On May 21-23 Wisconsin Public Television, the Wisconsin State Dept of Veterans Affairs, the Wisconsin Historical Society and various veterans groups co-sponsored a Vietnam “Welcome Home” at the Green Bay Packer's Lambeau Field, replete with exhibits of Vietnam-era war equipment, a vast collection of Vietnam veterans' photos and stories, sales of memorabilia, expected flyovers of military aircraft, continuous live music performances, and public speeches and ceremonies. Spectacularly staged in the heart of politically-conservative “Packerland”, the three-day extravaganza was preceded and accompanied by a statewide-wide media blitz by WI Public TV and Radio which gave it an overtly super-patriotic, pro-military, and pro-war spin. As the website of one area TV Channel framed it: “The event is LZ Lambeau, where LZ stands for 'landing zone.' Organizers say the event provided an opportunity to show Vietnam veterans the gratitude that was lacking when they came home in the 1960s and '70s.” Attendance on Saturday alone was estimated at upwards of 25,000.
In thanking the Vietnam veterans for ”defending their country” a careful effort was made by the sponsoring authorities to exclude any antiwar voices from this treatment of the Vietnam War and its legacy. Veterans For Peace was initially included in the sponsorship and Vietnam combat veteran Will Williams' voice was used in media promotions. As the event neared, however, Will was denied inclusion among the speakers at the event and VFP was not allowed to have a VFP table at LZ Lambeau. This silencing of any antiwar voices--along with the continued mantra of expressing a public “gratitude earlier lacking” to the Vietnam vets--conveyed an implicit but clear suggestion that those Americans who opposed the Vietnam War were to blame for ingratitude shown to the vets, and that far from being a monumental disaster brought-on by misguided U.S. policies the Vietnam War was a worthy and honorable endeavor which should be commemorated.
Nowhere was there any acknowledgement that the U.S. government, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and state and local governments have been derelict over all these years in caring for the wounded and traumatized Vietnam veterans--to the extent that postwar suicides of Vietnam veterans have been double the number of the 58,000+ killed in combat and Vietnam vets are a large part of U.S. homeless from the end of the war to the present. Nowhere was there any serious commemoration (and apology for) the more than three million Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians slaughtered during the 15-year U.S. involvement, mostly by the U.S. military.
Rehabilitating the memory and lessons of the Vietnam War from a “lost” war which should have never been fought to an honorable war which was not properly appreciated at the time is necessary for eradicating the last vestiges of the “Vietnam Syndrome” and building public acceptance for massive and prolonged U.S. military involvements in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Under the mendacious guise of “thanking” them, the badly-used Vietnam vets are now being used by the same military-industrial establishment which perpetrated the Vietnam War to prepare for more Vietnam-style wars of intervention.
Can it be surprising that massive funding for this gala was provided by major defense contractors in Wisconsin such as Oshkosh Defense Industries and Tommy Thompson's Logistic Health Inc. of La Crosse? Oshkosh Defense Industries was rumored to have planned to display several specimens of their latest all-terrain combat vehicle. And beyond promoting today's military-industrial complex and wars there was simply lots of money (as Will Williams has repeatedly pointed-out) to be made off of the vets, their families, and friends at the event itself from the sale of T-shirts and other memorabilia, beer, brats, and rides in a Vietnam War-era helicopter at $100 per passenger.
After withdrawing from co-sponsorship of LZ Lambeau Field, Veterans For Peace Chapter 25 undertook an energetic campaign about the pro-war and pro-military message carried by the event. In the days before LZ Lambeau a press campaign organized by Buzz Davis and joined-in by other Vietnam-era and combat veterans was able to get op-ed pieces and other statements into Green Bay and other newspapers. Will Williams spoke for half an hour on the Joy Cardin show on Wisconsin Public Radio and to other media the week of the event.
As part of the “Operation Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Wage Peace Not War” organized by Buzz Davis a VFP press conference was held Friday May 21 at the Green Bay Public Library with Will, Buzz, and other veterans and covered by all of the major local TV stations. The library then hosted a screening of “The Good Soldier” which drew an audience of sixty from the Green Bay area. On Friday night and on Saturday antiwar and veterans-issues workshops were held at the Green Bay Labor Temple facilitated by Buzz and attended by a diverse group of twenty people from Green Bay and Madison.
On Saturday afternoon May 22 Will Williams, Richard Chamberlin, Bob Irving, Steve Books, Caroline Greenwald, Ray Nashold, and I were at LZ Lambeau for part of the afternoon carrying VFP brochures and talking with veterans and other visitors about the event and matters of war and peace. Accompanied by me (wearing a bright green peace medallion) and a young antiwar activist named Scott from Green Bay, Will walked through the parking-lot concessions area and then through the stadium pavilion where there were more concessions and an impressive photo exhibit compiled from news stories, obituaries, letters, and interviews of numerous Vietnam vets dead and alive (including Will) for the recent three-part Wisconsin Public Television documentary. In that hour and a half it was clear that Will was widely-recognized in the crowd from his media interventions and other speaking-out. A near-constant stream of people came-up to thank him or to at least acknowledge his presence, while many people simply stared (there was only one brief incident involving overt hostility by another Vietnam vet). He also ran into old friends from veterans' affairs including another Black combat vet from his old Wolfhound Army division in South Vietnam who he had not seen since that time.
After Will and I walked out of LZ Lambeau and I went back to the Green Bay Labor Temple (with the understanding that Will and Dot were headed back to Madison) I later learned that Will had decided to return to LZ Lambeau, where he remained far into the night, walking and talking among that vast assemblage with his antiwar and peace message. The work of Will and other VFP members in publicly speaking-out about the LZ Lambeau pro-war and pro-military extravaganza and Will's presence at LZ Lambeau enabled an antiwar message to get out to huge numbers of people in Green Bay and across the region. And it is possible that the eventual non-appearance of the Oshkosh Defense industries combat terrain vehicles was due to the criticism of this by Will in the days leading up to the event.
But we have an even greater task ahead of us now that the pro-war and pro-military Establishment has put the Vietnam War back on the public agenda with the aim of re-writing history and preparing for more Vietnam-style U.S. military involvements. We must forge a public campaign to tell the truth about the Vietnam War and the antiwar movement of that time and of the new U.S. wars and the peace movement of today. Such an educational outreach campaign should involve those who served in South Vietnam, other military veterans, "veterans" of the Vietnam antiwar movement, and a new generation of peace activists, so that the tragic legacy of the Vietnam War cannot be used to promote new Vietnams.
David Williams is the director of WNPJ member group Peregrine Forum and an Associate Member of Veterans for Peace. This summary was written on assignment for the Madison Socialist Potluck Newsletter. For more details on the LZ Lambeau event and related work of the VFP contact Buzz Davis at dbuzzdavis@aol.com, Will Williams at cuchi66@centurylink.net, and Green Bay native Paul Wozniak at paul.riverhistory.wozniak@gmail.com, or David Williams at dvdwilliams51@tds.net
No comments:
Post a Comment