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THIS PAPER CANNOT LEGALLY BE TAKEN
FROM YOU. ACCORDING TO DOD
DIRECTIVE 1325.6 POSSESSION OF
UNAUTHORIZED MATERIAL MAY NOT
BE PROHIBITED.
968 VALENCIA ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. 94110 VOL 1/NO 11 FREE TO Gls MAY, 1972
PSYCHOPATHIC MASS
MURDERER LOOSE
Hi... flipped out again. ThereTs been lots of talk
about bringing our boys home. Nixon has boasted proudly
of Vietnamization and ~winding down the warT while he
quietly increased air attacks on North Vietnam. Gls and
Civilians responded with a new wave of demonstrations
parti- cularly at air bases in the first four months of ~72.
Then suddenly, the Nixon game plan fell apart, overnight,
just like that, a paper tiger as the Chinese would say. Viet
Cong guerrillas supported by NVA troops in a month of
fighting smashed Vietnamization beyond repair and the
war was winding down - to the last desperate attempt by
the maniacs in power to salvage their ~honorT (sick!)
through a military victory. Now Nixon is desperate and
dangerous. As usual everyone but he and the aging pigs
who feed with him at the public trough will have to pay.
Haiphong has been mined and all ports in North Vietnam
are under American blockade. American planes have
struck the dikes in rice-growing areas of North Vietnam,
threatening the lives of millions. Up til now about 30,000
more troops have been dispatched to combat zones, and
American casualties, even the official ones, are going up.
One hundred and forty-two men alone, by US government
count, were lost over Vietnam in April. An undisclosed
number of ships firing on Vietnam have been hit by coastal
batteries. Marine combat units have been sent from
Okinawa on float off Vietnam. Their chopper pilots are
already filling in for the US-backed ARVN pilots who have
somehow failed to provide air support for their fleeing
troops. Who knows what insane mission these brothers
will be sent on: Raids into the North? A last desperate
attempt to save the few remaining US bases in the South?
B-52s have been sent from the states. Marine air squadrons
have been moved from Iwakuni, Japan to DaNang. Ships
from all over the world sent to blockade the North and
pour fire into coastal areas.
Millions of Americans are totally fed up. This is insane!
We have to stop them before they kill us all!
As always Gls and veterans are at the forefront taking
che heaviest risks:
oSOME OF OUR CITIZENS HAVE BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO THINKING THAT
WHATEVER OUR GOVERNMENT SAYS MUST BE FALSE; AND WHATEVER OUR ENEMIES ® The USS MIDWAY left early for Nam on April, but
SAY MUST BE TRUE. AS HISWARIS CONCERNED.� not without protest from members of one of the air
pe LA me PRESIDENTNIXON JAN 1972 (see back page
Two ex-junkies rap, p.6
INSIDE: The ~VCT, p9 POWs, p12
Coral Sea SOS, p4
Hello,
March 19, 1972
ITm an E-3 presently aboard the Enterprise and itTs a
complete drag! (That goes without being said.) As you
know, the ship is presently at Hunters Point for upkeep
and refit. | donTt really know how many other brothers
aboard want this ship to not go over to Nam in September,
but | know I~d rather see this ship sink than participate in
the genocide presently being perpetrated by the present
administration.
This ship desperately needs to be turned on to SOS!
Pamphleteering, and some talks with the crew could
possibly get a shipboard movement started. Please donTt
forget us of the Big o~E�T.
ITm not going to sign this because | have to send it
through the shipTs mail box and it may get ripped of.
Good luck and love to all of you!!
The Fox
USS Enterprise
Brothers and Sisters,
etc.
But if you canTt give money
write to us di
happening to
You may have been wondering where weTve been these last six months, Why hasnTt there been
a Bulkhead ? And who are these people anyway, and what do they do? We thought we'd let you
know a little about ourselves and the Bulkhead in this issue, and then ask you for some help.
The six of us who work on the newspaper are all involved in other activities also, No one
works on the Bulkhead full-time. Some of us work and we are all involved in the anti-war
movement and in other parts of the anti-military struggle. We all worked on the support for the
Coral Sea SOS movement, and after the ship left in November and we put out the last issue, we
sort of collapsed for a while. It had been a back-breaking Fall, But weTre back again now, and
hope to be coming out more regularly in the future.
When we put out an issue we get our information from lots of different sources. The GI
newspapers from all over the world are some of the best sources. (There are probably 100 of these
papers at different bases now.) We also get news from revolutionary organizations and
newspapers in all parts of the world, among them the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)
and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South
underground press also provides us with information for the paper, with Pacific News Service and
Liberation News Service being especially good, Another source is the straight press and papers
like the Overseas Weekly. We canTt always trust what we read in these papers and magazines, but
sometimes they'll have stories in them that we can check out in other ways, like by calling a local
GI project about a demonstration that the S.F. Chronicle reported happened in their town.
Finally, our most important source of information, but unfortunately the one thatTs hardest
to get, is stories from you. One thing we try to do with the paper is to print news that you wonTt
hear about in other places, And you can bet that when something happens on a base, no one but
people on that base are going to hear about it, Unless, of course, you write to us about it, in
which case it will appear in 20,000 copies of the Bulkhead .
There are probably two other things that youTre wondering about. How do we distribute the
paper, and where do we get the money to do it all? Well, the distributionTs easy. There are
subscribers (some of you distributors of 10, 20 or 100 papers); there are GI projects; and there is
hand to hand distribution in the San Francisco Bay Area at airports, bus terminals, outside bases,
We left the money question for last because itTs the clincher. Another reason that we havenTt
come out in six months is because weTre broke. We get some ~money from United States
ServicemenTs Fund in New York City which helps to fund GI papers and GI projects. But that
just covers a little. We have some individual contributors, both civilians and Gls, but never
enough, So we have to turn to you, the subscribers and readers, and ask you to help support the
Bulkhead , if you dig it, A few bucks a month from everyone would put us in good shape.
we know military pay ainTt gonna make you millionaires), still
id give us news, If nothing excitingTs happening, teil us that, Tell us what your base,
or ship, or unit is like. Or what the country you're stationed in is like. You may think that whatTs
you is happening to you alone. ItTs not, ItTs happening to everyone,
o| JUST READ MY FIRST ISSUE OF BULKHEAD. IT
WAS SO INSPIRING I'VE DECIDED TO QUIT UNCLE
SUGAR.�
WO RENE TAMER! IESE TALIS ALIS ASE LEED EE AECL AENOE YALE At IIE EASE LEE LCE ERE EES IRCA LEILA LES EBERLE LEONE GI EE AEB LALLA,
oIT IS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE BETWEEN US AND
~ITT (LIFERS, NEGATIVE FORCES, WHATEVER).�T
cS RNS EAN PRR ET LE INO ELITE IEEE LE ELD LS ECDL OTL LLL ELLE LILLE,
Dear Bulkhead Dec. 15, 1971
/ just read my first issue of Bulkhead. It was so inspiring
/ decided to quit Uncle Sugar.
/ hear about guys everyday that are getting out by just
telling everyone to FUCK OFF. Sooner or later the A.F.
just dumps them in disgust and with a sigh of relief. Well |
want to be dumped too.
Everytime |Tve been confronted with Art. 15Ts etc. ITve
always backed down and surrendered my
principals""man thatTs got to'stop!
YouTve got to send me your paper! And not just for
myself ITve got to turn other people onto it also. Maybe it
will help get some peoples heads together.
So send me 10 Bulkheads so | can turn people on to
whats happening around their fucking naive heads.
My donationTs small but you know how monetarily
deprived and repressed the A.F. (and all branches of the
military) try to make its lower grade victims.
Power to the People.
Will
Travis AFB, California
Vietnam (PRG). The civilian
Bulkhead People
Dear Bulkhead, December 20, 1971
So whatTs going on? Anything? Well, | got your letter,
and | got some news, if you call it that. On Dec. 12 we had
planned on having a rally at a local park to discuss the
possibilities of having a sit-down strike during the
Inspector General's visit during Feb. of ~72. The outcome
was fantastic! 8 people, 1 suspected CID, and 2 super
lifers, Duirng the week of the 5th-10th of Dec., we posted
over 700 posters on telephone poles, buildings, and trucks
to advertise the rally. It was far out, going around
following Pigs, putting up signs right behind them, but
evidently some pigs were right behind us taking them
down. It was a real bummer. We were going to strike for
better living quarters, better messing facilities, and less
lifer harassment. So | was wondering if you might have any
suggestions on how we might be able to pull this gig over.
Please let me know. Also | am enclosing $2.00. It isnTt
much, but itTs all | can afford ($20.00 a month donTt go
far). It should be able to buy a piece of meat for someone.
/n Freedom and Peace,
Brother Richard
MCB 29 Palms, California
Dear Richard,
Even though we havenTt been in the Green Suck weTve
been to 29 Stumps. ItTs a great place, looks like a model for
the first moon base. We canTt do much to change that, but
sympathize a whole lot with you.
ThereTs one thing you might use. People on the Coral
Sea had the same problem with lifers ripping things down,
so they printed messages on gummed paper. /t comes in
8%X11 inch reams, so you could put one or several ideas
on one sheet. Just lick it and stick it up anywhere.
Keep on Keeping on,
Bulkhead People
oso FIRE ME.
April 30,1972
Greetings From The Proverbial Mysterious East:
We are presently west bound across the South China
Sea and reach the ~LineT (ominous sounding, isnTt it?)
sometime today. Let me begin this letter by thanking you
for corresponding... ItTs kind of like having a window on
reality after living in this fantasy of steel and salt water for
nearly a month. You have asked me for a commentary on
what's happening on the MIDWAY, so | shall begin; and
Please feel free to use whatever materials | set down in any
manner you see fit. :
Perhaps | should begin with whatTs going on with John
Powers [see sanctuary story page 16] who shares a similar
set of views. John is a perfect example of how the Navy
will label someone as a dissident element and use this asa
justification to ~shit-canT him for the duration of his
so-called Naval career. Being well read, of what | would
consider a superior intellect, and quite sincere in his
convictions, John, for as long as | have known him, was
shit-canned and given the stimulating job of being
compartment cleaner. ITm sure this sounds all too familiar
to people who are TAD to the laundries, gallies, sculleries.
and CPO compartments of the US Navy. Anyway, | need
not elaborate on more recent events.../~m sure the news
media has taken care of that. But where is he now? | quote
from the USS MIDWAY POD: oPOWERS,J.D., AN,
_VF-757
OFFENSES: Viol Art 86 UCMJ - UA for a period of 3
days and 4 hours. Viol Art 87 UCMJ - Missing ShipTs
movement through neglect.
PUNISHMENT: 10 days correctional custody, 40 days
restriction, forfeiture of $100.00 for two (2) months, and
reduction to E-2.�
Rather strict...Sounds like the NavyTs getting in its last
licks before his discharge. Vengeance is mine sayeth the
U.S. Navy. The last | heard from him, he was in a berthing
space rather than the brig, but was sleeping under a cold air
duct, with a single and inadequate blanket. One can also
see him, under Marine guard, taking his meals. He cannot
look to either side or up, nor can we sit anywhere near
him. After eating, he must wipe each utensil clean with a
napkin.../s this justice, or harassment and cruelty straight
out of the Spanish Inquisition? What kind of society is it
that teaches us to live and promote its lies and, at the same
time, makes most of us afraid to stand up for what we
know to be true? John was not afraid...How can the
military beast expect acts of gallantry from men that have
been taught obedience through fear? Enough, before !
become too rhetorical.
Speaking in general terms, | have seen fear etched for
the first time in the faces of otherwise confident pilots
who in the States talked boldly of bombing and killing. ItTs
easy to be brave when you're thousands of miles from a
war that appears to be winding down. All that is changed,
and | cannot blame the pilots...Maybe for once itTs more
important to be afraid than void of human emotion. If
only self-concern could be replaced by concern for those
who will be murdered in showers of fire and shrapnel.
Before | close for the time being, | do have one
request...One of the MIDWAY brothers is thinking
seriously about going C.O., and asked if | could get in
touch with someone who could give him specifics on
Procedures, and anything else that might help. Id
appreciate any assistance you could give him. Me, {'Il
keep in touch... T
Yours in Peace,
Doug
U.S.S. Midway
oYou're domn right it's serious. . they took the ship with
them!�
WHO
nell
o1 HAVE SEEN FEAR ETCHED FORTHE FIRST TIME
IN THE FACES OF OTHERWISE CONFIDENT PILOTS
IN THE STATES TALKED BOLDLY OF
BOMBING AND KILLING. ITTS EASY TO BE BRAVE
WHEN YOUTRE THOUSANDS OF MILES FROM A
WAR THAT APPEARS TO BE WINDING DOWN. ALL
THAT IS CHANGED....�
RHE a A ANSE RENAE RESON DOE IMRAN NA SSN, es cl ROME 2 AOE SE ARTOIS EME OMELET NA ER BIER 28
February 10, 1972
To Bulkhead Brothers and Sisters,
/ received your Jetter and also the newspapers you sent.
Thank you very much. As of now, | have not yet received
the package you mentioned in your letter.
To let you in on whatTs been happening here,
politically, the situation is grim. There are many good
people stationed here and | am sure you are well aware, it
is a constant struggle between us and o~itTT (lifers, negative
forces, whatever).
In the past few months, some of us have been able to
escape with General Discharges. Unfortunately, my own
attempt was disapproved, twice, and | am now trying fora
Conscientious Objector Discharge, which also seems
highly unlikely.
There is no organization here other than a Black
Expression Group, which appears to be little more than
rhetorical or at best an oofficially approved� ombudsman
between our Black Brothers and the higher echelons on
base.
Presently, some very good people are in _ the
Alexandria(city near the base) County Jail serving time for
possession of marijuana (all first offenders--as far as the
law is concerned, that is). City officials, in anticipation of
coming elections have decided to build an impressive law
and order record by crackingT down on drug users
(naturally the most defenseless and easiest to catch), most
of whom are GI's from the base, who are, coincidentally,
from oup North� (damn Yankees trying to corrupt their
children). These people are then railroaded by that
particularly unique form of Southern ojustice�. Kafka
surrealism is alive and well down here.
Actually, our suffering is held to a minimum, as most of
us realize itTs all a giant production anyway, but at times it
is frustrating.
Your newspapers were well received and we wish to
thank you again for caring. We love you.
Peace,
Michael
England AFB, Louisiana
Hi Bulkhead, December 20, 1971
Thanks for the info on the SOS movement. A special
thanks for the big info package. /t was very heavy and
greatly appreciated.
Norfolk isnTt exactly a hot spot for
dissidents/non-conformists or whatever term is
appropriate. The scope of the
military /industrial/commercial complex in this area in
incredible. This goes much farther than a rip-off alley--this
is rip-off city.
But there are signs that some people are aware of the
situation around here. While the city can boast of its stable
business community and of few civil disorders, the
individual crime rate is totally overlooked by promoters of
the Norfolk image. The 28 million dollar civic and cultural
center opened recently with a show called oSpirit of
Amerika� complete with military theme and Air Force
drill teams, the works. At the same time a great number of
people of the city face housing shortages, poor schools,
hunger, and poor public services.
Getting back to the military rap. NorfolkTs only well
supplied head shop downtown (6% miles away) does
about the largest business of any ITve seen anywhere.
Nearly 60% I~d say were military customers. LetTs hear it
for military spending. DowntownTs Crazy Horse
Bookstore is doing quite well providing alternative
literature and instigating many activities around here
lately.
Concerned Military, an activist group of officers and
enlisted people, has been sponsoring the Commonplace
Coffee House which has been moderately successful.
Many more projects are in the planning stage. Hopefully
Concerned Military will come on strong in the months
ahead to become a vital voice for change and action here in
Norfolk. As for newspapers,thereTs The Norfolk Gorilla
aimed at both the community and military. Another paper
aimed at the military is struggling to get a first copy out in
the near future. Organization and communication
continue to bea problem here. Well thatTs a general idea of
how things shape up around Norfolk, Virginia. Peace from
the east coast.
K.B.
Norfolk, Virginia
USS CORAL SEA
Early last September thirteen brothers aboard the USS
Coral Sea started a Stop Our Ship (SOS) movement on
board their aircraft carrier. They werenTt into fighting
NixonTs war. Three months later after gathering over 1200
names on an anti-war petition and after many rallies,
picnics, and demonstrations the Coral Sea sailed for
Vietnam. Some people thought that meant the movement
was a failure.
But many brothers did not sail on November 12. The
Navy said that only 30 didnTt show, but SOS sources
aboard ship put the number as high as 300. Seven crewmen
turned themselves in after 28 days UA and said: oJust as
we left the Coral Sea, we know that increasing numbers of
brothers and sisters in the military will find the courage to
resist the intimidation of their COs and refuse to fight.��
On the day our ship, the Coral Sea, sailed, close
relatives were on the pier saying good-bye to their sons
and husbands. The Navy band was also there playing
such great tunes as ~oAnchors Away.� The whole scene
was very depressing.
But at the same time that Captain Harris [the shipTs
commanding officer] was telling both reporters and his
own crew that the Stop Our Ship (SOS) movement was
dead, approximately 2000 civilians, vets, and Gls
assembled outside the East Gate at NAS Alameda to
support Our movement and oppose deployment. This
account will cover the activities of the SOS movement
on board the aircraft carrier Coral Sea after we left the
States.
NPA NEA LOR REE SE URL NA RST ONC AT ACR AT
oWE HAVE BEEN GIVEN ALL SORT OF EXTRA WORK, AND WORKING PARTIES. |
GUESS THE REAL HASSLES STARTED WHEN THEY FOUND THAT WE WERE
MEMBERS OF SOS. THEY NOW MAKE US WORK ON BOMB LOADING PARTIES FOR
THE REASON THAT THEY KNOW WE ARE AGAINST THE WAR. 1 HAVE REFUSED TO
WORK ON THEM AND THEY WRITE ME UP. | NOW HAVE THREE REPORT CHITSON
ad
Sp RENN CRE OREN RRM Ce RN AS LTS TERT AOMORI TE. CRIN
The wives and girlfriends of several of the men
organized a demonstration in support of them when they
were confined to correctional custody at Treasure Island.
The women wrote a release for the press saying, ~o~We have
had to live with their despair and discouragement in the
months prior to the shipTs movement. Since then we have
had to wait, not really knowing what was happening to
them, and now we are faced with the fear that they may be
sent back to the ship to participate in a mass murder which
they cannot morally support.�
Because of the pressure that the women and SOS
supporters put on the Navy, none of the men was returned
to the Coral Sea. And so from the many brothers who
missed ships movement and from the many more who
sailed, we get a different picture. SOS is alive and well!
Jeff is an-SOS brother who was recently discharged
from the Navy and wrote the following article to fill usin
on the progress of the SOS movement on board ship.
FROM CALIFORNIA TO HAWAII
For the first time, the fact that we were actually
sailing for Vietnam became a reality. The brothers in my
division talked about how we should have been more
active in the SOS movement. We had gone to the
marches and rallies but we now felt we should have done
something more, anything.
That period between Alameda and Hawaii was
perhaps the lowest period of our lives. We knew we had
to do something but we had not organized in any sense
and had no contacts with brothers in other divisions. We
knew, also, that the majority of people connected with
the SOS movement had been discharged or transferred
so that we had no idea of how to organize or what to do.
During that two week period before arriving in Pearl
, iF
The SOS movement has helped cripple the efficiency of the ship. At one point on the line as few
as 37% of the planes were flying. The usual maintenance rate is 70%.
4 SOS brothers freaked out pilots by pretending to work on planes until flyers approached. They
then would throw down their tools and say, oFuck it, if it works, it works, if it doesnTt, it doesnTt.�
ALIVE AND
Harbor, there were several hundred cases of food
poisoning. One pilot was killed in plane crash and there
were two serious injuries sustained by brothers working
on the flight deck. The only news that reached the press
was the story about the pilotTs death. The medical
officer covered the food poisoning story up by saying
that it was just a virus. | knew better, having had food
poisoning twice before. All of the reported cases could
be connected to three different meals that were served
on board the ship.
HAWAII, FTA SHOW, NEW ENERGY
When we got to Hawaii, a dozen or so brothers from
my division decided to visit a G! coffeehouse called the
Liberated Barracks. We were greeted at the door by two
brothers from San Francisco, one ex-crewman and SOS
brother, and the other a member of Vietnam Veterans
Against the War. TheyTd come to help us get our
movement alive again. As it turned out, the FTA Show
gave us just the spark we needed.
That night at the Liberated Barracks, we had a rap
session with Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, and the
other entertainers with the FTA Show. There was also a
movie company there which wanted to record and film
what we had to say. The rap session brought us together
with other brothers from the Coral Sea who we hadn't
known before. This was the first time we made contacts
with people in other divisions. This session gave us our
first chance to reorganize the SOS movement.
The following night the FTA Show was performed.
At the show were approximately 4500 active duty Gls,
many from the Coral Sea. The show was a huge success
and made us more. determined than ever to get together.
SUBIC
From Hawaii to Subic Bay, Philiipines, we had SOS
meetings in various places around the ship. At these
meetings we tried to encourage other brothers to get
involved and organize. These gatherings also brought
about a feeling of solidarity among new-found brothers.
But after we left Hawaii enroute to Subic, we were
told that our arrival date at Subic was to be delayed one
week. The FTA Show planned to meet us again in Subic
Bay and scheduled their shows to match our arrival date.
Capt. Harris found out about this and took extra days in
transit time so that we would miss the show. We all
wanted to see the show again and meet with the FTA
people, but it was a victory because a US warship had to
reschedule because of us.
A. letter froma brother onthe ship said
~the Chief Master-at-Arms of the ship (head pig) made all
the men E-3 and below wait for an hour or so before
letting them off the ship the first day in port. Finally, he
decided to let them off, but first he told them all to fall
into ranks for a haircut inspection. This really blew it so a
few voices in the back of the crowd of 300 shouted, ~Walk
WE ARE
Despite protest that focused national attention on the
CORAL SEA, the ship departed on schedule Nov. 12.
The official propaganda hailed this as evidence that the
crew stood behind our commander-in-chief and his aims
in Indochina.
We the people of the Coral Sea find this to be
incorrect. Just as 73% of the American civilian
population, we as a majority oppose the war and seek an
immediate end of U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia.
We can see no justification for the continuance of this
war. A war that has claimed 895,000 Vietnamese
victims, 60% of these children, and 80% of the total
figure as a result of American FIREPOWER.
The damage suffered in our own country far
outweighs any hollow ogains� claimed by the
reactionary Nixon Administration. 335,000 American
servicemen killed or wounded. Our economy crippled by
the beast that devours $2,880,000 an hour.
All in the name of FREEDOM. We have come to
realize that the tyranny perpetrated against our Asian
sisters and brothers is not what we feel in our hearts, it is
not the national our country, but the
oal o oal o
the =
WELL
over him,T and they did. The whole bunch rushed the
gangplank and pushed him off to the side. This ended the
haircut inspection.T
ON THE LINE
NIXON ESCALATES THE BOMBING
WE ESCALATE THE SOS MOVEMENT
After a two-day stay in Subic we proceeded to our
first line period. While we were on the line we put out
our first underground newsletter, ~~We Are Everywhere,�T
which was met by brothers with great enthusiasm and
met by the brass and lifers with great resistance,
Also during that time we had an opportunity to meet
and talk with the press who visited the Coral Sea. The
first to come were Iver. Peterson and Nancy Moran from
the New York Times. \t's interesting to note that. the
Brass didnTt announce that the Times reporters were
coming on. board. We found out from them that they
were escorted around the ship and that the Brass let
them talk only to pro-war officers and lifers. We had to
intercept them in order to talk about the. SOS
movement.
At any rate, we arranged to have them meet us the
next day. The Brass were going crazy because this just
wasn't what they had in mind for the reporters.
One brother wrote from the ship,
~Next day at eleven, about a hundred anti-war sailors
and Marines overwhelmed the fantail passageway by the
ASE shop, the prescribed meeting spot. The crowd was
beautiful! Headbands, POW stencils on their T-shirts,
peace symbols. clenched fists! WOW! | didnTt even know
half of the brothers there. What a grapevine! Chicanos,
blacks (though not in large numbers) and straights. The
group was militant and acted quickly when suggestions
were made, or songs started to be sung. The lifers freaked
and the pigs were powerless. The CMAA (Chief
Master-at-Arms), Satchell (a real fascist) blew his first day
on the job for sure!T
Finally the reporter and his photographer showed up.
-We talked with them for close to an hour. Mainly the
subject discussed was our feeling against the war, the
SOS movement and various hassles that we had to put
up with because of our views on the war.
Two days later we also intercepted a reporter from
Life magazine, John Saar. He wanted to talk with a few
SOS brothers, so we arranged a meeting with him and
three SOS brothers including myself. The same subjects
were discussed as with the Vew York Times reporters.
NEW REPRESSION AND NEW SUPPORT
Right after the interviews, several SOS people were
busted for anything and everything. The brass were using
any excuse to put us in the brig, including frame-ups. In
EV ERY W HERE
RIGHT-WING ADMINISTRATION currently in power,
We must face the facts if we are responsible American
Citizens, dedicated to the concepts of our Constitution.
We must regain control of our countryTs goals, WE must
stop the war!
Upon arrival on Yankee Station, the Coral Sea
stopped playing games. The direct result of all work
done on this ship is the destruction of Vietnam and its
people.
Whatever your job on this ship, YOU will be joining
hands with the man who fires those rockets into hamlets
and villages.
From now on the World and history hereafter will
judge us by our deeds. Will we continue to be counted as
the supporters of this atrocity? Or will we exercise our
right to dissent?
We must let them KNOW that we are against the
killing!
This is extremely difficult on board ship. However,
many Coral Sea men have taken steps to follow what they
believe is right and just.
Cobra Pilot
Plastic blue eyes
and hair
the color of toggle switches.
He flies his cobra-shark
with the precision
of a god
or a gunfighter.
(Hickok
with a 38 in his armpit)
His Nebraska smile
is a mini-gun
and his bowels
are full of rockets.
He hunts
the Indian-gooks
in the Wild West
of his mind
A veteran of 300 combat missions reviews his flight plan.
general it made us all very paranoid. Another brother
wrote,
~All those brothers, eight approximately, that were
written up under Article 92 (for setting up the interview
with the reporters from the New York Times) have been
sent to CaptainTs Mast and have received an assortment of
injustices. They include restriction time, brig time,
forfeiture of pay, reduction in rate, and extra duty. These
men are presently serving their time and are anxious for
another chance to express themselves. Bob and Henry are
into their second day of brig time. We've been informed
from reliable sources of their noncooperation which
includes a hunger strike. We were also informed of Captain
Don Receveur
From that point on the Brass came down on us often
and as hard as they could.
LEGAL AID DENIED
We tried to get civilian legal help on board the Coral
Sea to talk with the brothers who were in the brig,
mostly for political reasons. We contacted lawyers from
the National Lawyers Guild in the Philippines and they
agreed to see what they could do. What happened was
that Capt. Harris and his fellow Pigs ran us through miles
and miles of red tape and only agreed to let a lawyer on
oFLASH AND | ARE OFF THE RADIO FOR READING THE NEWS ONE NIGHT. THE
CROSSWINDS
Harris's threats to extend their brig time if they refuse to
cooperate. That was the last we received on them.T
We arranged to have an SOS rally at an outdoor theater.
Two local Philippine bands donated their time and
brothers from Clark Air Force Base, Subic Bay, and the
Coral Sea gave talks about their various movements, about
the war, and about our feelings on the presence.of US
military in the Far East. Approximately 200-300 active
duty Gls were present at this rally and even more local
Filippinos. The rally was a huge success and once again
gave us a chance to meet more brothers from the Coral
Sea.
WE INTERCEPT THE SEC. OF THE NAVY
Also, Secretary of the Navy John Chaffee came
aboard the Coral Sea during the first line period. We
drew up alist of demands and grievances, intercepted his
tour, and presented Secretary Chaffee with this list.
We as citizens of the U.S.A. and as crew members of the
USS Coral Sea do hereby present a list of demands and
grievances to Secretary of the Navy John Chaffee.
DEMANDS
1.I1mmediate withdrawal of all US troops from Southeast
Asia.
2.Acceptance of the Seven Point Plan by the North
Vietnamese in order to gain release of American POWT s.
3.Release all political prisoners in the USA.
4.An end to the draft and amnesty for all Americans who
were forced to leave the USA because of their beliefs.
GRIEVANCES
1.We wish to have restored our rights and protections as
afforded by the constitution, including:
The right to petition Congress
Freedom of speech
Right of peaceful assembly
And to exercise these rights without continued
harassment and reprisals.
In conclusion we must stress the urgency of these
demands and greivances. If democracy is to prevail in
America, the government must respond to the will of itTs
people. The violence and oppression aimed at the people
of southeast Asia is too often felt by individuals in the
military who dare to oppose current policies. Despite the
very real hazard we the undersigned implore proper
consideration be given this statement.
The petition was signed by 26 brothers.
(THE SHIPTS OFFICIAL DAILY. PAPER HAD AN EDITORIAL
board the last day we were in port. The whole thing .was
a blatant effort on the part of the Navy to deny legal
help for people who requested it. :
LOOKING BACK
It was surprising to us all that no matter where we
went in the Far East there were people, brothers and
sisters, who were always willing to talk with us, help us
organize, and in the event we needed legal help, to
supply us with lawyers. In all cases these people were
wonderful. Each had a good understanding of the
military, and the GI struggle.
During all the time | spent on the Coral Sea and in
the SOS movement, we were always trying to keep a
record of what we were doing, and keep our people
stateside informed. Our actions, we felt, must be known.
Our best outlets were the various Gl newspapers and
underground press.
Looking back over all that has happened on the Coral
Sea, there are certain things we learned: (1) to make as
many different contacts as possible on the ship and off;
(2) to keep the press informed of all our actions,
especially the Gl movement papers and _ other
underground press; (3) to have a meeting of anti-war
brothers as often as possible; (4) to be careful but not to
be intimidated by the Brass and the Pigs. ,
It seems like the SOS brothers were thinking the
same way Jeff was, because here are parts from the first
letters Jeff got from the ship after his discharge:
~...We are really trying to get things going on the ship.
Today we had a power check; we gather on the hanger bay
and at 8am about 28 people were together at one time and
about 40-50 brothers came by all together. We are going to
do this every day. We hope and try to get everybody
together. The pigs donTt even bother us this time. Maybe
people will get over their paranoia and stand up together
for what's right.T
~Bombs? Fifteen thousand pounds are consumed every
other day. Everything from 500 Ib. bombs to missiles.
Here's one- they have a bomb called anti-tank but itTs
really an anti-personnel bomb. Can't let the troops know
the truth or their morale might (will) go down. If all of us
can get together enough we're going to try to have a day of
Memorial in respect to all the people killed in Vietnam,
Reds included. We're planning to go as far as to go up on
the Flight Deck before flight operations an stand and stop
any aircraft from taking off. In my squadron all the planes
have been downed due to engine trouble. Two A7Es blew
up on the Kitty Hawk and no one knows why yet. Far
out!T
JUNKIES «ARE MADE
In the last issue of the Bulkhead we carried an article
on heroin, where it comes from and how itTs used to
keep people down. Now we want to rap a little about
junkies in the military and how the military amnesty
Programs work, and what alternatives and solutions are
all about.
We did a couple of interviews with friends. One
brother, Rich, is in the Marine Corps and got hooked on
junk while stationed stateside, He has since gone through
the NavyTs amnesty program and been reassigned to
duty. The other, Jack, is a Navy vet who got out in
~68. He was stationed in Vietnam during some of the
heaviest fighting during the Tet offensive. He was a
medic and got addicted to morphine while in Nam. He is
now working with Vietnam Veterans Against the War
(VVAW).
Q. What's a junkie?
Jack: | donTt know if you're just talking about smack,
but a lot of guys ITve been dealing with ere just as fucked
up behind alcohol as some are behind smack. | really
donTt make a differentiation between an alcoho! junkie
or a smack junkie, especially if theyTre Vietnam vets.
My estimate is at least 70% of the people in Nam have
tried it. ThatTs ranging all the way up to smack. At least
590% have tried smack. And 90% have done one form of
junk or pot or whatever you want to call it. ThatTs going
all the way up into the ranks.
Q. Why do people get into junk? Whatever kind?
Jack: How do you ask a person that? Shit,
thereTs 8 million reasons why people do junk. ThereTs no
specific reason. | was a morphine junkie. | used it
because of being in the medical field and seeing the shit
that | saw [in Vietnam]. That was my way of alleviating
some of my own hate trips that | was going through,
Other guys use it, if theyTre in the rear and thereTs
nothing to do.o Most of theproblem is complete
bo, edom. ThatTs why there are so many junkies in Nam
now.
But you also have to realize that the problem isnTt
just among the ground troops"that thereTs junkies
aboard ships, junkies flying the aircraft.
Rich: You got three drill instructors you know. And by
the time you meet them you think theyTre the biggest
and baddest in the valley, and they act like it, too. They
force you to do everything the way they want it. When
somebody barks an order you jump and then ask how
high! The people are sick of it!
Jack: ItTs the first time for a white person, when you're
put in a situation like Vietnam, that you as an individual
with a name have felt oppressed. And thats all you go
through. You go out in combat and back to the base
camp for supposedly three days on R&R. They say,
oShine your boots! Get a haircut!� using your name,
theyTre identifying you. Shit. You start identifying with
your third world brothers and sisters that have been
living this struggle. To them being in Nam was nothing.
it was just another form of oppression"theyTre the ones
that make up most of the casualties. But for the white
guy over there itTs distinctly the first time in his life that
heTs felt individually oppressed.
| grew up in Philadelphia which is predominantly very
poor and Italian, and thatTs a whole class thing. Sure |
called rich people $20 sunshine kids-their father would
give them $20 for a pair of socks. But | never really felt
oppressed as me, as an individual. When | went to Nam, |
did. And | came back with it and | felt it more and
more,
Q. How does junk affect guys in combat?
Jack: ThereTs no such thing, whether youTre on junk or
straight, as putting down your rifle in the middle of a
battlefield and saying you're for peace, You're going to -
get blown away. YouTre there basically to survive. If it
means killing somebody, youTre going to kill them. And
your mind gets into such a trip that you cannot
differentiate between a woman, aman, and a child. You
kill anybody thatTs in your way. And itTs only when you
withdraw from the situation, when you can reflect on
what you've actually done, that it bothers you, The
nightmares begin occurring and for the nightmares to go
away, you just shoot up again.
Q. Does the military condone [approve] the use of
junk?
Jack: | used to give out amphetamines to Marines that
used to go out on night patrols so that they wouldn't fall
asleep. To me thatTs just as much junk- straight
caffeine-as heroin or anything else is. In fact, itTs
worse"speed. And | used to give that. ITve seen pot more
or less accepted over there. Junk itself, ITve never seen
anybody push it on another person except in a sort of
buddy-buddy situation. If you have a guy thatTs coming
back from patrol thatTs been out in the bush for 45 days
or who's bored by pushing a pencil, or by pushing a gear
around that lands in Da Nang, or if heTs in the rear area,
heTs bored. One way to deal with that boredom is to
alleviate it at night. So if somebody's smoking, if
somebody's on junk, theyTre really not worried about
the boredom anymore. An escape mechanism. So | think
the ranks are very much aware of it, yet they also see it
as sort of a lid on a situation that could blow up in their
faces anytime.
AMNESTY PROGRAMS
Q. What do you think of the service amnesty program?
Jack: In the drug ward at Travis AFB are either guys
who turned themselves in or guys who flunked the
urinalysis. They were in Long Binh jail, they were
thrown in jail in Vietnam, They were brought back to
the states shackled. They were put in this ward,
completely isolated. They were forgotten about, weren't
allowed to call their families. Some of their ETS dates
were already past. They were told in Nam that they
would only spend at the most two weeks back in the
states before they were shipped to hospitals or drug
programs in the vicinity of their home town. It wasnTt
true. These guys were scattered all over the country,
held 60 days past their ETS. This is part of your servicesT
amnesty program. You're supposedly given amnesty for
doing junk over in Nam or smoking or anything, and this
is the treatment you get.
When you're dealing with a service mentality, you
have to realize that mentality is directed by the
government, and the government has said that they
donTt recognize any narcotics problem in the military.
Then you Know what kind of treatment these people are
getting.
Rich: The commandant of the Corps said we donTt
need an exemption program because we donTt have a
drug problem. All the dude has to do is look out the
window and heTd see the drug problem in the Marine
Corps.
Q. WhyTd you turn yourself in?
Rich: It was just like getting down on me. | couldn't
stand it any more and | didnTt care what they did to me,
just so | got off the drugs and got away from them.
Q. What was your program like?
Rich: Well, the program was in the hospital, and we
were locked up in a ward, ItTs up to the doctors at your
station. If they think youTre really strung out they'll
send you to the hospital. But thereTs only one small
ward at*the hospital that holds 32 people. ThereTs so
many people turning themselves in that they canTt put
everybody in a ward so they shove them aside.
The hospital is detoxification and psychoanalysis and
what they call introduction to group therapy. | was at
the hospital for four months; the usual stay was two
weeks. For the first while | was there they had the doors
locked; it was like a cage. They sit there and preach how
they trust us, then they lock the doors. | donTt see any
reason for keeping me locked up for 2% months because
| was upstairs with hepatitis for two weeks and wasnTt
locked up then.
Jack: They go through a group therapy thing where
everybody sits around and does an oTI stole a dinner roll .
tonight� type thing. ThatTs bullshit, If the guys say they
started junk because of the experiences they saw or
because of boredom or because of the system, theyTre
told theyTre liars. They started it because they were
psychologically fucked up, and that their service
experience had nothing to do with it. This is the type of
treatment they're getting. When they are finally,
according to the services, dried out, theyTre released.
That's it. The service no longer has any responsibility for
them. What you'll do if you're in a city is go down to
the nearest street corner and score junk again.
Rich: The doctors in the rehab programs try to pound
it into your head itTs just like the outside: It isnTt the
services or the hassles in the services. But | canTt agree
with that at all. On the outside you can compromise
with people. In the military itTs completely
one-sided"youTre on the bottom and heTs on the top and
thatTs it.
Jack: After you've been in isolation, after youT go
through their group therapy sessions, after you go
through their reassociation processes where they get you
to readjust to the society thatTs caused the problems to
begin with. Once they feel that you want to be released,
and of course you want to get out as soon as possible,
you shine them on and get out. TheyTre still not dealing
with the reasons.
Q. Who runs the programs?
Jack: TheyTre straight shrinks, service seople. TheyTre
lifers. ThatTs where theyTre coming from. To me the
person who can deal most realistically with that problem
is somebody thatTs been through it. Another ex-junkie.
Q. What kind of guy turns himself in?
Rich: A lot of the guys who turn themselves in just
want to get out of the service. They have no intention of
quitting the drug so thereTs a lot of smack around the
programs.
Q. We understand that the names of guys who turn
themselves in are turned over to civilian authorities, even
though they call it an amnesty program.
Rich: Yeah, when |. was on convalescent leave. ! was
with three buddies of mine. | wasnTt even driving. This
cop stopped the car and told me to get out and roll up
my sleeves and pants legs looking for tracks. He said
they had a report down on the desk says youTre an
ex-service heroin addict.
Q. What do you think about methadone detox?
Rich: | think itTs wrong to do it. | cold-turkeyed and
I'll remember that all my life. Somebody coming down
on methadone you know itTs just like getting better from
any other sickness. It stops the pain. | donTt think itTs
doing them any good cause if everything else in my mind
broke down and | wanted to go back ITd still have that
thought in my mind. It was seven days of hell | think if
nothing else could stop me that would.
All it is is synthetic heroin"| mean its the same thing
you get out of heroin, it completely relaxes your body.
ItTs just as habit forming as heroin.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Q. What do you think can be done?
Jack: My solution is to legalize junk. Really thatTs the
only way you can deal with it. And when you do, when
he is not out hustling, but still needs to maintain that
high, to live with himself maybe, you can then be able to
deal with him and what you do is you get him to
readjust to himself and not get him to readjust to the
shit thatTs come down on him and that drove him to do
what he did in the first place.
Q. What about other
Administration?
programs like the Veterans
Jack: When weTve gone down and talked to the
programs that are set up, they donTt want to listen to us.
It may be because of our name. Why they donTt let us
talk to guys | really canTt fathom, except that we'll be
able to do more for these guys than they could ever do.
Q. How did you get off dope?
Jack: | canTt say to you print up all these solutions and
alternatives because | donTt see any. When | got off junk
| did it myself with cough medicine. When 1 heard about
Cambodia | hadnTt been involved in the movement. | was
isolated. | was going through some really hard head trips,
not relating to anybody and having nightmares and all
that bullshit. When Cambodia happened, the first thing |
did was | went out and shot up. And | couldn't relate to
that because | had gone through some head changes by
that time. It was the first time in a year, and | got
involved in the movement, but sort of on the outside of
it. | started meeting other people on the sidelines that
were wearing fatigue jackets that | would begin to rap
with and find out that they were veterans. And | started
working exclusively with vets and active duty people.
ItTs been a substitute for junk for me.
Q. What do you think happens to most guys?
Jack: | see guys splitting from their houses or their
women not being able to understand where theyTre
coming from and splitting from them. Unless they can
get with other people that understand where theyTre
coming from, theyTre going to isolate themselves. They
are going to go back on junk because thatTs the only way
that they know of how to deal with it. They become
little isolated people. Forget it, man. They donTt exist
anymore, The government doesnTt care about them.
Society back here sure as hell doesnTt care about them.
And they have all that in their heads and then after
awhile they begin to feel that they donTt care about
themselves.
Q. How does VVAW try to answer the problem?
Jack: We've set up programs in VVAW. | do one
Wednesday nights not only for junkies, but for people
with what they call the post-Vietnam syndrome. The
isolation period. And in the programs VVAW sets up
there ainTt no psychiatrists, ainTt no psychologists, even
~though people may have those labels, Like ITm doing an
internship in radical psychology, but when | come in and
do my Wednesday night shit, some guys just take the
meeting and take it where it goes. | think itTs really
essential that that hanpen.
ItTs sort of a feeling of liberating yourself. When we
see that shit was coming down on our heads, the people
that we got together with were people who've been
through the same thing. Once we identified with them it
was much easier for us to take the next step and to
identify with that community that we lived in. | see this
happening in the clinics and in the drug programs that
we're doing.
Q. We've heard something about farms that have been
set up by VVAW as therapeutic centers?
Jack: Yes, WeTre setting one up in Fresno in the near
future, There is one set up in the state of Washington
and thereTs also one in the state of Massachusetts that |
know ot. ThereTs nothing there except veterans that are
chopping wood, that are growing things, that are getting
their heads together. ThereTs no sort of one definite
program. The people who live permanently on these
places are ex-junkies and they're all Vietnam veterans.
They've all gone through that. And this is where they
want to put their energy. ItTs an individual choice for
them, Usually the VVAW chapters in that area know
about them if people are drifting through and it gets
around to movement groups,. ThereTs no. bullshit of going
up there like you donTt have to stay for,.three weeks or
two days or one night. They come up and if they want
to stay and if they want to donate all the rest of their
lives to it they can, ItTs really a loose thing.
Q. Could you tell us a little bit more about your
Wednesday night rap sessions?
Jack: The guys that ITm dealing with Wednesday night
and that are dealing with me Wednesday nights"I'm not
worried about us. WeTve taken that first step. ITm
worried about the millions out there that canTt even
bring themselves yet to take the first step. ITm worried
about their individual solutions or the guy that will
never get off junk.
Q. What can we do in the Bulkhead?
Jack: Tell guys in your paper, they can start it
themselves wherever theyTre at by just getting together
with other people. Also let them know VVAW exists and
that we have been dealing with it. When a person reads
that, another person whose not directly connected with
it, but knows the same thing's happening to him, thatTs
the first time heTs able to connect it directly to himself.
And it starts off from there. You know, and then heTs
going to start looking around and say, oYeah, ITm not
isolated anymore. Like this shit isnTt just happening to
me. This is happening to a lot of my brothers that ITm
stationed with. | am not an isolated case: ITm not
exceptional. I'm common, man, and nobodyTs helping
me.� So heTs going to turn to the guy whoTs in that bunk
next to him or shared his foxhole. And heTs going to
start rapping about the same shit that theyTve always
rapped about, but in a different light and with a
*. different perspective, ss
FZ Vietnam Veterans Against the War have offices an
chapters all over the country. In S.F., they are at 1380
Howard, Telephone 861-7700. For information on
chapters near you, write the National Office at 25 West
26th Street; NY, NY 10010.
North County Jail
Palo Alto, California
Sisters and Brothers
During the past year, scores of letters from men and
women chained to AmericaTs military apparatus have
been delivered to my cell. Although I have attempted to
answer as many as these conditions permit, I have not
been able to reach all those who have personally reached
out to me. Those of you who have written should know
that your messages of support and solidarity have been
an endless source of strength. Because of you and many
other sisters and brothers outside, the almost total
isolation which the jailers have imposed on me has
hardly done its job of eroding and breaking my will to
fight.
Wherever there is an American military base,
wherever there is a prison, the will to fight is fiercely
asserting itself. In both places, there are growing enclaves
of resistance"resistance to the war in Indochina and to
the war on the home front against people of color and
other working people.
In recent years, the people in this country have
learned a great deal from prisoners and from men and
women in the military. The long concealed brutalities
woven into the normal routine of prison life have been
laid bare, Prisons have been exposed as central tools in
maintaining racism. Because of what prisoners have
done, people are beginning to talk not only about
reforming the prisons, but about
altogether.
From those who have experienced it first-hand,
people have learned how the military is used to maim
and kill people in Indochina who are desperately trying
to be free. And at the same time, that monstrous
military system and the prison system (together with the
network of police and courts) play critical roles in
maintaining a political and economic balance that favors
the wealthy who rule this country. These systems are the
life-nerve of the American governmentTs oppressive
power. Through their functions, both the prisons and
the military touch almost every ~section of the people in
this country who have no power"Black people,
Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans, working
people and the poor. It is only natural that in both these
structures, many of the ills which afflict American
society as a whole will be reflected.
And thus because sisters and brothers in these
movements have sought and discovered creative and
demonstrative ways of conveying new levels of
understanding to the people, the repression we have felt
has grown even more intense. George Jackson has been
murdered; the Soledad Brothers and the San Quentin 6
are being assaulted under the guise of legal justice. The
case against Billy Smith is an attempt to intimidate
others in the military who might have been drawn into
the struggle.
The stockades and prisons are full of beautiful,
committed, strong, struggling people. Their beauty, their
committment, their strength are a threat to the interests
ibolishing them
of the rich, to racism, to wars which sacrifice human
lives for profit and power.
Repression will not turn us away. But we need unity
to combat repression, Those of us fighting it out in the
prisons and those of us fighting it out in the military
must try to bring our movements closer together. We
need effective lines of communication, more mutually
supportive activities. We need to intensify our efforts to
reach our sisters and brothers out there in the streets"in
the ghettos, the barrios, the factories, in the welfare and
unemployment lines. Once we place freedom on the
agenda in this way, no force can eradicate it.
Love, Strength, Solidarity,
Angela Y. Davis
Billy Dean Smith is a black GI from Watts, now
awaiting court-martial at Fort Ord on charges of murder.
As a warning to political activists within its ranks, the
Army has falsely accused him of o~fraggingTT-- killing with a
fragmentation grenade--two white officers at Bien Hoa,
Vietnam.
Fort Ord Stockade :
Monterey, California
My Beloved Sister Angela:
Power, Sister! I am sitting here on my hard bunk in
solitary confinement, thinking about you and all of our
brothers and sisters who are in prison and some who are
semi-free in this sour nation.
It makes me feel better to know that you are free.
{Just before Billy wrote this letter, the news hit the
papers that Angela had been released on bail] Power to
the People!
ITm twenty-three years of manhood now. ITve been in
this Army now for twenty-three agonizing months and
out of those twenty-three months, ITve been in solitary
for eleven crushing months.
ITm being framed with three capital offenses. I feel as
you do about our struggle, because your case and my
we need all free-minded
people to aid us in the peopleTs trials for
justice and liberty. I also feel that capitalism is a
self-destructive system. Right on!
Sister Angela, will you send your Brother some bona
fide Black liberating literature. You see, I am locked up
in a four-by-six cell and I donTt have too much to read
here.
I recall when I was in Vietnam " all of the Black
brothers and myself were always rapping about our
Beloved Sister, Angela. We would say that our Black
Sister, Angela, must be liberated now or there will be no
tomorrow. FREE ALL OF US!
Sister, I find it very hard to say and write the things I
want to but nevertheless I am still learning. I know that I
will acquire the knowledge that I need to aid my people
in this struggle. oBut if they come in the morning,� I
will be ready to struggle some more - can you dig it!
FREE ALL OF US!
I feel that I must close for now. Power to you,
Angela, and Power to all of us. Write if you can find the
time, Sister.
TOGETHER WE SHALL CONQUER WITHOUT A
DOUBT!!
case are the peopleTs cases
at all times
From a Freedom Fighter,
Brother Billy D. Smith
[EditorTs Note: The following letter from a Native American,
Red Sun, currently serving in the Air Force in Japan was origin-
ally sent to the Yokota Pacific Counseling Service. PCS works
with Japanese people counseling against the military. To write to
Red Sun, contact him care of The First Amendment, P"12,
2099, 3-5, 1 Chomes/Musashi-no-dai, FUSSA, Tokyo, Japan.]
To my Brothers and Sisters
My American name is Michael Smith but the name /
wish to be called is oRed Sun� for this is the way it was
when | was born and my mother gave it to me before she
passed. You may call me which is either pleasing to you
for a name is only the little finger of a man.
/ am a Sioux Indian presently in Japan in the US Air
Force. | have been in the service approximately one year
and have come to the conclusion that the Indian people
should have no part in nor have to put up with the
Atrocities of the Armed Forces.
The military does not recognize our customs, beliefs,
or religious factions; this point can be illustrated in
many different ways. | shall use a very smal! but relevant
example. The Blackman has stated his Afro haircut is
essential to his need for self-indentification, especially in
the military. But if | were not to follow military regu-
lations on haricuts, and grow my hair in the traditional
way of /ndian People | would be put in jail regardless of
the fact that my people have had this means of symbol-
ism for many centuries. | have now taken it upon myself
to expose discrimination and moral injustice towards the
Indian Nation.
Unfortunately, /~m fighting alone and | do not know
heéw much longer | can stand true. | am in great need of
hearing from my Brothers and Sisters in other services
no matter where you. are. Let me know what you think
if 1 am wrong or right.
For in order for us to survive not only in the Armed
Forces but in living on our own, oWe need communi-
cation.o This communication has been lacking for so
many years. | sometimes think it is almost too late to
begin our campaign, but the answers and questions |
know I'll receive from you will surely justify the neces-
sity of this letter. We must contact each other so that
although we are separated by a great many miles we can
communicate to make the basis of our revolution and
regain our souls that have been suppressed by the mili-
tary.
/ am truly in need of your assistance and am hoping
to hear from you soon.
Red Sun
Michael Smith
US advisors catch last train from Quang Tri.
~VIET CONG
(May 15)
On April 3 Vietnamese liberation forces launched a
gigantic four-pronged offensive which is sweeping from
the DMZ to the Mekong Delta. In battle after battle, the
US-backed puppet troops (ARVN) have fled before the
advancing Vietnamese. Repeatedly entire units have
stripped off their uniforms, thrown aside their American
weapons, and faded into the countryside while thousands
of troops have gone over to the ~enemyT weapons and all.
Retreating without reserves, ARVN has produced nothing
but a list of defeats.
...Quang Tri, a provincial capital just below the DMZ,
fell on May | after puppet officers and US advisors
abandoned thousands of Saigon troops in besieged Quang
Tri city. One American newsman described the fleeing
brass,~With horns blaring and headlights glowing in the
midday sun they raced down the center of the road,
pushing other vehicles out of the way.T Thousands of
ARVN troops streamed down Highway 1 to Hue, the
ancient capital of Vietnam, where they looted the city and
fought among themselves. Hue is expected to be attacked
at any moment. It is the last line of defense between the
advancing Vietnamese and the huge US air base at Danang,
one of the few bases in Vietnam still in American hands.
...1n central Vietnam the Vietnamese have liberated the
whole area from the central highlands to the coast with the
exception of Kontum and Pleiku, the site of another
American base. US correspondents in the area agree that
the Saigon regime has already written off Kontum.
Referring to the coming battle, one American advisor at
Pleiku said, ~~ITm afraid we would have to make a horrible
decision and shoot them [ARVN troops] down� if they
retreat toward the American base. In Binh Dinh province
on the coast, the most populous in Vietnam, the puppet
troops scattered into the hills. An American advisor
summed up the situation, oSome broke and ran, just ran
and didnTt know where to go. Some deserted to the VC.�
...In the Saigon area liberation forces are drawing a
tighter and tighter noose around the city. An Loc, a
provincial capital 60 miles north of Saigon, is 80 per cent
captured. A relief column sent to break the encirclement
of An Loc has come under repeated attack and is stalled
more than 20 miles from An Loc. The Mekong Delta has
been abandoned for all practical purposes while hundreds
of small attacks by liberation forces have destroyed
ARVN bases and strategic hamlets. In Saigon itself,
President Thieu has declared martial law desperately
lashing out at anyone opposed to the unnecessary
slaughter.
ARVN, the Saigon puppet army commanded,
supplied, and financed by the US since the Vietnamese
defeated the French in 1954, is just about finished. Nixon's
Vietnamization policy is on the brink of total collapse.
And the small clique of reactionaries, militarists, dope
peddlers, and profiteers surrounding President Thieu,
Vice-President Ky, and Premier Khiem are fighting for
their lives. These are facts that no one can dispute.
But how do you deal with our beloved leader, Richard
Nixon, when he goes on Nationwide TV, his jowls
twitching, and tries to justify his latest murderous air and
naval attack on the Vietnamese people by claiming that
~the communist armies of North Vietnam launched a
massive invasion of South Vietnam ?�
When he claims that he ordered the escalation to keep
from ~turning 17,000,000 South Vietnamese over to
Communist terror and tyranny ?�
When he claims that the US will not give in to ~the
enemy's demand to overthrow the lawfully constituted
government of South Vietnam and to impose a
Communist dictatorship in its place ?T
Just who are the so-called enemy that the US has been
fighting for so long with so little success?Why did
President Eisenhower, a Republican, write in his memoirs,
~Had elections been held at the time of the fighting [1954]
possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted
for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader ?T
Why did Senator Stuart Symington, a Democrat, say,
~It has been my impression, after visits to Vietnam, that
one of the problems is that a majority of the people
support the guerrillas in the countryside but do not
support the Thieu government?�
Why did US Newsand World Report (October 27,
1969), a very conservative magazine, describe the Viet
Cong as ~the most developed political structure in South
Vietnam ?�
And why did Major George Watkins, an advisor in Binh
Dinh province, tell a US Correspondent, why did a lifer
WHO WAS THERE say, oWhen the Communists were here
before, from 1945 to 1954, the people didnTt have much
to eat or good clothes on their backs, but morally they
were happy, because the Communists brought justice to
this land, not the corruption we have here now?�
Cont'd next page...
9
THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE ARE ONE
oWE WILL EAT GRASS AND ROOTS
THE EARTH ITSELF IF NEEDS BE,
BUT WE WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS
SOIL OF OUR ANCESTORS. WE WILL
FIGHT AND OUR SONS AND
in early 1967 Katsuichi Honda, a Japanese correspondent
from one of the three Tokyo dailies, became one of the
few reporters from any country to visit.extensively ina
liberated zone, an area controlled by the ~Viet CongT. He
made contact with the ~VCT in Saigon where Honda said
they ~~moved around quite openly and easily in broad
daylight.�T In an area supposedly secured by ARVN posts,
Honda met a 24-year old Viet Cong company commander
(above). This young ~officerT (there is no ranking system in
the Viet Cong), a Saigon high school graduate, displays
US-made weapons, an M-1 carbine, Ranger dagger and
grenade. He explained to the reporter that ~these friends
[in ARVN] pass along, without fail, 2 out of every 10
grenades supplied by the Government.� At this time areas
between liberated zones and areas held by ARVN were
considered safe recreation areas for Viet Cong guerrillas.
Honda wrote that the guerrillas enjoyed the closest
relationship with the peasants in the countryside since
almost all of them were recruited from the areas in which
they fought. Le Monde, authoritative French daily,
reported (April 25) that the Viet CongTs 230,000 soldiers
outnumber North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam
by twoto one.
NGUYEN HUU THO, 62-year old lawyer
and chairman of the National Liberation
Front (~Viet CongT), has fought for
Vietnamese independence since 1949.
During the anti-French resistance he spent
two years in jail for organizing a
demonstration against US support for the
French colonialists. During the early years
of US intervention he was kept under
arrest and moved from place to place until
he was liberated by guerrillas in 1961. An
independent noncommunist nationalist,
he was born in the south.
intervened, Through massive air attacks and search and destroy missions (above) approximately 4 million peasants have been
rounded up or driven into refugee centers near a few major cities still controlled by the Saigon regime.
SAIGON RIP-OFF...
To Nixon the US-backed Saigon regime of President
Thieu is ~the lawfully constituted government of South
Vietnam.T To anyone in their right mind, they are a
notorious bunch of reactionaries, landlords, militarists,
dope peddlers, and profiteers dependent for their survival
on the US dollar and US military might.
Take, for example, the family of Tran Thien Khiem,
the prime minister of South Vietnam:
@ Tran Khien Khoi, KhiemTs brother, for three years
was director of the Office of Fraud Repression in the
Customs Bureau. His job was to stop drug smuggling
through SaigonTs airport. Once a destitute tax official,
Khoi now has three wives and a huge Swiss bank account.
Needless to say drug smuggling increased while Khoi
watched over the airport. Last July, Khoi was removed
from his post ~under strong American pressureT and made
chief of the customs station in Cholon, SaigonTs twin city,
giving him control over another important part of the drug
and black-marketing business.
® Colonel Tran Thien Thanh, another brother, has been
appointed deputy commander of the Capital Military
District and assistant to the military government of both
Saigon and the nearest province. His credentials include
being in charge of the Saigon municipal bus company in
/964 when it collapsed under the weight of massive
corruption. He now controls all traffic in and out of the
capital.
® Colonel Tran Thien Phuong, a third brother, is
director ofthe port of Saigon, another post which puts the
Tran Thien family in virtual control of smuggling
operations in and around Saigon.
And thereTs more. A relative of KhiemTs wife recently
became head of the _ national police. Another
brother-in-law is mayor of Saigon and this brother-in-law
brother is head of the Fraud Repression section of the
national police.
All of this information came from a report put together
in the Provost MarshallTs office of US MACV. For some
reason, the report was never published. Funny thing.
(San Francisco Chronicle, May 1, 1972)
The true nature of the so-called enemy is probably one
of the most closely kept secrets in a war in which ~ourT
government has systematically lied to us for almost
twenty years. We have read millions of words and seen
thousands of feet of TV film, but still we only know of the
peasant army of the National Liberation Front of South
Vietnam as the Viet Cong, a slang term roughly equivalent
to Vietnamese commie. Our heads are filled with racist
stereotypes of stealthy, fanatical guerrillas who have
somehow slipped by the tens of thousands across ~an
international boundaryT into the territory ofthe lawfully
constituted government of South VietnamT(Nixon) to
terrorize the people.
But any Vietnamese who is not on the American
payroll will tell you that Vietnam was, is, and again will be
one country. That VietnamTs greatest heroes and heroines
have been its liberation fighters;, And that unlike the
Americans who fought two relatively brief wars against
England for independence, the Vietnamese have fought
war after war for me than a thousand years - against China,
France, Japan, and finally the US - to win their freedom.
For the Vietnamese there is no country of North
Vietnam that is invading South Vietnam. This division
between north and south is a cruel hoax imposed on the
Vietnamese by the US after the Vietnamese fought a long,
bloody war of independence against the French from 1945
to 1954.
For six years, 1954-1960, the puppet government,
financed by US dollars and controlled by the US military
mission in Saigon, built up a huge army (ARVN), also in
violation of the Geneva Accords, and tried to wipe outall
of those who had fought against the French. After tens of
thousands of patriots were slaughtered because their army
and their weapons had been regrouped in the north, the
people of the south organized the National Liberation
Front (NLF) in 1960 to throw the US and its puppets by
armed force.
At the Geneva Conference which ended the war, the
country was divided temporarily by international
agreement so that the Viet Minh guerrillas of Ho Chi Minh
who came from all Vietnam could regroup in the north
while French troops were evacuated from the south and
free elections could be organized. The Geneva Accords
said specifically that the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
between the north and the south ~should not be
interpreted as constituting a political or territorial
boundary.T But the US prevented free elections which
were also called for by the Geneva Accords and established
a political boundary between the north and the south by
creating the the illegal puppet government of South
Vietnam.
The NLF is a coalition of political parties, religious
sects like the Buddhists and the Cao Dai, and the various
GRANDSONS WILL FIGHT UNTIL
THE INVADER TAKES HIMSELF OFF.�
minority tribes of southern Vietnam, all of whom agree
with the basic program of peace, independence, land
reform, and the gradual reunification of the country.
Three political parties are represented on the central
committee of the NLF. One of them is the PeopleTs
Revolutionary Party, the communist party in South
Vietnam. Of the 32 people on the central committee of
the NLF, according to CIA sources four are communists
and three were born in the northern part of the country.
The core of the NLF are the people of the countryside,
the peasants who have been organized since the days of the
anti-French resistance. Building on elements of traditional
village democracy, the NLF has helped the peasants
. organize themselves on a village by village basis into
democratically elected peopleTs committees. Each village
has its own military force and also contributes soldiers to
the PeopleTs Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF) known as
main-force Viet Cong. Won to the NLF because the NLF
sided with them in their age-old struggle against tax
collectors, landlords, and absentee owners, the peasants
have carried out extensive land reform in the liberated
zones of Vietnam.
After the NLF won a huge military victory during the
Tet offensive of 1968, they united with several new
organizations formed in the cities during the fighting and
formed the Provisional Revolutionary Government of
South Vietnam (PRG). The PRG will be the basis of any
new coalition formed after the collapse of the Saigon
regime.
Hidden in the jungles, caves, swamps, and urban slums
of Vietnam is a vast network of organizations tied to the
NLF. This parallel government, the real government of
South Vietnam, reaches right into the puppet army and
into the puppet government itself. In 1970 the CIA
revealed that 30,000 NLF agents were at work in the
ARVN and Saigon government. Even the man who
worked as liaison between President Thieu and Nixon was
discovered to be an NLF agent.
Nixon and the CIA have known all along that they face
in the NLF one of the most sophisticated political-military
Organizations ever put together. That is why NixonTs
Strategy is aimed at destroying the popular base of the
NLF by totally wiping out rural life in Vietnam. Massive
air strikes, search and destroy missions, and Operation
Phoenix, the CIATs plan to assassinate 80,000 NLF
Organizers, are designed to turn the Vietnamese into
rootless refugees herded together into concentration
camps where they will be at the mercy of the Saigon
regime. The Vietnamese, however, have faced the most
horrible display of military power ever assembled with
cool determination, and THEY ARE WINNING!
Wilfred Burchett, and Australian journalist who has spent more time than any other reporter with the ~Viet
Cong.T wrote the following about the famous guerrilla fighters (above) in Vietnam Will Win! (1968). oThuong
Chien, the regiment's political officer, explained that in discussions before an operational plan, discussion must
continue until he was satisfied. During the.operation, discipline was total, the rank and file were expected to
carry out allotted tasks and execute every command of their superiors without fail. But after the action was
over, commanders and men were back on the same equal basis in the critical summing-up sessions which
followed each operation.
~In that way we combine democracy with leadership,T Thuong Chien said. ~Commanders and rank and file
are of the same social class origin, mainly peasants. We are united by hatred of the oppressors and foreign
aggressors. We live, study, and fight together. Morale is high primarily because of complete democracy within
our armed forces.... The rank and file know that nothing is being imposed from above, that every suggestion to
avoid losses while keeping the main aim in view is welcomed... T
.. Starting in-1941 with the Kuomintang troops during the Sino-Japanese war, and with troops of many
other armies since, | have never experienced the quality of relations that exist within the ranks of the NLF
forces in South Vietnam.�
A Harvard sociologist interviewing Marine Nam vets in the spring of 1971 found that they had greater
respect for the Viet Cong than for AR VN and US lifers.
Armed peasants work in rice paddies (above). Burchett wrote of another conversation with a ~Viet CongT
organizer:
oWhen we take over a village,oT Le Van Chien explained, owe ask people to bring everything related to the
Saigon regime, photos of Diem and American bigwigs, banners and flags etc., into the village square and burn
them. This has a big political effect. We virtually never attack unless the political base inside has first been
prepared. We always know who are the worst enemy agents and these are arrested. We get the villagers to
nominate their own administration and then encourage them to confiscate the land of the worst of the agents
and absentee landlords, distributing it to the peasants, starting with the poorest. This creates a good
atmosphere from the start. We announce, in the name of the Liberation Front, the abolition of all taxes and
debts and that rent will be reduced following discussions with any local landlords still around.
We announce an amnesty for the families of agents, even of the worst of them. We make a point of never
touching or even accusing the family members. Volunteers are accepted into the self defense corps and we
usually give them a few weapons to start them off, and before our forces leave, we show them how to
manufacture arms and prepare traps. We explain that the new local administration is an organ of the NLF, not
linked to any central administration, competent in local affairs only. Some of the people are usually a bit
scared as to what may happen when our forces pull out. They worry that their weapons are not
sufficient....When they realize they are part of a huge movement sweeping the countryside, then even the most
timid gain confidence. We help them to start up their vegetable gardens and orchards again, help them to dig
fish ponds, plant bamboo and trees, build pigsties and chicken coops and recreate the sort of physical
surroundings they had before they were herded into the ~strategic hamletsT. The new administrative committee
immediately forms subcommittees for education, public health, economic affairs, defense and security, and
people really feel they are running their own lives.o
12
Nixon has often said that the problem that concerns him most
is how to get the captured servicemen home.
His concern is why we wear these Striped pyjamas.
The more concerned he is about us,
the more my friends will end up here!
--POW Capt Lynn Gunther USAF
eorge Smith joined the Army at 17, mostly to get away from home.
Then he re-upped into the Special Forces, was promoted to sergeant, and
went to Vietnam early in the war. He was one of the first Americans taken
prisoner by the National Liberation Front (~VietcongT) of Vietnam. It was
pretty simple. His camp was overrun one night in 1963 by a guerrilla team.
During the confusion Smith said, oAll | could do was wonder if they knew
how weTd treated our prisoners at the camp and remember what they taught
me at Bragg: ~Guerrillas donTt take prisoners.�
From his training he expected to be tortured and humiliated. ~The vision
of the Vietcong before the attack was the vision | had got at Ft. Bragg. |
connected them with being something strange and remote that was
impossible to deal with, people you couldnTt reason with, people who would
shoot you if you came in contact with them.�
The Vietcong weren't anything like what heTd expected. They were well
organized, and managed to move easily through villages supposedly Underthe
control of the Saigon regime. Smith and another prisoner were displayed
everywhere, but not humiliated. ~We ate what the guards ate, they werenTt
holding any trials, and the people weren't spitting on us or beating us with
sticks. Sometimes the people were clearly upset, but the guards made it clear
that we were prisoners of the Front and they shouldnTt hurt us.T
Later Smith was o~interrogated� by a frail middle-aged representative of
the NLF. Smith described how he learned the Vietnamese version of the
war: ~The reason they were fighting was to gain back what they had won
from the French: they wanted to have elections: they wanted to have a free
country rather than the ~neocolonialismT that US involvement was. He
explained the thing in great detail.TT His interrogator said, ~TThis is how it is.
fe
_ Nguyen Van Troi, a 17-year-old Saigon electrical worker, was accused
of attempting to kill Defense Secretary McNamara in August 1964. The
LF said they would retaliate against American prisoners if he was
executed. The US, knowing this, refused to ointerfere,�and Troi was
shot without trial, The event POW Smith said, ocaused me to lose faith
in the US government.� /t was also clear that the Saigon/US regime
treated prisoners differently than the NLF did.
? *
. x ~
¥ ...
--
.
oo
en , . _ s "s ~aware
You can believe it or not believe it. If you believe it, I'd like to know about
oR
It wasnTt long before Smith saw that all the bullshit heTd learned from the
Army was just that. He tried to explain what he believed when he came to
Vietnam--that the Vietcong were invaders from someplace else.
oWhere do you think ITm from?� his interrogator asked.
oWell, youTre from Vietnam, huh?� said Smith.
oYes, this is my country.�T
He began to understand and respect the Vietcong, wrote a statement, and
hoped heTd be released. He wanted to work in the American anti-war
movement. And he didnTt really dig being prisoner, even though the
treatment wasnTt too bad.
But the US government wasnTt into helping him out. Smith realized that
he was a o~soldier in an army not at war, captured by an organization that did
not exist in the eyes of my government, which was fighting that
organization. It was straight out of Catch-22. The US couldn't negotiate over
release without recognizing that the NLF was quite real,--something it
wasn't about to do.�
The NLF was getting ready to release him, though, after heTd been with
them for a year. But when the Saigon government executed Nguyen Van
Troi in October, 1964, Smith saw his situation differently. [see photo] He
wrote oI stopped blaming my captors so much at that point. | wasnTt mad at
the Vietnamese for not releasing us. They weren't going to have men
executed and then go ahead and release Americans. The US would go around
executing the hell out of everybody if they thought it would persuade the
NLF to re/ease its prisoners.
~As far as | was concerned, the United States and Saigon became directly
responsible for our captivity from that point on.�
For the next year as the war escalated, life as a prisoner was more
dangerous. Their camps were bombed and strafed by US pilots. More
prisoners were executed by the US/Saigon regime, and one of the Americans
in the group was executed, Finally, in November 1965 he was released in
honor of an American who'd burned himself to death to oppose the war. But
his troubles had just begun.
For the next six months he was ~debriefedT by the Army on Okinawa,
charged with treason for his statements against the war. He was forced to
repair a model Vietnamese village used for Special Forces training. He was
held long past his ETS date. His real ocrime� was that he didnTt tell tales of
torture, that he was in good health, and didnTt hate his former captors.
The Army tried to force him to testify in a treason trial against his buddy
who was with him all that time. Smith refused. And meanwhile people
Outside were demanding SmithTs freedom from the Army. Washington
couldn't afford to press charges and open the truth to the American people
Finally Smith was quietly discharged and ordered not to talk about his year
with the Vietcong because it was ~secret informationTT--not to the
Vietnamese, but to the American people
[Six years after he came home, George Smith wrote a book. We got the
story and quotations from it. POW: Two Years with the Vietcong (Ramparts
Press, 1971) is available for % price, $2.95, through the Bulkhead, 968
Valencia, San Francisco, CA 94110. Try it, you'll like it.!
@
13
ACES IN THE HOLE
y the fall of 1969 it was clear to most of the world and the people of the US
that Nixon had lied about ending the war. So Nixon found an issue he
thought would put anti-war pressure on North Vietnam and take it off him.
This issue was POWs. The only problem was that released pilots (the great
majority of POWs now) didnTt have horror stories of mistreatment. In fact,
the Vietnamese have been surprised to see that prisoners go through a sort of
breakdown, since their expectations about the enemy theyTre massacring
turn out to be incredibly unreal.
Then in August Lt. Robert Frishman and two other prisoners were
released who cooperated with NixonTs deception. They condemned the
Vietnamese who had taken care of them, and saidthat their Captivity was a-
nightmare and they were forced to make statements against their will.
In private, Frishman told a different story to pilots who wanted some
idea what treatment was like. He told Lt Commander David Hoffman in
April 1971 in San Diego that othere is nothing to worry about. 1 was
wounded and was taken care of. My seriously broken arm was healed instead
of being amputated. | cannot avoid being grateful to them.T Over two yearsT
after he was released, Firshman hadnTt gained his weight back, and travels
around the country trying to look like the picture hé paints.
And now Hoffman is among more than 350. airmen downed while
bombing the North, He was shot down on December 30, 1971. Less than a
month later, he talked to an American journalist who wrote, o~Hoffman was
in good health and was amazingly cheerful considering that he was a
prisoner.� Hoffman sent a message to his family: ~I think they should try
and do all that they can and try and bring peace so that we may be reunited
as soon as possible. TT
FLASH: This is a statement made by eight recently downed US pilots in
Hanoi. They point out the contradictions in NixonTs thinking that bombing
will free the POWs. TheyTre also pretty hip to the fact that they may get
wiped out by US bombs.
To the people of the United States and the Congress of the United States from American pilots captured in
North Vietnam.
Despite the bombing halt announced in 1968 the President ordered the resumption and authorized
continuation of the bombing of North Vietnam and a variety of excuses to justify the raids. On Sunday
morning, April 16, 1972, the peace of Hanoi and Haiphong were shattered by American bombs. Many innocent
people died a totally needless and senseless death. We, the detained Americans in Hanoi, could not help but be
struck by the futility of such actions. We have come to know the Vietnamese people, and we know that no
bombing, or no threat of death, is going to still the spirit that lives in them. We believe that widespread
bombing of North Vietnam serves only to turn world opinion more strongly against the United States, and risks
the death and capture of many more Americans, as well as endangering the lives of those already held captive.
No bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong will cause the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam,
or the Government of North Vietnam, to come begging for peace short of freedom and independence. No
bombing of North Vietnam serves to make the withdrawal of American forces any safer, and only makes it
more likely that they cannot be withdrawn at all, and serves only as an admission of the failure of the
Vietnamization policy.
We appeal to the American people to exercise your rights and responsibilities, and demand an end to the war
now! We appeal to the Congress to take firm, positive action to go with the words already spoken against the
war. The resumption of the Paris peace conference, and serious negotiations based on the 7 Point Proposal of
the Provisional Revolutionary Government are obvious first steps. We require these steps and much more.
Americnas! The hope of the world is in your hands. Bring us home now!
Very Respectfully,
David Hoffman, Lt. Commander USN
San Diego, California
Lynn E. Gunther, Captain USAF
Dalles, Oregon
Walter E. Wilbur, Commander USN
~Troy, Pennsylvania
Edison W. Miller, Lt.Col. USMC
Quinton, lowa
James D. Cutter, Captain USAF
Stillwater, Florida
Norris A. Charles, Jr., Lt(jg) USN
Tampa, Florida
Edward A. Hawley, Jr.
Birmingham, Alabama
Kenneth J. Fraser, Captain USN
Brooklyn, New York
Conditions for release of the POWs are clearly laid out in the first point of
the 7 Point program the pilots mentioned:
oThe US government must set a terminal date for the withdrawal from
South Vietnam of the totality of US forces and those of other foreign
countries in the US camp.� Then there would be an agreement for insuring
the safety of US forces and release of all captured US military personnel,
including pilots captured over North Vietnam.
Nixon refuses to negotiate on this point. He expects us to distrust the
VietnameseT declaration that they'll release the pilots, He is stupid enough to
think that they wouldnTt be glad to release prisoners who have required a lot
of attention and time.
But his real interest is not in American pilots. His real intent is to support
the only people in Vietnam who'll take orders from the US " the Thieu
regime (see page 11) " and keep it open for American investments and
rip-offs.
T aed
~
Make Your Own History
It For You
THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE!
ANYWHERE, USA (April) " According to an article in
the New York Times, in 1970-71, over % of the Army split
for awhile, some for good. That means that 265,000 guys
AWOL and 111,000 deserted. A lot of these dudes haven't
been caught. An officer at Ft. Lee, Virginia said that there
were so many deserters that oif the Army went around
trying to pick them up, they'd just have to shut down all
their operations,� He said that very little is done to find
people, and that unless a guy is found in a traffic check,
ohe could stay away until kingdom come.� (source: LNS)
YANQUI JUSTICE
PUERTO RICAN REVOLUTIONARY CONVICTED
NEW YORK CITY (March) " It was the usual scene at the
recent trial for draft refusal of Pablo ~oYorubaTT Guzman,
Minister of Information of the Young Lords Party. The
Young Lords Party is a _ revolutionary nationalist
organization in New York City, well-known for its
community service programs. Two hundred people
attended the first day of the trial saying that ~oWe came to
court because we too feel that we should not be forced
into the army of anation that has oppressed and exploited
us and kept our island as a colony for the last 73 years.�T
But when the defense moved that the trial be held at night
so that working people could attend and testify, Federal
Judge Charles Metzner refused. When the defense asked
that both English and. Spanish, be used so that those
testifying could speak the language that they felt they
could express themselves best in, the judge denied the
motion. When the defense submitted 53 questions to the
judge so that prospective jurors could be questioned
particularly about their racial attitudes toward Puerto
Ricans, the judge threw 36 of them out. When Yoruba
asked that dozens of people from his community who
volunteered be allowed to testify, the judge restricted the
defense to character witnesses. When YorubaTs lawyers
called on YorubaTs mother and father to testify, the judge
prevented the testimony because of their prejudice (Get
that, their prejudice). According to plan, Yoruba was
convicted by an all-white jury. The only prospective
Puerto Rican juror was thrown off the jury panel. After
the trial Yoruba said, ~| knew | was breaking the law. | was
breaking the law of the US ruling class, not of the
American people ... | was going against the Rockefellers,
the Morgans, the Kennedys. . .�� Two days later a crowd of
two hundred marched through the Bronx in support of
Yoruba chanting ooFree Puerto Rico " Right Now!� When
molotov cocktails were thrown at the Manufacturers
Hanover Trust Bank, riot police fired on the crowd. Two
people were arrested and no one was reported injured.
(source: LNS)
PLASTIC TREES PLANTED IN LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES (February) - In China, crops sprout from
land that was once just rock. But in Los Angeles, city
workers have been ordered to plant 900 plastic plants
along the highway to obeautify the roadside.�
The beauty of it, says the county, is that while the
plastics cost $74,504 to install, the trees will not have to
be watered or pruned. And the leaves won't shed, even
when heavy pollution has leaves dropping off all the other
plants in the city. (source: LNS)
WESTMORELAND TAKES INCOMING ROUND
FT. BLISS, TEXAS (April) - The wonder general was
reviewing troops here when he got caught in a barrage of
tomatoes thrown by about ten people. They were
arrested, then released on $400 bail, saying it was strange
that they were arrested while war criminals like
Westmoreland got promoted. (source: Overseas Weekly)
THERETS DOPE HERE SOMEWHERE!
SAN DIEGO (April) -Crewmen from the USS SAN
BERNADINO wrote an open letter to California Senators
Tunney and Cranston requesting a congressional
investigation of the command on board. The letter cited 8
specific cases of harrassment and intimidation by the CO
and XO, including charges against 47 crewmembers for
having possessed a osmall amount of marijuana at some
_time during the months of April - December 1971.�
THE IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY (IRA)
BULLETS AND PERSUASION
IRELAND (Spring) " Liam McMillan, head of the official
lrish Republican Army in Belfast, British-occupied
Northern Ireland, said in a recent speech in San Francisco
that three soldiers had defected there from the British
Army. The British, like the US in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos
and the Philippines, to name a few, is occupying Northern
lreland in an effort to prevent the Irish people from finally
freeing and uniting their country after hundreds of years
of struggle. The IRA is conducting an urban guerrilla war
aimed at British military targets and_ right-wing
anti-Catholic politicians in the north. McMillan said that
the {RA had addressed British soldiers in thousands of
leaflets asking them not to fight their brothers and sisters,
the working people of Ireland, and to stop being the pawns
of the British financial interests who control both
northern and southern Ireland. (source: San Francisco
speech of Mr. McMillan)
VIETNAM VET, SELF RETIRED
FIGHTS DESERTION
NEW YORK (April) " John D. Herndon was in the Nam
for over 15 months, and began to understand he was
fighting the wrong enemy. He retired himself in 1970 and
lived in Paris helping Gls with anti-war work and put outa
paper called ACT. This March he was arrested as he tried to
re-enter the US, was charged with desertion, and thrown in
the Dix stockade. His case has a lot of support, and heTs
not shining on anything to save his skin. Herndon deserted
for political reasons, and intends to use his case to test the
government's threats against deserters and self-retired Gls.
He accused the military of systematic destruction of
civilians in Vietnam; under the. laws established at
Nuremburg after WW II, high officers of the German army
were sentenced to death for similar crimes.
o| donTt want amnesty, if that means asking for
forgiveness. | donTt need to be forgiven by this
government"the question is, will | forgive them?�
(source: SafeReturn, New York)
INDIAN MURDERED IN NEBRASKA
1300 MARCH IN PROTEST
GORDON, NEBRASKA (March) " In February, a
51-year-old Oglala Sioux Indian named Raymond
Yellow Thunder died of cerebral hemmorhage caused by
beating on his head a week earlier by a group of five
drunk white people. This was the last straw for the
Indians who lived in the area, in the town and on the
two nearby reservations (Pine Ridge and Rosebud). By
the first week in March, 1300 Oglala Sioux had come
down from the reservations to investigate what really
happened. In the meantime, five people (four men and a
woman) were finally brought in, but merely charged
with manslaughter and false imprisonment"not murder.
This had happened many times to Indians in that area,
but this time was different. The Sioux, some wearing
their traditional costumes, others wearing upside down
American flags, took over the town hall for a night.
They decided to call their own Grand Jury to find out
what happened. They testified about Yellow ThunderTs
murder as well as what it was like for them to be
confined to small plots on reservations, when their
ancestors were the original inhabitants of the land. They
testified, too, about houses made of tar paper with dirt
floors.
The Sioux presentedT seven demands to the
prosecutor, the mayor and the Governor's office. They
demanded that the city of Gordon ask for a
Congressional and Justice Dept. investigation, that they
convene a grand jury, that there be a complete autopsy
of Yellow Thunder, that a Human Relations Council be
established made up of equal numbers of whites and
Indians, that two Indians held in jail be released, and
that a particular racist policeman be suspended. All
seven demands were granted. (source: LNS)
LIFER GETS BOOT ©
CAMP PENDLETON, CALIF. (March) " Staff Porker
Barker of Casual Company, Camp Pigleton, California was
the staff duty NCO for building 1364 one night. At 10: 45
PM he decided to make a harassment patrol in the 4th
Platoon squad bay. After a few minutes of bullshit he was
hit in the head with a size 12 combat boot followed by a
barrage of other government property. Parker attempted
AMAR Ave You ~Taxen A
AN RY LOYALTY OATH To
NAAN \ THE KING?
it \ ge A/
a |
'Wej| Ad oA
ae to hang it all on one brother, but the men of Casual
* ~iy : me { Company were not intimidated. Seventy-five brothers
M iF | qiéw followed Parker and his prisoner to the company office
oF eta BR SET ae cog Him and no one was busted. (source: Camp News)
POWS REVOLT AT STATESIDE BRIGS
NORTH CAROLINA (March) " Marines in the brig at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, organized a silent protest
at morning inspection calling for better food, more TV,
and less lifer harassment. When a table got torn apart to
make a flag pole for their new flag, a fist and the word
orevolution,� 15 brothers were busted and transferred to
the brig at Portsmouth, Virginia. . . . Sailors in the brig at
Newport, Rhode Island, have been protesting lousy
conditions there, too. One lifer made the mistake of saying
that he would eat the first cockroach they found. After
one brother was charged with riot, the straight press,
alerted by the local GI paper, All Hands Abandon Ship,
picked up on the story and charges were dropped. The
uprising spread to Boston Navy Yard Brig when prisoners
were transferred there from Newport. (source: All Hands
Abandon Ship)
ROACHES RUN RAMPANT IN
THE CAPITOL BUILDING
WASHINGTON (January) " oWe canTt seem to get rid
of them,� says George Hays, a Capitol official. ooThey�T
are cockroaches, and they've reinfested the place after
being exterminated in the T40Ts. In 1962, the roaches
had a big comeback and $6000 was spent to kill them.
According to officials, the roaches came through the
mail in packages and letters. So thatTs what people are
writing to their congressmen... (source:-LNS)
NO MORE GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY
NEWPORT, R.lI. (April) - The William R. Rush isa tin can
gunboat with a very pissed off crew. Things came out as
the ship readied for deployment to Africa on a oGood
Will� mission.
After a congressional investigation of conditions which
turned into a whitewash, nine members of the crew
protested the shipTs scheduled stops at two Portuguese
colonies in Africa. They sent a telegram to the Chairman
of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa:
oWe the following protest the April 5 deployment of the
USS WILLIAM R_ RUSH on the cruise which includes
stopping in ports in the countries of Angola and
Mozambique in Africa. The people in these countries are
in revolution against the racist Portuguese colonial
governments there. We want a complete investigation of
American involvement in the Portuguese colonies in
Africa. We want this cruise stopped. NO MORE
VIETNAMS!�
STATUE OF LIBERTY SEIZED
VETS TAKE ACTIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
NEW YORK (December) " As Nixon ordered bombing
raids over North Vietnam right after Christmas, Vietnam
Veterans Against the War (VVAW) staged their own
raids, these against the Nixon administration and its war
in Indochina.
In New York, 15 veterans barricaded themselves
inside the Statue of Liberty. They said, ~We, as a new
generation of men who have survived Vietnam, are
taking this symbolic action at the Statue of Liberty in an
effort to show support for any man who refuses to kill.�T
National press picked up on this one"it was too
dramatic to ignore, and the vets wrote to Nixon, ooYou
set the date .. . we'll evacuate!�T
The Statue of Liberty got the headlines and the front
page pictures (with an upside down American flag flying
from her crown) but it was far from an isolated event.
Vets all over the country reclaimed several monuments
of the American Revolution"pitching their tents at
Valley Forge and invading the Betsy Ross ~~Freedom
House�T in Philadelphia.
There were also actions at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, Ft.
Hood, Texas, and Travis Air Force Base, California. At
Dix, a group of vets who had sat down just inside the
perimeter had to be dragged off base by MPs. At Travis a
group of 25 Gls who had recently returned from
Vietnam with a promise that they would be sent to
hospitals (as a result of positive piss tests), found
themselves spending the Christmas holidays locked
illegally in the Travis hospital. Other veterans joined
them in occupying the second floor of the hospital! for
almost 14 hours, destroying much of it, and giving it up
again without any charges being placed against them.
In Dorchester, Massachusetts, nine VVAW members
sat in at the Dorchester Army Recruiting Station and
were tear gassed when police took over. The police also
overturned desks and broke down doors in order to ~get
things under controlT again. Some vets were bitten by
dogs.
ln San Francisco, another group seized the South
Vietnamese consulate and used the Telex equipment
there to send off a message directly to the South
Vietnamese government. These vets were busted by city
police, and charged with trespassing. At their trial they
put the war on trial and testified as to war crimes they
had witnessed when they were in Vietnam. The jury was
won over, and they were acquitted of the charges.
(source: LNS)
NATO CHIEF RESIGNS TO CAMPAIGN AS FASCIST
ROME (March) - Admiral Gino Birindelli, 61, has resigned
his position as commander of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization naval forces in the Mediterranean. But he did
not act out of disillusionment with the US backed alliance.
He says that he found something else to do that will be in
NATOTs interest. Birindelli is seeking election to the
Italian parliament on the Neo-Fascist ticket. (source:
LNS)
USS LEARY UNFITNESS REPORT
NORFOLK, Rhode Island (November, 1971) " Brothers
on the USS Leary (DD879) tell us that their 27 year old
ship may not be long for the high seas. Seems that a while
back in Newport, RI, the olT boat was rammed by a tug
that went through the double hull. A half-ass repair job has
made it look good"from the outside, but it isnTt sound.
The ship will be in the Mediterranean this winter, and the
brothers figure that a 40 foot wave will do them in. On top
of that, only two or three compartments on the whole ship
are water-tight. That's not all, folks! The bricks in the
boiler were put in backwards, and that could go at any
time. The alternate communication system (sound power
phones) from the bridge to after steering doesnTt work,
thereTs six inches of water in the signal shack when it rains,
and the shipTs radio is always going down (this is the first
yard period in two years). Not all is bad news, though.
They~ve gotten rid of the maggots in the ventilation, so
now all they have to worry about are the cockroaches on
the mess decks. (source: The Norfolk Gorilla)
oDEAR MR. PRESIDENT...�
NEW YORK (February) - Pamela Gross, who is nine years
old, recently wrote a letter to Pres. Nixon complaining
that she could osmell sewageTT and suggested that he do
something about it. She got back this answer from the
Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare: ~Pay attention to
your own learning activities and let the President take care
of decisions on national and international affairs.�
(source: LNS)
SAILORS ABANDON SHIP " RATS TO FOLLOW
RHODE ISLAND (March) " Twenty men from two
destroyers based in Newport granted themselves
emergency leave before their ships, the Cecil and the
Fox, sailed for the Mediterranean. Sailors from the Cecil
threw part of the helm over for good measure before
leaving. A sailor from the Fox explained why he and his
brothers joined the growing movement to stop the Navy.
oEveryone | talked to shared the same regret of
participating in the Middle East paradox. | wonder if our
Executive Officer and ~Old ManT ever think of the
Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and
Egypt in US-made tents, being displaced by US-made
tanks and getting bombed by US-made bombs.�
The US is supplying both the Israelis and the
Jordanians with weapons and other forms of military
assistance. Since the state of Israel was founded in 1948,
millions of Palestinians have been displaced from their
homes by refugees from HitlerTs concentration camps.
Jordan is cooperating with Israel under the direction of
the US in a campaign to wipe out Palestinian guerrillas
who are fighting to regain their homes in Israel and on
the west bank of the Jordan River. Jordan hasn't
hesitated to bring its campaign of terror into the refugee
camps with artillery, rocket and tank attacks. (source:
All Hands Abandon Ship).
'e IN_ ASIA
TOKYO (APRIL 22)
While tens of thousands of Americans turned out in the
states to support the Vietnamese people in the final
offensive of their struggle against the US and to protest
NixonT~s escalation of the war, Gls from every major base
in Japan held a press conference in Tokyo to condemn the
war. At the same time 12 Gls, representing Okinawa-based
marines who were in Japan for firing practice at Camp Fuji
as well as naval personnel at Atsugi and Yokosuka, met
with three hundred Japanese workers in the Labor Union
Hall in Yokosuka.
In Tokyo the Gls voiced strong opposition to NixonTs
new deployment of ships, planes, and men to Vietnam.
The bases represented (Ilwakuni, Yokota, Yokosuka, and
Misawa) play a special role in supporting this new
deployment. Two entire air squadrons with full support
have been sent from Iwakuni to Danang in particular.
In Yokosuka Gls calledfor a common front with the
Japanese people against American aggression in Asia as
well as growing Japanese militarism, particularly in the
case of Okinawa (see below). The Japanese workers
expressed their complete support for the GI movement.
At other bases in Asia...
IWAKUNI (SPRING, 1972)
We received the following letter from a brother at
lwakuni about a recent discovery of illegal nuclear
weapons there:
oToday was the first time that | have ever read your paper and
in my opinion it is the best one that | have ever read. You people
really tell it like it is.
| am stationed here at Iwakuni, Japan,-and there is an
underground newspaper here and it is printed by marines stationed
SAILORS SPLIT
CARRIER CREWMEN SEEK SANCTUARY
ALLOVER THE EMPIRE (Winter-Spring) " The USS
Kittyhawk, attack aircraft carrier, left for Vietnam on
February 17, one month earlier than scheduled and
without at least seven of its crewmembers. Nixon
personally ordered the carrier out early, hoping to cut
short the Stop-The-Hawk campaign before it got up a
good head of steam. Seven crewmen took sanctuary in
local San Diego churches, rather than sail with the beast.
In December, men from the carrier started putting out a
paper, oKitty LitterT which called for crewmembers to
stop the Hawk from going to Vietnam. 150 crewmen
showed up at a rally with Joan Baez in downtown San
Diego on February to protest the shipTs departure, The
seven surrendered themselves to the Navy after the
Hawk had pulled out ... and were flown back to the
ship the same day.
@ In February, a crewman from the USS Midway,
Rick Larsen, sought sanctuary in a church in Palo Alto,
California. Federal authorities arrested him after he
spent four days there, and he was later discharged as a
conscientious objector.
@ In March, a crewman from the USS Hancock, Todd
Looney, stayed with Japanese anti-war activists in
Yokosuka rather than sail back to the line. oo| oppose the
Vietnam war and the killing of countless Vietnamese
people. By voicing my opinion | hope to support the
people of Japan and throughout Asia that are also
opposed to the killing of Vietnamese people.TT Looney
surrendered himself to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo after
a press conference at which he condemned the air war as
omurder� that he wanted no part of.
@ in April, the USS Midway left NAS Alameda for
Vietnam, months earlier than scheduled as part of the
build-up of American airpower. It was also minus
hundreds of crewmen. One of them, John Powers, took
sanctuary in a Berkeley church. John was also welcomed
to Berkeley by the cityTs mayor, Warren Widener. Men
on the Midway had only one weekendTs notice to
prepare for departure. And they were so short of men
that they had to get replacements from the Enterprise
and the Ranger, as well as put a call for crew over local
radio stations.
here. It is called the Semper Fi. The Fi does everything it can to
print the truth about the things that happen here, that the pigs try
to keep quiet about. This paper isa great help to the Gls here and a
great number read and support the paper.
On October 3 three Gls participated in a demonstration at
PeopleTs Park. They were put on indefinite restriction for this. Still
another GI was charged with being out of uniform because he was
wearing a cross on a string of beads and with talking to and
lowering the morale of his fellow Gls. He was also put on
restriction for an indefinite period of time.
On November 25th the pigs were so uptight about hearing that
the Japanese people found out about their bombs on base, and
knowing that their charges wouldnTt hold up, decided to ship the
men back to the states, this being illegal because two of the men
had applied for Conscientious Objector discharges. (No one has
ever received a CO discharge from Iwakuni.) The pigs were afraid
that if these men remained here they would demenstrate with the
Japanese against the base.
On November 25th the four men [Cpl. Paul Neighorn, L/Cpl.
Don Spreuer, Pfc. Vince Brew, and Navy Hospital Corpsman Jim
Yeakley--ed.] were given 24 hours to check out of their units. On
the morning of Nov. 26th at 5:00 A.M. they weregivena military
escort to their plane. This was 2% hours before their orders said
that they had to be there. Supposedly al/ charges were dropped
against them. All these people were editors or members of the
paper. The pigs are really getting scared of the G/s here, but for
every four G!s shipped out 10 will replace them. As long as there
are bases overseas the movement will continue to resist the
government.
That is, shall we say, my coming out in the resistance. Mostly
this was brought around by the FTA Free the Army show
presented here last night. This show was outstanding. /t really
made me see how things are. | guess that | have just had my eyes
closed to the truth for so long it took something like this to open
them for me. | am glad that this happened because now / will do
everything in my power to support and help GIs to see the truth
and join the movement. Power to the People,
Greg
BARBERSPT.
islands.
(A) Hickam Field-- At the main gate, a model plane
suspended in the air launched strikes against people
dressed like Vietnamese peasants. Recorded screams of
children and women, and people being killed by
anti-personnel bombs, and smoke grenades, made the
battle real enough to startle the people going in and out of
Hickam.
Six weeks later, seven people from catholic Action
managed to get into Hickam. While five people leafletted,
James Douglass and Jim Albertini, teachers, got to the
high-security Planning and Programs Division of the
The Hawaiian Islands are the most heavily militarized group of islands in the world. All of the areas on this map
that are blacked out are either owned or controlled by the US military. The military provides the greatest source of
income for the islands, $150 million more per year than tourism. Oahu is nota paradise, but the main staging ground
for genocide in Indochina. GIs and civilians in Hawaii have been working together to expose the true business of the
On march 27, the Liberated Barracks and catholic Action and their friends distributed larger posters of this map,
with all the gruesome details, to tourists leaving 11 US cities and Tokyo for vacations in Hawaii. And for 4 months
starting in January, they have made blows against the empire.
GIs ESCALATE
A socialist member of the Japanese parliament blew the
story about the nuclear weapons because storing nuclear
weapons at Iwakuni is an i//lega/act according to the
Mutual Defense Pact imposed on Japan by the US after
World War II. g
Denying the charges, the US moved quickly to hide the
evidence. A flight of heavy-laden planes which are
designed to carry nukes was reported to have taken off for
Okinawa while the nuclear weapons storage area was
redecorated overnight so that color coding no longer
matched nuclear storage dumps at other US bases in Asia.
The four brothers who were kidnapped and shipped
out left saying, ~We feel there are underlying reasons for
the charges against us. We write and publish Semper Fi,an
off-base GI publication. Through this paper we demand an
end to the war in Southeast Asia and complete withdrawal
of US forces from Asia, human rights for Gls, an end to
racism and imperialism in the military system and
complete overhaul of the military system. We keep the
Iwakuni base Gls informed as to what is happening to
other Gls around the world. And we openly support GI
movements and actions such as on the US ships Connie
and Coral Sea.��
More than a month later the brass launched another
attack against the movement at Iwakuni. This time by
singling out black Gls for persecution the brass tried to use
racism to divide and confuse the movement.
On New Years Eve all the pent up frustrations of life in
the pig military broke loose in fighting. During the several
days of fighting that followed there were reports that
oa GENOCIDE
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~IN PARADISE
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Directorate of Electronic Warfare. One of them covered
two file drawars marked o~top secret� with human blood.
(B) Schofield Barracks--famous for jungle warfare
training with a mock-up Vietnamese village complete with
slant-eyed dummies to be shot and stabbed. Schofield
BarracksT most famous graduate is mass murderer and
close friend of President Nixon, Lieutenant Calley.
In early April, 20 people captured the mock village and
renamed it Nkat Chi Mai Memorial Peace Park after a
20-year-old Vietnamese woman who burned herself in
Saigon in 1967 asa protest against the war.
some, but not all of the fighting had racial overtones. At
some point 2 white majors were beaten up by several black
brothers. The racial incidents arenTt surprising since the
brass at lwakuni has the reputation of including some of
the most vicious racists in the US military.
oTHAT MINORITY GROUP OF PIGS�
The pigs decided that what went down was a race riot
and according to the definition of race riot in the racist
mind of the racist pig, the blacks had to be behind it. One
black brother, Sonny Williams, explained it this way,
oAny time a group of blacks gets together, it seems to the
brass like theyTre ~organizing a riotT...It is not our fault.
And we've got a lot of white brothers. ItTs not their fault.
ItTs just that minority group of pigs that make it bad for
everybody else.�
Well, the pig minority group got to work and, after
ignoring their own incredible everyday racism and a
cross-burning by some whites during the ~riotT, proceeded
to question a// the black brothers on the base about the
so-called race riot. At least five blacks were busted on a
variety of assault and possession of weapons charges.
The real motive behind this tactic was explained by a
white sergeant, Brother oCap� Caporelli, ooMy view on
Naval Intelligence calling in only the blacks for
questioning is that theyTre trying to keep us separated
because theyTre really afraid that we might get together
and become a powerful political force.�
The brothersT civilian lawyers faced the usual situation:
a kangaroo court prepared to dispense (white) lifer justice.
There are only two black officers eligible to sit as members
of courts-martial and neither of them made it in the ~race
riotT cases. Instead the board was made up of friends and
acquaintances of the white majors who were allegedly
assaulted.
So far in three cases, one brother (L/Cpl. Clittora
Hunt) has had his charges dropped, another (Pfc. Stanley
Headd) was acquitted, and a third (L/Cpl. Robert Leer
copped a plea and got three months and akick.
We are glad to report that despite repeated attempts by
the pigs to break the movement at lwakuni, many Gls
turned out to support the men on trial and the struggle is
still going on. We are still getting Semper Fi and hearing
from our brothers and sisters in Japan.
OKINAWA (SPRING, 1972)
The last baseworkers strike before Okinawa changes
status from an American protectorate to become a part of
Japan has been sold out by its leaders. After baseworkers
virtually paralyzed activities at all 69 US bases during the
month of March, the leaders of Zengunro, the
all-Okinawan baseworkers union, gave in to heavy pressure
from the US and Japan and called off the strike without
even consulting the union membership.
The US used every tactic possible including armed
attacks on picket lines with MPs and Okinawan riot police
to break the strike. The US was desperate to restore order
on the island in order to continue its escalation of the war
in Vietnam. As soon as the strike ended, the bases were put
ona 24-hour work schedule.
This latest in a series of violent strikes that have swept
the island for two years was principally over the issue of
rehiring base workers who have been systematically fired
in order to break the union. The strike began March 7 and
the leaders called it off on April 9 after the US and Japan
refused to deal with the baseworkers demands. Ten out of
sixteen locals have decided to continue the strike while
trying to replace the present leadership with militants.
MILITARY DOMINATES OKINAWA
Okinawa has been under US domination since 1945.
Almost one-third of the population was killed off when
the US fought Japan for control of the island. Since 1945,
Okinawans have wanted to live in peace free from military
domination by either the US or Japan. But the US built up
the island as one of its most important military bases in the
Pacific, forcing the Okinawans to become dependent on
the US military for a living while destroying one of the
most beautiful islands in the Pacific.
Reversion of Okinawa to Japan, scheduled for May 15,
means a new master for the Okinawans. Rather than
symbolizing a decrease in US military domination in the
area, it means that the Japanese ~Self-Defense ForcesT are
being sent to occupy the island along with the Americans.
Brothers, one partially hidden giving both the peace sign and power, meet with Okinawan students supporting base workers strike during a
strike in 1971. At that time a Special Forces private who refused riot contro! duty /aid it out this way, oIdidnTt want to go out and club lots
of Okinawan people because thatTs what the Pig is doing to Black people back in the states. / feel that the Okinawan peopleTs struggle is the
same struggle as all oppressed (or Third World people) - against one foe - the fascist, Amerikan military regime...
GI response to the strike was inconsistent. Some Gls
threw their support behind the striking workers realizing
that the same pigs, i.e. the military, who are holding them
hostage and forcing them to participate in US aggression in
Vietnam , have also made them pawns in the game of
ripping off Okinawans. Others, confused by being caught
between the brass and the Okinawan people, have sided
with the brass in their attacks on the strikers.
MPs and Okinawan riot police concentrated their
attacks on pickets at the Yafuso Gate of the ArmyTs
Second Supply Base, at the Naha port facilities, and at
Kadena Air Force Base. At one point at Kadena an Air
Force Commander Carver sent a vehicle crashing through
the picket line at 6 A.M. and followed it up with an attack
by three truckloads of armed MPs and Okinawan riot
police. Six hundred pickets counterattacked, retaking the
area. During the fighting Carver was seen playing a fire
hose on the strikers until he was hit in the face with a rock
froma siingshot.
In the worst instance of fighting between Gls and
Okinawans, white Gls attacked a picket line after the
pickets prevented supplies for an on-base party from
getting through. While the party for EMs was called off,
the officers continued their festivities until their party was
attacked by a number of black Gls. The black brothers
then moved to the gate where they fought with the
baseworkers against white Gls who were attacking the
picket line.
Gls RALLY SUPPORT
The day before the strike was cancelled, April 8, several
hundred anti-war Gls held a rally to support the strike.
The rally was addressed by Okinawan students. Earlier,
Gls who call themselves the Freedom Family put together
a festival to raise money and to show support for the
baseworkers. On April 28, Okinawa Day, Gls handed outa
Statement of Conscience in support of the Okinawan
struggle against US and Japanese imperialism at a massive
rally in Naha.
THE PHILIPPINES (SPRING, 1972)
Reports from Pacific Counseling Service and two new
GI newspapers replacing THE WHIG - CRY OUT! from
Clark Air Force Base and SEASICK from Subic Bay -
indicate that there has been an upsurge in anti-war activity
in the Philippines. We have heard from several brothers on
carriers going to and from Nam that when they return to
Subic, their ships often lie offshore rather than enter Subic
to be resupplied. Must be those nasty subversives at the
base who have held parties for the brothers off the carriers
and are working ona petition campaign against the war for
the Seventh Fleet.
At Clark, Philippine Constabulary, OSI, and Air Force
pigs have raided the project in Angeles City twice in March
and April. They have managed to fill the base paper, THE
PHILIPPINE FLYER, and the local press with an
unbelievable assortment of lies in an attempt to frighten
Gls away from the project house at 1240 San Jose Street.
After the March raid they claimed that they had been
looking for ~an escaped American convict,T that they
found dangerous drugs (really penicillin tablets), and that
they had ~razedT the building during the raid " all lies.
At the same time the base commander, Col. William
Truesdale, has pressured the Philippine government into
trying to prevent PCS lawyers from helping Gls. After PCS
exposed these maneuvers at a press conference and got
some backing from a Filippino lawyer, the government
dropped their attempt to get the lawyers deported.
AGANA, GUAM (May 4)
An estimated 75 people
protested US bombing raids over the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam (so-called ~North VietnamT). It was the first
demonstration ever witnessed on Guam. The people
gathered outside Anderson Air Force Base, used by B-52
pilots as a jumping off point for the air raids. (source: San
Francisco Chronicle)
Chiat Fen-Tieet a
oHere come our replacements.�
18
PFC ACQUITS PRIVATE
WASHINGTON (March 25) " A series of military trials
stemming from a riot by prisoners at the Ft. Gordon
stockade has resulted in six convictions, two discharges
in lieu of court martial, and two acquittals. All of the
men charged were EMs, and most were black.
One of the two men acquitted, Pvt. Cecil Turner,
scored a first in military ojustice.� He had a private first
class on his general court martial board. There was also a
Sp/4, two sergeants, and two lieutenant colonels. He was
represented by a civilian lawyer, Joseph Remcho of the
Lawyers Military Defense Committee of the American
Civil Liberties Union Foundation from Washington.
One of the foundations of military injustice in the
past has been the trial of enlisted men by officers and
NCOs. Maybe this victory by Cecil Turner will enable
more Gls to get fair trials. (source: New York Times)
LBJTS RIGHT HAND MAN PAROLED
ALLENWOOD, PA. (April) " Bobby Baker, 43, who
started in the Senate as a page boy and rose to become the
secretary of its Democratic majority before he was
convicted of attempted tax evasion, grand larceny,
transportation of stolen money, fraud and conspiracy, was
granted parole from the Federal prison camp at
Allenwood on June 1, after serving 18 months. HeTs now
got $20 million to live on. George Jackson, shot last
August at San Quentin, was doing ten years for a $70 gas
station hold-up. (source: SF Examiner)
SAIGON STRIKERS LOSE TO MME. THIEU
(TEMPORARILY)
SAIGON (December, 1971) " In October leaders of the
union local-at the Eagle Battery Factory were fired for
demanding: a pay raise from the 45 cent a day they made,
equal pay for women doing the same work, and safety
measures. A strike was called and by December, after the
courts declared the strike illegal, the leaders and some
workers were in prison and scabs were hired to fill places
on the line. They were defeated, people in Saigon suspect,
because the wife of President Thieu owns 60% of the stock
in the company, which for some reason is the only one
allowed to sell batteries to the South Vietnamese army.
(source: PNS) SF
rank and name
military number
GENERAL WITH THE SHIT
KICKED OUT OF HIM
EMPTY HOUSE FOR LT. CALLEY
COLUMBUS, GA. (April) " Even though Nixon digs
Calley, convicted of murdering at least 27 Vietnamese
civilians at My Lai in 1969, it doesnTt look like many
Americans feel the same way. Sponsors of a rally to urge
freedom for Calley, whoTs living comfortably in housing at
nearby Ft. Bragg, hoped for 75,000 people. Only about
250 came. (Source: LNS)
SOURCES
LNS Liberation News Service
CAMP Newsletter for the Chicago Area Military Project
PNS Pacific News Service
os
military address/unit
branch of service
(50). (100)
welcome, folks).
be getting this paper:
Up Against the Bulkhead 968 Valencia
[.] lam a captive of the US Armed Forces and want to get this free.
[ ] | will distribute Bulkheads on base. Send me (5) (10) (25)
[ ] I'm a civilian whoTs enclosing $5 for 12 issues (donations are
HereTs the name and address of a friend in the service who ought to
San Francisco, California 94110
Ph. 415/431-8080
57 Corpuz Street MISAWA, JAPAN
release date Oakland, Calif. Olongapo City The Owl
1733 Jefferson Street Ph. 5333 2-4-9 Chuo Cho
Ph. 415/836-1039 Misawa-chi,
Ph. 714/239-2119
Pacific Counseling
Service
The people at Pacific Counselling Service know military law.
They can let you.know what your rights are, and back you
up when you have to fight to get them. In the States and Asia
San Francisco OKINAWA IWAKUNI, JAPAN
1232 Market Street Box 447 P.O. Box 49
Room 104 Koza lwak uni-shi
PHILIPPINES: SUBIC
PHILIPPINES: CLARK
Tillicum, Wash. 1240 San Jose Street
GIA Santa Maria Village FUSSA,TOKYO, JAPAN
Box 411 Angeles City The First Amendment
Tillicum Ph. 2888 Yokota AFB
Ph. 206/582-9741 P-12, 2099,3-5
TOKYO, JAPAN 1 Chome/Musashe-no-dai
° 827 5th Street
Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku
Ph. 269-5082
TWO BLACKS, TWO COPS KILLED IN BATON ROUGE
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA (January 10) " Two
blacks and two cops were killed when Baton Rouge
police attacked a Black Muslim street meeting attended
by 1000 people. City police from every beat including
undercover cops were called in to join the attack.
The first reports came straight from the mouths of
the police chief, the mayor, the sheriff, and the
governor. Mayor Woodrow W. Dumas was quoted as
saying, oThey~re talking about taking over our city.
We're clearing the deck, and we're ready to take them
on.� Gov. John J. McKiethen said, o... a bunch of
damned maniacs .. ."T started the trouble.
He was right. Apparently what really happened was
closer to this: the Muslims were holding their meeting in
the middle of the Baton Rouge ghetto. Traffic was
blocked off and Muslims rapped from the top of a
parked car. Down the street a scuffle broke out between
a black reporter and some young blacks. Police ordered
the meeting to break up. When the Muslims held their
ground, Chief of Police Eddy Bauer led the charge into
the crowd. Although the Muslims were unarmed, some
of them were trained in self defense. When the police
attacked, people disarmed them. Although police claim
the blacks shot first, they weren't able to produce any
weapons. The four dead men were killed by .38 caliber
weapons, while the police at the scene all carried .38
service revolvers and shotguns.
After the shooting was over, police continued to
brutalize the blacks, dragging them along in the rain or
handcuffing them face down in puddles, Eight men have
been charged with murder and are being held without
bail. All are Muslims, (source: LNS)
YourRE Joxme! THAT
GUARDSMEN UNITE WITH BROTHERS AND SISTERS
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (April) " In 1970, 396
Guardsmen/Reservists signed a statement that they would
refuse orders to participate in an action like the massacres
at Kent State and Jackson, Mississippi, after the Cambodia
invasion. Last November, members of Hq Btry, 1st Bn.;
144th. Field Arty, Calif. Army National Guard took a
survey in their unit. More than 93% wanted total US
withdrawal from Vietnam by the end of 1971, and 66%
would refuse to be activated for any overseas duty in a
crisis. Even if they were being attacked with rocks, 92%
would refuse to fire on students. ItTs not surprising that
practically no one planned to re-up. When the guard
refuses to kill people fighting for their rights, then the
Americanization of America that Nixon needs will be a
failure, just as Vietnamization has failed. Right. on!
(source: LNS)
Yamaguchi-ken
Aomori-ken
Apt. 3-B Yamaguchi Bidg.
1-1 Hinode Chuo
Y okosuka-shi
Dec. 28,1971
Everybody,
Sorry | havenTt written sooner but ITve been moving
into our trailer and ITve been sick for a few days.
/ still haven't been able to get in touch with the people
from the Chessman I// but ITm trying.
They ~ve decided to try and keep me in but they~re
finding out the hard way that theyshould have let me out.
Have you heard about the 17 VVAWTs in the Statue of
Liberty out there? Far out!
! was sitting in the legal office the other day and a
lieutenant was sitting next to me and we started talking
and somehow the conversation got around to G./.
newspapers and he was telling me about all the ~trashT in
them and he proceeded to tell me how he was elected ~Pig
of the MonthT by those ~communist inspiredT drug abusers
that write those papers. | then proceeded to tell him how
much fun it has been to write about idiot pigs like him and
that | was proud to be a ~communist inspiredT drug abuser
rather than a paid killer. By the time | was through he was
about ready to kill me. | proceeded to get the hell out of
there before he did. It was fun!
! got them pissed at meat work today so they sent me
home at 11A.M. | wasnTt doing anything wrong, just not
the way they liked it to be done. | very subtly told the
first sergeant that he was full of shit and didnTt know what
he was talking about then when he got mad, | told him that
the truth always hurt and the easiest way to show it was in
anger. Man, he was about as red as a beet when | finally left
his office. You wouldn't believe how mad the pigs get
when theyre holding the shitty end of the stick!
! didnTt get to finish this letter last night but ITm
Greetings,
My name is John, and ITm presen tly serving a sentence
at the United States Disciplinary Barracks (L eavenworth)
for refusing to go to Vietnam.
/ plan to open a coffee house and possibly start a paper
in September. If there are any ideas that you could supply
me with on what | have to do to start a paper and coffee
house, | could really dig the advise. The word is really
getting around thanks to people like you, how about
sending a free copy of your paper to a political prisoner?
[me!] Could really dig hearing about whats happening
outside of these walls.
In Peace,
John
Dear Brother John,
We hope you get to see this. We sent you a Bulkhead
and a letter separately. The pigs wouldn't let either in.
They donTt like people like you and people like us writing
to each other.
Power to the Brothers Inside,
Bulkhead
~| then proceeded to tell him how much fun it has been to
write about idiot pigs like him and that | was proud to bea
~communist-inspiredT drug. abuser rather than a_ paid
killer.�
finishing now. | talked to Dave up at Cong. Dellums office
today and he said that they said in Washington that | will
be getting a discharge soon. /hope so.
/ really canTt wait to get busy on some kind of
anti-military works again. My hate for the service
~overwhelmedT me.
Well, | got lots to do so | better get busy.
Love and Peace to All,
Rich
LEGAL AID
THERETS ALSO SYMPATHETIC RADICAL
LAWYERS AROUND WHO DIG ON YOUR FIGHT
AND WILL HELP YOU OUT. THEY CAN BE
CONTACTED AT:
FT ORD/MONTEREY
Military Law Project
467 Alvarado Street Room 19
Monterey
408/373-2729
SAN FRANCISCO
Bay Area Military Law Panel
558 Capp Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415/285-5066
PHILIPPINES
National Lawyers Guild
Military Law Office
PO Box 80
y Makati Commercial Center
Makate, Rizal
JAPAN
National Lawyers Guild
Military Law Office
Ishii Building, 6-44
Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo
OKINAWA
Box 447
Koza
Dear Bulkhead, January 1, 1972
Got your letter this morning. Thanx for writing. Also
received the papers about a week ago. They went over
pretty big. With any kind of luck at all you should be
hearing from a few of the opeople� here on Guam soon.
Blew some of the lifers out completely, nowever most of
them took the whole thing asajoke. That pissed me oft.
/tTs hell having to deal with ignorance.
Have a few suggestions for the paper, although | realize
your funds and space are limited. A statement of aims as a
regular part of the paper. Regular readers and the people
who know the score wouldnTt need it, but what about the
others?
Also, perhaps some articles on the Pacific Counseling
Service, the job they do and the things they are capable of
doing. ThereTsa /ot of ignorance inthe military in this area.
Maybe something about the power of the vote, on the
national, state, and local levels. | mean, theyTve given us
the tools to work with so /etTs use them for ourselves. If we
donTt, we all know who'll get the screwing.
About Guam, the Guamanian people were ~liberatedT
by the military during World War ||. As a result, they were
pro-military enough to give up alittle more thana third of
the island for military installations. Things are changing,
but very slowly. | think it may have something to do with
the old Spanish omachismo� influence. The draft is almost
non-existent here, so many of these people enlist.
About the military in Guam. ItTs all over the place. On
the south western end of the island there is a naval station
for ships of the fleet. ThereTs also a nuclear submarine base
near it at Polaris Point. DonTt really know too much about
them, except that there is always at least one nukie sub in
most of the time.
The naval air station is mid-island, also used for ar
international airport. There are three squadrons here. On
base we have an AUW compound, very hush-hush, Marine
guards and al! that.
About 15-20 miles SW of NAS, off the coast there isa
Russian ofreighter� that is there constantly. Every day we
send out an aircraft for a position report.
Funny thing happened last month that you might be
interested in. When India declared war on East Pakistan,
the next, day VP-40 disappeared! Completely. Informed
sources here at NAS found out that they were flying over
the Bay of Bengal, watching the Russian fleet activities.
The osneaker� as the Russian ofreighter� is called left the
same day.
Anderson Air Force Base is also a SAC base, with about
20 B-52 bombers. They used to fly missions to North
Vietnam, but | donTt think they do now. | haven~t seen
them do that in several months.
ThatTs the military situation here on Guam. They also
plan on trying to build a naval ordnance depot here at a
place called Sella Bay, one of the most beautiful spots on
the island. Thank God, theyTre meeting resistance from
the people. TheyTre trying to get Congress to make it into a
National Seashore.
/ could dig getting some info on whatTs happening in
the free world. ThereTs only one TV, radio, aftd hewspaper
on the island, concerning mostly local news. The world
news tapes on the tube are 2-3 days old. We also can get
those slanted garbage rags, the Pacific Stars and Stripes
and the Overseas Weekly. We are hurting for news.
Well, |~m late for work, so I~d better split. Peace.
Your brother and ally,
Kevin
Guam
Dear Brother K,
Thanks for the letter. We always dig getting suggestions
for the paper. Next issue weTre going to have a longer
editorial telling a little bit more about us and where we're
coming from. Other guys have also expressed interest in
hearing about the power of the vote and we want to do a
spread on it in the next issue.
Keep on feeding us information and ideas.
Keep on TruckinT
Bulkhead
Kamiseya, Japan
March 21, 1972
Dear Bulkhead,
It was good to hear from you and find out that the
Bulkhead is still in operation [more or less]. !Tm looking
forward to the next issue, as are some of the other people
here at Kamiseya. That by the way is where ITm stationed,
Naval Radio Receiver Facility Kamiseya. After
John HenryTs bust ITm a bit leery of passing out papers on
base. | -have no desire to get busted, knowing that | canTt
possibly fight against a rap such as that. ITm going to
submit the paper to my Officer In Charge via the chain of
command for permission to distribute the paper on base. |
know that | wonTt be granted permission to do so, but it
will blow their heads to know that something like this is
going on at Kamiseya. What | will be doing is passing out
the paper off of base. |. will be going directly to the guys
homes and giving them the papers. Most of the people here
live in their own houses off base and since | know where
most of the guys live | will have no trouble getting the
Paper to them.
The other reading material that you have sent me is also
available to anyone that comes over to my house. We[four
of us live together] have a table in the living room with
various reading material [some of it you sent ] on it and is
available to anyone that wants to read it.
You asked for criticisms and suggestions, well maybe
you could write something on how GI's overseas can vote
in absentee and how important it is to vote. / have had no
trouble getting voting information and I'm all registered
and everything, but | donTt know what the situation may
be like on other bases.
ThatTs all | have for now. Thanks for writing and eve
more important thanks for caring.....bye....
Peace,
Chris 19
2
squadrons on board? Sixteen people from VF-151 sent a
letter to President Nixon condemning Us involvement in
Indochina. (ThereTs a letter from a VF-151 member on
page 2.)
196TH MUTINIES AGAIN!
Phu Bai, Vietnam (April)--Just south of Hue in South
g Vietnam is Phu Bai, a major US communications
installation and radar station for guiding strike aircraft
from carriers in the 7th fleet. As Gls were pulled out of the
northern provinces of the south, and Saigon troops fled
and defected ,the 196th Light Infantry Brigade was sent in
to protect Phu Bai. They were ordered out on partol.
Charlie Company grumbled but went when ordered. But
Alpha company refused. Somehow this offensive and
dangerous move came out of NixonTs master plan to give
maximum protection to Gls still in Nam. The grunts didnTt
see it that way--getting blown away isnTt protection. They
argued with their Bird Colonel for 90 minutes, then finally
agreed to move out to support Charlie Company.
ANTI WAR ACTIONS
@ Leonardo, NJ--The crew of the USS NITRO, an
ammunition ship, was hustled into action for the
offensive.The ship needed repair badly-- the evaporators
weren't working well, and crewmen had to compete with
the boilers for water. One quarter of the unrep equipment
wasn't working properly. But work was stopped and the
ship went to Naval Ammunition Depot Earle on April 18
for loading.
People from local groups in six canoes tried to keep the
ship from docking, and held it up for 1% hours. One sailor
said, o~| was really down before we pulled in, but when |
saw you guys out there it was like an answer to adream.�T
There were meetings all weekend, and by Monday
things were really moving. That morning, 18 canoes and an
old whaler mixed it up with the Coast Guard. It was a
battle of paddles and boat hooks as canoes were towed out
of the way, only to return.
Suddenly a brother, one of a crowd on the deck, stood
up on the rail, threw a fist salute, and jumped off the ship.
Four more quickly followed. As the cutters tried to pick
them out of the oily drink, two others jumped. The seven
brothers continued to give power salutes as they were
taken back to the NITRO.
~ROVING BANDS OF GODLESS
law enforcement school were destroyed by bombs. On
Wednesday night, May 10, over 2000 students were in the
streets.
As we go to press, millions of Americans who have
taken to the streets time and time again to end the war are
intensifying the anti-war struggle through both violent and
non-violent actions.
On April 22, anti-war activists, urged Americans at
mass peaceful demonstrations to support the Vietnamese
people and their demands that the US set a date for total
withdrawal and to stop supporting the corrupt
Thieu-Ky-Khiem regime in Saigon.
In San Francisco, 25000 people marched through the
Haight-Ashbury under a banner with the words ~People of
the World, Unite.�T At the rally students from both north
and south Vietnam spoke of how their country was, is, and
will be one no matter what the US tries to do to smash
their struggle for liberation.
The BULKHEAD, STOP OUR SHIP movement,
VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST the WAR, and
PACIFIC COUNSELING SERVICE all set up booths to
urge Civilians to support the GI anti-war movement.
HereTs a partial report from other civilian fronts:
@ Seven Vietnam Veterans chained themselves to the
captains cabin of oOld lronsides,�� the USS
CONSTITUTION, in Boston harbor.
@ For three days running, 2000 people blocked
Lakeshore Drive in Chicago. They were driven off slowly
by 600 state troopers and police. Even ~~BossTT Mayor
Daley opposed the mining of the harbors.
® In Minneapolis, Minn., police attacked
demonstrators, and national guardsmen were called out.
At Mancato State University the ROTC armory and the
THE
THE PEOPLE VIA
Pet
TEE VEE...
~@ Trains have been stopped all over the country. Two
hundred Rutgers University students stalled a Penn
Central train in New Jersey. Students from University of
California/Davis sat on Southern Pacific railroad tracks all
night and forced the rerouting of at least five trains.
@ |n San Jose, California, an Army reserve station was
totally destroyed in a fire that caused over $200,000
damage, while firebombs caused extensive damage at a
Navy recruiterTs office in Mt. Home, Idaho.
@ In Frankfurt, Germany, five bombs exploded inside
oLittle America,TT US Army Hdgs, killing a colonel and
destroying the Officers club.
@ In Manilla, the Philippines, 2000 anti-Vietnam war
demonstrators surrounded the US embassy compound,
threw bombs and red paint into buildings.
@ In Santa Barbara, California, people blocked
freeways for hours, shut down the local airport for 5
hours, made attempts to burn down the Bank of America
branch that they burned two years ago after the Cambodia
invasion, and attacked the ROTC building.
@ At Westover AFB in Chicopee, Massachusetts,
demonstrators are starting their second month of actions
against the bombing. Since April 7, over |O00 people have
been arrested for blocking the gates.
Similar actions occurred at many more air bases around
the country (Pease, Maine; Mt. Home, Idaho; Wright
Patterson, Ohio; and Travis, California; to name a few).
ASTATE OF = AND oTHE AUTHORITIES
OSREPUTABLE
ANARCHISTS ...�
@ In Albuquerque, New Mexico, pigs opened up with
shotguns on people blocking a freeway and injured three
people. One woman is still in serious condition with
wounds in the chest and abdomen.
@ Police shot at rioting demonstrators in Berkeley with
non lethal stun guns. A week later the factory that
manufactures the weapons was bombed.
@ In Washington, D.C. while Senators and
Representatives yakked about the war as they have for
eight years, about 300 students from a predominant black
Eastern High School forced the house to close its puplic
galleries for 3 hours. Congress people started
impeachment proceedings against Nixon.
~@ The National committee of Vietnam Veterans
Against the War wrote to all the UN delegations asking
that ~the UN accept trusteeship of the US until such time
as Nixon is impeached and a sane, representative, viable
government is installed.T
®@ Prisoners at the Danbury, Conn. Federal Correctional
Institution climbed to the top of a 175-ft water tower and
spent the night there. They refused to come down and
shouted to their brothers below ~Power to the people, stop
the war!T
If you donTt like the news, go out and make your own!
EQUAL TIME DEPT.
Late reports indicate that at least four groups of people
in the country supported Emperor Nixon.
® Somewhere in Florida we heard that 10,000 people
marched through town escorted by the local sheriff and
his deputies. Could it be true?
® In Sacramento, Calif., 5 students arrived late at a
scheduled pro-Nixon rally to find that no one else had
attended.
® jn Washington, D.C. 300 aging bureaucrats prayed for
high body counts at a pro-Nixon seance.
@ At Nichols College, a business school in Mass. where
the NCOs of the military-industrial complex are trained,
students sent a letter of support to their CO, Nixon.
@ Well-informed sources in high government circles
speculated whether J. Edgar HooverTs death should be
taken asa sign of approval or disapproval of Nixon policies