Vets in D.C., The. April 1971. Stop the war, I want to get out!

the colorado daily

page 12 — Friday, May 7, 1971 —







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daily photo by peter j. philbin



Daily interview with the vets

Stop the war, I want to get out!



According to one combat-decorated Vietnam veteran at Washington’s
antiwar demonstrations two weeks ago, this is the first time in the
history of the United States that American veterans have vocally
Opposed an American war while the war is still going on.

To find out what motivates.a Vietnam veteran to oppose the war,

Daily Editor Timothy Lange inter-
viewed four antiwar veterans who
are presently University students.

These four cannot, perhaps, be
considered typical of Vietnam
veterans. They are among the
minority who go on to college
after being discharged. But they,
like the thousand veterans in the
capital demonstration, are elo-
quently united in their opposition
to what they call an “immoral”
war.

Marlin Griffith is 30. He joined
the Navy in 1960 and served until
1968 flying supplies in and
“flying out coffins or whatever
else there was.”’

Dennis Bennett is 27. After
three months in Vietnam, he was
wounded and spent six months
recuperating in Denver’s Fitz-
simmons Hospital.

Charles Johnson is 24 and
served for nearly a year in
Vietnam working in social and
clinical psychology.

Malcolm Thompson is 24. He
served for 19 months in Vietnam
in the Marine infantry, “mostly
on the front lines.’’

After the interview, one of the
veterans noted half-cpologetically
that they seemed to stray from
answering the questions directly.
But as can be seen, their digres-
sions only spell out more pro-
foundly why these four men
oppose America’s longest war.
Daily: The Vietnam Veterans
Against the War has a membership
of 12,000, but there are more
than 2.5 million veterans of
Vietnam. Given that wide gap, do
you feel that most veterans are
now against the war?

Malcolm: This is a personal view
on that since | can only speak for
myself. If you’re not aware of
what’s going on, you're for it. But
after you become aware of what’s
going on and you have the
opportunity to see the situation in
its context, instead of being a part
of it and being inside, you begin
to realize what a massive contra-
diction that the war is.

Dennis: You have to see where
they come from. Two-year draf-
tees get out on the GI bill and go
to school. And after you put in
two years in a certain service, you
more or less try to get yourself
together, you know? | don’t really
think very many of them join the
VFW and the American Legion,
either. They’re just more inter-
ested in their own_ personal
advancement. Like most of them
go to college or a trade school, or
some kind of schooling when they
get out. And, otherwise, they’re
the ones that would be really



involved with the antiwar move-
ment. Those people who are
actually touched by the antiwar
people. | think individual people
have some sort of apprehensions
about it. Becoming active in
trying to expose the military for
what it really is involves only a
slight number of them. Most of
them feel now they're 4-A,
they’re not 1-A, and it’s no longer
their responsibility.

Marlin: | don’t know a large
number of veterans, and those |
know are all all affiliated with the
school here. | think that is not a
representative sample of the vet-
erans, and | don’t think we can
generalize from the way veterans
feel here at CU to veterans in
general because you're dealing
with a select group of people by
virtue of the fact that they are
here. They’re different than those
veterans you're going to find
down in Denver, those who came
back and went to work at all
levels of jobs. So | don’t know. I.
have no idea whether most of
them are for, against or
indifferent.

Dennis; Of course, you have your
30 per cent, it’s 30 per cent now,
of returning veterans who are
unemployed. These people go
under employment insurance and
a lot of vets can draw, what, nine
months or eight months or
something.

Malcolm: Yes, but it falls under
the category of workmen’s com-
pensation.

Dennis: So there are a lot of
these people. When we were
drafted and most of us were in,
they were calling up 70-80,000
people a month, and these people
are still under workmen’s compen-
sation. Once that goes out, to-
gether with those coming out of
colleges, and they’re not working,
you're going to have 30 or 40 per
cent of Vietnam veterans who are
very frustrated. | think it is going
to come out in some kind of overt
violence trip. These people are
saying, “okay, | didn’t burn my
draft card, | didn’t split to
Canada, | went over, to serve my
time in Vietnam.” Or even if they
served their time and went over to
Germany, they’re still going to
say, ‘Well, | did it! Now what am
| going to get out of it?”’

They want to go to work, so
these people are going to take
their frustrations out in violence
which will be...

‘Marlin: \ don’t think it’s going to

follow though that they would
necessarily be against the war
because they can’t find a job.

Dennis: Oh, right. | think you
have to...

Marlin: You can be frustrated
about a lot of things — which gets
down to the more basic problem,
as far as | am concerned, which
isn’t the war.

Most people don’t understand
their culture, nor do they under-
stand their own. When | was
there, when | was in the service, |
was really “gung-ho,”’ | got really
involved in the military. You have
to. | think you have to be
involved in the military. It de-
mands of you to become involved.
The minute you go into the
military, you are subjected to the
UCMJ. Whenever you're subjec-
ted to that piece of bullshit,
anything you do wrong, like if |
did something wrong my com-
manding officer could give me an
Article 15 for no apparent reason
at all. Which tome...

Daily: Article 15?

Malcolm: Why don’t you:-clarify
that? The UCMJ is the Uniform
Code of Military Justice.





Dennis: Article 15 is like — if
you're not a good trooper. If you
get on the bad side of your, say,
your supply sergeant. Or if you
say something that they don’t
think you should be saying; then
he can subject you to an Article
15 which is a form of punishment
which is not judicial. In away...
Malcolm: They sort of ostracize
you. They spank you and say
when your conduct marks come
out you get a 2.0 instead of a 3.7
or a 4.0, and this will have some
effect on how your promotions go
in the future. So it’s more or less a
lever. It’s...

Marlin: \ might clarify one fur-
ther thing. This serviceman
doesn’t have to accept an Article
15, he can request .. .

Dennis: A summary court mar-
tial. Which is the same thing. You
have two obstacles instead of one.
Malcolm: Yeah, but with the
summary court martial, this really
has some effect on your pro-
ficiency marks. You really want

(continued on page 1 4)

‘Article 15
is like--if
you’re not a

good trooper.’



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