Background:
To better understand the 1971 event and aftermath and what IVAW and its allies hope to and might accomplish:
- Investigate the Winter Soldier Investigation – October 2007 article at American Thinker on that first WSI.
- WinterSoldier.com – Scott Swett’s extensive storehouse of historical information on the 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation.
- Articles by Steve Gilbert at The American Thinker Archive.
Winter Soldier and the Media
The 1971 WSI had a negligible effect on the Vietnam War and largely escaped the notice of the media when it happened. In the Presidential election of 1968, both candidates, Nixon and Humphrey, campaigned on the withdrawal of American forces. The drawdown of American troops from the peak of over a half million (536,000) in 1968 had begun in early 1969. By 1971 the U.S. troop level had been reduced to 157,000.
Months after the first WSI was held, it was made prominent retroactively by two subsequent and related events.
- On April 5, 1971, anti-war Republican Senator Mark Hatfield moved that the text of the WSI "testimony" be entered into the Congressional Record, even though not one word of that testimony had been given under oath or was accompanied by any sworn affidavits or depostions.
- On April 22, 1971, young and highly decorated Vietnam veteran John Kerry represented VVAW before Senator William Fulbright's Foreign Relations Committee. Citing the WSI testimony, Kerry testified to widespread and routine atrocities being committed by American forces in Vietnam.
Scott Swett and John Boyle Locate the Long Missing CID Summaries of the Investigations into Winter Soldier Allegations:
- “Newly Discovered Army Reports Discredit ‘Winter Soldier’ Claims”
- Winter Soldier Chickens Home to Roost
The Repercussions of the First WSI on the Vietnam Veterans and Influence on America’s Culture and Image
- For dozens of quotes providing a glimpse of the pain caused by the 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation and what followed in its wake, read the comments by Vietnam Veterans and their loved ones in Touching Nerves, Hearts and Pianful Memories. More can be found in the signatures to the petition to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
- Carlton Sherwood’s 2004 documentary “Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal”
- Articles by Vietnam Veteran Mackubin T. Owens:
"Slandering an Entire Generation of Warriors"
"A Generational Thing"
"The 'Troubled Vet' Returns"
- "When the Left Cares, and When It Doesn't" at American Thinker (Sept. 2007)
Related Blog Posts:
- Is IVAW Retreating on WSI "Atrocities"? - Feb 5, 2008
- IVAW & VVAW - Jan 8, 2008
- Steve Pitkin as Precedent? - Dec 18, 2007
Back to Obiter Dictum Main.
LU030108
4 comments:
The first Winter Soldier investigation is the template for WSI: Iraq and Afghanistan only insofar as we take the legacy of soldiers having the bravery to speak out about what they see, and what they know.
That is the legacy-not legacy of atrocities, as some opponents would love to claim, but a legacy of speaking up for your beliefs.
Whether you agree with what the first WSI testifiers did or not, do you truly think that they did not believe in what they were saying or doing? Whether you think they were wrong or not, do you honestly think that they believed they were wrong, and deliberately misrepresented what they felt and what they believed?
It is one of the most difficult things that a soldier can do-to speak up about their own thoughts, opinions, and views. It is extremely difficult, and requires a great deal of bravery, no matter what that opinion might be.
That is the legacy we accept. The legacy of bravery, the legacy of speaking up for what you believe in. A soldier's legacy-an American legacy.
It is not a legacy of atrocity, and those on either side who represent it so are misrepresenting what Winter Soldier will be all about.
Sorry, Sarge, but that's not what's out there! Yesterday, IVAW member Harvey Tharp quoted in the Yemen Times:
"I’m a member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War. As the only officer who has joined, I’m the highest ranked...I’m going to Washington, D.C. for the winter soldier hearings from March 13-16. Fifty members from the Iraq Veterans Against the War will testify to war crimes they witnessed or even participated in and I’ll be there in support."
http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1132&p=report&a=1
IVAW member Harvey Tharp is, according to this interview, speaking from Yemen, where he has been living for the last several months. As such, it is highly unlikely that he's been present in the United States at any time during the Winter Soldier planning. He is also incorrect: he is not the only officer who has joined, and he is definitely not the highest ranked. While I am sure he means well, I suspect he may be slightly uninformed in some areas.
Hi Sarge,
"IVAW member Harvey Tharp is, according to this interview, speaking from Yemen, where he has been living for the last several months. As such, it is highly unlikely that he's been present in the United States at any time during the Winter Soldier planning."
It is the age of e-mail and cell phones. That fifty number is the one that has been bandied about by IVAW folks in the last month, as compared to the older "over one hundred". Maybe he reads Obiter Dictum and THAT'S where he got the idea about atrocity testimony!
"He is also incorrect: he is not the only officer who has joined, and he is definitely not the highest ranked."
Gosh, more incorrect things from Harvey! Did he get his name right? Sarge, there were indeed far more critical things in his interview that he got wrong than the makeup of IVAW, but he sure is demonstrating a grasp and command of reaility!
"While I am sure he means well, I suspect he may be slightly uninformed in some areas."
I am not so sure he means well. Harvey most certainly gives the impression of being a shade obtuse, but even the criminally insane would know that to say the things he did, in the midlle of the Middle East, is to precisely get that message to those who will recruit people to kill our troops! We have yet another IVAW mmber confirming or seeming to confirm widespread atrocities for the benefit of the enemy, with again, no details like units, place, names, time and reports!
Keep putting the best light on this stuff Sarge, but it has consequences! Real ones. Deadly ones.
Vietnam POWs came back telling how while they were captive they were made to listen to VVAW's John Kerry stating that they were war criminals, and so the communists said they had to admit it was true, and as criminals, they deserve the beatings and torture. But maybe VVAW meant well, too.
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