity of vets and war resisters was important in giving lie to the notion that the two were different, were at odds with each other, even disliked each other. The truth is that both groups of young people recognized that the war was wrong and acted out of true patriotic loyalty to the principles America stands for.

In solidarity,

Fritz Efaw