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Bracco Briers

BRAGG BRIEFS is published in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence
and the United States Constitution. It is a free press, published by active
duty GI's stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. PRAGG BRIEFS is dedicated
to realizing the vision of the American Revolution of liberty and justice:
for all peoples of the world.

VOL. 4 NO. JUNE 1971

OPERATION x
AWARENESS §

IS DYING

The fact is that the army is faced
with a massive narcotic addiction

epidemic-- there are literally tens
of thousands of active duty GIs doing

hard drugs and things keep getting

SPARE CHANGE

; Operation Awareness, Fort Bragg's
highly publicized drug rehabilitation
program has been nearly put to death
by the army. As of the first week in
June, the very promising in-patient

part of the program has ceased to
exist because of the army's refusal

¥ provide enough personnel to staff
it.

The out-patient drug clinic will
continue as of now, but even this
looks shaky given the local brassT
attitude.

The in-patient program revolved
around ward # 30 at Womack Army Hosp-
ital where GIs, mostly those addicted
to heroin, could come to live fora
while, receive medical and psycho -
logical therapy and hopefully beat
their habit. The brass at Bragg just
wouldn't come up with enough people
to be therapists, corpsmen and do
other necessary jobs on the ward.

Strangely enough, the hospital
itself is overstaffed and there are
qualified personnel in other units
around post doing important things
like policing up pinecones.

the

On May 21, six days after the
appearance of an anti-war statement
in the Fayetteville Observer signed
by 29 Ft. Bragg-Pope AFB officers,
28 of the 29 officers were called
in to see their respective unit
commanders.

All of them were questioned con"
cerning their beliefs about the war,
and at least 12 of the officers were
offered the opportunity to resign
from the Army.

The Concerned Cfficer Movement
sponsored statement ran in the May
T edition of the Observer and read
in part: "We, the undersigned offic-
ers e.eWish to make known our feelings
about the immoral and wasteful war
in which our country is embroiled.
We agree with what we feel to be the
majority view in this country that
the war in Vietnam should end. We

worsee

Thirty to forty-five thousand GIs
in Viet Nam are estimated to be using

hard drugs according to the govern-

ment's own figures. Many Nam vets

say that the figure should be much

higher.

A Department of Defense spokesman
recently admitted that there are at
least 300 users of hard drugs leaving

Viet Nam each week.

Nobody has to tell a Bragg GI how
thick skag is around here or about the :
hundreds, maybe thousands of GIs and

WACs who are strung out.
The military is getting a bad

reputation with the American people
because of its drug problems. There-

fore some of the brass seized upon

upon Operation Awareness and milked

it for every bit of good publicity
they could. The army has used 0.A.

SULLITEN: As we go to press, the |

Bragg Brass is reconsidering the |
fate of in-patient Operation
Awareness. there is further
henge, there will be an 2
wexplenatory leaflet i
Paper's moe CLS g ¥ .

side this

E
&
&

aos

cont. on page 11

ARMY oPURGES:

exercise our constitutional rights
to add our views to those who have
already spoken out. With them we
demand the iwithdrawal. of all Amer-
ican military personnel and advisors
from that embattlea land by the end
of 1971."

The Public Information Office at
Fort Bragg released a statement to
the national press confirming that
28 officers had been councilled by
their commanders, and that in othe
interest of intellectual honesty",
the officers should resign because
the statement was contrary.to the
oath officers take wpon being com-
missioned.

The Army did not commint on
whether the criterion of "intellec-
tual honesty" applied to enlisted
men as well as officers, nor did
they comment on whether only the 28

OFFICERS

officers should resign "in the inter
est of intellectual honesty" or all
servicemen and women who are opposed
to the war.

The Army did admit, however, that
the officers were within their legal
rights to publish signed statements
in opposition to the war.

The Army's reaction to the organ-
ized dissent of officers at Fort Bragg
shows the lack of tolerance for legal
dissent on the part of its members.

The Ft. Brage Chapter of the Con-
cerned Officers Movement was formed
in Sept. of 1970. The nucleus of the
organization was two West Point grad-
uates, David Vaught & Cornelius Cooper.
Both have since been discharged from
the Army.

COM has one primary reason for
existance and that is to end the

: cont. on page 11

Dear Editor:

Attorney General John Mitchell
Says our nation faces "peril from
within." Truer words were never spo-
ken. Capitalist exploitation, imper-

lalism, economic royalism, mtlitar-
ism, power politics, racism, religi-
ous, bigotry and hypocrisy, crime,
hate, and fear are tearing our great
nation apart. So what else is new?
But I don't think the Attorney
~General was referring to these parti-
cular perils. He was undoubtedly re-
ferring to the "political subver-
sives" who would seek to change all
this! Those 'radical-liberals! no
doubt, who would do away with the
corrupting influences that have
£rown rank in our system of society,

the malignancies representine the
real peril from within,

It 1s ironic that our contrived
Cold War against the 'reé peril!
without, should have triggered the
radical demands for change that John

Mitchell now refers to as the *peril
from within.!

The long suffering American peo-
ple could tolerate domination, ex-
ploitation, poverty, political and
economic manipulation, and the many
other inherent evils of full-blown
Capitalism, for themselves, but the
ruthless and wanton slaughter of
millions of innocent peasants at the
nends of American imperialism and in
the name of American democracy was
the straw that broke the camel's
back,

The Vietnam war was our undoing.
There can be no turning back now. We
have reached the point of no return,
from which we can only go forward to
a new and better America; a country |
free of the corrupting influences

dragging us down today. All power to�
the people.

Reynolds Moody
Lt.Col USMC (Ret)

pet plan

Dear friends,

I agree whole-heartedly with Roger
Dugan (see letter in March BB -ed.);
trying to reform kapitalism is a wast
of time. We've got to abolish it, onc
and for all. é
People are always asking us what
we'd put in its place, and some-~
times we're at a loss for swords; we
just know that anything would be
better than this stinking system.
well, the FET Plan gives us a ready
answer for this--all we have to do is
give them a copy of Moody's pamphletT
and say."something like that!"

The PET Plan is a grass-roots
program which has these features: (1)
an ingenious scheme of participatory
democracy which enables the people to
organize and take over control the
zovernment, (2) abolition of the

kapitalist system, and (3) establish-.

ment of a cooperative economic democ-
racy in:which the means of production
would be owned and controlled by the
people.

To find out more about the Pet Pla
write to U.S. rarm News, 1024 Grand
Ave, Des Moines, Iowa, 50309. It only
takes two to form a study group.

Sincerely,
Mark Lane

CID ATTACK WACTS

Hello, I'm a sister WAC, but I
can't give my name because if I did
the CID would probably get me.

Most of you know what the CID has
been doing, for you see it every
day and are fed up with it. But
maybe you didn't know that 57 WACs
have already been shown the gates
and told to get out. If you don't
believe 57 WACs have been kicked
out, just look around-- all those
WACs haven't been given a free tour
to Europe. In one platoon there
were supposedly only 6 WACs left
one day! The CID isn't through yet;
you may be next.

The army is using WACs
against WACs. They have some sister
WACs who are acting as the eyes of
the CID. And the CID will use

every tactic to get you to talk.
They may come and drag you outof a
WAC company; on duty at work, off.
duty, or even on K.P. Then they ask
you a lot of questions, and if you
don't answer them the way the little
CID boys want you to, you get the ax,
You get so nervous and threatened,

you end up talking--making state-
ments about sister WACs, either
tattling on them or making up
fictitious statements just to get
the CID off your back. The army is
using this tactic to divide us, WAC
sisters, by making us rat on other
WACs. Don't let them do it. Don't ©
TALK TO THE CID. It's your legal
right not to. (Article 31.) You can
also demand to have a lawyer present
when they question you.

It just takes a couple of state-
ments to the CID before WAC company
kicks you out-- even if the state-
ments are false. That's it; what
kind of"evidence" is a couple of
statements? Many of the WACs were
thrown out for supposedly being gay
or on drugs. But many weren't gay
or on drugs. Someone just wrote a
statement about them. You see, if ~
you cooperate with the CID, by wri-

oting a few statements, you have a

good chance of getting out on a
general under honorable conditions
discharge rather than an undesir
able discharge. *
WAC company has got us WACs

so uptight and paranoid about being
reported to the CID as gay, that
we avoid sitting together in the
dining room or buses. It gets
pretty lonely here when you can't
even be close friends with other
WACs for fear of being labelled
gay. Don't let them scare you from
relating to your WAC sisters.

eFurthermore, the way the company
discharges you is hardly human. They
locked up all the possessions,
including all personal clothes, of
one discharged WAC last week. THAT'S
ILLEGAL! Finally a fuss was made,
and her possessions were returned.

~Then they made this WAC strip of her

uniform in front of a bunch of

~people. What could be more degrading

Then you get an undesirable discharge
which stays with you all your life
and can hinder your getting a job.

cont. on pg. 10

Haymarket Square

BOOKSTORE

" Books and pamphlets on Black Liberation
(Seale, Cleaver, Malcolm X, Fanon, DuBois),

Socialist tho

ught (Ho,

Mao, Marx), third

world revolution (Che, Fidel), Women's
Liberation, fiction, poetry and drama.

" GI Rights and Army Justice

" And posters, buttons,

shirts,

FTA and OPEN

Huey speaks records, underground papers

and

eevee

LAG

coming soon a craft center.

Tues - Fri
3-11 pm

Sat-Sun
1-12 pm

corner of Bragg Blvd. & Hay St.

eralh hvala s ° ~ gree ey Bay oe
ONS OSa TSUos OV 2U9 DS eu

page 3

COUNTER ARMED FORCES DAY

May 15, 1971.

It must have been a confusing day
for some people.

Not only had the annual war show
at Ft. Bragg spawned a counter armed
forces day. But this year the coun-
ter armed forces day had provoked a
counter - counter armed forces day
rally.

Then 611 three programs were
washed down in thunderstorms that
hit Fayetteville that Saturday
afternoon.

But behind this facade was the
story of how local officials will
collaborate in ways that sometimes
are illegal and sometimes are just

sneaky to hassle the anti-war
groupse

When GI's United went to get
permission to use Rowan Park (a
spacious park a short walk from the
downtown) for this years rally, they
were told that the park was already
reserved by the Fayetteville Cumber-
land County Youth Group for an eco-
logy day.

But when May 15th rolled around,

it was clear that what was happening
in Rowan Park was a ploy to draw
people from our rally. The Fayette-
ville Observer called it a "counter-
counter armed forces day rally."
And that's what it was. It turned
out to be the biggest flop of the
day drawing only a scattering of
people.

Instead of Rowan Park the city
officials offered Clark Park - a
beautiful but obscure park which
has no water supply, no electricity.
and no latrines of any sort. It is
also four miles from downtown.

There is not even a sign on U.S.

401 that says this is the way to
Clark Park. When some GI's tried to
tack a sign to a telephone pole
marking the park, a policeman said
take it down. The policeman made it
clear he was only following instruc-
tions.

But the local antiwar groups are
~used to this kind of harassment.

When Jane Fonda and her friends
~came down in March for the USSF
show, the Haymarket Square staff
tried to reserve Cumberhand Memorial

Auditorium. But the manager ille-
gally refused.

By the time a court injunction
had been obtained it was too late
to transfer the show and instead it
had to be split into three separate
shows at the Haymarket Coffeehouse
which has a smaller seating capa-
city.

But back to May 15.

The truly inspiring move was the
march of 500 G@'s and supporters
through downtown Fayetteville. Right
up Hay Street.

A year and a half ago the Fayette
ville Police had denied GI's United
a street permit. But the march was
held anyway.

This time the police did not try
that tactic. Permission was granted
and relations with the Police De-
partment remained better than with
the rest of the city hierarchy.

All along Hay Street GI's were
coming out of stores to join the
four mile march to Clark Park.

About one o'clock the rally
began.

A soldier from the 28th Civil
Affairs Company spoke for GI's Uni-
ted. He said: "We believe that the

first priority is to end the war in

Indochina. But we know now that
when the war ends, our job does not.
The war has grown out of the poli-
tical and economic institutions of

~this country. And unless we change

these institutions, there will be

_another Vietnam and another Viet-

nam after that."

_ Rick Ford, a captain at Pope,
spoke for COM. He told GI's that
officers support their demands for

an end to the officer caste priv-
ileges.

One of the highlights of the ral-
ly came when Bob Rix, an expért on
military law, from Washington, D.C.
talked about the political implicas
tions of the ~New Volunteer Army.'

He said that it really amounts +t
to trying to buy the GI's off with
a bottle of beer in the barracks
and an extra quarter inch of hair.
He predicted it wouldn't work.

Rix stayed in Fayetteville for

four days to help train local GI
organizers in military law.

dust before Howard Zinn, the
main speaker,was to begin, the rains
came. Everyone had:-to hurry down to
the Haymarket Square Coffeehouse.

The coffeehouse was packed and in
high spirits as Zinn, 2 professor
from Boston University began a mo-
ving talk.. He said that he had
talked to many college students, but
taht he was really thrilled that GIs
were turning against the war.

He said that words distort our

BOB RIX RAPS
moral perspective and urged civil
disobedience as a way of showing the
truth of things.

Larry Street talked about how
Vietnam veterans were finding no
jobs and poor medical attention upon
their return home, and Deborah Ross-
man gave a touching account of her
talks with Indochinese women.

Alyce Forster talked about what
it is like to be a GI wife (see the
special spring issue of Bragg
Briefs). Other speakers included
local high school students and a
representative of labor.

The rally was about over.

Bob Laroy, the Third World Band,
and Pill Carmichael had helped out

immensely with music. When they
found themselves without micro-
phones, they just strummed harder
and sang louder.

Somehow things hung together in-
spite of the rain and inspite of
the city fathers. All that was left
was to watch on tv that night the
evidence that all across the country
GI's and WAC's and airmen and sai-

lors were telling the machine that~
the people caught in the machine :
don't like the war and maybe don't:
like the machine either.

page 4

«NEW ACTION

ARMY ?

If you GI's want to know what's
happening, in the Army, you ought to
read the straight press: The New
York Times, Life Magazine, Time
magazine, etc.

The Army has become liberalized.

Your hair can be 4+ inch longer;
you don't have to sign in and out
anymore; there's an enlisted men's
counsel you can take -your problemsT
to; a drug rehavilitation center to
dry out at; no more reveille forma-"
tions; and now beer in the barracks

_Now, if you want to know if this'

~liberalization has improved your life
I suggest you ask anyone of your
fellow liberated GI's. Ask the bro-
ther from the 82nd whether longer
sideburns makes policing pine cones
any different, whether no reveille
formations has injected any sensi-
bility into sweeping sand streets.

If you don't trust his answers
and want to find out for yourself,
experiment on a CO application. Next
time you are ordered up for Riot
Control tell the Man you conscien-
tiously object to stopping anti-
war demonstrators, or tell him that
you object to being a strike
breaker, a scab.

But let's not knock it all; get-
ting up at 7:30 beats getting up at
6:30 and who knows, filing a com-
plaint with the enlisted men's coun-
sel might get you off guard duty for
a night.

But let's suppose for a second
that all this liberalization shit is
good and just. And while we're sup-
posing that let's take a look at how
_all that liberalization came about.

It didn't come about because the
brass decided to change and be nice.
It didn't come about because General
westmoreland and his cronies took a
walk down the road to Damascus and
had a vision. These new gratuities
these liberalizations, they're not
éifts, not hand outs, they're the
spoils of a long shitty struggle
filled with lots of GI pain and
misery. They're the spoils of struggr
that last year culminated ~with
109,000 GIs going to court martial,

with another half million going to
Article 15, with. 89,000 GIs deserting

and a quarter million going AWOL.

oThis struggle was waged by indi-
vidual GIs acting out of frustration
and hatred for the military. GIs
made contemptible to themselves by
a system that categorically degrades
and depversonalizes people with mean-
in;,less work, bosses who wear their
brains on their sleeves and prisons
that beat, kick and isolate men. on
a matter of principle.

And now, after this first stage
of the struggle is over, the mili-
tary brass, feeling worried about the
imprisonments, the punitive dis-~.
charges, the 30,000 heroin addicts in
Viet Nam, the court martials, is try-
to buy you off with a quarter inch of
~ hatr and bottle of beer in the bar-
racks. ;

Barracks

Too HUT

For Work
396-6718

Fort Bragg Reg. 40-8 limits the
amount of work you can be forced
to do this summer in the hot sun.

Working conditions are divided
into four categories which depend
on four factors: temperature,
humidity, air movement, and heat
radiation.

You can find out the heat cat-
egory by calling the only official
source " Womack Preventive Medi-
cine Unit. The number is 6-6718
and it is a recorded message.

If your commander does not act
with discretion after a warning is
put out, you may file a 138 com"-
plaint with JAG against him for
refusing to act under F.B.Reg40-8.

CATEGORY I: Discretion should
be used in implementing heavy ex-
ercise or work schedules of un- ~
seasoned personel. Once acclimated
troops can operate under normal
schedules.

CATEGORY II: HeavyT work and
strenuous exercise should be avoi-
ded for unseasoned personel. Once
acclimated, troops can operate un-
der normal schedules.

CATEGORY III: All physical
training should be halted. Outdoor
classes in the sun will be avoided.
Acclimated personel can carry on
limited activity for not more than
six hours a day. When marching a
minimum of one 10-minute break will
be taken every 30 minutes.

CATEGORY IV: ALL OUTDOOR TRAINING
WILL BE SUSPENDED. ALL OUTDOOR PHYS-
ICAL DUTY WHICH IS NOT CONSIDERED

., (20 \BE|/ OF. EMERGENCY NATURE; WILL BE.

~SUSPENDED. «::

isi eee E SE RERES

Unlivable

ape ge 8

We at Bragg Briefs would like
to take this opportunity to thank
our Post Commander Lt. Gen. John
H. Hay for so beautifying this post
through the use of all of those~
lovely new blue and white signs that
are appearing all over post. Maybe
changing signs just because you
don't happen to like the old ones
doesn't sound like too good of a iea-
son to most people but there again,
most people don't have three stars
on their collars (and since when is
a general governed by reason?). So
what if it is costing over $10,000
for the new signs.

And while we're on the subject
of money and discussing it so freely
we should realize how lucky we are
to be able to do so, some people on
post can't talk so freely - like the
people responsible for remodeling the
the good General's quarters. All
they will say is that it's costing a
fortune to tear apart everything that
General Tolson: had done to the house
when he got here and refurnish it as
General Hay desires. I guess the two
of them just have different tastes.

Let's look at the money sT tua-
tion seriously now. Ft. Bragg re=
ceived approximately $250,000 rae
cently to make conditions here
better. That sure sounds oike a lot
of money until you realise that
about 25,000 people live on post.
Simpie arithmetic: shows that this
yields about $10 per person on post.
How. much can you do with 310? Maybe
it'll replace the broken windows,
maybe it'll pay for the civilian
buses that now serve post and maybe

it'll fix the plumbing in the

-barracks and maybe it'll do some-

thing else. One thing's for sure, it
won't do all of these things. Maybe

the $1C,000 being used for new signs
wouldn't help much but it sure would
have helped_some (not to mention the

~redecorating costs of his home).

VS

Black brothers and sisters in the
military look at your position, your
role in white twentieth century Amer-
ica and ask yourselves some very soul
searching questions about that role.
What does it mean to be black in the
army? What does this war machine do
to us as black GIs and the commun-
ities we return to? Are there any
similarities between this machine and
the American industrial weight which
we have carried noW for the last 30
decades?

22% of the American dead in Viet
Nam have been black, when we form
only 10% of the population. If op-
portunity is equal in the Army then
we can assume that we have received
the same training and discipline as
any other soldier. Could it be that
the missions we are sent on are dif-
ferent in nature or danger or both?
If so, what is the reasoning behind
it?

We know that every year, every day
black men and women are denied jobs,
educational opportunities, and know-
ledge of the pride and history of our
people. We know that black brothers
and sisters are arrested, imprisoned,
terrorized, and despised simply for
trying to find a solution or remedy
to the vast social ills white America
has inflicted upon us. We are re~-
minded when we point out the exis-
tance of hate groups such as the
klan, john birch society , army ect.
that we have corresponding groups.
Sometimes we are reluctant to say
that we would not feel the need for
such protective organizations, which
in fact are not hate groups, if there
were truly no danger to us and our
communities. Where does this reluc-
tance come from? Is it fear or weari-
ness? Is it fear of losing something
we are constantly promised but only a
token few receive, or is it weariness
from repeating the same tired truth

to deaf, unyielding , ignorant ears?
T after considering these and other
circumstances of our environment per-
haps we can assume that our mission
in the army is not of the best -in-
tentions of our Judeo-Christian
founding fathers who's missionaries
instructed us in turning the other
cheek while they continued the rape of
Africa and Asia.in the name of every-
thing white and holy.

We are herded into reduction (indu
ction center by name) centers to be
stripped, shoved, stamped A-1 nigger
.and hustled intobuses and away, usu-
ally to dixie, where we learn our
places-- as American fighting men.

Our Afros ~are destroyed and we are
told we no longer need them because
there is no discrimination in the
Army and thus no need for unity. We
graduate from basic and AIT and de-"
part for Nam or wherever. There, tn *
the absence of a real ~fro, we make a
unity band for our arms, for our bro-

4
4 be

BLACK AMERICA
THE army

thers to see and be able to identify
us immedately as aware and having
black consciousness , Asia is so far
away from Nashville or Watts.

Then we look around and ask our-
selves what is life like on the other
side of this OD curtain (curtain it
is, did you ever notice the stamp in
the right-hand corner of your induc-
tion papers that says, "Approval not
required")? How are our chances for
~advancement in this promised land,
which We are expected to believe is
so totally divorced from the rest of
racist America? "

As' I look around myself I see offi-
ces full of white colonels, majors,
captains, and so on. Lieutenant's
ranks are sprinkled with black
officers. I have yet to see one
black sergeant major and if I did
tomorrow it still wouldn't be enough
to justify the lie that there is no
discrimination in the army. =

In other words, it has been my ex-
perience and many other black GI's
experiences that. black officers and
enlisted men fill the lower ranks ex-
cept for that occasional token per-
son who usually is black by appear-
ances only.

Why does this difference exist?
Where does the .responsibility for
this inequality lie? Why have we been
so obviously lied to--again?

The army's need for us is that
vital. How can we use that need to

profit ourselves and other exploited
Third World Peoples?

yao

WE Ye
~"Mii it Weft

page 5

- WAC'S
STORY

I am a WAC and I know that ,the
Women's Army Corp's is based on lies
I dont know what some wacs were told
but I know what I was told. None of
it has been kept and it's been hell
since I raised my right hand.

The beginning of the whole thing
was when I had that little talk with
the recruiter. He made a lot of pro-
mises to me. If*you listed all the
promises that were not kept it would
be as big as the New York phone book.

And then there's basic training.
You wouldn't believe what I or the
rest of the rest of the women went
through. The first week or so is
finding out the do's and don'ts,
(mostly the don'ts) which company
you'll pe in,and filling out papers.

You can't talk to men the
first four weeks, and men are called
trees. After that you may talk to the
trees, but only if they ask you for
information. You can't go anywhere
without asking, and then another wac
has to go with you even just to step
outside. When you do get to go any-
where, they tell you where you can
and cannot go. Throughout training
you can't even drink beer(the men
can) no matter how old you are. Sure
you go to school to learn, but most

of it you already knew. In one class
you're told you can voice the things

wrong, but if you do they take your
name down and then you get it.

In the meantime they tell you
when to get up(4:30 A.M. & 3:30 A.M.)
and when you can go to bed(10:00). We
march a lot , to meals, to and from

_school, and of course when we go to
learn to march.

In the barracks there's 28 to 40
in a bay. You have to learn not to
say what you think because others
are always listening in. They give
you little time to write letters,
and if theyr'e having something like
a@ ball game you have to go even if
you dont want to. You're not allowed
to tell what's going on to any visit-
ors that may come by once in awhile.

They said that after training it
would be easier. Well, as the old
saying goes, "the fires down a lit-
tle, but it's still hell". It's no
better now than it was in training.
In fact, it's not safe for a wac to
walk even one block by herself or
with anyone else. You either get
beat up, or raped, or both. When
that happens to a wac the CID make's

her feel it's all her fault. It's
much easier for a man to get a new

post than for us.

Now let's talk about the wacs and
CID(the army'sanswer to the low cop).
They're looking into the WAC company
for wacs who are using, drugs and are
gay. Well,I know there's not that
many wacs in either category. I do
know some people are using this to
get rid of people they don't like.
Wheh CID talks you have to listen,
and CID is using. some wacs to spy on
other wacs. CID is ~just after wacs.

Wacs are treated worse than a mad
dog. Men try.to pick a wac up and
when she doesn't get into the car
they call her all kinds of names. Men
think the reason wacs join the army
is to find a husband, which isn't
true.

Also the wac company is divided
because of color, and the army gives
you the I don't care feeling. We're
not given many of our freedoms, not
even freedom of speech. That is why
my name is not on this story.

Another thing that adds to all,.the
problems is our living conditions.The
buildings we.live in have been con-
demned twice; ~and lwetred %old:we won't
get new ones until 1973. »enoss

R. PRESIDENT, THE SPECTER OF heroin addic-

tion is haunting nearly every community in

the nation.� With these urgent words, Sen-

ator Vance Hartke spoke up on March 2 in
support of a resolution on drug control being considered in
the U.S. Senate. Estimating that there are 500,000 heroin
addicts.in the U.S., he pointed out that nearly 20 percent
of them are teenagers. The concern of Hartke and others
is not misplaced. Heroin has become the major killer of
young people between 18 and 35, outpacing death from
accidents, suicides or cancer, It has also become a major
cause of crime: to sustain their habits, addicts in the U.S.
spend more than $15 million a day, half of it coming from
the 55 percent of crime in the cities which they commit and

the annual $2.5 billion worth of goods they steal.
But what they donTt know"and what no one is tell-

ing them"is that neither the volcanic eruption of addiction
in this country nor the crimes it causes would be possible

without the age-old international trade in opium (from
which heroin is derived), or that heroin addiction"like in-
flation, unemployment, and most of the other chaotic forces
in American society today"is directly related to the U.S.
war in Indochina.

The connection between war and opium in Asia is as old
as empire itself. But the relationship has never been so sym-
biotic, so intricate in its networks and so vast in its implica-
tions. Never before has the trail of tragedy been so clearly
marked as in the present phase of U.S. involvement in South-
east Asia. For the international traffic in opium has ex-
panded in lockstep with the expanding U.S. military pres-
ence there,

At the same time the
government starts crash programs to rehabilitate drug users
among its young people, the young soldiers it is sending to
Vietnam are getting hooked and dying of overdoses at the
rate of one a day. While the President is declaring war on
narcotics and on crime in the streets, he is widening the war
in Laos, whose principal product is opium and which has
now become the funnel for nearly half the worldTs supply
of the narcotic, for which the U.S. is the chief consumer.

There would have been a bloodthirsty logic behind the
expansion of the war into Laos if the thrust had been to
seize supply centers of opium the communists were hoard-
ing up to spread like a deadly virus into the free world, But
the communists did not control the opium there: proces-
sing and distribution were already in the hands of the free
world. Who are the principals of this new opium war? The
ubiquitous CIA, whose role in getting the U.S. into Viet-
nam is well known but whose pivotal position in the opium

~trade is not; and a rogueTs gallery of organizations and
. people"from an opium army subsidized by the Nationalist
Chinese to such familiar names as Madame Nhu and Vice
President Nguyen Cao Ky"who are the creations of U.S.
policy in that part of the world.
One of the most successful of the opium entrepreneurs
who travel these routes, a Time reporter wrote in 1967, is
Chan Chi-foo, a half-Chinese, half-Shan (Burmese) mod-

ern-day warlord who might have stepped out of a Joseph
Conrad adventure yarn.

Moving the opium from Burma to Thailand or Laos is 2
big and dangerous operation. One of ChanTs caravans, says
one awe-struck observer, may stretch in single file for well
over a mile, and may include 200 mules, 200 porters, 200
cooks and camp attendants, and about 400 armed guards.
Such a caravan can easily carry 15 to 20 tons of opium,
worth nearly a million dollars when delivered to syndicate
men in Laos or Thailand.

_ To get his caravans to market, however, Chan must pay
a price, for the crucial part of his route is heavily patrolled
not by Thais or Laotians but by nomadic Nationalist Chi-
nese or Kuomingtang (KMT) troops. Still supported by the
ruling KMT on Taiwan, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shekTs
93rd Division controls a major part of the opium flowing
out of Burma and Thailand. Roving bands of mercenary
.bandits, they fled to northern Burma in 1949 as ChiangTs
armies were being routed on the Chinese mainland, and have
maintained themselves since by buying opium from the
nearby Meo tribesmen which they then resell, or by exacting
tribute payments from entrepreneurs like Chan Chi-foo. As
travellers to the area attest, these troops also supplement

their income by running Intelligence operations into China
and Burma for the U.S.

In the summer of 1967 Chan Chi-foo set out from Burma
through the KMTTs territory with 300 men and 200 pack-
horses carrying nine tons of opium, with no intention of pay-
ing the usual fee of $80,000 protection money. But troops cut
off the group near the Laotian village of Ban Houei Sai in an
ambush that turned into a pitched battle. Neither group,
however, had counted on the involvement of the kingpin of
the areaTs opium trade: the CIA-backed Royal Lao Govern-
ment Army and Air Force, under the command of General
Ouane Rathikoune. Hearing of the skirmish, the general
pulled his armed forces out of the Plain of Jars in north-
eastern Laos where they were supposed to be fighting the
Pathet Lao guerrillas, and engaged two companies and his
entire air force in a battle of extermination against both sides.
The result was nearly-30 KMT and Burmese dead and a
half-ton windfall of opium for the Royal Lao Government.

N A MOMENT OF revealing frankness shortly after the
battle, General Rathikoune, far from denying the role
that opium had played, told several reporters that the
opium trade was onot bad for Laos.� The trade pro-

vides cash income for the Meo hill tribes, he argued, who
would otherwise be penniless and therefore a threat to LaosTs
political stability. He also argued that the trade gives the Lao
elite (which includes government officials) a chance to ac-
cumulate capital to ultimately invest in legitimate enter-
prises, thus building up LaosTs economy. But if these ration-
alizations seemed weak, far less convincing was the generalTs
assertion that, since he is in total control of the trade now,
when the time comes to put an end to it he will simply put
an end to it.
ONTROL OF THE OPIUM TRADE has not always been
in the hands of the Lao elite, although the U.S.
has been at least peripherally involved in who
the beneficiaries were since John Foster DullesTs
famous 1954 commitment to maintain an anti-communist
Laos, The major source of the opium in Laos has always

been the Meo growers, who were selected by the CIA as its
counterinsurgency bulwark against the Pathet Lao guerrillas.
The MeosT mountain bastion is Long Cheng, a secret base
_80 miles northeast of Vientiane, built by the CIA during the
o1962 Geneva Accords period.

vhe CIA not only protects the opi-

um in Long Cheng and various other pick-up points, but:

also gives clearance and protection to opium-laden aircraft
flying out.

The vacuum that was created was quickly filled by the
Royal Lao Air Force, which began to use helicopters and
planes donated by the U.S. not only for fighting the Pathet
Lao but also for flying opium out from airstrips pockmark-
ing the Laotian hills. This arrangement was politically more
advantageous than prior ones, for it consolidated the in-
terests of all the anti-communist parties. The enfranchise-
ment of the Lao elite gave it more of an incentive to carry
on the war Dulles had committed the U.S. to back; the safe
transport of the MeosT opium by an ideologically sanctianed
network increased the incentive of these CIA-equipped and
-trained tribesmen to fight the Pathet Lao. The U.S. got
parties that would cooperate with its foreign policy not only
for political reasons, but on more solid economic grounds.
Opium was the economicT cement binding all the parties to-
gether much more closely than anti-communism could.

OPIUM

. A considerable part of the opium and heroin remains in
Saigon, where it is sold directly to U.S. troops or distributed
to U.S. bases throughout the Vietnamese countryside. One
G.I. who returned to the states an addict was August
Schultz.

Probably a fifth of the men in his unit have at least tried
junk, August says. But the big thing, as his buddy Ronnie
McSheffrey adds, was that most of the officers in his com-
pany"including the MPs"knew about it. McSheffrey saw
MPs in his own division (6th Battalion, 31st Infantry, 9th
Division) at Tan An shoot up, just as he says they saw him.
He and his buddies even watched the unitTs sergeant-major
receive payoffs at a nearby whorehouse where every kind of
drug imaginable was available.

An article by Kansas City newspaperwoman Gloria Em-
erson inserted into the Congressional Record by Senator
Stuart Symington on March 10 said: oIn a brigade head-
quarters at Long Binh, there were reports that heroin use in
the unit had risen to 20 percent . . . ~You can salute an offi-
cer with your right hand and take a ohit� (of heroin) in
your left,T an enlisted man from New York told me... .
Along the 15-mile Bien Hoa highway running north to Sai-
gon from Long Binh, heroin can be purchased at any of a
dozen conspicuous places within a few minutes, and was by
this reporter, for three dollars a vial.�

Adding glamour to the labyrinthine intrigue of Viet-
namTs opium trade throughout the late 1950s and early T60s
was the famous Madame Nhu, the Dragon Lady of Saigon.
Madame Nhu was in a position to be very likely coordinator
for the entire domestic opium traffic in Vietnam;

Just as the Nhus were consolidating their own
power, a little-known figure entered the Diem military ap-
paratus"a man who through the years would carefully ex-
tend his control over the air force and end up eventually
heir not only to the South Vietnamese government but to

the opium and heroin trade as well. That man was Nguyen
Cao Ky,

The first real light shed on the possible sources of KyTs
extracurricular income came only in the spring of 1968,
when Senator Ernest Gruening revealed that four years
earlier Ky had been in the employ of the CIATs oOperation
Haylift,� a program:which flew South Vietnamese agents
ointo North Vietnam for the purpose of sabotage, such as
blowing up railroads, bridges, etc.� More important. Ky
was fired, GrueningTs sources claimed, for having been
caught smuggling opium from Laos back into Saigon! *

When Ky came to power in February 1965, most
observers supposed he had relinquished participation in the
opium traffic (although it was ocommon knowledge� that
Madame Ky had replaced Madame Nhu as SaigonTs Dragon
Lady and dealt in opium directly with Prince Boun Oum in
Southern Laos). However, a high Saigon military official to
whom Ky at one time offered a place in the opium traffic
says Ky continued to carry loads ranging from 2000 to 3000
kilos of opium from Pleiku to Saigon in the spring of 1965
alter he had assumed power and after Operation Haylift
had been discontinued. Those runs included regular pickups
near Dak To, Kon Tum and Pleiku. Since then there has
been no indication that Ky has in any way altered the trans-
port. Corson, who returned to Vietnam: in 1965, observed
that KyTs involvement in the trade had become so routine
that it had lost almost all its adventure and intrigue.

Historically most of
the worldTs supply of opium and heroin came through well-
established routes from Turkey, Iran and China.

But high

. Officials in the narcotics control division of the Canadian

government, and in Interpol, the International Police Agen-
cy, confirm that since World War II"and paralleling the
U.S. expansion in the Pacific"there has been a major re-

direction in the sources and routing of the worldwide opium
traffic.

"In his recent State of ~the
~World address, Richard Nixon dealt directly with the inter-
national narcotics traffic.

. .. We have,� he gays, oworked closely with a large num-
ber of governments, particularly Turkey, France, and Mexi-
co, to try to stop the illicit production and smuggling of
narcotics.� (authorsT emphasis)

It is no accident that Nixon has ignored the real sources
of narcotics trade abroad and by so doing has effectively
precluded any possibility of being able to deal with heroin
at home. It is he more than anyone else who has underwrit-
ten that trade through the policies he has formulated, the

alliances he has forged, and most recently the political ap-
pointments he has made.

HAT HAS TAKEN PLACE in Indochina is more
than a flurry of corruption among select.
dramatis personae in AmeticaTs great Asian
Drama. The fact that Meo tribesmen have

been nearly wiped out, that the Corsican MafiaTs Air
Opium has been supplanted by the CIATs Air America,
that Nationalist Chinese soldiers operate as narcotics
bandits, that such architects of U.S. democracy for the.

East as the Nhus and Vice President Ky have been dope
runners" E

oOne of the
upshots has been that the opium trade has been systema-

tized, given U.S. technological expertise and a shipping and
transportation network as pervasive as the U:S. presence
itself.

The ecology of narcotics has been dis-

rupted and remade to coincide with the structure of
AmericaTs Asia strategy"T

. Unimpeded by boundaries, scruples
or customs agents, and nurtured by the free flow of mil-
itary personnel through the capitals of the Orient, the
United States has"as a reflex of its warfare in Indochiria"
built up a support system for the trade in narcotics that
is unparalleled in modern history.

The U.S. went on a holy war to stamp out communism,
and to protectT its Asian markets, and it brought home
heroin. It is a fitting trade-off, one that characterizes the
moral quality of the U.S. involvement. This ugly war
keeps coming home, each manifestation more terrifying
than the last; home to the streets of the teeming urban
ghettos and the lonely suburban isthmus where in the
last year the number of teenage heroin addicts has taken
a quantum leap forward. Heroin has now become the
newest affliction of affluent America"of mothers in West-
port, Connecticut, who only wanted to die when they
traced track-marks on their daughtersT elegant arms; or of
fathers in Cicero, Illinois, speechless in outrage when
their conscripted sons came back from the war bringing
home a blood-stained needle as their only lasting souvenir.

(Information obtained from Ranpaste
magazine, May 1971.)

page 8

When a GI is discharged, he usually
figures that he's through with the
Army. Bragg Briefs has learned that
this is not always the case, Many
ex GI's are being called up for a two
week summer camp, even Vietnam Vets,
Many reserve units have their summer
camp at Fort Bragg and this month we
talked to several ex GI's who are '
training here. They are attached to
the 86ist Quartermaster Company of
Nashville, Tennessee for two weeks,
RONNIE I was drafted March 28,1968
and I was a rigger with the 612th Qn
here at Fort Bragg. I stayed here for
15 months and got out March 28, 1970.
I am now here with the ready reserve.
THEre are about 35 of us ex GI's.
They sent me several letters after I
got out. We've been getting a whole
lot of harassment here, can't do
nothing you want to. Just like basic
training all over again. We're sup-
posed to be here to get training in
everything a rigger's supposed to
know. The only thing we've been do-
ing is details over there for the
612th who're so far behind on their
packing that we have to do it for
tt everyday.

IMMY I came in the Army March
1968. I spent two long miserable
years in this screwed=-up place with
the 82nd. I got outa little over a
year and a half ago. While I was in
the army I was a rigger I guess, be-
cause it's what I was trained for,
for over three months. Now that I

get out of the army they give me this
thing about how I'@ never have to
come back and then all of a sudden

they send me this letter, .

Next thing you come up to this place
where you're supposed to be riggers
at and you find out ali you are is
damn replacements tor people they
can't get to do anything else around .
here. We're with this Reserve com-
pany up here from Tennessee, we're
supposed to be what they call ofil-
lers"; all it is is just fill up the
company where they won't have to puli
any fucking details.

That's stupid as hell: a guy
already pulled two years in the damn
service come back up here to pull de-
tails and have inspections. Then
these fuckers around here tell us to
get our hair cut. We been out in
civilian life over a ygar and a half,
some of these guys even longer and
the dudes in our own company got hair
longer than we got and they don't say
nothing to them. It's a bunch of
Shit just put on us veterans and the
shit around here just ain't gettin!
pH

JOE I was with the ist LOG in Viet-
nam as a@ rigger. When I returned

from Vietnam, I returned to Fort Lew= |
is, Washington and in a one-hour brief-
ing we had an officer who told us that
all Vietnam returnees do not have to
meet any reserve training or summer
camp. This was thes understanding.

In our group we had 500 people and this
was what we were told. About two years
later I received my orders to come to
spring tYaining atT Fort Bragg. I
didn't have time to question the VA
office. After I got to Fort Bragg I

reported this to my company commander
and he told me to visit JAG and see
what they had to say about.it/s The
first visit I went to JAG I question-
ed him and he told me that he didn't
know. He asked me what was my name

and serial number and if there was any
more people in the company with the
same problem. I told him there were

8 Nam vets and one guy had been medi-
vaced from Nam. He asked me to getT
the names of the people and bring

them back Thusday morning. So I vis-~
ited him Thursday morning with the
names of the people and from what I
could see he hadn't done any more check-
ing or anything like this, So he pull-
ed out this law book and he looked un-
der some article. He said the Army has
different articles and clauses to back
themselves up with. OK, he read off an
article about the Reserves, about Vi-
etnam returnees and he said I quote "If

& person served in Vietnam for one year,
he does not have to attend any summer
camp." and then he turned around and

= Spent two

long miserable
years with
the 82nd

said "Unless he is in the Regular Amy,
Regular Reserve, or Standby Reserve."
So he led me to understand there are
two types of reserves so which category
I fall in I don't know. Then he made a

o| was with

few phone calls around post calling dif-
ferent people. So from whatever they
told him he draws the conclusion that

the Army has the right to call me for

the ist LOG

Reserve training even though I had been
to Vietnam. He told me he didn't know
what category I was in so undoubtedly

I was in the standby reserve. From my

in Vietnam
as a rigger T

understanding of what he said the stand-

by reserve works like this,
Reserve has an annual training
every year,
y they don't have enough people to fill
their quota for that year you will be
called up. I also asked how do they

call you. He said that it's ali arranged

So if you are standby and

through an IBM machine, and next thing

you know you have orders. The.last thing

he said was he didn't know what group:
i was in and I asked him how I could

find out and he told me he didn't know.

The Regular ©

AN EDITORIAL

How to nd a War

We have decided, as an organization, to give our
strong endorsement to the People's Peace Treaty.

The People's Peace Treaty was originally negotiated
by students from the United States, South Vietnam and
North Vietnam. It was then taken to Paris by the Amer-
ican students. There Madame Binh, chief negotiator for
the NLF, agreed to its terms, but U.S. negotiators re-
fused to even consider the proposals.

This treaty calls for ending the war while ensuring
the safety of withdrawing American troops, POWs and Sai-
gon government officials.

The American people are tired of this war. According
to a recent Gallup Poll 73% want all U.S. troops out of
Vietnam by the end of this year.

The Indochinese people are tired of this war. It has
destroyed their land, their homes, and their society.

So why should the war continue? Who really wants it
except a few. corrupt Vietnamese politicians who are get-
ting rich off it and a few American politicians (like
Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon) whose historical repu-

- tations depend on the outcome?

Nixon could end this war. He could bring all the GI's
including POWs home. But his steady refusal to take this
decisive action, his determination to drag out this in-
volvement as long as possible makes it necessary that we
the people of America negotiate a settlement of our own
with the people of Vietnan.

We can't wait until an election year to see this war
end. So we are going to make an end run around the Nixon
policy of stalling and stalling.

We have negotiated a peace treaty. We are going to
ratify it. Then we are going to make the government
accept it.

Questione & Anewere on

{People's Peace Treaty

Q. Is it legal for GI's to sign this treaty?

A. Yes. It is the constitutional right of GI's to peti-
tion the government for redress of grievances. There
are no regulations, directives, or any other Army
rules to stop you from signing.

Q. Is it leagl for GI's to pass the People's Peace Trea~
ty out on post?

A. Yes. The People's Peace Treay is in the form of a pe-
tition to Congress. Such petitions can be passed
around on post by GI's when they are not on duty.

Like in the mess halls, barracks. That doesn't mean
that some lifer isn't going to try and hassle you. If
one does, come down to Haymarket Sq. (or call us at
485-5725) and we'll help you take action against who-
ever it is. You do have some rights that even the Army

has to recognize. But remember, first you have to stam
up for them.

Q. Who supports the People's Peace Treaty?

A. Hundreds of organizations around the country from the
May Day groups to the National Student Association to
the American Friends Service Committee. Student bodies
across the country have passed the treaty (including
Duke U. and North Carolina State U.). Recently the
Detroit city council approved the treaty.

Locally the peace treaty has been endorsed by Ser-
vicemen and Women United (formerly GI's United) and
by Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Over three hun-

dred GI's from Ft. Bragg and Pope AFB have already
signed.

Q. What about the POW's?
A. The only way to assure the release of the POW's is to
end the war. As long as Nixon refuses to set a date

for withdrawal, the Vietnamese will not consider dis-
cussing the POW issue.

Q. Where can i get more copies and information?

A. Copies of the People's Peace Treaty can be picked up
at Haymarket Square Coffeehouse (in downtown Fayette-
ville. For more information come to the meeting of
Servicemen and Women United at Haymarket every Tuesday
night at 7:30.

1.C. PEELE, M.Ds
KINSTON, M ©- page

Two Women
Of South Vietnam

(This 1s the second in a series of
articles about the Indochinese/North
American Women's Conference held in
Toronto in April. Three Fayetteville
women were among the 500 North Amer-
icans who met with six women from
Indochina. )

Phan Minh Hien said that her vil-
lage was very beautiful, with many
flowers and fruit trees. But the US
bombers came and destroyed every-
thing.

Hien'ts feather sacrificed himself
in the first war against the French.
Her two uncles and two younger sis-
ters were all killed in the war with
the Americans.

Eien and her husband are usually
separated because of their work in
the liberation struggle. They meet
from time to time. Once they were
separated for 4 years, met for one
half hour, and sevarated again. Her
three children are also separated
from her; once she didn't see them
for two years.

Although she was once a primary
school teacher, Phan Minh Hien now
works for the Women's Union for Lib-
eration. "My only hope is that peace
will come to my country, that I can
raise my children and they can enter

ithe University and contribute to the
reconstruction of our country."-:

Dinh Thi Euong was a housewife in
1960 when the Saigon troops burned
all 62 huts in her village, killing
her husband and parents. ohe was ar-
rested and cetained in & South Viet-
namese prisons for 6 years, although
she was innocent.

The tortures she endured were
supervised by American ~advisorsT,
even when the US wasn't publically
involved in the war. Pins and
needles were driven under her fin-
gsernails. Electrodes were attached
to her ears, breasts, and genitals.
Soap and water were forced into her
mouth until her stomach almost burst
She was beaten black and blue while
hancirg from the ceiling naked and
shackled. All this was done in-an
attempt to make her confess to
~crimes! she hadn't even committed.

The shackles Huong wore, and the
torture equioment, all bore the mark
~Made in the U.S.A.'

In Con Son prison 15 to 20 people

cont. on. pg. 11

ya

page 10

vi

Congress Fears Realities Of War

Congressman, Congressman, where are
you? This was the most obvious ques-
tion in the House caucus room during
the four days of war crimes testimony.

These hearings extended from April
26 to 29 and were organized by Ron
Dellums, Gongressman from Berkeley,
California.

Those testifying were all vets of
the Vietnam war. They recaptured mo=
ments of terror and barbarisme

They made no attempt to camouflage
their own personal involvement in the
terrorizing and torturing of enemies
and civilians alike.

During the third day of hearings,
Dellums lashed out at Congress saying
"Congressmen will send young men to
fight but are too frightened to come
forward and hear them tell about the
things they have done."

Later he accused them of "lacking
the courage to come listen. All they
do is run around from the day they
get into office giving political
speeches with the sole object of get-
ting re-elected. They are unwilling to
have their heads turned around and
hear what is going on in Indo-China.?

"Body count mania" was one of the
themes of the testimony. According to
the vets this was to be, according to

After one squad was sent out and
found nothing, Notley's squad was sent.
Upon coming to an unarmed ville fouror
five of tue men began shooting at and
killing helpless civilians.

"Everyone just looked at each other
and nobody said anything. It was

~like it was understood, said Notley,

who at first was in shock and did not
shoot.

But when his CO said to him: :
"Now's a nice time to try your cannis~
ter round," he knew he had better try
to fire. Many of the men were afraid

they would be put in jail or denied
privileges if they refused to fire.

Notley stated that he had fired
his gun and simultaneously pointed it
downward, the bullets skidding in the
dirt. In a matter of minutes the en-
tire village was wiped out - 13 women
and children.

"I'd go to jail before I'd ever
become involved in anything like that
again," Notley said choking back the
tears. 3 ~ Z

All the men agreed that the envi-
ronment in Southeast Asia is so immor-
al, insane and racist that it strips
you of all moral and ethical values.

The dehumanization of the Vietna-
nese people is started while our

t

the order of their commanders,
their main concern.

During one skirmish an American

soldier was struck with a heart attack

The colonel in command completely
disregarded the man's call for help

and proceeded to shout "body-count,
body=count."

The most shocking testimony was

given by Dan Notley " formerly of the

BE. Co. 3/ 11 Infantry Brigade, Amer=
ical Division.

Notley testified about a massacre
which took place at Truang Khanh on
April 18, 1969...

Free Elections?

If Thieu, the darling of the
Saigon=US Army diplomatic clique,
gets elected again this fall, it will
be because US troops have been used to
force his election.

Check it out: Ky is going to run
against him, which will split the
upper-class ARVN officer corps iron
control over the politics of the EM.
Tran Van "Big" Minh will probably run,
seeing the opening that Ky's George
Wallace tactics opens up. ARVN grunts
will vote for him, as will large
numbers. of the Vietnamese people. Minh
is popular, and is no hardliner against
coalition government. Coalition
sovernment is not what the. people of
Vietnam want or deserve, after 60
yearsof fighting one colonialist rip-
off government after another. But it
is a step away from Theiu-Ky-Khien,
and a final break with the American
domination of Saigon.

Thieu, like much of the economic
elite that runs Saigon, is the son of
a North Vietnamese landowning family.
[They want to go back and get theirs.

2 million exiled, rich mainland
Shinese crack the wip over 13 million
aative Taiwanese (with American help)
with the same thing in mind. They
ion't want to "liberate" the People's
Republic of China-- they just want to
zo back and kick ass with the peasants
like daddy did.

The kinship between Thieu and the
ooys in oAmbassador Bunker's®
yrofession is pretty tight... they
some from the same background. Their
tsareers and Thieu's re-election are

soldiers are still in basic. The hara-
ssment that GI's go through embitters
so much that when they go over to
Vietnam they take it out on the people
_The oppressed minorities of the
U.S. go over to Vietnam and vent their
rage on the defenseless Vietnamese,

tied up too,and if Thieu can't buy
his election again with ARVN troops,
they'll have to substitute American
troopse

In their crowd-pleasing "non-
combat" role they will go into
villages and perform so-called civic
action functions in the name of the
Thieu government. They will be along

to give muscle to the white mice eet ae pi is
when uprooted peasants in refugee @ adr ot ene ecacat ¢

camps are herded together to listen

to a political spiel from one of
Thieu's lackeys. They will operate

as the governments thought police,

as students and patriots such as those
who signed the Peoples Peace Treaty,

are rounded up, imprisoned, and sen-

tenced to death.

They will be the only shock troops
that Bunker has at his command to aid
in buying Thieu's reelection (if you
don't think the embassy controls
American troops, check the War Room

in the Laotain embassy, staffed by WA C S & 8 ID

US military and CIA creeps). Bunker cont. from pg. 2 = ;

will use them. His career and tricky Being labelled "gay". on your dis-
Dicks reelection depend on a puppet charge can make life, and getting a
government in Saigon, and those two job, doubly difficult. :
aren't about to let the needs and So, please, WAC sisters, let's

desires of the Vietnamese people stand not let the army divide us. The army
in their way. Watch the papers and is afraid of our getting together,
watch this happen. We are being used for we could be powerful if united.
in Vietnam as in the states, to de- We can get together and be strong,
termine politics and sustain a busi- despite the CID. Remember, YOU DON'T
nessmans war. HAVE TO TALK TO THE CID. THAT'S
YOUR LEGAL RIGHT. IF WE STICK
TOGETHER, WE WILL WIN OVER THE CID.
Then maybe we -can be close friends,
like real sisters, without fear.

page 11

VVAW AND ~THE FORGOTTEN Gr

Vietnam Veterans Against the War is
still organizing. We're a mutant.
committed to change the shitty situat-
ion of those who get out o% the ser-
vice (unemployment, no hospital care,
nineteenth-century benefits). We work
with our brother who came back from
the "Nam" but are still in because
they will face this fuck-up society
soon enough . We are still exploring
the close relationship we have with
GIs United in the common cause to

keep America from destroying itselr.
We are going to do volunteer work
with disabled vets at the local VA

hospital as soon as they decide to
approve our applications.

oWe are bringing out the second
issue of the LAST INCURSION, invest-
igating dope problems in the "Nam"
and out of it, employment for Vets,
the American GI's role in buying the
reelection of Thieu, official racism
in the "Nam" and at home, and lots
eles

We want to work with GI's United
in convincing our brothers who have
already given away most of their
power to the System not to give the
rest of it away to SKAG-- TAKE IT
ALL BACK.

: We want to lay to rest once and
for all the question: do you guys
think you are special because you've
been to the "Nam"? Maybe specially
shit on is all, we are all prisomers
of the same system, we've got to be
together to resist and smash it.

Womack Army Hospital has run out
of money, and patient care is suffering
because of it... Army hospitals are
allowed so much money each year to
buy drugs, bandages and other supplies
and Womack has already spent its money

No one has died yet because of
this, but Womack medics report that
patients are not getting the quality
of care they normally do because medi-
medicines and supplies are running
out. This applies to all the dispen-

-saries around post, too, since they
eae their supplies from the hosp-
a :

The shortages in medicines and
medical supplies mean that certain
treatments must be delayed, sub-

i Pa rationed or not used a

In the operating room, for example,
linen has been substituted for the
more sanitary disposable items used

_to create a aterile field around the
patient. Also, doctors and corpsmen
have complained about the lack of the

Scan tao Ran mere NRENac bE

PURGE cont. from pg. 1

War in Indochina,

Support for COM's stand against
the War has poured in durring the
past two weeks, and is expected to
continue. The right of servicemen
and women to express themselves has
now been firmly established, We, as
men and women in the gervice of our
country, are morally obligated to
voice our views on,the course this
country is presently pursuing.

COM encourges any and all inter=
ested persons to exercise their right
of freedom of speeches COM meets each
hav ge: Retort at Haymarket Square at

seer raise reas tebe? at Op .G.

OPERATION AWARENESS

cont. from pg.. 1
as a public relations gimmick, show-

showing it off to big shots, bragging
about to the press.

At the same however, there has

been a continual problem in getting
personnel and support, especially
since General Hay took over at Bragg.
The truth seems to be that the army
doesn't really care that much about
strung out GIs and WACs.

Huge amounts of money are being
spent by the army these days for all
kinds of useless and destructive
things, but a worthy attempt at drug
rehabilitation is being killed be -
cause the brass are not committed
enough to support it with adequate
personnel and money.

The reasons a GI or a WAC does
skag or speed are many. The war
machine forces us to live a useless,
boring and unnatural life with poor
living conditions, low pay and long
separations from home and family. And
all this for something most GIs don't
even believe in. Its no great wonder
that a lot of people turn to skag.

Recent news stories have docu-

mented how the CIA and other parts

of the American war machine play
important roles in the smuggling of

heroin and opium out of Southeast

Asia and into the U.S. A lot of the
stuff ends up in the Bragg area.

In view of all this it looks like

the government is very much to blame
for the hard drug use among GIs.

The very least the army can do is try
to have a decent drug rehabilitation

program. Or do you give a damn, Gen.
Hay?

WOnACcCcTK BROKE

"scrub suits" that are worn in the
operating room for sanitary reasons.
Some patients with respiratory
ailments (colds) are not able to get
important anti-histamine medicines.

Some minor surgery is delayed be-
cause of the unavailability of surg-
ical equipment. Unless the hospital
can get some more money, things will
probably get much worse.

As one medic put it, owe are unable

to get the medical items used to make
a@ patient more comfortable while he is

being cured."

So far things haven't reached a
critical stage, but we wonder how bad
the army will let things get. Short-
ages like this happen in Viet Nan,
but it seems inexcusable in a state
side hospital like Womack.

The point is that budgets and
smooth administration seem to be more
important to the military than the

medical care given to servicemen and
their dependants.

two WO MEN cont. from

were detained in a cell 14 X 2 yards. -
Each was allowed a cup of rotten "
rice and water a day. Sanitary cond
{tions were unspeakable, Once every
two months they were allowed to
bathe in a bucket of water. Lice and
skin diseases spread among the pris-
oners, and often dead prisoners were
not removed for two or three days.

At the end of almost 6 years of
this kind of treatment, Huong was
almost totally paralyzed and having
convulsions. The prison authorities
released her because they thought
she was dying anyway.

Dinh Thi tuonge is miraculously
still alive today, but her face
still bears the memory of her tor-
tures, and her health will never be
good. Whenever we saw Huong she was
holding hands with one of the Ameri-
can or Canadian women, as if there
Will never be enough touching or hu-
man warmth to erase the memory of
those years.

Three years after her release,

Huong's 13 year old daurchter was er-
rested. She has been arrested 3
times since then. and is still.in

pe. 9

jail; her mother does not knowW where,
Euong's sister was killed by Ameri-
can shelling while working in a rice
field.

Huong had never been political
before she was arrested, but after
her release she joined her people's
fight for freedom by working with
the Women's Union for the Liberation
of South Vietnam. She said, "I am
just one of thousands of women who
have suffered so in touth Vietnam.
Repression does not stop women, it

only makes more of them join the
struggle." 4

editorialboard: the following are
GUILTY of exercizing their first
amendment rights: EDCOX612thqmco,

terrychisleyhhci60thengrgp, dave
hettickwomackhosp, jayaalsma612th
qmco, thomasrileyhhc160thengregp,

dickolson28ca, philfriedrichi2th
supt, markrovickmedco, billthome
839thtrans, fredberardii2thsupt,
billcarothers824thqmUSAR, joan,

DORs eas wise ks bees saan ks aus ound

On May 4th @ Justice Department

official said that standard arrest
procedures were abandoned for the
Mayday demonstrations when it "became
apparent that the process was taking
too long." In~two days over 10,000
people were arrested on the biggest
collection of bullshit charges this
country has ever seen. The object was
to keep people off the streets and
the D.C.cops:,with some assistance,
really tried.

That's where we came in. The
cops would never have tried the
things they did if they didn't have
10,000 troops to back them up.

Though the troops were never actu-. ¢
ally used directly against the demon-
strators to our knowledge; they were
used to line the bridges, sit in the
middle of circles, take demonstra-
tors to jail guard the demonstrators
Photograph demonstrators and provide
surveillance and communications for
the pigs. In addition. the knowledge
of their presence in the areas never
left the demonstrators minds.

The government tried to scare
people with troops. Why else the helt
copter landings at the Washington
Monument? Why else the troops in
front of the Marriott Hotel?

Troops were used against their
brothers and sisters who were in the
streets trying to end the killing and
dying in Vietnam and who should appre
ciate this more than the G.I.? .

One good sign was present, no-
where could the 82nd be found..Maybe
the brass wanted to keep oAmerica's
Guard of Honor" as a shock force or
something or maybe,just maybe, they
knew how the guys in the division
felt and knew that if they used the
division many of the guys would have
joined the demonstrators. Maybe the
brass has finally come to realize
that people here at Bragg are get- }
ting wise to their game and aren't
going to take their bullshit any
longer.

The D.C. Statehood Party is in-
terested in hearing from anyone who
was either victim of, or witness to
cases of police brutality or other
breeches of conduct during the May-
day demonstrations. They are also
interested in outstanding cases of
hassles in the courts following these
demonstrations. Their address is:

D.C. Statehood Party

1017 K Street Nw

Washington, D.C.

or telephone: 202-628-2097

Thanks for a real good look

OUR PLATFORM

Realizing that words, even thoughts concerning the many problems that con-
front this nation todav are, frankly, of little importance, GI's United, in an effort to be
part of a national solution to these problemis, lists a platform of priorities that must be
met if the ideals in the minds of men can ever hope to be realized.

A unilateral withdrawal of military personnel, arms and war materiel that ac-
tively, inactively or inadvertently suppresses the struggle for self-determination of the
peoples of Indochina remains the primarv issue. Without an end to the vain hope of mil-
itary triumph, without an end to corporate America forcing its markets of overabun-
dance, waste and greed on peoples of other nations, without an end to the much too
real misuse of Americans by Americans, without the cessation of imperialism, the vast-
ly more important question of the survival of the human race cannot be reconciled.

U.S. foreign policv that supports cruel and unjust dictatorships only to ensure
the survival of the American economy and the corporate system must cease, and the
U.S. must begin to support peoplesT struggles for justice and liberation not only in
Vietnam but in nations such as Brazil, Argentina and Angola as well. U.S. troops must
be withdrawn from all foreign countries and an end to the use of GlTs against the
struggles of oppressed peoples must be realized. Indochina is the first step.

Then there are the worlds that seem to separate you and me - prejudice and
racism: personal, regional and cultural. The glorification of one human being over
another must be overcome not only on the city streets, but in our own backyards.
The unethical attitudes of business and government that exploit individuals and insti-
tutions must be ended through a more relevant education of the very basic human
values of equality, justice and the right to pursue happiness for all people. Closer to
home, in our military world we want to see an end to the harassment of GI's and a
guarantee of constitutional rights through a democratic army.

Of great importance is an end to the wanton destruction and pollution of the
environment by indifferent governmental and corporate policies with a re-ordering of
national, state and city priorities. We must cease to shuffle the responsibility and real-
ize that pollution begins at home...also ends. There can be no second thoughts.

We must go beyond our own selfish desires, beyond nationalism, beyond revo-
lution and seek to bring about an America where barriers to love and deep human rela-
tionships - assumptions of superiority - are replaced with the principles of equality and
fraternity.

WHAT WE ARE AGAINST

1. We oppose the U.S. government's attempt to crush the Vietnamese revolution.

2. We oppose the economic exploitation of GlTs by Fayetteville merchants.

3. We oppose the economic exploitation of GITs by the U.S. government which won't
pay GI's a fair wage, but which endlessly gives gravy contracts to war corporations.

4. We oppose the continued use of GI's against struggles of Americans fighting for jus-
tice - blacks, women, students, workers, etc.

. We oppose the U.S. governmentTs support for the brutal worthless dictatorships in
Brazil, Greece, Spain, South Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Guatemala, Iran, etc.

WHAT WE ARE FOR

. We want Gis to be treated as first class citizens, both by the military and the civi-
lian.cammunities.

. We want GI's to receive full protection of Constitutional rights.

..We want a society where barriers to love and deep human ralatinnships-the assump-

tions of supgriority between races and between men and women-are replaced with
the principles of equality and fraternity.

. We want the United States to begin supporting the truly heroic revolutionary strug-
gles for justice in Brazil, Guatemala, South Vietnam, Angola, etc.

. We want a country where the needs of people for decent wages and fair prices,
clean air and water, and a rational use of resources, overrules the profit instincts of

U.S. corporations.

. We want a country where evervone has the same educational, recreational, and occu-
pational Opportunites that todav are the privileges of the rich and upper middle
classes.

rom your friend and comrad,
SP/5 Edwin 6. Cox Jr.

To Maj. Bob and the 612th QM a the working Military Mind.

MILITARY COUNSELING

AVAILABLE AT Quaker House 485-3213

Haymarket Square ses-2702
GI Rights eg

Discharges

BRAGG BRIEFS
P.O. BOX 457
FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA

ArticleT lSs 28307

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