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Boycott the Bird

By VVAW

We veterans and our supporters, endorse and will actively support the announcd support the announced fall action offensive of the National Peace Action Coalition, and the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice, but we must do more.

First hand, we experienced the Nam, this administration still has in excess of 220,000 troops plus the thousands of its allies there,. We feel an urgent need to end the genocide of American youth and the Peoples of Indochina as soon as possible To further our goals of peace, we will complement the announced fall offensive with other actions, two of which are listed here, and the others to be announced at a later date.<br>

OCTOBER 25 - VETERANS DAY
Veterans Day is a national holiday, a day when Americans stop working to celebrate war, to glorify militarism, and tell the rest of the world, that America is, and has always been, the "greatest military power the world has ever known". It is 1971 and this government is still embroiled in the longest war in its history, a war against a "backward, ignorant, and barbaric people".

WE ARE VETERANS, and as such we have the right to march in every parade on Veterans Day. There will be hundreds of parade There will be hundreds of parades acroo ades across the country on Oct. 25th. Because of the change in dates, (nov.11 used to be V.D., but now all national holidays are in conjunction with a weekend) and the recent, but much too late, concern by politicians and the press, over the plight of the veteran, this should prove to be the biggest, most publicized Veterans Day to date. We veterans must put this annual display off militarism in the proper context.

For too long, the military powers of the world have glorified war as the "manly thing to do", but as Earnest Hemingway said, "Never think that war, no matter how justified, is not a crime, just ask the infantry and ask the dead."

Cancelling the Veterans Day in 1972 must be a priority for all its members veterans. Therefore VVAW members across the country should organize and join these parades. By distributing leaflets, literature, getting our pwn speakers on the bandstand, and having Winter Soldier Investigations, we can show the militarists in this society, that there is now a new soldier, the Vietnam era veteran. As a final act on this day, we can show our determination and humanism by donating blood at the end of all the parades. Arrangements should be made with the Red Cross to have a bloodmobile somewhere close by, at the end of the march. Further, all blood should be donated to Military or V.A. Hospitals.

THANKSGIVING DAY
VVAW is sponsoring an activity that everyone (not just VVAW members) can participate in. We are calling for a Thanksgiving boycott of the traditional meal. Veterans and their supporters across the country should participate in a dawn to dusk fast at their respective state capitals.