Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | NN NN AAAA MM MM VV VV EEEEEEE TTTTTTTT | | NNN NN AA AA MMM MMM VV VV EE TT | | NN N NN AA AA MM M M MM VV VV EE TT | | NN N NN AA AA MM M MM VV VV EE TT | | NN N NN AAAAAAAA MM MM VV VV EEEEE TT | | NN N NN AA AA MM MM VV VV EE TT | | NN NNN AA AA MM MM V V EE TT | | NN NN AA AA MM MM VVV EEEEEEE TT | | The International Newsletter for Vietnam Veterans | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ DATA NUMBER Editor in Chief: Todd Looney Viet Vets Valhalla Managing Editor: G. Joseph Peck VETLink #1 (413) 443-6313 Distribution Manager: Bob Morris Pole Climber 2 (203) 287-4085 NAM VET's PAPERBOY: Jerry Hindle 7:48/0 --- Section Editors --- PTSD: Kathleen Kelly, Ph.D. NY Transfer (718) 448-2358 AGENT ORANGE: Martin Kroll Ft Mountain BBS (404) 695-8703 MIA-POW: Glenn Toothman Commo Bunker TX 1:387/801 VA INFO: Jim Hildwine ZEPHYR BBS (703) 620-5418 HOMELESS: Lefty Frizzell Executive B'rdroom 1:106/449 INCARCERATED VETS: Todd Looney Viet Vets Valhalla WOMEN VETS: MEMORIES: G. Joseph Peck VETLink #1 (413) 443-6313 | )| NAM VET is a special _+|__|_ electronic newsletter dedicated to * VIETNAM |--- --| VETERANS * around the world and ------------------------=========================== provided as a \_______________________________________________)free service to participants ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ in the International Vietnam Veterans EchoConference (IVVEC) available on many bulletin boards throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia. _ Not all of the articles appearing in here | are written by participants in the IVVEC, but NAM VET | is very much an electronic newsletter by, of -----/_\----- and for Vietnam veterans, their -O==============< : >==============O- friends, wives, and lovers. ( ) (...) ( ) The newsletter is comprised of articles and items from individuals and other sources. | We are not responsible | for the content of this information nor are any of NAM VET's |____====________ contributor's or Section Editors ||__________}____)==================|) =============---------------------===_____ /| | | | |\\ \________|__________|_________|_________|/ \\(O)___(O)___(O)___(O)___(O)___(O)// Duplication in any form permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For other use, contact: Todd Looney at (408) 947-7668 G. Joseph Peck at (413) 442-1660 ================================================================= T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S 1. EDITORIALS Expanded Services ....................................... 1 In the sand... .......................................... 3 2. Missing!!! MIA's: Non-Negotiable Issue ............................. 9 They haven't forgutten US!!! ............................ 12 3. Remember Them!!! Prison n' Prayer ........................................ 13 A visit or note once in awhile? ......................... 17 4. VA & 100th Congress New Laws Affecting VETERANS ............................. 18 5. Hearts n' Minds The Road to Recovery .................................... 24 Finally Here!!! ......................................... 30 6. Dealing with 'Nam Trip to 'Nam - Continued ................................ 31 Rebuildin' the 'Nam ..................................... 37 7. Our Flag ate: 28 Oct 89 23:28:24 ................................ 40 ate: 31 Oct 89 21:58:00 ................................. 41 ate: 03 Nov 89 16:48:43 ................................ 43 8. Agent Orange Ramblin' On ............................................. 47 9. -- MEMORIES -- Fallen Angels... ........................................ 49 10. MOVING WALL SCHEDULE 1989 Schedule of the Mini-Wall .......................... 57 11. Subscribe Now! Subscribe to Nam Vet .................................... 58 12. IVVEC NODELIST arameters of VIETNAM_VETS echoconference... ............. 59 Some Gave All... ........................................ 64 NAM VET Newsletter Page i Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 ================================================================= E D I T O R I A L S ================================================================= Expanded Services By: Todd Looney NAM VET Editor-in-Chief Vietnam Veterans Valhalla 1:143/27 San Jose, California Well, this has been a very busy month. Since being incarcerated in Santa Clara County's Work Furlough Program in Mountain View, California, I have expanded (or rather shifted) my services to operate entirely from that locale (with the exception of the Mail Only BBS system operating as Fidonet Node # 1:143/27 out of San Jose). I was amazed at the lack of veterans' services available in the jail facilities and as a result, have "opened" my doors there to provide as many services as I can, including but not limited to: completing and filing court paperwork legal referrals paycheck cashing through outside resources books and other reading materials ministry referrals AA meetings Narc-Anon meetings telephone calls to relatives and friends mailing services for vets without stamps Red Cross assistance medical referrals "pen-pal" referrals etc. I have been kept so busy that I now have two other Vietnam veterans within the facility aiding me in keeping the paperwork up, and getting all the work done that started to pile up over the last two months. I am scheduled for release on January 31, 1989 and have been making arrangements for full-time in-facility representation on a rotating basis (as inmates are released, we need someone to fill his shoes and take over his responsibilities). This entails having to create a training program which can be quickly assimilated so that new inmates who volunteer their time can get the hang of it quickly. I've made incentive arrangements with the prison officials to offer extra "good-time" and short passes to those who volunteer their time and work hard for their fellow veteran inmates as well. Thank God I have a lot of energy. I had no idea there was such a need for services within the prison system. When I am released I will continue working at the Mountain View facility, then expand services to include the main jails in both Mountain View and Milpitas. From there I would like to work my way into the various Federal prisons around the tri-county area, and spread out from there. It's a lot of work. I can see now how within a year I will easily need at least 60 full-time volunteers (about 60% of them actual inmates). We are in need of some items at the facility all the time like: NAM VET Newsletter Page 1 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 Tooth Paste Tooth Brushes Soap Pillows * Blankets * (* The ones issued are HORRIBLE!) Shower Shoes (thongs or the like) Reading Materials Musical Cassette Tapes Pen-Pals AA Batteries D-Cell Batteries If you would like to help, please respond to: Santa Clara County Work Furlough Center 590 East Middlefield Road Mountain View, CA. 94043 ATTN: Todd Looney, Veterans Aid (Dorm E-16) Anything you can send (no food stuff though, it is not permitted), will be gratefully appreciated by the veteran inmates and put to good use. Until next month, show a veteran you CARE! Todd Looney NAM VET Newsletter Page 2 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 In the sand... by: G. Joseph Peck NAM VET's Managing Editor VETLink #1 - Pittsfield, MA 1-413-443-6313 _________ \ \ ... from \ Joe's \ _____) Desk )_____ _________(____(________(_____(@) ) ) / O O O O O O O O O/_/| /<> O O O O O O O O O/ | /MM O O O O O O O MM/ o| / ___________ / o/ /O (___________) O O/. / (====================(_ / Berkshire Veterans' Center, Inc. "Helping those who served..." "But I thought I was just doing the best I could with the things I had," I mused. "I never, for a moment, thought I was doin' somethin' that closely parallel to what many ex-combat vets did after they came home from 'Nam. Not ME! *I* never saw combat, never had anyone try to kill me. Not ME!" It was a perfect morning for reflecting. The trip through my old home town didn't reawaken the nostalgic memories of the times that "used to be." I just wanted to be by myself... and drive, and drive and drive. 30 miles this way; 5 miles that; a slow, 20-minute crawl whilst cars behind me flashed their lights, honked their horns for me to get out of the way... and I drove on, looking, searchin' - trying to find some lost parts of yesterday that might give me a clue to where I was today. Finally, across the meadow and over the next hill, I found a spot to park. Nobody, but nobody was around. Just me and the lake and the half-warm late autumn breeze. Excellent for being by myself with myself and just thinking. The sun, ten o'clock high, was the only object in the cloudless sky. "Even the birds are quiet," I thought. A once- in-awhile breeze rippled the lake waters and my gaze frequently shifted from the water to the trees on the far side of the water and then to the pale blue skies. PERFECT! I couldn't have found a nicer place if I would have been searching for it - and THIS one I stumbled across. "Unwinnable battles; unwinnable battles; unwinnable..." I thought to myself as I got comfortable on a large boulder that overlooked one of the feeder streams to the lake. "No. I couldn't have purposefully taken on battles that couldn't be won. I know many of my brother and sister Vietnam veterans have been in one-car accidents, have started fights with someone 2-or-more times their size or when they were so outmatched the outcome was certain before it ever began. NAM VET Newsletter Page 3 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 "I'm not like that, though. I haven't gone out looking for fights; I haven't intentionally broken any laws, and, except for the time my first wife left me the first time, I never drove my car with any intent to do myself harm. No, I guess I AM different than the rest of my brother and sister veterans." A crayfish moved quickly back into its nest under a nearby rock, a crooked path in the wet sand marking its recent travels. As my eyes followed the trail left in mud, it was almost as though someone had butted me with the stock of an M-14 (M-16 to you post-'65 folk ) as a similar-to-my-veteran-counterparts parallel path of actions hit me near between the eyes and I began to trace the path of MY life since being thrown from the jeep while in the Army. "After I came out of the coma, I SHOULD have challenged the Army doctors and told them that I was suffering from a mild form of temporal lobe epilepsy and that they had misdiagnosed my post traumatic confusional state as being, instead, a psychiatric condition - but *I* chose the battle I COULD win... "After I got out of the service, I returned to my employment at White Plains NY's Western Union. During the November 9, 1965 blackout that affected the entire northeastern U.S., I SHOULD have challenged my employer with all kinds of union action when I was told to go home early rather than stay and work - but *I* chose the battle I COULD win... in a car that cost me only $50, $105 in my pocket, with no spare tire, and only my sense of direction as a guide, I left New York to return to California and my parents home. 5 days later I arrived. "When I moved back with my parents and siblings, I SHOULD have continued to challenge my parents about the RIGHT way to treat me since I'd changed, but, ashamed and confused, *I* chose the battle I could win ... and moved out on my own. "A year after returning to California, I SHOULD have made plans to stay and continue my college education, but *I* chose a battle I COULD win... In the same car I'd purchased in NY for $50, THIS time with $85 in my pocket AND a spare tire, I returned to New York to marry the girl who'd unsuccessfully tried to kill herself when I'd broken off our engagement after I got out of the Army... 5 days later I arrived. Four months later we were married. 5 months later, we were separated and, five months after that, we were back together. "Ten years later, when my service-incurred injuries forced me home and 10-months in-bed, I SHOULD have challenged the VA even further to award service-connection for my injuries - which WOULD have helped my wife and son, but *I* chose the battle I COULD win... we declared bankruptcy and lost everything we had. I COULD start over... "In 1972, four years later, I SHOULD have challenged the VA even further and harder for an Unemployability rating, but *I* chose the battle I COULD win... I opened my own Radio/TV repair business and did my best to survive. "In 1974, I SHOULD have closed the doors to my business and NAM VET Newsletter Page 4 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 taken ANY kind of job, but *I* chose the battle I COULD win... and began a Small Business Administration application for a small business loan. In 1976 the loan was granted - but ONLY after much media attention and a lot of persistence. "In 1976, I SHOULD have chosen to continue renting a place for myself and family to live rather than leasing-with-option-to-buy an old converted farmhouse that had no heat nor hot water nor electricity when first we moved in. But *I* chose the battle I COULD win... After even the VA turned me down for a home mortgage loan, I found a bank which would use my VA compensation check to "guarantee" a home mortgage loan, and we became the owners of our own home again. "In 1977, I SHOULD have chosen to stay alone in the empty ten room farmhouse after my first wife, taking the two children of our marriage, gave up on our marriage and went to live with her parents. But *I* chose the battle I COULD win... When all efforts at reconciliation failed, I contacted welfare departments and advertised for a live-in babysitter to care for my children when I got them back, legal and proper, through the courts of New York. The ONLY response was from an 18-year-old, unmarried young lady. In California, I had known a few live-in babysitters. I called one and, telling me that her marriage had broken up, she agreed to come to New York to care for my children. Also in California, my next-oldest brother had moved on from the relationship which produced three children, leaving the woman and children to stay with my parents. I drove out to pick up the live-in babysitter. Upon arriving in California, I learned that the babysitter I'd driven out to pick up was NOT divorced and, after helping resolve THAT situation with both the babysitter AND her husband and learning that the mother of my two nephews and a neice was planning to move, I asked if she and the children might like to come to New York. After receiving her okay, I then drove to speak with my brother about caring for the children. "If they ask what to call you," he said. "Tell them to call you Dad." Mom wasn't too happy. I was taking "her" children. Dad was pleased. Finally, my parents would have their house to themselves. Upon my return to New York, I was served with a Summons for Divorce - stating no grounds. "In 1979, after closing my own business and obtaining employment at a mental health facility, I SHOULD have chosen to just bite my tongue and move on when the bank who had granted the mortgage on our home utilizing the amount of VA Disability Compensation first agreed then refused to grant a small loan to purchase a used car so that I could get back and forth to work. But *I* chose a battle I COULD win... Without an attorney, spending many hours in law libraries, I battled against the bank's alleged attemped exercise of 'bad faith' - and lost in 1981. The picture is STILL clear in my mind's eye of when the moving van, two sheriff's cars and the bank's attorney came to remove my family and I from a house which I STILL call my home... The bank had all our belongings put in storage and, after blacking out behind the wheel of - and demolishing - my car, for the next few months we lived in an old NAM VET Newsletter Page 5 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 motor home that was parked out back of a bowling alley. I rode a bicycle for a bit... "In 1980, the woman I had brought from California and I were married - and I continued the struggles for custody of my own biological children. I couldn't pay for an attorney so, in those issues where I could, I did it myself... As for giving up on the relationship between the new woman in my life and I, I couldn't do that - Dad had since become totally disabled, my brother had returned to my parents home and had changed his attitude towards the 'situation' and, even if I had WANTED to, I couldn't have put the woman and her three children out, nor returned them to California... after all, they WERE family, too ... "In 1983, my new wife and I began leasing-with-option-to-buy another house; the VA granted my request to participate in a program of Vocational Rehabilitation - after the results of an 18-1/2 year battle and a six-week hospital stay PROVED that my military service was incorrectly terminated as a result of mistaken diagnoses; and I finally obtained an attorney to regain custody of my biological children. After all the welfare department investigations and credit checks and social service department reports were done, on the morning I was to appear in court to reclaim custody of my biological children, I received a telephone call from my ex- telling me that 'If you're a good boy, I MIGHT send you their address' and that they were 'somewhere' in Florida. I appeared in court anyway - only to learn that the attorney I had engaged to represent me had been investigated, charged, and plead guilty to possession and sale of cocaine and was, that morning, disbarred - and all the money I had paid was wasted. "In 1985, I obtained employment with the Veterans Administration. Feeling 'secure' in my future, my wife and I successfully applied for a mortgage on our home. The closing took place on 13 Mar 86 and, on 16 Mar 86, due to the effects of the Gramm-Rudman-Holings Balanced Budget Act, my 'temporary' position at the VA was terminated. "In 1986, I applied for work at, among other places, the U.S. Post Office. 50 percent service-connected disabled, I was denied the position BECAUSE OF my disabilities AFTER I had passed ALL the tests. I filed a claim with the VA for Unemployability... "In 1988, we almost lost our house. HUD has helped us save it... that is, until I still couldn't find work. Soon, unless somethin' happens, it looks like it'll be house number 3 we've said 'good-bye' to... "In 1989, after also being denied many, many other positions of employment, the VA advised me that my claim for Unemployability had been denied... "Shucks... I'm not ashamed of any of the battles I engaged in," I thought as I climbed off the rock. "I stood up, fought hard, very hard for what I believed in. And, according to the options presented, I chose the most winnable battle. "I won my freedom from a painful Army; won in TWO chances NAM VET Newsletter Page 6 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 against-the-odds in traveling from one end of the country to the other; won in love; won in battling for a home; won against the Small Business Administration; won against most odds of ever having a home of my own THREE times!; won in my battle with the Veterans Administration to have my original service-incurred injuries CORRECTLY diagnosed; won in my battle for Vocational Rehabilitation; won in many battles for other veterans... "How come I still feel like I've lost the war????" Two old-timers, canoe atop their car, drove up to the shore near where I was sitting. They were going fishing (maybe looking for another Bert?)... and I thought I'd better move... "Hmmmm.... STILL no answers," I mused, testing the ground before I put my full weight on each step. "I'll just walk a little further down the bank here... and keep searching..." Following the noontime sun, I began to walk westerly along the shoreline. I took out a cigarette and was about to light it when I saw, lying in the sand, a plastic, steel-potted, M-14 (or was it an M-1) carrying, all-set-for-combat toy soldier... "That's it! THAT'S what's been bugging me! All these years; all the bureaucracies and authorities *I've* faced; all the battles I've engaged in... Why the reactions I've received - and those that I've seen so many of my brother/sister veterans receive - are the SAME one's I've seen children display when they've tired of playin'. 'Pay it no mind,' they'll say. 'When we're done playin', just put it in the box and close the lid. It has no feelings, it can't be hurt, nothing we do is going to affect it - it's only a toy!' "I've been doin' a lot of thinking since I came across the toy soldier - about what I've done with my life, about what others have tried to do, about what really matters. The toy soldier now sits atop my monitor. "I've never seen combat like many of you here have - but I have seen combat of a different nature, right HERE in our own beautiful America... I haven't tripped across booby traps or fallen into punji-stick pits - but I HAVE built my own that seem even harder... I haven't killed people, but I HAVE had them die in my arms, HAVE saved a few of them while I was an active member of a Rescue Squad and a Volunteer Fire Department... I haven't been to 'Nam... but sometimes I think it would be a better place than what I seem to have built for my family and I here... Except for Mexico and Canada, I haven't been out of the U.S. - but when I was in the Army, my number could have been called like yours WAS... THIS has been the hardest editorial I've ever written. The openness and honesty I've tried to include here HURT... but I guess that's another of those 'unwinnable' battles I've engaged myself in... someday I might get past this point in my life - NAM VET Newsletter Page 7 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 and doin' NAM VET's sure helps ya look deep into what MIGHT be the causes of WHY a person IS where they ARE! I guess the 'memento' I found kinda tells me somethin' - about myself and what I've been doin' for the last 24 years... I kinda wonder if *I* haven't been taking on the 2-or-more times my size, match-decided-before I begin opponent each time I spy a new objective to achieve... Maybe, all along, I've only been a toy soldier... ... but I've sure worked hard at it 'til the Second Anniversary Edition (due out 11/11/89) Show a brother/sister veteran that YOU care!!! Ci'ao for Ni'ao -Joe- NAM VET Newsletter Page 8 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 ================================================================= M i s s i n g ! ! ! ================================================================= MIAs: Non-Negotiable Issue By Richard K. Kolb in the September 1989 VFW Magazine Input by: G. Joseph Peck NAM VET's Managing Editor VETLink #1 - Pittsfield, MA 1-413-443-6313 During the Vietnam War, the regime in Hanoi expertly manipulated American public opinion. It has become almost an accepted truth that the war was won by the North Vietnamese not on the battlefield but on America's home front. Today, Hanoi is again employing that same winning strategy. Only this time the aim is to wring from the American people war reparations which the Communists are determined to secure. Whether the indemnification is obtained directly or indirectly under the guise of "humanitarian aid" is of little consequence to Vietnam's aging leaders. "Hanoi views the MIA issue as the strongest lever for establishing diplomatic relations with the U.S. and thereby gaining desperately needed economic aid," wrote John Greenwald in Time magazine. "The Politburo may now hope to squeeze some of that money out of the United States by alternately cooperating and dragging its feet on the MIA issue. Not only has Hanoi never renounced its claims to reparations, it freely admits to such tactics. "What else do we have?" asked Vietnamese Foreign Ministry official. VEILED BLACKMAIL Only when some sort of concession was made by Washington or when the Communists were starved for international publicity have remains been forthcoming. For example, only eight sets of remains were returned in 1987. But in 1988, amidst a Presidential election year, the number leaped to 53 sets. As talk of "normalization" of relations progressed in 1989 the return of remains accelerated. Still, many of the remains could not be identified as American. In 16 years, the identified remains of only 235 GIs from Indochina have been returned. That works out to less that 10% of the 2,404 Americans (including 42 civilians) unaccounted for at the war's end in 1973. Of that total, 53% were missing in action with the remainder classified as killed in action - body not recovered. To speed up the process of accounting for MIAs, the Bush Administration has been urged to "normalize" relations with a supposedly "reformed" Vietnam. Aid-for-cooperation is now the centerpiece of the rapprochement movement. While limited private humanitarian assistance such as prosthetic devices for the severely disabled and medicine for Vietnamese children is supported by many, calls for war reparations elicit an entirely different response, especially from veterans. One such proponent of aid used this justification: "We reneged on the deal (the $3.25 billion offered by the Nixon NAM VET Newsletter Page 9 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 Administration) for war reparations. This retraction forced the Vietnamese to hold on to our men as bargaining chips." That America allegedly reneged on a "deal" is the standard party line emanating from Hanoi. So, goes the argument, the U.S. should pay for the Communists' disastrous reconstruction policies. This reasoning is gaining credence, despite Hanoi's clear violation of every precept of the Paris Peace Accords and its military conquest of South Vietnam. Moreover, the regime's reputation for duplicity is well established. Hanoi's record in dealing with MIAs after the French Indochina War (1945-1954) is most revealing. Only 7% of the remains of 22,000 Frenchmen killed in Vietnam were returned. In one year alone, $6 million was extorted from France for "gravesite maintenance" at cemeteries in North Vietnam. And Hanoi reportedly conceived a scheme to bilk Paris out of $640 million for total repatriation of French remains. EXTENDING THE CARROT Critics of a firm stance, though, still contend a more normal relationship with Hanoi is the answer. Such a gesture of goodwill was made last year. Legislation was introduced to open interest sections in the embassies of third nations in Hanoi and Washington. Sponsors sincerely believed this would facilitate regular high-level dialogue between the two countries on the MIA question. As soon as the State Department voiced objections to the legislation, Hanoi suspended processing of U.S. servicemen's remains and halted joint excavation of crash sites in an attempt to coerce Congress into passing the bill. Though the proposal was quickly dropped, the episode posed an interesting question. Would this form of diplomatic contact improve opportunities for resolving the MIA issue? According to Fred Z. Brown, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, "Better communication is not the central issue. The U.S. already has a dialogue with Vietnam via embassies in Bangkok, through visits by policy officials and working-level contact on MIAs." Indeed, U.S. representatives have met with the Vietnamese over 20 times in Hanoi since 1982. Additional contacts are made through Hanoi's official representative to the United Nations in New York. And between August 1987 and June 1989, remains were repatriated on ten separate occasions. Special Presidential Emissary Gen. John Vessey, Jr. is largely responsible for recent return of remains. As Ann Mills Griffiths, executive director of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing, wrote, "The league views the establishment of reciprocal interest sections as fraught with danger." Quasi-embassies are especially notorious for pressuring nationals in the U.S. on home-country politics, contributing to causes hostile to U.S. interests and spying. Interest sections are also a step closer to full diplomatic recognition -- a major stepping stone to U.S. economic aid. Moves in this direction are sure to be interpreted as appeasement and generate controversy. "It's a bad idea to expect recognition and trade agreements to improve anything in Vietnam," said Al Santoli, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and best-selling author. "The current leadership is the most vicious and duplicitous of all the Vietnamese NAM VET Newsletter Page 10 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 Communists. They are expert manipulators." MANIPULATION AS NATIONAL POLICY Though Hanoi's strategy is transparent, some still wonder why the remains issue has not been resolved. "Why? I suppose they may feel there's a certain amount of mileage in doling them out. It's a ghoulish business, very cynical, but we have good reason to believe they could be more forthcoming." said Re. Stephen J. Solarz, chairman of the House panel on Asian and Pacific Affairs. The Defense Intelligence Agency concluded years ago that the Communists are secretly withholding the remains of more than 400 Americans. Remains, as shown, that are doled out at strategic intervals to win political concessions. (This tactic was most effective with the Carter Administration, which was on the road to recognition until relations with Red China sidetracked it.) By indefinitely drawing out the issue, each set of remains can be bartered for more humanitarian aid. But some officials in government as well as non-governmental leaders see limited private aid as a productive means of keeping Hanoi on track. Others, however, view this exchange quite differently. Henry Kissinger, for example, who was chief negotiator at the Paris Peace talks in 1972, believes "Humanitarian concerns for Vietnam is a euphemism for giving them economic aid. I find it offensive that they sell us bodies every few years. Rep. J. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (Wis.), agreed and introduced in May 1988 a Sense of Congress Resolution reiterating the long- standing U.S. policy of no economic assistance to Vietnam. At this stage, steps toward normalization of relations would be counter-productive and send the wrong signal to Hanoi, argue critics of the carrot approach. Resolution of the MIA question should not be linked to diplomatic recognition, they say. "The American people - especially veterans - would not stand for diplomatic recognition of Hanoi considering its abysmal human rights record," says Billy Ray Cameron, Past Commander-in-Chief and chairman of VFW's POW/MIA Committee. "Recognition would reward for 16 years of Communist intransigence, manipulation and duplicity, dishonor those who died in Vietnam and perhaps most importantly, be a disincentive to satisfactory resolution of the fate of American MIAs in Vietnam." Ironically, those who favor cordial relations with the Communists for geopolitical reasons - with the MIAs serving merely as a convenient pretext to establish firmer links - have been widely criticized by Hanoi's natural allies on the leftwing of the political spectrum. Becoming intertwined once again in Indochina's geopolitics is doomed to failure, according to Nation magazine. Geopolitical reasoning is based on a faulty presumption: "This is that an enlightened change in U.S. policy can give us leverage over Vietnam and reshape the country in our own image." America has one overriding concern in Vietnam - the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing there. To achieve that objective, every form of economic and diplomatic pressure should be employed. Past relations have shown clearly the hazards of doing otherwise. NAM VET Newsletter Page 11 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 W W M M W W M M M M W W \ / M M M M OOOO W W W --*-- M M M IIII O O W W W W / \ M M II O O W W W W M M II O O W W M M II O O II PPPPPP O O ..... II AA PP PP OOOO . '' '' .. IIII A A PP PP ..' '.. A A PPPPPPP ..' ''. A A PP ..' '. AAAAAA PP .' ''. A A PP .' '. A A .' .:::::.. '. .' .::::::::::. ' .' .::::::::::::::. '. .' __ .::::::::::::::::;:... '. .' _- -_ .:::::::::::::::::::::::. '. .' _-_ _ _ -_ ::::::::::::::::::::::::' '. .. _- -!!___!!!-_:::::::::::::::::::::::. .. .' ==_ _- _= .:::::::::::::::::::::::: ', . =-_= _= = :::::::::::::::::::::::: . .' =-_ =_- = ::::::::::::::::::::::: '. .' = - -_ =_:::::::::::::::::::::. '. .' -_ -_- .:::::::::::::::::::;;;. '. .' _-_ ..::::::::::::::::::::::::; '. . _ _ .:;:::::::::::::::::::::;, . ' _ .:::::::::::::::::::::::::. '. Y .'.....::::::::::::::::::::::::::;' '. N ::::::::::::::::::::::::' `''' ': O `::::::::::::::::::::::: \v/ \ / :'E `:::::::::::::::::::::: =========================== :' U `:::::::::::::::::::::. /^\ \ :'T `:::::::::::::::::::: .: A `:::::::::::::::::: .:'T `::::::::::::::::::. .;' R `:::::::::::::::::. .;' T `::::::::::::::::. .;' E `:::::::::gjp::: .:' O `:::::::::::::...........'' G N O T F O R " Bring them home --- NOW !!! " NAM VET Newsletter Page 12 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 ================================================================= R e m e m b e r T h e m ! ! ! ================================================================= Christ Died for Forgiveness by John Schuchardt Presently serving time at Western Penitentiary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for his part in the "Plowshares 8" action last year (From the 1984/85 Archives of VETLink #1) Input by: Gjoseph Peck NAM VET's Managing Editor VETLink #1 - Pittsfield, MA 1-413-443-6313 He brought down twelve and fourteen-year-olds with his automatic weapon - but they were the enemy and killing was his duty. No law was broken. He captured civilians and saw them being taken in for interrogation, tied by rope neck to neck, with bags over their heads and arms bound behind their backs. When they were executed for "trying to escape" it was all in the day's work. There was no investigation. He went out to do the body count after napalm sorties and after invisible B-52's bombed imaginary "military targets", shaking the earth like an earthquake. But surely a rational policy can only be evaluated by measuring results. There were no questions asked of right and wrong, amidst the ashes, craters and bits and pieces of corpses, 90% civilian. In two tours in Vietnam dying was the only evil, survival the only good, in an environment of total violence: Enemy fire (ambushes, naval and air bombardment - 8 million tons equal to four WWII's - Agent Blue, White and Orange, Claymore mines, nausea and blister gas, 400,000 tons of napalm, search and destroy, free fire zones, Huey and Cobra pouring down 6,000 rounds per minute from each G.E. Vulcan gun). He was there when P.O.W's were pushed from flying helicopters and when the bodies of the living and the dead were mutilated. But he was not arrested for that. Finally one night he and his squad tossed a grenade into bed with their commanding officer, fragging a young lieutenant ("90- day wonder from Quantico) who seemed likely to get the whole platoon killed. But war is hell and survival is good, and he was not imprisoned for that. Today, 12 years later, he is imprisoned here at Western Penitentiary with some 300 other Vietnam veterans. In coming close to this man's life and in sharing imprisonment with the 1,163 men here, the following thoughts have emerged: 1. The imprisonment nationwide of some 70,000 Vietnam veterans is part of a continuing cover-up of the war and refusal to take responsibility for its victims in America and in Indochina. NAM VET Newsletter Page 13 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 Thomas Merton wrote that "The war in Vietnam is a bell tolling for the whole world, warning the whole world that war may spread everywhere and violent death may sweep over the entire earth." The neglect and imprisonment of the Vietnam veterans constitute willful refusal to hear the warning. 2. The Vietnam veteran is one of the most victimized of all individuals in America today. They have been twice betrayed: first, ordered by society and law to participate in genocide (1,700,000 killed, 3,200,000 maimed in Vietnam alone) or pay the penalty of exile or prison; then stigmatized either for losing the war or for having participated in what turned out to be "an overwhelming atrocity". In one form or another they were failed or betrayed by their communities, ritualistic churches and befuddled families, shipping out and coming home. 3. Imprisonment is a cruel victimization of human life, a systematic degradation of human personality in an atmosphere of totalism and deprivation. The coercion and hatred of individual personality which is the daily experience of the prisoner is equated by Christ with murder, (John 3:11-16). Prisons are antithetical to Christian values: "The Son of Man did not come to destroy people's lives." (Luke 9:56). 4. Almost every prisoner has been victimized repeatedly before being victimized by the courts in a prison sentence: by militarism, racism, industrialism, poverty or parental alcoholism, abuse or abandonment. Justice in the lives of these individuals requires restitution, not retribution. 5. Every prisoner is Christ, suffering. This is seen most easily perhaps in the faces of the aged, the blind, the paraplegic in wheelchairs, the very young and terrified, the sick and the dying. "Lord, when was it that we saw you in prison?" (Mt. 25:37) Christ was carried out of North Block last week; he had not a single friend or relative outside; he had been a prisoner of the State for 27 years, but when he died no one missed him. His corpse was counted 4 times a day for 3 or 4 days until it was accidentally discovered that he was dead. "What you have failed to do for the least of these you have failed to do for me." (Mt.25). 6. Criminal justice is the domestic counterpart of war. Like war, when closely examined "It is discovered to have no rationally definable objective. The supposed objectives . . . are actually myths and fictions which are all the more capable of enlisting the full force of devotion to duty and hatred of the enemy when they are completely empty of content." (Merton on Simone Weil's THE POWER OF WORDS or LET'S NOT FIGHT THE TROJAN WAR ALL OVER AGAIN.) Prisons promote crime and endanger the public; they are a major moving force in the downward spiral of violence. 7. Prisons are the kind of solution (to a very real problem) that point to a "final solution". The U.S. currently takes 5,000,000 prisoners a year. We are engaged in massive prison expansion (800+ jails and prisons under construction) yet the current regime proposes $2 billion be given the 50 states for NAM VET Newsletter Page 14 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 additional prisons, plus transfer of Federal land and buildings suitable for prison compounds, plus propaganda support for massive emergency state appropriations. 8. The spirit of evil is a coercive spirit which involves the threat of force. The police, court and prison system in America is an effort to overcome evil with evil. 9. Prisons and executions are scapegoat phenomena in which we collectively refuse to acknowledge our own guilt and confess that our evils are common. Instead we project our evil upon others and through our institutions select the youngest, poorest and most defenseless members of society upon whom to heap all our condemnation and then cast them out into the wilderness. This does nothing to purge ourselves of the injustices and cruelties we can see embodied and grossly magnified in the Bomb. 10. The roots of crime in our society are within ourselves, not the scapegoats whom we label "criminals". "The problem of violence . . . is the problem of a whole social structure which is outwardly ordered and respectable, and inwardly ridden by psychopathic, obsessions and delusions. Violence today is white- collar violence, the systematically organized bureaucratic and technological destruction of human beings. . . the real problem is death and even genocide as big business." (Merton, FAITH AND VIOLENCE) 11. There is a causal connection between prisons in our name and nuclear methods of mass extermination in our name. Prisons and the Pentagon are intended to protect our possessions. The American values of wealth, success and superiority are biblical signs of sin, injustice and violence. 12. War and prisons, armies and police, the foreign and domestic faces of force are evils which are masked by legality, respectability and bipartisan convictions of necessity. Reagan policies continue Carter policies, manifesting the demonic in all its horror by selecting the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to announce production and deployment of the neutron bomb. 13. There are ironic contradictions in having the courts which establish and protect megadeath, the ultimate crime, sit in judgment on the individual "criminal" and people obsessed with crime and security living in total defenselessness on Ground Zero. 14. Forgiveness for the 850 on death rows and freedom for all 500,000 prisoners is as improbably and as necessary as peace on earth. It is a contradiction to espouse nonviolence in the peace movement as a safe and effective tactic and then call the police if we are personally robbed, raped or attacked. The full meaning of nonviolence is found in living it as a response to violence. 15. Resistance to the enormous and obvious threat of nuclear weapons is largely limited to state-authorized dissent because of the basic belief in the law. We are passive before the law that establishes and protects genocidal technology in our midst because we approve the law's process of judging and condemning defendants. The words in Merton's essays on peace that NAM VET Newsletter Page 15 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 predominate to describe the lack of responsibility shown in the nuclear crisis are "inertia, indifference, helplessness, evasion, acquiescence, moral passivity, default." In an inner way we agree with the law as it condemns criminals and so are held captive to these same institutions which legitimize the nuclear arms race. 16. Christian belief and experience reveals that evil is reversible and that violence and injustice can be overcome in our own lives and in our world. The experience of turning around is called METANOIA, repentance. The central sign of repentance (and that the evil we have done is forgiven) is our forgiveness of others and love for enemies, (Mt. 6:14-15). The Kingdom of God is a forgiven and forgiving life, (Mt. 18:23ff). In the Lord's Prayer we ask, "Forgive us the wrong we have done, as we have forgiven those who have wronged us." (Mt. 6:12). To forgive and refuse to pass judgment on the lives and actions of others is central to the Sermon on the Mount. Christ died for forgiveness. He forgave his executioners. To forgive and to heal are the special commission of the followers of Christ. 17. The prisoner experiences society and law in the same manner as Christ did: voices are raised calling for law and order (John 19) and supreme allegiance is sworn to the State rather than to God or to brothers and sisters as mandated by the Great Commandment in Mark 12:28-31. The prisoner is mocked and his possessions taken and divided. 18. Humanly we are unable to forgive. The capacity to forgive is a gift of the Holy Spirit, given after repentance, (Acts 2:38). In the confession of the wrong in our personal lives and then our complicity in nuclear weapons and war (and other institutionalized injustices with roots in our greed, ambition, tax-paying, property), forgiveness of ourselves will be manifested in great love for others, (Luke 7:47). We will be able to see and love the "criminals" and know that human nature is radically good and that each individual life is to be nurtured, loved, forgiven - never condemned, imprisoned, erased from the face of creation. 19. Prison is where we may learn our history and seek our true identity. Here are the descendants of slaves, veterans of WWII, Korea and Indochina, the refugee and alien, Native Americans, and other victims of U.S. imperial expansion. What has impressed me most deeply about the imprisoned is their strength, generosity, endurance, long-suffering, faith and good spirit under continuous humiliation and starkest deprivation. 20. In our current moment of uttermost peril we may still confess our guilt and declare the prisoner's innocence (forgiveness) and turn and be healed. It must still be possible "with malice towards none and charity towards all, to bind up the nation's wounds." Only by cutting the Gordian knot of condemnation, hatred and violence can we stop the machinery of the law from continuing to devour our children through draft laws, criminal laws, property laws and tax laws that protect death factories. Our time is limited. NAM VET Newsletter Page 16 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX \ \ \ \ \XXXX XXXXX XXXXX.::::::::::::::.XXXXX INCARCERATED XXXX XXXXX XXXXX --------- XXXXX \ \ \ \ \ \ \XXXX XXXXX .XXXXX W W I I XXXXX. 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'.XXXX XXXXX :: XXXXX" ':.:'' XXXXX .'' .:::'XXXX XXXXX :: XXXXX:.. .:XXXXX.'' .::::' .XXXX XXXXX :: XXXXX '.. ..:' XXXXX ..:' . .:::'XXXX XXXXX ....::'XXXXX ':::::;' XXXXX .:''. .:::' XXXX XXXXX .:::::' XXXXX .: XXXXX :'. ..:... XXXX XXXXX.::' :: XXXXX: PREPARED TO XXXXX .'' ''.. XXXX XXXXX::' :: XXXXX`: FIGHT XXXXX.' '.XXXX XXXXX' :: XXXXX ``. XXXXX XXXX XXXXX '' XXXXX PREPARED TO XXXXX XXXX XXXXX :: XXXXX DIE ...'XXXXX XXXX XXXXX :: XXXXX `...' XXXXX XXXX XXXXX `..' XXXXX .' XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX /\ .' .' XXXX XXXXX /\ \ . . XXXX XXXXX / \ \...' `. .' XXXX XXXXX / NOT PREPARED TO BE DESERTED XXXX XXXXX / .'.' . .`.' XXXX XXXXX / ~ | : : : . XXXX XXXXX / |`. : : . .__________ XXXX XXXXX / ~ ~ ||.` ` : || \ / XXXX XXXXX / WRITE OR VISIT AN INCARCERATED VETERAN SOON ! XXXX XXXXX / ~ || . .'. / / XXXX XXXXX/ ~ ~ ~|| ||/ / XXXX XXXXX ~ ~ ~ || || / XXXX XXXXX || || / XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX \_________XXXXX________|| XgjpX XXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXX NAM VET Newsletter Page 17 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 ================================================================= V A & 1 0 0 t h C o n g r e s s ================================================================= New Laws Affecting Veterans From the July 1989 Edition of The American Legion Input by: G. Joseph Peck NAM VET's Managing Editor VETLink #1 - Pittsfield, MA 1-413-443-6313 The 100 Congress will be remembered as "The Veterans' Congress" for its landmark legislation that established the Court of Veterans Appeals and expanded programs in other areas that concern veterans. VETERANS' JUDICIAL REVIEW BENEFITS IMPROVEMENT ACT Some veterans whose VA benefit claims have been denied during the appeals process will have an opportunity to present their cases to a new branch of the federal court system. P.L. 100-687, the Veterans' Judicial Review/Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act of 1988, created the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals, which will have the authority to review certain claims denied by the VA's Board of Veterans Appeals. The court, which is scheduled to begin operations Sept. 1, 1989, will rule only on cases filed with the VA after Nov. 18, 1988. It will be composed of a chief judge appointed by the President, and up to six associate judges. Operating independently of VA, the court will have the power to uphold, modify or reverse BVA decisions, and will have the jurisdiction to consider all factual, legal and constitutional questions on claims denied by the BVA. At press time, officials had not yet announced the criteria that would determine the type of cases allowed to go before the court. However, a veteran seeking a review by the court must file a notice of appeal with the court within 120 days of a BVA decision. A maximum $50 filing fee will be charged. With the enactment of P.L. 100-687, the longstanding objectives of The American Legion to improve adjudication procedures for veterans' claims were finally achieved. Most of the law's provisions originally were included in H.R. 5039, the Veterans Reassurance Act, which was written by the Legion and introduced in Congress in July 1988. H.R. 5039, which evolved from Legion Res. 34, reaffirmed veterans' right to appeal and established provisions that would improve the VA claims process. Both the Legion resolution and the bill called for a repeal of the $10 ceiling on attorney fees. Under the new law, attorneys may now charge up to 20 percent of the awarded claim. Other provisions of P.L. 100-687: + Transferred $3 million in VA funds appropriated in FY 1984 for the Agent Orange epidemiological study, to the Air Force for its study of "Operation Ranch Hand." The operation was a massive spraying of Agent Orange conducted throughout Southeast Asia between 1962 and 1971. More than 12 million gallons of the herbicide were sprayed during that period. + Authorized $1 million in VA funds appropriated in FY 1984 to be used for a review of scientific literature pertaining to the NAM VET Newsletter Page 18 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 health effects of exposure to dioxins found in herbicides. + Provided that payments received from the Agent Orange settlement fund shall not be counted as income by VA when it considers non-service-connected claims filed by Vietnam veterans. + Authorized a 4.1 percent cost-of-living increase for veterans receiving VA compensation benefits. A similar increase was also provided to widows and orphans of veterans who died of service- connected conditions. + Allocated $6 million to the American Battle Monuments Commission for restoration and maintenance of the Pacific War Memorial on the Philippine island of Corregidor. LANDMARK LEGISLATION BOLSTERS HEALTH PROGRAM Many of The American Legion's legislative priorities were enacted into law with the passage of P.L. 100-322, the Veterans' Benefits and Services Act of 1988. As many as 16 Legion resolutions were incorporated in the legislation, which included 70 provisions and contained some of the most significant changes in VA policy in recent years. Among the key provisions were: OUTPATIENT CARE The Department of Veterans Affairs is REQUIRED to provide outpatient care to: + All veterans with service-connected disabilities. + Veterans with service-connected disability ratings of 50 percent or more, for any disability. + Veterans disabled by previous VA treatment. + Veterans disabled while participating in vocational rehabilitation. VA also is required to provide outpatient care prior to hospital admissions, or outpatient care that would eliminate hospitalization to those with 30 percent ot 40 percent service- connected disabilities. Care also is guaranteed for veterans whose annual incomes do not exceed the ceiling on non-service- connected pensions. While veterans in the aforementioned categories have top priority for outpatient care, VA also MAY provide care to veterans with service-connected disabilities with ratings of less than 30 percent; those in need of examinations to qualify for compensation and pensions; former POWs; veterans exposed to Agent Orange; those exposed to ionizing radiation while serving in occupied Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in subsequent nuclear testing; Mexican Border and World War I veterans whose annual incomes exceed the maximum VA pension; and veterans who receive increased pensions and compensation, but whose incomes are below the Category A limit, which is $16,466 or less. BENEFICIARY TRAVEL VA was given discretionary authority to provide beneficiary travel payments to certain veterans traveling to and from VA medical facilities. Veterans are eligible for reimbursement or personal transportation costs related to any service-connected disability. Others eligible for beneficiary travel are: + Veterans receiving VA pensions. + Those whose annual income does not exceed the maximum annual rate of pensions, which is $6,463. + Veterans unable to pay for transportation costs. + Those requiring special transportation but are unable to pay the costs. + Veterans scheduled for examinations for compensation and NAM VET Newsletter Page 19 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 pensions. Some of the conditions that have been set: + A $3 deductible for a one-way trip to a VA medical facility. Reimbursed at the rate of 11 cents per mile, a veteran would have to travel about 27 miles, one way, to satisfy the deductible. + A monthly cap on deductibles for a pre-approved "frequent traveler" is $18. + Deductible would not apply for scheduled compensation and pension examinations, and special modes of transportation. + The deductible may be waived when a financial hardship exists. + The deductible will be modified by the same percentage if beneficiary travel payments are increased. Also authorized is the use of special transportation to VA facilities when an emergency exists. Payment may be provided without determining eligibility and would be recovered later from ineligible veterans. VA also is required to consult and coordinate with the Department of Transportation and service officers of veterans' groups to establish and maintain local volunteer transportation networks. VET CENTERS P.L. 100-322 restricts VA from moving Vet Centers from neighborhood, storefront locations to VA medical facilities. Each year, Congress requires VA to submit a detailed plan outlining how each Vet Center will operate in the coming fiscal year. The agency is prohibited from taking any action with a center until 120 days after the operation plan is submitted. BURIAL BENEFITS Burial allowance for veterans who die of service-connected disabilities was increased to $1,500. The requirement for upright markers also was waived for veterans buried in cemeteries on or near VA medical facilities. Flat markers are authorized for cremated remains in national cemeteries. VA also is authorized to provide grave liners in VA cemeteries, and the same authority is given the Secretary of the Army for liners at Arlington National Cemetery. The law also lifts a restriction that no state may receive more than 20 percent of the federal government's total annual grants for establishing, expanding or improving state veterans' cemeteries. VA STAFF INCENTIVES Several provisions included in P.L. 100-322 are designed to recruit and retain nurses and other health-care specialists. Registered nurses are eligible for annual bonuses of up to $4,000 if they sign extended-work agreements. Also, RNs can receive premium pay for Saturday work and participate in tuition- reimbursement programs. The law also requires that the chief of nursing at each VA medical facility be included in each policy- making committee at the facility. OTHER KEY FEATURES + Authorized fee-basis medical care for certain service- connected veterans residing in Canada and the Philippines. + Increased the VA per diem rates for state veterans' home care to $8.70 for domiciliary care; $20.35, nursing-home care; and $15.25 for hospital care. VA also can increase rates annually, within certain limitations. + Provided outpatient dental care for former POWs in captivity at least 90 days. NAM VET Newsletter Page 20 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 + Raised automobile allowance for disabled veterans to $5,500. + Increased the specially adapted housing-allowance to $38,000; and increased to $6,500 the adaptive housing assistance for service-connected blind veterans and those who have lost the use of both hands. + Required VA to launch a two-year pilot program for mobile health-care clinics for veterans who live in remote areas or at least 100 miles from the nearest VA medical facility. + Restricted the VA secretary from curtailing the agency's health-care services, except during national or regional emergencies. + Authorized $6 million for a pilot program to aid homeless, chronically mentally ill veterans. + Required VA to convert 500 acute-care beds in urban medical facilities for use by homeless veterans. The agency also is required to make annual reports to Congress on efforts to help homeless veterans during the next three years. + Established confidential treatment of AIDS patients' records, except in medical emergencies, or when it is necessary to other's health. Also banned discrimination in admission or treatment of AIDS veterans, or those addicted to drugs or alcohol. + Produced a presumption of service connection for former POWs suffering from peptic ulcer disease and irritable-bowel syndrome and neuropathy, except when those conditions occurred during the course of another disease. + Provided a presumption of service connection for systemic lupus erythematosis that manifested to a degree of 10 percent or more within a year of veteran's discharge from the military. + Expanded the VA secretary's authority to recognize certain veterans as former POWs if they were held by governments other than enemy governments during World War II. + Directed Treasury Department to return agency funds taken under the Gramm-Rudman-Holings bill to balance the budget. + Authorized VA, rather than commercial companies, to provide mortgage life insurance to veterans eligible for VA specially adapted housing assistance. + Barred states from collecting taxes on premiums paid by the VA's Servicemen's Group Life Insurance and Veterans' Group Life Insurance policies. + Established a revolving fund from the sale of VA-owned properties to build or renovate VA nursing homes. ` + Authorized the agency to provide domiciliary care to veterans whose incomes do not exceed the maximum annual VA pension, or to veterans considered to have no adequate means of support. VETERANS' EMPLOYMENT TRAINING AND COUNSELING Two bills enacted by the 100th Congress placed job-training programs for veterans on more solid footing and extended tax incentives for employers who hire veterans. The Legion played a major role in drafting P.L. 100-323, the Veterans' Employment, Training and Counseling Amendments Act of 1988, which: + Established a National Veterans' Employment and Training Institute to train employment specialists, and authorized $2.6 million to fund the operation in FY 1989. + Provided a two-year extension of the Veterans' Job Training Act through March 31, 1990, and extended through Sept. 30, 1989, the deadline for applying for VJTA training. However, at press time, Congress had not yet appropriated the funds to operate the program. NAM VET Newsletter Page 21 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 + Ensured adequate funding for Local Veterans' Employment Representatives (LVERs) and Disabled Veterans' Outreach Program (DVOPs) specialists. + Prescribed the LVERs hired on or after July 1, 1988, must be hired according to the following priority: (1) qualified service- connected disabled veterans; (2) qualified veterans; and (3) qualified eligible persons. + Required performance standards to be established for LVERs and DVOPs that are consistent with their statutory duties and functions. + Directed the Secretary of Labor to establish better coordination and consultation with VA, especially in readjustment counseling, training and rehabilitation of disabled veterans. + Authorized waiving residency requirements to appoint any qualified veteran as a state Director of Veterans' Employment and Training (DVET) or Assistant Director of Veterans' Employment and Training, (ADVET), if no qualified veteran with the residency requirements is available. + Required DVETs and ADVETs to monitor compliance of federal laws requiring veterans' employment preference in federal jobs, and to report non-compliance to the Office of Personnel Management. + Required the Assistant Secretary for Veterans' Employment and Training to conduct an unemployment study every two years of special disabled veterans and veterans who served in the Vietnam Theater. The first study is to be completed in November 1989. Another bill, P.L. 100-647, the Technical Corrections Act of 1988, provided a one-year extension of the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit program, which gives employers substantial tax credits for hiring under-employed or unemployed Vietnam-era veterans and others. VETERANS' BENEFITS AND PROGRAMS IMPROVEMENT ACT Veterans who suffered from chronic alcoholism and were unable to use education and rehabilitation benefits before the time expired, will receive an extension from P.L. 100-689, the Veterans' Benefits and Programs Improvement Act of 1988. The measure is significant because VA views alcoholism as willful misconduct. Claims based on alcoholism are routinely denied by VA, a policy upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Legion and other groups such as the American Medical Association contend that alcoholism is a disease. P.L. 100-689 also grants death benefits to survivors of service members enrolled in the Montgomery GI Bill, if they die on active duty. The benefit is equal to the amount deducted from a participant's basic pay - $100 for each of the first 12 months - minus any amount of educational assistance the participant already received. The act also requires service members on active duty from Oct. 19, 1984, through June 30, 1988, to have a secondary-school diploma or equivalency certificate by Dec. 31, 1989, to be eligible to participate in the Montgomery GI Bill. In addition, a GI Bill participant who is discharged from military service because of a pre-existing medical condition or reduction in force is not entitled to one month of educational assistance for each month served on active duty. Other provisions of P.L. 100-689: + Provided service-connected, disabled veterans in VA rehabilitation training with the opportunity to receive unpaid training or work experience with state or local governments. NAM VET Newsletter Page 22 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 Previously, only federal agencies were permitted to provide unpaid training or work. + Expanded the VA's authority to contract with halfway houses and other community outreach facilities for the treatment of veterans suffering from drug or alcohol problems. RADIATION-EXPOSED VETERANS ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION Veterans who were exposed to ionizing radiation during nuclear testing or while serving in the U.S. occupation of Japan won a significant victory in the final session of the 100th Congress. P.L. 100-321, the Radiation-exposed Veterans' Compensation Act, requires VA to pay compensation benefits on a presumptive basis to veterans who were exposed to ionizing radiation and developed certain types of cancer within 30 years of exposure. The diseases include all forms of leukemia except chronic lymphatic leukemia. Also included are thyroid cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, cancers of the pharynx, stomach, esophagus, small intestines, gall bladder, bile ducts, and primary liver cancer (except if cirrhosis or hepatitis B is indicated) and multiple myeloma and lymphomas, except Hodgkin's disease. Further criteria include: + A veteran suffering from leukemia had to contract the disease within 30 years of exposure and, as a result, must be rated at least 10 percent disabled. The other forms of cancer must have developed within 40 years and also render a veteran at least 10 percent disabled. + A veteran exposed to ionizing radiation must have served with U.S. occupation forces in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, between Aug. 6, 1945, and July 1, 1946. Other exposures to radiation must have occurred while serving on active duty during nuclear testing between 1945 and 1962. The Department of Defense estimates that about 200,000 veterans were exposed to ionizing radiation. Veterans who believe they were exposed to radiation should contact the Defense Nuclear Agency, Attention: RARP-NTPR, Washington, DC 20505-1000, or call collect, (703) 285-5610. NAM VET Newsletter Page 23 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 ================================================================= H e a r t s n ' M i n d s ================================================================= VIETNAM VETERANS: THE ROAD TO RECOVERY The Problems of Seeking and Receiving Help By Joel Osler Brende, MD and Erwin Randolph Parsons, Ph.d. Copyright 1985 Input by: Kathleen Kelly, Ph.D. NAM VET's PTSD Section Editor The New York Transfer 1-718-448-2358 PART I. ------- Combat veterans have been conditioned to fight, be courageous, and not admit defeat. This has made it hard for them to accept their problems and ask for help. This applies not only to those Vietnam veterans with the relatively minor symptom of recurrent traumatic dreams, but to those with serious self-destructive symptoms, particularly when combined with the outward appearance of relative normality. Consequently, the first problem facing the Vietnam veteran needing help is that his self-defeating actions often disguise his wish for help. He often appears to be either inching forward on a tightrope, nearly blocked in mid-course by despair, or tottering on the brink of falling. This dilemma of needing but fearing help was described by a Vietnam veteran seeking treatment. Repeatedly in trouble with the law, and unable to enjoy any of the normal activities of family life because of his self-punishing symptoms, he was finally forced into a treatment program when threatened with divorce and the possibility of a prison sentence for his attacks of rage. He admitted: "The only reason I have come to the hospital is because my wife will leave me if I don't. She can't handle it when I hit her and I don't want to do it but it happens anyway. And if she left me I wouldn't have any more reason to live anyway. I pick fights with people all the time and I don't know why I'm still alive. I hate everybody and I hate myself because I've hurt so many people. I don't have any goals for myself because I can't see any light at the end of the tunnel." Another Vietnam veteran was eventually propelled into treatment because of the threat of being prosecuted for assault. He was subject to aggressive outbursts, sometimes under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and sometimes while dissociating into a different "personality." He recalled one such incident: "About a year before I came in the hospital, a big guy where I worked kept provoking me. I warned him to leave me alone but he didn't believe me. He weighed about 300 pounds and no one dared to take him on but he went too far one day. I can't really remember exactly what happened but they told me that I picked him up by the throat and held him over the edge of a three-story building and threatened to drop him. I guess they thought I acted like a crazed killer and they called the police within five minutes. A few months later, I almost killed a man again but I don't remember anything. That really scared me. I had no choice other than to go to the VA hospital for help or I'd be in prison." NAM VET Newsletter Page 24 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 Even with the best of help, Vietnam veterans with PTSD symptoms seldom improve rapidly or easily and treatment is often lengthy though rarely complete. Those who enter a treatment program face potential risks, particularly if it means entering the hospital. Knowing about these potential risks beforehand may help them be better prepared to begin and remain in treatment through difficult times. The first risk is the possibility of only partial recovery. For many, this may make it seem not worth the effort to enter a treatment program, particularly for those looking for wonder drugs and magical results. Then there is the risk of losing a tenuously held job or marriage. The unfortunate fact that Vietnam veterans have difficulties sustaining employment often means that few employers will have patience with their unpredictable behavior problems nor wait for them to return from the hospital. On the home front, the embittered wife who feels that she is finally free of the burden of responsibility for her husband's welfare, may leave him in the hands of mental health professionals and divorce him. If she has good intentions but little patience, she may not be able to withstand the long period it may take for her husband to recover from his detachment, his disregard for affection and love, and his inability to handle responsibility. Thus, the Vietnam veteran who still has his job may fear that entering the hospital for several months will most certainly result in his losing it, and in our experience, that happens only too often. It is also very likely that an employer will not hire or keep a Vietnam veteran ... if he requests time off for even several hours a week while participating in an outpatient program. Similarly, the veteran with a stable marriage may fear that his absence from home, while entering a hospital treatment program, will cause his wife to lose interest and leave him, which sometimes happens. It is also not uncommon that this fear of loss is hidden by an openly expressed, though irrational, fear that his family is in danger, which reinforces a strong, aggressively protective wish to stay home and guard his wife and children. This irrational attitude is frequently related to postwar guilt feelings about abandoning friends in Vietnam. For example, Ira, a married veteran with children, suffered the loss of many of his close friends in Vietnam and felt considerable guilt about surviving. He entered a treatment program and received only partial help. Remaining 2 months, he asked for a discharge, saying he was afraid something might happen to his family. In spite of his belief that he would be able to return home and be a protective husband and father, he returned to the program 2 weeks later with frightening unresolved aggressive symptoms. Fortunately, after his return, he felt a need to stop concealing his past and was able to talk more openly about a number of very disturbing memories of buddies getting killed, which he had avoided before. The veteran entering treatment sometimes feels the risk that if his personality changes, his wife will lose respect for him. Kirk felt comfortable with his aggressively protective attachment to his wife but became very anxious when encouraged to display openly his affection, which he had never done in his 14 years of NAM VET Newsletter Page 25 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 marriage. He volunteered: "I have never told my wife I love her and I can't. That's not me. I'd feel phony and less than a man. She ought to know I love her anyway. If she can't accept me the way I am, I'd just as soon she leave me now. She would probably leave me for sure if I tried to change." Fortunately, this veteran's wife was very committed to their marriage, her interest was sustaining to him during his difficult process of change, and she, moreover, received emotional support from a group comprised of veterans' wives. However, her resilience was only made possible by her having been forewarned that her husband's improvement would likely be preceded by periods of depression and anger; he would remain emotionally distant from her before he could be more sensitive to her needs and expressive of his affection. Some Vietnam veterans feel that the changes necessary for a breakthrough could be so dramatic as to result in a complete psychotic breakdown. Neil, a Vietnam veteran from the South Bronx, entered a hospital treatment program after "surviving" a number of years under conditions similar to those of a combat zone. The only reason he began treatment was because his common-law wife opposed his criminal activities and insisted he seek help. Living alone in a vacant apartment building without water or electricity, he was surrounded by thieves, drug pushers, and drug users. His only means of survival was taking money at gunpoint from other drug dealers and occasionally dealing himself. In spite of the obvious self-destructive nature of this life- style, he was uncertain that he could live any differently or fit in anywhere else. Even though he had grown up in a more conventional home, after 2 months in the treatment program, he yearned to return to the "combat zone," which was similar to his Vietnam experience. He particularly feared his increasing depression and accompanying fear at the prospect of changing: "I don't know if I want to stay in the program any longer. When I got here, I knew there was something wrong with me but I didn't know what. Now I know what it is and I don't like it. If I stay any longer I don't know who I will become. I know I don't want to become just another phony American. And I'm really afraid that if I don't leave now, I could go crazy." In developing trusting relationships with people, the veteran may grow to feel exceedingly vulnerable. This same veteran was quite resistant to his therapist's suggestion that he would have to take the risk of trusting those who were helping him: "In the South Bronx where I live, nobody trusts anybody else. I'm used to that and I feel safe. If you trust someone, you might get a knife in your back." More than once, he considered dropping out of the treatment program rather than face painful grief and guilt-ridden memories that could only be touched upon after developing relationships a great deal more trusting with the staff. Another risk that Vietnam veterans face is experiencing more acute emotional pain after recalling disturbing memories and emotions that had previously been blocked. For example, a veteran who had been in a hospital treatment program several months finally disclosed to one of the staff nurses a memory of which he felt profoundly ashamed. During the next 2 months, he became NAM VET Newsletter Page 26 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 irritable, isolated, and withdrawn from that nurse, who did not understand the reason for his distancing behavior. The communication barrier that developed exacerbated his angry feelings. Eventually, an important step toward resolution was taken at a meeting wherein each of them began to wear away the barrier, and the veteran said: "When I told you those things about me that I didn't want anyone to hear, I felt vulnerable and I didn't want anyone around me anymore." Through this admission, both understood the origins of the barrier and were able to resolve it so that the veteran felt somewhat less isolated and guilt-ridden. Veterans fear that revealing past experiences may bring upon them the rejection of friends and counselors; they also fear it could lead in the latter case to their prosecution for war crimes. (This is unlikely, given the legal privilege of confidentiality during psychotherapy.) It is not infrequent, however, for a Vietnam veteran to leave a treatment program before he has received the help he needs, rather than talk openly about "secrets" that have caused him terrible feelings of shame and guilt. To a veteran who has harbored his own secret for so many years, it seems that his is worse than anyone else's could conceivably be. Dean, who had been an outstanding high school student, dropped out of a hospital treatment program only to return 2 weeks later to make a "confession." While in the field in Vietnam, he had taken a foolish chance that brought enemy fire toward his squad. As a result, he was wounded and his closest buddy was killed trying to rescue him from where he lay. This "confession" became both a relief and a burden since talking about it openly activated his guilt feelings more strongly; he consequently projected onto his therapist that the therapist had lost all respect for him. Despite such fear of rejection, most Vietnam veterans would more likely share their most guilt-ridden memories with a counselor than with another patient. When a group of veterans were asked why this was so, they replied: "We value the friendships of our `brothers' more than the friendships of the staff. So if it doesn't work out to tell a staff person, we haven't lost as much as we might if we tell another vet." Many fear that reviving their experiences of war will unleash their "killer instinct." In a similar vein, many have a healthy fear of hurting those whom they depend on. Most of them are likely to do anything to avoid a situation in which they could lose control and hurt someone, including leaving treatment if they feel there is no alternative. For that reason a Vietnam veteran receiving treatment should expect his therapist to be alert to this possible though unlikely risk of being the target of a rage attack. The patient can expect his therapist to ask him to talk about the anger, if possible, which will generally keep it from being expressed physically. Veterans can expect to have their therapists establish firm guidelines, prohibiting violent actions and spelling out the consequences if they do occur. If the therapy is being provided in a group setting, the therapist will expect support from other veterans to help any one of their group who appears to be on the verge of losing control. Perhaps the most difficult barrier for nearly every Vietnam NAM VET Newsletter Page 27 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 veteran to surmount, is to eventually give up the desire for revenge. For if he learns to give up harboring resentment and feelings of revenge, he will no longer be the walking time-bomb some describe themselves to be. This will eventually pave the way for him to become comfortable with normal feelings of anger so that he can recognize it within him and learn to express it safely. Having decided not to physically strike out, a veteran can learn alternate ways of controlling himself when feeling vulnerable. This may mean temporarily finding a place to be quiet and alone, using words rather than actions, and learning to assert himself productively and in a positive way. Finally, a Vietnam veteran may risk becoming depressed and even suicidal, particularly after revealing painful memories. For example, Dave had grown up in a conservative churchgoing family. During one therapy session he described his vicious outbursts of rage toward Vietnamese civilians and his torturing of a VC prisoner. Following this "confession," he became withdrawn, edgy, and found his relationships with his wife and children deteriorating, and then seriously contemplated suicide. Only after several months of ongoing therapy did he feel some relief from his guilt and curb his self-destructive behavior toward his family. Getting better means taking directions from authority figures, among whom are doctors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses. This can be a frightening experience evoking angry feelings about power, leadership, and responsibility. Vietnam veterans often fear power and responsibility, having felt betrayed by leaders who they trusted in the past. During the process of recovery, they eventually become cognizant that it is also their own power that they fear; at this point they begin to feel more vulnerable, depressed, and angry. One ex-Marine described his own fear of power at the prospect of taking on responsibility for others. He uttered: "I have been in positions of responsibility so much in Vietnam and it resulted in guys getting killed, that I don't ever want to make decisions that involve other people any more and I don't want to help any other Vietnam veterans who are in this group with me." The patient's fear of power and responsibility often places him in a Catch-22 situation; he comes to dread the thought of remaining or being discharged from a treatment program. For if he appears to be improving, he will be saddled with the pressure of having to perform and take responsibility. This may thereby cause depression, sleeplessness, bad dreams, and irritability. Unfortunately, these symptoms are sometimes misinterpreted by the professional [who] may view them as regressive ... wishing to remain dependent, when in fact, they are an understandable fear of responsibility that often accompanies improvement. Thus, professionals should be aware of the growing pains that accompany improvement. Another problem Vietnam veterans face undergoing treatment is the pain of accepting the world as it is. Sometimes this is synonymous with accepting situations that are not always ideal; even accepting the unpleasant reality that an impersonal government will not likely become more humane or that the American system of government will not always impart justice fairly; or that not all of society will ever completely accept Vietnam veterans and their problems; or that change is slow in coming. When a veteran's considerable impatience interferes with his NAM VET Newsletter Page 28 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 acceptance of these realities, he is in danger of perpetuating a cycle of victimization. This unremitting identification with being a victim will leave him repeatedly suffering from PTSD symptoms as well as disappointment and anger. In addition to accepting the world, getting better means self- acceptance; acceptance of continuing to experience unpleasant dreams, anger, and bad memories; acceptance of difficulties with ordinary relationships; acceptance of problems with sexual relationships. Many have trouble in relationships with women, particularly when they attempt a short-term sexual involvement. They are better off considering that this kind of relationship may not be the best for them. They are well advised giving up this kind of self-destructive sexual relationship with women and replacing it with other, more constructive kinds of relationships. Long-term friendships are more likely to be constructive and do not run the risk of creating feelings of disillusionment, abandonment, and rejection should they break up. When Vietnam veterans ask, "What do you do with women besides have sex?" we suggest the following: "Women are people, like you are and it would be best if you take enough time ... of talking and sharing feelings before considering sexual relationships. A love relationship which includes sex, requires a great deal of groundwork first and that means patience. But it is worth waiting for. It can sustain you through a lot of difficult times." Finally, getting better means to cease being a victim and to become fully committed to finding a purpose for living once again. It means discovering meaningful and loving relationships. An ex- Army sergeant, for instance, had become alienated from his father after returning from Vietnam. Once he resolved his guilt about surviving his buddy's death, he said: "Ever since I came back, my father and I haven't gotten along. I can't even spend any time with him at all any more without our getting into a fight and it has been very depressing and I haven't had any purpose for living. Now I think I have found a purpose which I've avoided for years and that's to reconcile with my father." Self-acceptance is related to finding a purpose, often a reconciliation with loved ones and a reconciliation with one's self. As a Vietnam veteran chaplain said to a group of veterans: "They key to resolving the guilt about what you did in Vietnam is reconciliation. If you can reconcile yourself and accept that part of yourself that you have hated, you will have achieved a significant step toward getting over guilt and self-rejection. Getting better means resolving guilt and accepting forgiveness." Next Month: Part II. --------------- From: VIETNAM VETERANS: THE ROAD TO RECOVERY by Joel Osler Brende, MD and Erwin Randolph Parsons, Ph.d. New York: New American Library, 1986. Signet paperback edition. Chapter 8: "The Problems of Seeking and Receiving Help" pp. 199-216. NAM VET Newsletter Page 29 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 It's finally here - a patch which acknowledges the other side of the Vietnam Veteran: His wife! Hardly needing any explanation, it is multicolor with Red, White, Blue, Green and Gold for the Map of Vietnam. While the text drawing below doesn't really do it justice, I think if you run it out on your printer, you'll sorta get the idea of how special this unique patch is. They are available for $5 each from VETLink #1 - Dept. 65 P O Box 2056 Pittsfield, MASSACHUSETTS 01202 (Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery) @@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@ @@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@ V I E T N A M V E T S W I F E @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ :@@@@@@@@@@@: :@@@@@@@@@@@: @@@ @@@ @.............@ @.............@ @@@ @@@ @...............@ @...............@ @@@ @@@ @.................@ @.................@ @@@ @@@ (...................@@...................) @@@ @@@ @............. ..............@ @@@ @@@ @.............. MAP OF USA ..............@ @@@ @@@ @................. .................@ @@@ @@@ @................. WITH .................@ @@@ @@@ @.............. ...............@ @@@ @@@ @............... MAP OF ...............@ @@@ @@@ (........ .......) @@@ @@@ @...... VIET NAM SUPERIMPOSED ......@ @@@ @@@ @........ .........@ @@@ @@@ @.......... OVER IT ............@ @@@ @@@ I @ ............................ @ N @@@ @@@ @............................@ @@@ @@@ @..........................@ A @@@ @@@ S @........................@ @@@ @@@ @....................@ M @@@ @@@ T @..................@ @@@ @@@ @................@ @@@ @@@ A @............@ Y @@@ @@@ @..........@ @@@ @@@ N @......@ M @@@ @@@ @..@ @@@ @@@ D @@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ B Y @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ (c) 1988 VVA Chapter #65 Pittsfield, MA NAM VET Newsletter Page 30 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 ================================================================= D e a l i n g w i t h ' N a m ================================================================= from: THE VETERAN, Spring 1989, Vol. 19, No.1 pages 8-9. VVAW'S 1988 TRIP TO VIETNAM, CONTINUED 1: "VVAW's Vietnam Tour Report" by John Zutz Member, VVAW Milwaukee, Wisconsin Input by: Kathleen Kelly, Ph.D. NAM VET's PTSD Section Editor The New York Transfer - FidoNet 13/1033 1-718-448-2358 The recent "Friendship Tour" made by four VVAW members must be judged a success. In fact, if asked to describe the trip in one word, "friendly" would have to be the word. The people were very friendly until they found out we were Americans -- then, they were in love with us. Though only in Vietnam a little over a week, we saw and met a wide variety of people and encountered many new aspects of the country. We learned more about the country in a week than we had in a year on our first trip. Of course, we were discouraged from associating with the natives on our first trip. We spent five days in Hanoi and three in Ho Chi Minh City. They are like two different worlds. The people of Hanoi still seem very naive, unspoiled and spontaneous with very high morale. The city is very colonial both in architecture and in attitude. Almost all foreigners work in embassies. Ho Chi Minh City is much more cosmopolitan in attitude and architecture. But the population was less joyful, exhibiting a defeated outlook. Everything was measured by the watershed of 1975; there were many homeless and jobless. Wherever we went we were curiosities. In the North, people would spontaneously break out laughing as they passed us on the street. In the South, if we stood still for three minutes there would be a crowd gathered around us five deep. They would all be gazing up at us with their mouths hanging open. Hundreds would gather to stare if we stopped in a cafe for a cold drink. While there, we met government representatives, Amerasian children and their mothers, recent releasees from reeducation camps, and hundreds of ordinary people. We also met a number of other Americans and Europeans, particularly in Hanoi. The Russians and East Germans were numerous in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam is changing. Our initial reactions were confirmed by Mr. Dang Nghiem Bai, head of the North American Desk of the Foreign Ministry (equivalent to a Deputy Secretary of State). They are changing from the strictly controlled socialist economy to what he called a "market economy." The government will no NAM VET Newsletter Page 31 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 longer attempt to control prices. This allows merchants to set their own prices according to the market; effectively, it eliminates the black market, a longstanding problem for Vietnam. And it sounds much like capitalism. Local goods seemed to be readily available in one or the other of thousands of stands in hundreds of marketplaces, if you had the cash. Imported goods were harder to find but were available: we bought Marlboros in Ho Chi Minh City. Services are also a matter of having the cash. Cyclos, three- wheel cycles which act as taxis, staked out the hotels and embassies hoping for a foreign fare. Restaurants and cafes were frequent and by US standards, very inexpensive; some had women available. Every corner had someone who would fix your flat bicycle tire. The Vietnamese have made strides technologically. They have determined why dioxin is toxic. They are doing gene-splicing experiments. They are building dams and irrigation projects. A nuclear reactor left by the US is being brought on line. At the same time there is great need for health facilities and medicines. Much of the technological work is done with primitive equipment and methods, due to lack of foreign exchange. There is no doubt that Vietnam is one of the poorest countries in the world. Mr. Xuan Oahn of the Vietnam-US Friendship Society told us that living conditions are crowded, sanitation is primitive at best, unemployment is increasing, transportation is unreliable, the population is growing, and the government is stagnant and unable to address those problems. He told us that though the government has changed recently, it must become more responsive to the needs of the people. Our government has contributed to their problems. The massive destruction caused by the war has been largely repaired, but the cost must have been enormous. Our current shunning of the Vietnamese government includes actively discouraging other countries from trading with them. Though they recently changed their investment laws so that foreign investors retain 100% ownership of their companies, our lobbying keeps many possible investors away. The Vietnamese have come a long way in an attempt to get closer to us, to meet many of the conditions set forth by the US government for improved relations. The Vietnamese are withdrawing their troops from Kampuchea -- troops will be out completely this year, whether there is a political settlement or not. The Vietnamese are cooperating with our request for the return of MIA's. We talked to the search team in Hanoi. Shortly after we returned home, over 300 bodies were returned with the search team. One of the most obvious signs of change is the fact that the Vietnamese are teaching their children English; we were told that the Russian language teachers were switching to English since there is no demand for Russian: everyone wants to learn English. It is time to recognize that many of Vietnam's problems are caused by us. It is time to begin at least limited humanitarian NAM VET Newsletter Page 32 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 aid. It is time to normalize relations. 2: "It Was Our War, But They Paid the Price" by David Cline East Coast Coordinator, VVAW December 20, 1967 was my last battle. That night I received a gunshot wound that got me med-evaced out of Vietnam. On New Years Day, I found myself on a plane headed for Japan and all I could think was "Goodbye Vietnam, this is the last time you'll ever see my ass." But 21 years later, almost to the day, I was back in Nam. Only this time I wasn't part of a military operation; instead I was part of a veterans' delegation for reconciliation and friendship. For me the trip was important personally as well as politically. Personally I wanted to go back and come to terms with those who I had fought against. Politically I hoped to play a part in getting our country to face up to its responsibility for the war and its after effects. Since 1975, Vietnam has been virtually ignored in America. Before then, it was nightly news. Then it became a place that politicians could denounce to prove that ours was a "noble cause." In this barrage of rhetoric, the people were forgotten. But for myself and many others, Vietnam could not be forgotten. In preparing for the trip, I had heard that we would receive a friendly welcome and would encounter little hostility. But as our flight approached the Hanoi Airport, I began to feel tense. Here were were flying right into Ho Chi Minh's headquarters. As the plane came in for a landing, the sight of bomb craters at the end of the runway didn't help to reassure me. But once we stepped off the plane, I found the people seemed glad that American veterans were coming back to their country. Throughout our stay there, we talked to people from different walks of life -- government officials, directors of hospitals, soldiers, workers, people on the street. Surprisingly, many people spoke a little English well enough to translate. Also English classes in schools and on television led many children to use us for practice. Many people were surprised to see My [Americans], and many expressed a desire for friendship and normal relations between our two countries. Several times we asked why there was no anger directed at us as Americans and were told that the Vietnamese government had always explained that the war was caused by the US Government, not the American people, and that US soldiers were victims of the war also. It's not that the war has been forgotten. It would be impossible to do that. Much of the poverty and economic difficulties today are a direct result of the war, although the Vietnamese made a point of telling us that they have made many mistakes after the war in reconstructing the economy. During a meeting with members of the Ministry of Invalids and Social Affairs (their Veterans' Administration), we were told that the consequences of the war were: NAM VET Newsletter Page 33 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 2 million dead or invalid 1.5 million civilian handicapped 2 million affected by Agent Orange 1/2 million orphans 1/2 million addicts and prostitutes 400,000 ARVN invalids 300,000 Vietnamese MIAs. At Bach Mai Hospital, a central training facility for their national health care system, the director told us how it had been bombed three times during the war. As we toured the wards, we were shown equipment that had been donated by various governments. The American government had not helped at all. The only reminder of anything from the US was the monument in front with the names of the 28 people who were killed in the bombings. Official US policy is that there will be no relations with Vietnam, until the American MIAs are accounted for and Vietnamese troops leave Kampuchea (Cambodia). While we were in Bangkok, we went to the US Embassy and had a meeting with Naval Captain John Cooke. He told us that Vietnam is cooperating on the MIA issue and that there is no substantial evidence of any live POWs in Vietnam. Regarding Kampuchea, he only condemned the Vietnamese troops there and when we pointed out that they had overthrown the genocidal Pol Pot regime, his only response was to say contemptuously, "They invade and look like good guys." We discussed the MIA issue with Vietnamese on several occasions. They say there are no live POWs in Vietnam and that they see the MIA issue as a humanitarian one but that our government uses it politically. It was pointed out that after World War II and Korea there were many more MIAs, yet it was never a major problem. On Kampuchea, they stated that they intend to withdraw their troops totally by 1990 even without a political settlement and they think it should be separated from humanitarian issues left from the war. The results of the American military occupation are apparent throughout Vietnam and especially in the south. Former military bases are easily spotted by the eucalyptus trees, one of the few plants that will grow on dioxin-contaminated soil. Cripples can be seen on the streets. Many children suffer from birth defects caused by their parents' exposure to Agent Orange. Orphanages are overcrowded. Unexploded mines and shells still take lives and limbs. Amerasian children, now teenagers, still wait to see their fathers. There is a shortage of artificial limbs. Yet our government still refuses to accept its responsibility for these problems. During a trip to Tay Ninh, where I had served as an infantryman with the 25th Division, we went to the Black Virgin Mountain. I had been on many sweeps and ambushes in this area. While we were there, we met a former commander of the Viet Cong. We shook hands and as we talked about our experiences, it hit home that last time I was here, we were trying to kill each other. Now we could talk as friends. At the base of the mountain was a monument to the war dead from Tay Ninh. We burned joss sticks in remembrance and I felt both sadness and joy -- sadness about what had happened in the past and joy because we didn't have to be trapped by that NAM VET Newsletter Page 34 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 past. As one Vietnamese put it, "Please ask American veterans to struggle for normalization, develop good relations with Vietnamese veterans through friendship visits and help heal the war wounded in Vietnam. We veterans understand each other. We have the same sentiments. We should try our best to struggle for peace." 3: "Our Legacy: Amerasian Kids" by Greg Payton Member, VVAW New York One of my primary purposes in going to Vietnam was to investigate the situation of Amerasian children. Having seen several white Amerasian children on TV talk shows and in newspapers, I was concerned about what life might be like for Black Amerasians in an oriental country. And, honestly not knowing whether I might have left a child in Vietnam, I felt I might act as some kind of liaison between the children and a US government agency. Upon landing at Ton Son Nhut Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, I was terribly excited about returning to South Vietnam. As we were waiting for our baggage, I looked over my shoulder and there stood a Black kid who looked like any number of boys who might pal around with my own teen aged sons. I was in complete shock. This young man didn't seem to have any strong oriental features. I tried to observe him further but he disappeared into the crowd. After we got settled in the Vietnamese government guest house, I went on a short walking tour of the area. Several blocks away in a small park across from the Ho Chi Minh City Main Post Office, I encountered a group of Amerasian children. Apparently this was a gathering place for them. As I approached, I could see the faces of the Black kids light up. One attractive young lady pointed to me and said, "Number One!" It was in this park that I met two Vietnamese "mamasans" who act as surrogate mothers for these children, many of whom are homeless and orphaned. A strange feeling came over me -- along with a feeling of guilt. I had some memories of being a street kid myself, raised without knowing my own father. Returning to the park the following day, I was able to meet and talk with both Black and white Amerasian children through an interpreter. I could see from their faces they were glad to talk to an American. They were very friendly and interested in the US. Some wanted to continue their educations in the US (higher education being difficult in Vietnam) and many talked of improving living conditions in Vietnam. I was surprised that many had basic information about their fathers. Most knew the names and area of the country where their dads had lived. I promised a group of five young people that I would take them to dinner that evening. When I returned, I was surprised to find about twenty kids in the park. The "mamasans" knew I couldn't afford to take all these people to dinner. But the young people got together and asked if I could take this one kid, Nguyen Van Hai, because he was homeless and really in need of help. That NAM VET Newsletter Page 35 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 moved me deeply. When I returned to Bangkok, Thailand, I met with Mr. Randall Rice, who is affiliated with the Indochinese Refugee Center. He informed me that over 500,000 people want to emigrate from Vietnam but because of political red tape, only 100 per month are processed and 50 actually leave. Mr. Rice suggested that I contact refugee agencies in the US and try to help from that vantage point. Below is a list of the names of some of the children I met and a list of agencies that may be useful in helping them. AMERASIAN CHILDREN: ------------------ Leslie Floyd Nguyen Van Dung Nguyen Thanh Binh Nguyen Thanh Tung (born 1968) Nguyen Van Hai Tran Huy Hung (born 1967) Duong Hoan Vu (born 1968) Nguyen Thi Rim Huong (born 1972) Tu Thi Rim Anh (born 1970) Pham L. Hong Loan (born 1970) Le Minh Hieu (born 1972) Nguyen Thi Kim Lien (born 1968) Duong Thi Ly (born 1970) Thach Thi Mi Lan (born 1970) Le Van Loang (born 1971) Nguyen Thi Xinh (born 1970) Phan Thi My Loan (born 1971) Nguyen Thi Thu (born 1967) Nguyen Thi Minh Thu (born 1967) Huynh Thi Thuy US VOLUNTARY AGENCIES: --------------------- American Council for Nationalities Service (ACNS) Buddhist Council for Refugee Rescue and Resettlement (BC) Church World Service (CWS) Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) United States Catholic Conference (USCC) World Relief Refugee Service (WRRS) --------------- THE VETERAN is a publication of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). National Office: PO Box 408594, Chicago, IL 60640. NAM VET Newsletter Page 36 Volume 3, Number 11 November 6, 1989 from: PEACE DEVELOPMENTS, Number 23, Fall 1989 THE VETERANS/VIETNAM RESTORATION PROJECT: US VETS BUILD A CLINIC FOR VUNG TAU Input by: Kathleen Kelly, Ph.D. NAM VET's PTSD Section Editor The New York Transfer 1-718-448-2358 The 250-bed hospital at Vung Tau, Vietnam, serves a city of roughly 100,000. In the surgery room, a 1939 relic of French occupation, mold is growing on the walls; few light bulbs are working; the X-ray and EKG machines have broken down. Doctors and nurses rewash their surgical gloves and hang them out to dry to sanitize them. Staph infection is sometimes up to 65%. The hospital, like the city itself, is an emblem of the long US-imposed trade embargo that Vietnam has suffered following the devastation of war. Poverty, not "backwardness," accounts for the desperate conditions existing today. As one observer noted, it would be hard to tell in Vung Tau if the war had ended in 1975 or day before yesterday. But this is all changing. Vung Tau, Vietnam's largest oil and gasoline port, is part of a new economic experiment, as Vietnam gears up for normalization of relations with the rest of the world. There has been a general opening up -- including to foreign visitors, who until recently had been separated even from each other. Last February, when fifteen US Vietn