tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13019526423986836042024-03-13T01:18:53.287-04:00Searching for Jeff[A blog about reconstructing the short but interesting life and times of Jeff Sharlet (1942-1969), an ex-GI and leader of the GI antiwar movement during the Vietnam War; founder and editor of Vietnam GI, the first antiwar underground paper written by and for GI’s. A book length memoir is in progress. To our EU readers, please note the blog itself does not employ cookies or data beyond what Google does. For Google's privacy policy, see https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/]
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-31837815067046577342016-02-11T05:00:00.000-05:002016-02-23T06:47:06.523-05:00Snapshots from a Short but Interesting Life II<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><b><span style="line-height: 107%;">Prologue: </span></b><span style="line-height: 107%;">This is Part II of the final two-part post of <b>Searching for Jeff</b>, a blog history of my long trek to trace and
reconstruct the last decade—1959-1969 – of my brother Jeff Sharlet’s short but
interesting life. Bringing the blog to a conclusion will enable me to devote
full-time to completion of the memoir on Jeff now well underway</span><span style="line-height: 17.12px;">.</span></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><br /></span></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">After five years and 125 posts, we have hit all
the major moments of Jeff’s trajectory through the ‘60s. In these closing
entries, we present a pictorial perspective on his journey – a slide show lite
– from cradle to grave. A number of the photos were taken by Jeff himself. As
the saying goes, pictures speak for themselves, so we’ve only appended brief
commentaries. </span></i><i><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span></i></span></div>
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<i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">We thank those tens of thousands who
have followed the blog for your readership – either regularly or periodically.
As we sign off here, for those who might be interested, we will be posting in
the near-future from time to time excerpts from the memoir in progress at our Yola
Web site, </span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://jeffsharlet-and-vietnamgi.com.yolasite.com/">http://jeffsharlet-and-vietnamgi.com.yolasite.com/</a></span></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">The second installment of the last picture show
covers the last phases of Jeff’s life as follows (Nb. The first installment on
February 10th </span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">covered the preceding
phases of his trajectory.):</span></span></i></div>
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<li><span style="line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large; line-height: 107%;">Indiana days</span></b></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">Destiny Chicago</span></b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Journey’s end</b></span></li>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Indiana Days</span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Logo
of Indiana University<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wUndOuz6y_g/Vrul4DeOfOI/AAAAAAAAOEs/oRfJiB5CptY/s1600/IU%2Bcampus%2Bgate%2B-%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wUndOuz6y_g/Vrul4DeOfOI/AAAAAAAAOEs/oRfJiB5CptY/s400/IU%2Bcampus%2Bgate%2B-%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Gateway
to the campus<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff
departed Vietnam spring ’64. By August, he was back in college. Jeff returned
to Indiana University (IU) where he had dropped out three years earlier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ohiXWMxDDjM/VrumynzsBWI/AAAAAAAAOE4/CbMeM72hUKc/s1600/Jeff%2BSharlet%252C%2BIndiana%2BUniv.%2B%252765.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ohiXWMxDDjM/VrumynzsBWI/AAAAAAAAOE4/CbMeM72hUKc/s640/Jeff%2BSharlet%252C%2BIndiana%2BUniv.%2B%252765.JPG" width="425" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff,
once again a college boy</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> More mature this time around, Jeff buckled down
to study. That first term back in college was a lonely time for him. IU was a
Big Ten university with many thousands of students. Jeff knew no one. His
parents were broke and he had little money. To support himself, he took a job as
a house boy at a sorority. He made it around campus – the size of a small town
– by bike.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Gables, popular soda bar just off campus</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Initially, Jeff had little leisure time. Classes
demanded his full attention. Then he was off to his daily job at the sorority house,
serving meals and cleaning up the kitchen. Now and then he dropped by the
Gables for a soda or ice cream. Around mid-term, Jeff met a young woman, Karin
Ford, a classmate in Sociology. Weekends he’d bike out to Karin’s house for
dinners with her and her two young kids.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-xcKAzAI3g/VruokE53s3I/AAAAAAAAOFI/M4ju97litLQ/s1600/IU%2BDunn%2BMeadow%2Bbest.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q-xcKAzAI3g/VruokE53s3I/AAAAAAAAOFI/M4ju97litLQ/s400/IU%2BDunn%2BMeadow%2Bbest.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dunn
Meadow at Indiana University</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> As
the Vietnam War rumbled on, Jeff watched closely from afar. As a Vietnamese linguist,
he worried he might be recalled to duty if things got hotter. In early spring
of Jeff’s second semester, President Johnson dramatically escalat</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">ed America’s
involvement in the war. Fortunately, Jeff, a reservist, was not recalled.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bernella
& David Satterfield, antiwar activists</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">As the weather warmed in Bloomington, Dunn Meadow
became the site of antiwar rallies and counter-protests. The university had
designated the area as a kind of free speech zone where students could express
themselves. Through Karin Ford, Jeff had met other critically-minded people
concerned about the growing US presence in Vietnam’s civil war.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bernella and David Satterfield were talented country
and folk musicians. They were also at the center of rising activism against the
war. As an ex-Vietnam GI opposed to the war, Jeff was of great interest to the
small but growing circle of campus radicals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Civil
rights demonstration & pro-Vietnam War rally, Dunn Meadow, 1965</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Not
long after Washington’s escalation, the small number of IU antiwar activists
began holding weekly rallies in Dunn Meadow. The first rally immediately
followed a demonstration supporting the Selma civil rights marchers in Alabama.
Soon pro-war students were mounting counter-protests in response.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
first major antiwar demonstration in Washington, 1965</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> In
late April ’65, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized the first
great response to LBJ’s war. Thousands of students from the nation’s campuses
descended upon Washington. The IU delegation was in prominent view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YvnCHixiEI8/Vruq8liDc9I/AAAAAAAAOGE/vmZpAN3_MOg/s1600/IU_Jeff_in_Tijuana_%252765_-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YvnCHixiEI8/Vruq8liDc9I/AAAAAAAAOGE/vmZpAN3_MOg/s400/IU_Jeff_in_Tijuana_%252765_-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff
(l) with Karin on the road, Mexico, 1965</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff
had a good first year academically. Classes over, he and Karin Ford took off on
a long road trip across the West and down into Mexico.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R11ZLonvJRs/VrusJb7FNFI/AAAAAAAAOGk/pofn-Mgcj_g/s1600/2%2B10%2BSDS%2BNewsletter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R11ZLonvJRs/VrusJb7FNFI/AAAAAAAAOGk/pofn-Mgcj_g/s640/2%2B10%2BSDS%2BNewsletter.jpg" width="556" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Indiana
SDS’s first newsletter, 1965</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The
momentum of spring antiwar protest at Indiana carried over to the new academic
year. During fall ’65, student radicals established the IU SDS chapter and
issued their first newsletter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff
protesting Nixon’s talk on campus, 1965</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Former
Vice President Nixon was invited to IU in October. His pro-war talk gave the
fledgling IU SDS chapter a chance for campus-wide attention. SDS members turned
out to protest Nixon and the war. Jeff joined the march although not yet a
member of the chapter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w9iPweTwbUs/Vrus4IMw2kI/AAAAAAAAOG4/RrGVuoarw_U/s1600/IU%2BJim%2BWallihan%252C%2B%252764.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w9iPweTwbUs/Vrus4IMw2kI/AAAAAAAAOG4/RrGVuoarw_U/s320/IU%2BJim%2BWallihan%252C%2B%252764.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jim
Wallihan addressing the Governor of California, 1964</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Since
returning from Vietnam, the problem of how to stop the war had preoccupied
Jeff. He wasn’t sure that idealistic student marches and protests would do it.
His focus was on fellow GIs – the guys in harm’s way, the guys with the guns –
as the solution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jim Wallihan
arrived at IU for grad school that fall. A radical activist, he was a veteran
of the ’64 Free Speech Movement (FSM) at Berkeley. When the mass arrests
occurred there, Jim managed to escape and became FSM’s representative to
Governor Brown, appealing for the students’ release. Jim had joined SDS and
persuaded Jeff to lend his authority as an ex-Vietnam GI to the chapter for the
struggle at IU. The two guys became best of friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JOEmadLzhN4/Vrut6PJuddI/AAAAAAAAOHQ/xd30ScIa2i4/s1600/IU%2BNick%2527s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="323" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JOEmadLzhN4/Vrut6PJuddI/AAAAAAAAOHQ/xd30ScIa2i4/s400/IU%2BNick%2527s.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nick’s,
a favorite hangout</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> When
Jeff, Jim, and the SDS crowd weren’t gathered in the Satterfield’s living room
or at Peter and Lucia Montague’s house, they were at their unofficial
headquarters, Nick’s, a block from the campus gates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRUg1o6n2Ns/VruuJXUy5vI/AAAAAAAAOHc/ql-7KlHDrKM/s1600/IU%2BGen%2BTaylor.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRUg1o6n2Ns/VruuJXUy5vI/AAAAAAAAOHc/ql-7KlHDrKM/s320/IU%2BGen%2BTaylor.JPG" width="263" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">General
Maxwell Taylor at Indiana, 1966<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Nationally,
SDS was a famously loosey-goosey organization. Accordingly, the IU chapter had
little structure. Jeff and Jim drew up a reorganization proposal to make it
more effective. Both became part of a new rotating leadership team. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Spring term provided SDS with opportunities and
challenges. IU’s president – the former Secretary of the Army – invited Maxwell
Taylor to campus. As a former ambassador to South Vietnam, the general gave a
gung-ho speech for the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Anti-
and prowar protesters at the Taylor talk</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> SDS
rose to the occasion, leading a substantial demonstration against General Taylor.
However, supporters of the general and the war assembled a much larger student
turnout. Cops were present, and the occasion was generally orderly and
peaceful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nriCbYWBv0M/Vruu-q1-9uI/AAAAAAAAOH0/N6qZ_yfpUic/s1600/IU%2B2%2B3%2BJeff%2Bcig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="576" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nriCbYWBv0M/Vruu-q1-9uI/AAAAAAAAOH0/N6qZ_yfpUic/s640/IU%2B2%2B3%2BJeff%2Bcig.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff,
campus activist, 1966</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff
hit the books hard. He also devoted much time to SDS. His special interest was
giving dorm talks on the war – the idea being to politicize students, drawing
them into campus protest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sI51YlCfIe4/VruvcaHmEvI/AAAAAAAAOIA/XsJHQtBbwmg/s1600/IU%2BGen%2BHershey.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sI51YlCfIe4/VruvcaHmEvI/AAAAAAAAOIA/XsJHQtBbwmg/s400/IU%2BGen%2BHershey.JPG" width="282" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">General
Lewis Hershey speaking at IU, 1966<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> A few
months later, President Stahr hosted another Pentagon pal at the university.
Another general, this time it was Lewis Hershey, long time director of the Draft,
which delivered up the bodies for the war. His was a rousing do-your-duty
speech.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff played an even bigger role as SDS brought forth
a very large group in protest. Jeff spoke at the rally, taking on a raucous
crowd of pro-war student hecklers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZeZDZrXsWgI/VruwIyQKviI/AAAAAAAAOIM/xJJMwDhRY7c/s1600/IU%2B2%2B3%2BHershey%2Bpro%2B%2526%2Bcon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZeZDZrXsWgI/VruwIyQKviI/AAAAAAAAOIM/xJJMwDhRY7c/s400/IU%2B2%2B3%2BHershey%2Bpro%2B%2526%2Bcon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Antiwar
& prowar demonstrators outside Hershey’s talk</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">The
conflicting demonstrations outside the auditorium with their speech on a stick
and chants dueled to a standstill, but SDS again gained campus-wide publicity.
The student daily paper covered the event as front-page news.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-82pMF9GURpw/VruwygImxJI/AAAAAAAAOIc/uNQq1X75D0s/s1600/IU%2BBernie%2B%2526%2BBetty%2BMorris%252C%2B%252760s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-82pMF9GURpw/VruwygImxJI/AAAAAAAAOIc/uNQq1X75D0s/s400/IU%2BBernie%2B%2526%2BBetty%2BMorris%252C%2B%252760s.jpg" width="386" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bernie
& Betty Morris at their Cape Cod summer place</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">Having
become a top flight student, Jeff worked closely with his mentor, Professor
Bernard Morris of Political Science. Jeff also saw a lot of him outside of
class since Bernie was campus advisor to the student New Left.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iJsJBmapjz8/VruxIcO2HCI/AAAAAAAAOIg/-pRYxuQ6PXM/s1600/IU%2BIndy%2Bwar%2Bmemorial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iJsJBmapjz8/VruxIcO2HCI/AAAAAAAAOIg/-pRYxuQ6PXM/s400/IU%2BIndy%2Bwar%2Bmemorial.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">War
memorial, Indianapolis IN</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Summer
’66 – Jeff needed to earn some money. He landed a summer job in the railway
freight yards in Indianapolis (Indy), just 50 miles north of the Bloomington
campus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lEpkCL9IE8c/Vruxx0yCDVI/AAAAAAAAOIs/rDQn7AZuL2U/s1600/IU%2B2%2B3%2BTrain%2BZobs%2BPano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lEpkCL9IE8c/Vruxx0yCDVI/AAAAAAAAOIs/rDQn7AZuL2U/s640/IU%2B2%2B3%2BTrain%2BZobs%2BPano.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The Indianapolis freight
yards</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>Karlis Zobs’ house</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> He worked as locomotive fireman on a yard engine
shunting freight cars. Since it was a diesel engine, his job was mainly keeping
an eye out for collisions and climbing down from the cab to throw track switches.
He rented an inexpensive room in an old house owned by a young Latvian man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xo2OG7cxJKo/VruyR4oFI2I/AAAAAAAAOI4/dlbA2GTO3f0/s1600/IU%2BKaren%2BGrote.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xo2OG7cxJKo/VruyR4oFI2I/AAAAAAAAOI4/dlbA2GTO3f0/s400/IU%2BKaren%2BGrote.JPG" width="283" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Karen
Grote, Indiana senior</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Karen
Grote (now Ferb) and Jeff had been an item since they met in January. She too
was in SDS, and they worked together in the campus New Left. On weekends, Karen
took the Greyhound bus up from Bloomington to Indy to spend time with Jeff. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">President
<i>Johnson at the Indianapolis War Memorial,
1966</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> In
July, news reached the IU activists that LBJ would be speaking in Indianapolis
later in the month. A call went out for volunteers, permits were granted, antiwar
signs were made, and a peaceful protest planned. Karen was staying with Jeff in
Indy that weekend. Before he had to go to work, he dropped her off at the
protest site on Monument Circle. Karen was waiting for the IU contingent
driving up from campus. A few local protestors were already there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The Secret
Service had other ideas and preempted the demonstration. Indianapolis police
arrested nearly everyone involved before the President’s arrival. Karen was the
first to be arrested. All were falsely charged with misdemeanors. When Karen
was released later that evening, Jeff was waiting for her outside the lockup. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">IU’s
alternative paper with Jeff’s speech, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff
became president of SDS spring term his final year. He was a pro-active leader.
In remarks to the faculty, President Stahr had sharply criticized the IU New
Left. Jeff promptly took up the challenge, responding to Stahr in a speech
entitled the ‘State of the Students’, which was widely publicized in the
alternative campus paper, <b><i>The Spectator</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">House
Jeff shared in Bloomington<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff
shared a house on the edge of campus with Jim Wallihan and Bob Johnson. The
place became a combination strategy center, meeting place, and, not least,
party venue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff
at the Indianapolis War Memorial, 1967; Robin Hunter (smoking), IU grad
student, Indianapolis</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> As
wintry weather began to lift, Jeff spoke at an antiwar rally from the steps of
the Indianapolis War Memorial. His IU comrade-in-arms, Robin Hunter, was in
attendance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Woodrow
Wilson Foundation logo</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Mid-semester,
Jeff received the welcome news he had been selected for a coveted Woodrow
Wilson National Fellowship for outstanding students going on for a PhD and an
academic career.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
rally at President Stahr’s residence, Jeff presiding</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Early spring, Jeff took SDS’s antiwar campaign
to the steps of the IU president’s campus residence. He opened the rally noting
that it was the second time he found himself under Elvis Stahr – first in Vietnam
serving under Army Secretary Stahr, now a student under President Stahr. He
posed a rhetorical question – What is a honcho of the war machine doing running
a university, a place of higher learning.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Guy
Loftman (l) & Jeff, student elections night, 1967</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> During
Jeff’s tenure as SDS leader, it was decided to run a candidate for student body
president. Jeff worked behind the scenes on the platform. Guy Loftman ran and
won – the New Left gained power and legitimacy at IU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">An
afternoon dip, Jeff & Miki Lang, Bloomington</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff’s last term at IU wasn’t all coursework and
protests. The activist crowd enjoyed a lively social life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Vietnam
Veterans Against the War march, New York, 1967</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Upon
graduation, Jeff chose to take his Woodrow Wilson fellowship to the University
of Chicago. But first he headed East to hook up with the newly founded Vietnam
Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Still dwelling on how the war could be
stopped, Jeff wanted to make contact with fellow ex-Vietnam GIs before entering
the groves of academe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 20.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Destiny Chicago</span><span style="font-size: 20pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eLx0LDiuQno/Vru3AoVrIvI/AAAAAAAAOKw/ehQjWAHMSp8/s1600/VGI%2BChicago%2Bpostcard%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eLx0LDiuQno/Vru3AoVrIvI/AAAAAAAAOKw/ehQjWAHMSp8/s400/VGI%2BChicago%2Bpostcard%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Chicago
bound</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Back
in the Midwest, Jeff went up to Chicago summer of ’67 to settle in before the
school year. The city was intensely political, overflowing with protest of all
kinds. For Jeff, there was just a single issue – the war. He ran into another
Vietnam veteran, an ex-sailor, and the two of them made contact with a draft
resistance group. The group was run by an antiwar Green Beret reservist, Gary
Rader. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">University
of Chicago campus</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff
moved into the university graduate dorms, and classes got underway. Good
student though he was, his ambivalence got in the way. Should he bear down and
work toward a PhD or make a major commitment to the antiwar struggle? Both
directions required singular concentration and were mutually incompatible.
Opposing the war was winning the day, Jeff’s academic work suffered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Vietnam
vets run an ad against the war</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Veterans of the Vietnam War now had an
organization, VVAW, and began to speak out. In a full-page ad in the <b><i>New
York Times</i></b>, which Jeff signed, they called the conflict a civil war
between North and South Vietnam and demanded that American troops, their
buddies, be brought home before anyone else died.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zQ2LsCWvuT4/Vru5BGewEAI/AAAAAAAAOLc/PydBUdAS4kU/s1600/Tom%2BBarton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zQ2LsCWvuT4/Vru5BGewEAI/AAAAAAAAOLc/PydBUdAS4kU/s320/Tom%2BBarton.jpg" width="242" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Latter-day
photo of Tom Barton, left activist<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Restless
at the university, Jeff went to New York for a weekend. He looked up Tom
Barton, a long time man of the left whom he knew from Indiana days. Jeff was
more focused on stopping the war than his coursework. He had a plan – to create
an organization of active duty GIs, not just ex-GIs, to oppose the war. Jeff
sought Tom’s advice as an experienced organizer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ibMTNwYXHwg/Vru5WDCqVTI/AAAAAAAAOLk/7LfdBsvNf_U/s1600/KOMATSU%252C%2BDAVE%2BNo%2BKit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ibMTNwYXHwg/Vru5WDCqVTI/AAAAAAAAOLk/7LfdBsvNf_U/s320/KOMATSU%252C%2BDAVE%2BNo%2BKit.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dave
Komatsu at a Chicago protest, early ‘60s</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Tom
Barton put Jeff in touch with Dave Komatsu in Chicago. Tom and Dave had been
comrades in the Chicago chapter of the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSL),
the youth affiliate of the Socialist Party. Dave, who had briefly attended the
University of Chicago, was also a seasoned man of the left.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AsD8boExGEs/Vru5r9ORdGI/AAAAAAAAOLs/B0_h16yJmsQ/s1600/vgi_banner.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="99" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AsD8boExGEs/Vru5r9ORdGI/AAAAAAAAOLs/B0_h16yJmsQ/s640/vgi_banner.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Banner
of ‘Vietnam GI’ coiled in barbed wire<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff
and Dave Komatsu brainstormed the idea of an active-duty GI group. The
obstacles were formidable – the authoritarian structure of the military for
one, harsh military law for another. Dave suggested Jeff start with a
newsletter for GIs. Late fall ’67, the idea became an underground newspaper
called <i><b>Vietnam GI</b></i> or <i><b>VGI</b></i> for short. Jeff could write in the authentic voice of
someone who’d been in Nam, while Dave had the technical know-how and editorial experience for putting
out a tabloid-style paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q5DBTiymjc8/Vru6SFCTtyI/AAAAAAAAOL8/_LD3WUEIpdI/s1600/KomatsuBldg1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q5DBTiymjc8/Vru6SFCTtyI/AAAAAAAAOL8/_LD3WUEIpdI/s400/KomatsuBldg1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dave
Komatsu’s apartment building</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The
funding question came up. How to finance the launch of a newspaper, especially
the hard costs of typesetting, paper, printing, and mailing. Jeff decided to
withdraw from the university and use his Woodrow Wilson fellowship to launch <b><i>VGI</i></b>.
To save money, he moved out of the dorm and crashed with Dave and family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Talking with a friend about his decision, Jeff unwittingly
foresaw his destiny, telling him that<b><i> Vietnam GI </i></b>“would be the most important
thing he had ever done in his life.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Vietnam
GI </b>coming off the press</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The
first issue of <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> came off the press in late January ’68 just as the
Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive. Jeff was the editor with Dave as
associate editor; a pro bono staff of Dave’s Chicago comrades as well as
volunteers from CADRE, Gary Rader’s Chicago Area Draft Resistance group, lent a
hand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Early on they found a printer in Chicago, but soon
the local FBI urged area printers to refuse ‘subversive’ material. <b><i>VGI</i></b> had to
go far afield, locating an obliging printer well up the western shore of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EtWN_sfdKg0/VrxqV6f7_pI/AAAAAAAAOMk/vw3B2_ZzC8w/s1600/VGI%2BEditors%2527%2Bbox.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EtWN_sfdKg0/VrxqV6f7_pI/AAAAAAAAOMk/vw3B2_ZzC8w/s400/VGI%2BEditors%2527%2Bbox.JPG" width="168" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">From
the <b>VGI </b>masthead</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> In
addition to the paper’s staff, Jeff persuaded fellow Vietnam veterans to lend
their time and/or names. As contributing editors, Gary Rader had never deployed,
but Jan Crumb, co-founder of VVAW, and Dink McCarter both served in Vietnam.
Other veterans lent their names to<b><i> VGI </i></b>including Peter Martinsen, a POW
interrogator; Francis Rocks and David Tuck, combat riflemen; and James Zaleski,
an Air Force Vietnam veteran.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HD8gGvnjWmM/VrxrEYla9DI/AAAAAAAAOMs/7bMoRi_fjYY/s1600/VGI%2Bfront%2Bpage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HD8gGvnjWmM/VrxrEYla9DI/AAAAAAAAOMs/7bMoRi_fjYY/s400/VGI%2Bfront%2Bpage.JPG" width="258" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
typical <b>VGI </b>front page</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Typically,
Jeff led off a monthly issue with a long interview with a combat veteran about
what was really going on in the field below the radar of sanitized national
media coverage. The second lead, such as the article entitled “Phuc-A-Truc”
above, was related to Jeff about how
motor pool troops on the QT sabotaged trucks and military vehicles as a form of
protest. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A key player
in getting <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> to Vietnam beneath the radar was Jeff’s friend Tom
Barton. At the end of Tom’s pipeline, <b><i>VGI</i></b> had an informal sub-rosa distribution
net in Vietnam – GIs who requested extra copies to pass around their units in
defiance of the brass.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> As <i><b>VGI
</b></i>rapidly gained an increasingly larger readership among serving troops in
Vietnam, the ‘Mail Bag’, or letters-to-the-editor on page 2, became a big
feature. Sailors, Marines, and GIs wrote to Jeff with incredible stories of
what was actually going on in the war behind the smokescreen of military PR. At
last, Vietnam GIs and their brothers in arms had a voice in the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KhQJYLxR13g/VrxsUxI1I7I/AAAAAAAAOM4/828vGHOLvSE/s1600/VGI%2BF%2BGardner.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KhQJYLxR13g/VrxsUxI1I7I/AAAAAAAAOM4/828vGHOLvSE/s320/VGI%2BF%2BGardner.JPG" width="199" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Fred
Gardner, founder, GI antiwar coffee house network</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> While Jeff had been pondering his near-term
future at the University of Chicago, Fred Gardner, an Army reservist, had been
setting up the first GI antiwar coffee house near Fort Jackson, a large
infantry training base in the South. Fred’s idea was to provide an alternate
place for off-duty GIs who usually gravitated to grungy bars and rip-off joints. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">GIs with doubts about the war were drawn to the
coffee house where they could read material critical of the US mission in
Southeast Asia and rap with guys of similar views. Once <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> began to
appear, free copies were available for reading over coffee or carrying back to
the barracks, a riskier maneuver.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PzjirMjFZdQ/Vrxs2gccMSI/AAAAAAAAONA/sWB-wwOpH1k/s1600/VGI%2BWaynesville%2BMO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PzjirMjFZdQ/Vrxs2gccMSI/AAAAAAAAONA/sWB-wwOpH1k/s400/VGI%2BWaynesville%2BMO.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Waynesville
outside Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri Ozarks<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Fred had established a second GI hangout near
Fort Leonard Wood, another huge base for training Vietnam-bound troops. Named
for a Revolutionary War hero, Mad Anthony Wayne, the coffee house opened in
tiny Waynesville deep in the Missouri Ozarks. As would take place elsewhere,
the military brass and the local authorities colluded to harass the volunteer
staff. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff had begun touring base camps to collect stories
and locate returning combat troopers for <b><i>VGI</i></b> interviews. He stopped by
Waynesville where he met Fred who was helping out at the coffee house. They
became fast friends.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pmJaBRxfisc/VrxuAAGUZAI/AAAAAAAAONM/hN5KnTVn9m4/s1600/1st%2Barmored.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pmJaBRxfisc/VrxuAAGUZAI/AAAAAAAAONM/hN5KnTVn9m4/s400/1st%2Barmored.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">1<sup>st</sup>
Armored Division troops sent to Chicago, 1968</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King was
assassinated in Memphis TN. Riots broke out in Black ghettos across the
country. Violence in Chicago was severe. Federal troops were dispatched to the
city to restore order. Jeff traveled the streets of ‘occupied’ Chicago taking
photos. The next issue of <b><i>VGI</i></b> was headlined, “The War at Home.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sp4 Joe Carey, combat photographer, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Back in the States, ex-Vietnam GI Joe Carey, arriving
in Chicago, heard that Jeff was putting out a GI paper. Joe and Jeff knew each
other from Indiana University. In Vietnam, Joe had been a combat photographer
based at Cu Chi. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">He’d come back with a bunch of his photos not
suitable for military publications. Jeff published several of the pix in
various issues, including one of an American officer interrogating an alleged
Viet Cong suspect at knife-point. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">GIs
posing with their grisly trophies</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> After
a firefight, GIs decapitated dead VC. A GI snapped pictures and quietly slipped
the film to Joe Carey. Stateside, Joe passed it on to Jeff, who ran the
shocking photo prominently in the next issue of <i><b>VGI</b></i>. It was the first atrocity
photo to surface, and it caused a sensation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Madame
Maria Jolas, grande dame of Paris </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></i><span style="color: red; font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff
arranged for Joe to fly to Paris to display his trove of rarely seen images to
a French antiwar audience. In the French capital, his hostess was Maria Jolas,
grande dame of the American expatriate community in Paris.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yS-fmNsHw5g/VrxxfFXJbtI/AAAAAAAAON4/kvorTT-whw8/s1600/VGI%2BKyoto%2BShinto%2Bshrine.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yS-fmNsHw5g/VrxxfFXJbtI/AAAAAAAAON4/kvorTT-whw8/s400/VGI%2BKyoto%2BShinto%2Bshrine.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Shinto
shrine , Kyoto, Japan</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> During
summer ’68, Jeff was invited to represent the GI antiwar movement in Kyoto at
an international peace conference. He was glad to revisit Japan. At the
conclusion of the proceedings, Jeff’s hosts insisted he join them in a protest
march on city hall. As a foreign guest they put him in the front rank. Arms
locked, the marchers took off toward the massed riot police. Heads were busted,
but fortunately Jeff escaped unscathed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Off-duty
GIs at the UFO antiwar coffee house, 1968</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <b><i>VGI</i></b>’s
circulation grew exponentially. Its readership even more so since troops in
Vietnam often passed a single copy surreptitiously through an entire unit. The
paper was also read throughout the extensive GI coffee house network at bases
across the States. The New York Times devoted a front page article on the
emergence of a GI protest movement illustrated by the photo above of GIs
reading <b><i>VGI</i></b> at the UFO coffee house in Columbia SC.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Conscripts
with <b>VGI</b> at the Cambridge MA
Induction Center, 1968</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff
and his staff were assisted by the Boston Draft Resistance Group (BDRG), an
active outfit back East. Borrowing the <i><b>VGI</b></i> templates, BDRG would run off
several thousand additional copies. Volunteers in turn would distribute the
paper at the Cambridge Induction Center, the vast South Boston Army Base, and at
various Army camps in New England as well as at bus stations through which GIs
passed to and from their bases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QZ6FniG3qCw/Vrx0CyAVNxI/AAAAAAAAOOc/LhcVw3yvpmQ/s1600/bill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QZ6FniG3qCw/Vrx0CyAVNxI/AAAAAAAAOOc/LhcVw3yvpmQ/s400/bill.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bill
O’Brien of Chicago</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> The <i><b>VGI</b></i>
staff got a valuable assist in politically navigating Chicago. The city was
awash in myriad protest groups, but the counter-forces to keep them in check
were formidable, including the FBI field office, Chicago PD’s Red Squad, Army
Intelligence agents, and the shadowy Legion of Justice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jim Wallihan moved to the city to help Jeff on the paper
and brought him together with Bill O’Brien, long time Chicagoan and a go-to guy
on the left as well as around Mayor Daley’s Chicago. Jeff, Jim, and Bill shared
an apartment on the city’s North side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3QQcJu2S1Rk/Vrx1O_-xtdI/AAAAAAAAOOs/Y00StcYrWnY/s1600/Get%2BMe%2BHigh%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3QQcJu2S1Rk/Vrx1O_-xtdI/AAAAAAAAOOs/Y00StcYrWnY/s400/Get%2BMe%2BHigh%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
guys’ favorite after-hours place</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff
put in long days and nights on the paper. He needed to unwind from time to time
with a little booze and diversion. Bill had a favorite hangout, ‘Get Me High’,
a terrific jazz joint where he, Jeff, and Jim would go to relax.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bernardine
Dohrn, Chicago Police files <span style="color: red;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Along with Bill O’Brien’s wide circle of
contacts, Jeff was well connected with the New Left, including SDS national
leadership headquartered in Chicago – Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, and Jeff Segal,
as well as Bernardine Dohrn, who would eventually lead SDS’s successor, the
violent Weather Underground. </span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2z9Qq687rhA/Vrx2deqjbYI/AAAAAAAAOPA/8ssl3BWRXTg/s1600/VGI%2BHam%2BHill%2BMerge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2z9Qq687rhA/Vrx2deqjbYI/AAAAAAAAOPA/8ssl3BWRXTg/s400/VGI%2BHam%2BHill%2BMerge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Toll
from a bitter battle<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 21.3333px; line-height: 22.8267px;">There was rarely a shortage of dramatic headlines for </span><i style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 21.3333px; line-height: 22.8267px;">VGI. </i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 21.3333px; line-height: 22.8267px;">Military briefers in </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 21.3333px; line-height: 22.8267px;">Saigon would spin the after-action reports, and </span><i style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 21.3333px; line-height: 22.8267px;">VGI</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 21.3333px; line-height: 22.8267px;"> would subsequently publish the true account.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
GI movement on the move</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> As
the first GI-led antiwar paper addressed to serving GIs, Jeff’s <i><b>Vietnam GI</b></i> gave
impetus to the emerging GI antiwar movement. Although Jeff personally avoided
publicity – better to operate in the shadows, he said – the media found him. He
and <b><i>VGI</i></b> were written up in the New York Times, Esquire, and by a couple of
national wire services whose dispatches ran in a number of regional papers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Vietnam GI </span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">expands</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> By
late summer ’68, <b><i>VGI</i></b> had inspired many stateside GIs to create base or unit underground antiwar papers. Much more
information from inside the training camps now got out despite local editors
having to watch out for disapproving brass and NCOs. Jeff and his team decided
to create a separate ‘Stateside Edition’ to circulate stories of particular
interest to military personnel still training before deployment to Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0k9-r11avq0/Vrx4HcSXZtI/AAAAAAAAOPc/MELenpTe21A/s1600/VGI%2BStockholm%2B4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0k9-r11avq0/Vrx4HcSXZtI/AAAAAAAAOPc/MELenpTe21A/s400/VGI%2BStockholm%2B4.JPG" width="378" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Stockholm</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Fall
’68: Jeff flew to Stockholm. Thanks to Swedish sanctuary policy, the city had
become a magnet for deserters from the Vietnam War, most, but not all, of whom
had left their units out of opposition to the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ke7OMRSJlpk/Vrx4yxp5GWI/AAAAAAAAOPk/qiNtaJOBsOU/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ke7OMRSJlpk/Vrx4yxp5GWI/AAAAAAAAOPk/qiNtaJOBsOU/s400/1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt;">The CALCAV delegation
in Stockholm, 1968<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt;">(Jeff standing left,
hand in pocket)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> In Stockholm, Jeff was the GI rep on a delegation of
clergy, theologians, academics, and writers sponsored by the organization
Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam known as CALCAV. Their mission was to
counsel with the isolated deserter community, much maligned stateside, and
bring them into the big tent of the antiwar movement writ large.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jE_GDKXItyU/Vrx5nXE6JkI/AAAAAAAAOPw/-IwvkB61lUY/s1600/Strut%2BMerge%2B124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jE_GDKXItyU/Vrx5nXE6JkI/AAAAAAAAOPw/-IwvkB61lUY/s320/Strut%2BMerge%2B124.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Oleo Strut, Jeff’s last stop on the circuit</span></i><span style="color: red; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">In early
fall, Bill O’Brien had arranged jobs for Jeff and Jim. They needed cash for
living expenses. The job entailed hard and heavy work, and it began to take a
toll on Jeff. He had an undiagnosed health problem dating back to its first
appearance in the Vietnam bush in ’64. He had to quit the job.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Still committed to the cause, Jeff traveled to the most noted outpost on the GI
coffee house circuit, the Oleo Strut in Killeen TX outside the gates of Fort
Hood. He followed his usual routine, rapping with off-duty GIs, staying on the
lookout for stories for <i><b>VGI</b></i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Tom Cleaver,
the ex-Vietnam sailor Jeff had met earlier in Chicago, was volunteering at the Strut
and noted that Jeff didn’t look well, tired easily, and slept a great deal.
Jeff could no longer ignore his health problems in the interest of the grand
struggle. He told his <i><b>VGI </b></i>comrades he was taking a leave of absence and headed
south to his parents’ place for some doctoring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 20.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Journey’s end</span><span style="font-size: 20pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VgTmGTbudrE/Vrx6v7rP7UI/AAAAAAAAOP4/BjtuMCkuepI/s1600/VGI%2BMiami%2BVA%2BHospital%2BEdited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VgTmGTbudrE/Vrx6v7rP7UI/AAAAAAAAOP4/BjtuMCkuepI/s400/VGI%2BMiami%2BVA%2BHospital%2BEdited.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Veterans Administration (VA) hospital,
Miami FL</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff’s journey landed him in a hospital in Miami.
Exploratory surgery found that the malady plaguing him for the past couple of
years had spread and was inoperable. In effect, it was a terminal diagnosis,
but he didn’t give up. There were still new experimental treatments to be
tried. One of them appeared to work, and his condition went into remission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-um5knQ-mcec/Vrx7Ms5DlQI/AAAAAAAAOP8/vMnXjN0jVGU/s1600/Jeff%2527s%2Blast%2Bfoto.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-um5knQ-mcec/Vrx7Ms5DlQI/AAAAAAAAOP8/vMnXjN0jVGU/s640/Jeff%2527s%2Blast%2Bfoto.JPG" width="550" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff’s last picture, 1969<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Though he was frail and weak, the VA doctors agreed
to let Jeff stay at his parents’ place in nearby Coral Gables. Many of his
friends from Chicago, New York, and Boston drove down in relays to visit him.
They’d listen to music, drink wine, and talk about the continuing antiwar
struggle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At spring break in my teaching schedule, Nancy and I
flew down to spend the week with him. We’d drive him back and forth to the
hospital for his outpatient treatments and generally hang out and talk about
better times. One afternoon I took the above photo of Jeff with Nancy and our
parents, the one that became our last picture of him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F-wzsVjzzWw/Vrx75hPOTQI/AAAAAAAAOQI/nrDKVXNqR2M/s1600/Jeff%2527s%2Bmarker%2Bsmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F-wzsVjzzWw/Vrx75hPOTQI/AAAAAAAAOQI/nrDKVXNqR2M/s640/Jeff%2527s%2Bmarker%2Bsmall.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Courage
from His Courage<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Unfortunately, the remission waned, the pain
reoccurred, and Jeff had to return to the hospital. Two months later, on June
16, 1969, he died, dead at 27. We buried him in a cemetery outside Miami where
my parents would be able to visit the grave. The day of Jeff’s funeral remains
the saddest moment of my life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> What was to
be the last SDS convention opened in Chicago just a few days after Jeff’s
death. The first order of business was a minute of silence in his memory. The nearly
two thousand people rose to their feet to honor Jeff as a founding leader of what
was becoming the powerful GI movement against the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> With <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>, Jeff had achieved his destiny.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rXD4e7YBfzs/Vrx80ZQfugI/AAAAAAAAOQQ/1eCG_vA98fw/s1600/VGI%2BJeff%252C%2BSNS%2Bdedication.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="333" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rXD4e7YBfzs/Vrx80ZQfugI/AAAAAAAAOQQ/1eCG_vA98fw/s400/VGI%2BJeff%252C%2BSNS%2Bdedication.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff remembered, 2005<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Decades later in ’05,
the first award-winning documentary on GI opposition to the Vietnam War, <i>Sir! No Sir!,</i> was premiered at the Los
Angeles Film Festival. The director, David Zeiger, called to tell me that he
had dedicated the film to Jeff “for starting it all.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> RIP Jeff, you did well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><br />Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-38186028730026141252016-02-10T05:00:00.001-05:002016-02-23T06:49:53.019-05:00Snapshots from a Short but Interesting Life I<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Prologue: </span></b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Herewith dear readers is Part I of the final
two-part post of <b>Searching</b> <b>for Jeff</b>, the blog history of my long
trek to trace and reconstruct the last decade—1959-1969 – of my brother Jeff
Sharlet’s short but interesting life. Bringing the blog to a conclusion will
enable me to devote full-time to completion of the memoir on Jeff now well
underway.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> After
five years and 125 posts, we have hit all the major moments of Jeff’s trajectory
through the ‘60s. In these two closing entries, we present a pictorial
perspective on his journey – a slide show lite – from cradle to grave. A number
of the photos were taken by Jeff himself. As the saying goes, pictures speak
for themselves, so we’ve appended only brief commentaries. <o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We thank those
tens of thousands who have followed the blog for your readership – either regularly
or periodically. As we sign off here, for those who might be interested, we will
in the near-future be posting from time to time excerpts from the memoir in
progress at our Yola Web site, </span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i><a href="http://jeffsharlet-and-vietnamgi.com.yolasite.com/">http://jeffsharlet-and-vietnamgi.com.yolasite.com/</a></i><span class="MsoHyperlink"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The last picture
show will cover the main phases of Jeff’s life as follows:</span></i></div>
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<ul>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;">Small town boy *</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;">Academy years*</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;">Good times in Monterey*</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;">Assassination in Saigon*</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;">Up north in harm’s way*</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;">Indiana days</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;">Destiny Chicago</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;">Journey’s end</span></b></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">(Asterisked periods are covered in this first
installment today. The remaining three topics are the subject of tomorrow’s,
February 11<sup>th</sup>, second and final installment)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">_________________________________________________________________</span></div>
</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" /></a></span></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Small town boy</span></u></span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gwxWg2FjuJA/Vq-SCOMxDhI/AAAAAAAAN7s/KYhXyltha2M/s1600/Crandall%2BPond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gwxWg2FjuJA/Vq-SCOMxDhI/AAAAAAAAN7s/KYhXyltha2M/s640/Crandall%2BPond.jpg" width="433" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Crandall Park Pond just a block from
Jeff’s house<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
Sharlet was a typical child of the middle class. He grew up in a small town
along the Hudson River in upstate New York. The family lived on a quiet
dead-end street across from the town park.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SlE9qCnCyO4/Vq-SRt_L3hI/AAAAAAAAN70/-VdLdhQyfe4/s1600/School.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SlE9qCnCyO4/Vq-SRt_L3hI/AAAAAAAAN70/-VdLdhQyfe4/s400/School.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">In the ‘40s boys entered from one side, girls the
other</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Grade
school was about a half mile walk up the main street. It was even closer if one
crossed the fields and cut through the local cemetery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vN1aA0Y6SNw/VriLMv4ur3I/AAAAAAAAOEI/kgdG3MuljwA/s1600/Nathans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vN1aA0Y6SNw/VriLMv4ur3I/AAAAAAAAOEI/kgdG3MuljwA/s400/Nathans.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">An afternoon at Round Pond, Jeff in the middle</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff’s
hometown was in the foothills of the Adirondacks. The summers abounded in
outdoor life. Nearby lakes and ponds were an easy drive in the backseat of the
family car.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ll74Smna9yA/VriZfORH2iI/AAAAAAAAOEQ/X-gCT9uhTuI/s1600/Hometown%2BUSA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ll74Smna9yA/VriZfORH2iI/AAAAAAAAOEQ/X-gCT9uhTuI/s320/Hometown%2BUSA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">An idyllic place to grow up</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> In 1944, <i>Look </i>magazine ran a series of well-illustrated articles designating Glens Falls as ‘Hometown USA’. It was indeed an idyllic place to grow up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JsVXBkB2ddI/Vq-S3fvux5I/AAAAAAAAN8E/fKdDra7z038/s1600/Fireman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JsVXBkB2ddI/Vq-S3fvux5I/AAAAAAAAN8E/fKdDra7z038/s400/Fireman.jpg" width="375" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt;">Firemen reading about D-Day, 1944</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> America was at war, but except for
practice air raid drills, the sounds of bombs and guns in Europe and the
Pacific were distant from childhood pursuits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_kpCKgz9gGM/Vq-TEqsXBLI/AAAAAAAAN8M/MlMDX5BMU4w/s1600/Insurance%2BCo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_kpCKgz9gGM/Vq-TEqsXBLI/AAAAAAAAN8M/MlMDX5BMU4w/s400/Insurance%2BCo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Glens
Falls Insurance Co. where many townspeople worked</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Glens
Falls had a neat little downtown area with shops and stores. It was often
referred to simply as ‘downstreet’ since it was at most a short bus ride up
Glen Street, the main drag. First sighted from the bus windows was the biggest
building in town, the insurance company on Monument Square commemorating the
Civil War.<span style="color: red;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UaL-lwf3D20/Vq-TTsQUt3I/AAAAAAAAN8U/fsIxhfDzypA/s1600/Bank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UaL-lwf3D20/Vq-TTsQUt3I/AAAAAAAAN8U/fsIxhfDzypA/s400/Bank.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">Jeff’s father’s furniture store was across from the bank</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">A
little farther on, there was the bank – a handsome white marble structure – and
then the 5¢ & 10¢ stores and specialty shops.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> In the late ‘40s, Jeff’s family
moved to Albany, the state capital.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 18.6667px;"> </span><u><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Academy years</span></u></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9Qn2fY9MXRM/Vq-WDhW8BII/AAAAAAAAN8g/Z2gYuIttY48/s1600/running%2Bfor%2Bcharity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9Qn2fY9MXRM/Vq-WDhW8BII/AAAAAAAAN8g/Z2gYuIttY48/s640/running%2Bfor%2Bcharity.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff running for charity</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Most
of Jeff’s formative years in Albany were spent at a private country day school.
With the student body organized as a cadet battalion, school days ran long from
early morning to dinner time. <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: 0.5in;">A demanding academic schedule and military </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: 0.5in;">training,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: 0.5in;"> as well as late afternoon sports practice,
filled the hours. Saturdays were home and away games with local </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: 0.5in;">teams</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: 0.5in;"> and New England prep schools. An active social
life with area girl’s schools occupied weekend evenings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3KmGqzkLWKY/Vq-WlbQLuqI/AAAAAAAAN8o/cfXHBdvzY-k/s1600/AA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3KmGqzkLWKY/Vq-WlbQLuqI/AAAAAAAAN8o/cfXHBdvzY-k/s400/AA.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Albany Academy<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> It was a very old institution from the
early 1800’s. There was much emphasis on traditions. Overall, the atmosphere
was conservative. There was little interest in contemporary politics. Preparing
for college was the Academy’s mission and the boys’ main preoccupation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JlrBHSPrLl0/Vq-W15YOQzI/AAAAAAAAN8w/1egdRh-xIXA/s1600/Baton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JlrBHSPrLl0/Vq-W15YOQzI/AAAAAAAAN8w/1egdRh-xIXA/s320/Baton.jpg" width="315" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff
taking the baton pass</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff played
football and ran track at the Academy. He was also expert at the rifle range
and twice in a cadet unit winning the drill competition.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tI57YJEH1vo/Vq-XF6jHFBI/AAAAAAAAN84/FpwbrdnbCvY/s1600/spring%2Bdance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tI57YJEH1vo/Vq-XF6jHFBI/AAAAAAAAN84/FpwbrdnbCvY/s400/spring%2Bdance.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Jeff
(l) at the annual spring dance</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
senior year he had become a top student. He was appointed an officer of the
battalion. A large number of graduates were headed to the Ivy League. Jeff had
his eye </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: 0.5in;">his eye on Dartmouth. But his father went bust. It was out of
reach. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Instead, he enrolled at a large
Midwestern state university. He was unhappy there. Jeff dropped out mid-freshman
year. Thereafter his life followed a radically different trajectory than his
erstwhile classmates.</span></div>
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<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MPovtdwcoHY/Vq-XVe9IP3I/AAAAAAAAN9A/7wFGSVRAhkg/s1600/plaque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MPovtdwcoHY/Vq-XVe9IP3I/AAAAAAAAN9A/7wFGSVRAhkg/s320/plaque.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Distinguished
alumni plaque, foyer of the Albany Academy</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fifty years on,
Jeff was posthumously awarded the Academy’s coveted Distinguished Alumni Award.
He was honored for the distinction of his short but interesting life as a
founding leader of the GI movement against the Vietnam War.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"> <u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Good times in
Monterey</span></u></span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: underline;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iSJj-_TB82c/Vq-ZuwzcjQI/AAAAAAAAN9M/9ACvEHZ2YWU/s1600/ALS%2BFriday%2BRetreat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iSJj-_TB82c/Vq-ZuwzcjQI/AAAAAAAAN9M/9ACvEHZ2YWU/s400/ALS%2BFriday%2BRetreat.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Standing <i>Friday
retreat at the Army Language School<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
college dropout during the Cold War, Jeff faced the Draft. He made a deal with
the Army – he gave up three years; they gave him a year of language study. He
was sent to the Presidio of Monterey atop a bluff on the California coast,
probably the most relaxed post in the military universe. The Presidio was home
to the Army Language School, renamed the Defense Language Institute (DLI). It
was akin to a small college.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">The military taught Jeff Vietnamese.
That meant six hours a day of class, and just a few light chores. Otherwise,
garrison regimen was at a minimum – show up late Friday afternoons for Retreat
formation. Taps were sounded, the flag was lowered. It was goodbye DLI until
Monday morning.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e1Rno9PoCD4/Vq-aZIHUiTI/AAAAAAAAN9U/ZeqkYWTow1s/s1600/keith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e1Rno9PoCD4/Vq-aZIHUiTI/AAAAAAAAN9U/ZeqkYWTow1s/s400/keith.jpg" width="167" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff’s
pal Keith going high</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
classes, Jeff and fellow students were on their own. Uniforms were shed,
evenings and weekends were theirs. Guys could hang out on campus– in effect,
that’s what the place was – or go off base.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1NoCWUorv3o/Vq-azqiLyUI/AAAAAAAAN9c/JevtXXjpyGw/s1600/cannery%2Brow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1NoCWUorv3o/Vq-azqiLyUI/AAAAAAAAN9c/JevtXXjpyGw/s400/cannery%2Brow.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Cannery
Row of Steinbeck fame </span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Down the hill
was the town on the bay. Plenty of bars and eateries. Cannery Row was a
celebrated fixture of Monterey, famous as the site of a John Steinbeck novel.
Although the bay was nearly fished out and most of the canneries closed, a few funky restaurants were tucked among the ruins.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aJqFVmHqmsY/Vq-a61io5RI/AAAAAAAAN9k/0aQWEla4Hl0/s1600/Carmel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aJqFVmHqmsY/Vq-a61io5RI/AAAAAAAAN9k/0aQWEla4Hl0/s400/Carmel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
beach at Carmel</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Or Jeff and pals could cross the
peninsula to Carmel-by-the-Sea, an arty little town. Ocean Avenue, the main
drag, ran down to the Pacific. At the foot was the beach.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5CmgTnvpMNw/Vq-bHS6s4TI/AAAAAAAAN9s/XxoceN3ULp8/s1600/ALS%2BNepenthe%2527s_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5CmgTnvpMNw/Vq-bHS6s4TI/AAAAAAAAN9s/XxoceN3ULp8/s640/ALS%2BNepenthe%2527s_edited-1.jpg" width="456" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nepenthe’s
at Big Sur</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff and Keith
owned an old motorcycle. They could range far and wide. A favorite weekend
hangout of Jeff’s was a restaurant down the coast. Nepenthe’s was on the coast
road south of the peninsula at Big Sur. The restaurant extended off a cliff
high above the waves crashing below.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DJNprx3kMgM/Vq-bcG18BVI/AAAAAAAAN90/psVGDP9kyB0/s1600/Top%2Bof%2Bthe%2BMark%2Bfor%2BBlog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DJNprx3kMgM/Vq-bcG18BVI/AAAAAAAAN90/psVGDP9kyB0/s400/Top%2Bof%2Bthe%2BMark%2Bfor%2BBlog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
view of San Francisco Bay</span></i><span style="color: red; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Other weekends
Jeff and Keith would mount up and head north. San Francisco was an hour and a
half up Highway 101. Hitting town, they’d go straight to the Mark Hopkins, the
hotel atop Nob Hill. Arriving, Jeff handed the cycle off to the doorman to
park. The two guys ascended to the top floor – to the ‘Top of the Mark’, a
piano bar looking out on the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. A year passed,
Jeff graduated as a Vietnamese linguist. The good times at Monterey came to
an end.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sf6TQbp_5eg/VruhpwobzKI/AAAAAAAAOEk/E_Jf3ACuFX0/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" /></a></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <u>Sojourn in the tropics
</u></span><span style="color: red; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: underline;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dSmLTjkSS7Q/Vq-fhV0066I/AAAAAAAAN-A/apQWc8PGwm8/s1600/PI%2BManilaBay%2B-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dSmLTjkSS7Q/Vq-fhV0066I/AAAAAAAAN-A/apQWc8PGwm8/s640/PI%2BManilaBay%2B-3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hello
from the Philippines<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff shipped out
to the Philippines, a rear area of the war in Vietnam. If the Defense Language
Institute was akin to a college
in khaki, his tour in the islands resembled an extended spring break.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZblqKeqYotY/Vq-f7E3K9wI/AAAAAAAAN-I/miyTQC0xNvM/s1600/Welcome%2Bto%2BClark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZblqKeqYotY/Vq-f7E3K9wI/AAAAAAAAN-I/miyTQC0xNvM/s400/Welcome%2Bto%2BClark.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Welcome
to Clark<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
Clark, he was assigned to an Army intelligence group housed at an Air Force
base on the island of Luzon. Clark was an enormous place, the size of a small city
with a giant airport, home to a tactical squadron. Fighters were constantly taking
off and landing, patrolling the Cold War skies of the Asian flank of the Soviet
empire.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HfBtECOPpC4/Vq-gXyXiGlI/AAAAAAAAN-Q/bgpqMop2coc/s1600/Mt%2BArayat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HfBtECOPpC4/Vq-gXyXiGlI/AAAAAAAAN-Q/bgpqMop2coc/s400/Mt%2BArayat.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mt Arayat to the east<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Looming
over the thousands of airmen and GIs was Mt Arayat, an extinct volcano about 10
miles distant. About 25 miles to the west was Mt Pinatubo, an active
volcano. Fortunately, it remained dormant throughout the Cold War. However, it
came to life spectacularly in ’91 with the second largest eruption of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W5Bclag0p-4/Vq-gg06pWYI/AAAAAAAAN-Y/kkmeBRnhn_A/s1600/PI%2Bbarracks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W5Bclag0p-4/Vq-gg06pWYI/AAAAAAAAN-Y/kkmeBRnhn_A/s400/PI%2Bbarracks.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Army Security Agency barracks, Clark Air
Base</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
linguists, cryptographers, and support personnel of Jeff’s outfit were billeted
in comfortable rooms with louvered windows to ease the heat of the tropics.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0uYiiyte-O4/Vq-gqjboylI/AAAAAAAAN-g/6era9JDfmws/s1600/PI%2BClarke%2Bpool%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0uYiiyte-O4/Vq-gqjboylI/AAAAAAAAN-g/6era9JDfmws/s400/PI%2BClarke%2Bpool%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The pool at Clark</span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Off-duty
troops as well as military dependents could take a cool dip.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C6hCdcYDgQE/Vq-gzkuxycI/AAAAAAAAN-o/fK7XSc4h5cY/s1600/PI%2BJeff%252C%2Bbeer%252C%2Bpool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C6hCdcYDgQE/Vq-gzkuxycI/AAAAAAAAN-o/fK7XSc4h5cY/s400/PI%2BJeff%252C%2Bbeer%252C%2Bpool.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff on an afternoon break</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Off
duty, Jeff and buddies could relax on post. Evenings they’d gather at the
Enlisted Men’s Club where drinks were cheap.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PmLdFT7Iono/Vq-hByUl0-I/AAAAAAAAN-w/l0-IkTJtGcU/s1600/PI%2BElephant%2BCage%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PmLdFT7Iono/Vq-hByUl0-I/AAAAAAAAN-w/l0-IkTJtGcU/s400/PI%2BElephant%2BCage%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
dark side, secret work</span></i><span style="color: red; font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> It
wasn’t all fun and games at Clark. Jeff and comrades had Top Secret and
Cryptographic security clearances. They worked shifts in a heavily guarded
Operations building off in a far corner of the base. Apparently, no photos of
the facility were permitted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
the giant antenna field by which North Vietnamese military communications were
intercepted, gave an idea of the classified work. The great circular structure
was dubbed the ‘elephant cage’.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1pL2cMOeQJY/Vq-hJz2lYNI/AAAAAAAAN-4/qWnFdcm-_H8/s1600/PI%2BKeith%2BWillis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1pL2cMOeQJY/Vq-hJz2lYNI/AAAAAAAAN-4/qWnFdcm-_H8/s320/PI%2BKeith%2BWillis.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff’s
buddy Keith on a rare field day<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Fatigue uniforms were worn at the Ops
facility. Otherwise ASA specialists had few military duties other than an
occasional field day. For that exercise troops donned their steel helmets and
were issued carbines (without ammo). <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
general idea was to refresh military skills last practiced during the first
eight weeks of Basic Training more than a year earlier for most. No one took
field day seriously.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rMnxW_xfX9k/Vq-hSMvuaII/AAAAAAAAN_A/FPKacc4msto/s1600/PI%2BJeff%2B%2526%2BEd%2B%2528arrow%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rMnxW_xfX9k/Vq-hSMvuaII/AAAAAAAAN_A/FPKacc4msto/s400/PI%2BJeff%2B%2526%2BEd%2B%2528arrow%2529.jpg" width="276" /></a></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
leisurely dinner in Angeles City, Jeff at the back</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not
far from Clark was Angeles City, a Filipino town of bars and brothels catering
to soldiers. There were also a few cafes and restaurants where a guy could get
a decent meal.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vn2l4uALA-c/Vq-hZuJAMqI/AAAAAAAAN_I/c16dkyaR948/s1600/PI%2BBaguio%2Broad%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vn2l4uALA-c/Vq-hZuJAMqI/AAAAAAAAN_I/c16dkyaR948/s400/PI%2BBaguio%2Broad%2B3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
road up to Baguio</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Farther
afield, Jeff spent a weekend or two at the hill station at Baguio, high above
the hot, dusty plains. With its subtropical climate, the little resort town was
well worth the hair-raising bus journey up a narrow, tortuous mountain road.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lfz1CZfED3o/Vq-hhLJ1ylI/AAAAAAAAN_Q/nK11VJEJi6Q/s1600/PI%2BManila%2Bbay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lfz1CZfED3o/Vq-hhLJ1ylI/AAAAAAAAN_Q/nK11VJEJi6Q/s400/PI%2BManila%2Bbay.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Manila Bay</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Or
he would catch the train to Manila, capital of the Philippines. A major city,
there was much to do – clubs, upscale restaurants, and even a race track.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DQXlzkLp0xk/Vq-hzZogR0I/AAAAAAAAN_g/fiEyl9fksSk/s1600/Gun%2Bsta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DQXlzkLp0xk/Vq-hzZogR0I/AAAAAAAAN_g/fiEyl9fksSk/s400/Gun%2Bsta.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Gunners
on the leave ship</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Periodically
ASA GIs got a week’s leave. They were could visit any Asian capital of their
choice. Navy ‘leave ships’ plied the sea routes, or guys could hop an Air Force
transport plane, space available. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i610oVU1PuI/Vq-ho1Xs3UI/AAAAAAAAN_Y/uxO57yuZV9o/s1600/PI%2BHong%2BKong%2Bharbor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i610oVU1PuI/Vq-ho1Xs3UI/AAAAAAAAN_Y/uxO57yuZV9o/s400/PI%2BHong%2BKong%2Bharbor.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Coming
into Hong Kong harbor<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jeff’s first leave trip was by ship to
Hong Kong, then still a British colony.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bLHhRAjSBm4/Vq-h4vVNXJI/AAAAAAAAN_o/Cz8gMhWEEcA/s1600/PI%2BTokyo%2B%2526%2BMt%2BFuji%2B-%2B2%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bLHhRAjSBm4/Vq-h4vVNXJI/AAAAAAAAN_o/Cz8gMhWEEcA/s400/PI%2BTokyo%2B%2526%2BMt%2BFuji%2B-%2B2%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mt
Fuji high above Tokyo<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Later
he took the leave ship to Tokyo. He found Japan fascinating.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then
one summer night the leisurely pace of island life abruptly halted.
War beckoned. Jeff was ordered to Vietnam.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2iWa5HSIhtI/VryM6YlsyHI/AAAAAAAAOQg/00XNm4D6EiA/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2iWa5HSIhtI/VryM6YlsyHI/AAAAAAAAOQg/00XNm4D6EiA/s1600/2%2Bscroll.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span> </span><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Assassination in
Saigon</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><u><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></u></span></b>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jzc2BbM5RSA/VrDrIojOZDI/AAAAAAAAN_4/YUOerG2utNo/s1600/VN%2BInsignia%2B2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jzc2BbM5RSA/VrDrIojOZDI/AAAAAAAAN_4/YUOerG2utNo/s400/VN%2BInsignia%2B2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><u><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></u></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Shoulder
patch worn by US military advisors, early ‘60s</span></i><span style="color: red; font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jeff and fellow linguists (lingys)
were flown to Saigon late August ’63. They landed in a country at war against a
Communist insurgency. The fighting was not going well for the nepotistic and
militarily inept regime of President Diem. There was great dissatisfaction with
his leadership, both in Saigon and in Washington.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RiD9X9gJn6Q/VrDrt6mIa6I/AAAAAAAAOAA/fC0NqGELdBc/s1600/DavisStationGate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="430" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RiD9X9gJn6Q/VrDrt6mIa6I/AAAAAAAAOAA/fC0NqGELdBc/s640/DavisStationGate.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Entrance, main
ASA base in South Vietnam<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
team of lingys was assigned to Davis Station, a secure enclave at the Saigon
airport.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cSfmRsEWMs0/VrDs28L1rzI/AAAAAAAAOAU/kPgpoI37Bd8/s1600/VN%2BDavis%2BSta%2BSignpost.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cSfmRsEWMs0/VrDs28L1rzI/AAAAAAAAOAU/kPgpoI37Bd8/s400/VN%2BDavis%2BSta%2BSignpost.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> Symbolic signpost at Davis Station </span></i><br />
<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Vietnam and its
smoldering little war – an off-shoot of the global Cold War – was a long way
from anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pGaJBcErRDI/VrDtR1oySKI/AAAAAAAAOAc/fH9_n4LabQw/s1600/Phu%2BLam%2B1st%2Bsig%2Bbrigade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pGaJBcErRDI/VrDtR1oySKI/AAAAAAAAOAc/fH9_n4LabQw/s400/Phu%2BLam%2B1st%2Bsig%2Bbrigade.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
base at Phu Lam</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jeff and the lingys worked at a US
Army Signal Bttn post to the southwest. Located in a remote corner of the base,
their mission was Top Secret.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NpVDsGA_S64/VrDtbayIdsI/AAAAAAAAOAk/tItJ5__5FN0/s1600/Phu%2BLam%2B1962.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NpVDsGA_S64/VrDtbayIdsI/AAAAAAAAOAk/tItJ5__5FN0/s400/Phu%2BLam%2B1962.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Giant
antennas at Phu Lam</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Senior South Vietnamese generals had
become fed up with Diem’s conduct of the war. They planned a coup. The Kennedy
Administration gave tacit support. Jeff and the team had been rushed to Saigon
to secretly eavesdrop on the generals’ communications – to give the White House
an ‘ear’ on what the plotters were saying off the record.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H_LTFw1tDKE/VrDtseMkCNI/AAAAAAAAOAs/EOz9phmEJbY/s1600/VN%2BJeff%2Bstanding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H_LTFw1tDKE/VrDtseMkCNI/AAAAAAAAOAs/EOz9phmEJbY/s400/VN%2BJeff%2Bstanding.jpg" width="305" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff
at work</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The lingys
worked in shifts around the clock in air conditioned communication vans at Phu
Lam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UnfGHOMOQO0/VrDuB3PXwOI/AAAAAAAAOA0/zMykEGXxhLY/s1600/VN%2BStreet%2BScene%2BPano1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UnfGHOMOQO0/VrDuB3PXwOI/AAAAAAAAOA0/zMykEGXxhLY/s400/VN%2BStreet%2BScene%2BPano1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
couple strolling down Tu Do [Freedom] Street in</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Saigon, ‘Paris of the Orient’, and a
reminder of French colonial days, the pissoir<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Saigon street scenes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X8YjNyxqGJQ/VrDuOIReXNI/AAAAAAAAOA8/R-pgcGOgWvk/s1600/VN%2BStreet%2BScene%2BPano2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X8YjNyxqGJQ/VrDuOIReXNI/AAAAAAAAOA8/R-pgcGOgWvk/s640/VN%2BStreet%2BScene%2BPano2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Before American GIs
flooded the city after the ’65 escalation, Saigon was an elegant city.</span></i></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">More street
scenes.</span><i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tMwLpshrAT8/VrDuxxZ9m-I/AAAAAAAAOBM/q-dWwRexFsU/s1600/VN%2BStreet%2BScene%2BPano3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tMwLpshrAT8/VrDuxxZ9m-I/AAAAAAAAOBM/q-dWwRexFsU/s400/VN%2BStreet%2BScene%2BPano3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Off-duty,
Jeff and pals taxied in from Davis Station to spend their evenings pub crawling
in the capital. The Blue Moon, the Peacock, and L’Imperiale were some of their
favorite watering holes.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff at play<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Although
they were in a war zone and a city beset by terrorist attacks, Jeff and the
guys nevertheless managed to have a good time in one of the exotic capitals of
the Orient. </span> Knowledge of the language and something of the
country’s culture, gave them cachet in the bars and cafes.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xtx6GgCrs2k/VrDvsEfgiwI/AAAAAAAAOBc/mIvAW5f2YPY/s1600/VN%2BDiem%2BS%2526S.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xtx6GgCrs2k/VrDvsEfgiwI/AAAAAAAAOBc/mIvAW5f2YPY/s400/VN%2BDiem%2BS%2526S.JPG" width="282" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Diem,
the Mandarin President</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A Vietnamese
patriot, Diem was an incompetent ruler. A minority Catholic, his regime was
harsh on the Buddhist clergy. Most of the generals were Buddhists.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q5f23bTHSKA/VrDvz47H0iI/AAAAAAAAOBk/UyO_Lu69Mkk/s1600/VN%2BBig%2BMinh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q5f23bTHSKA/VrDvz47H0iI/AAAAAAAAOBk/UyO_Lu69Mkk/s400/VN%2BBig%2BMinh.jpg" width="302" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Leader
of the coup</span></i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Big Minh led the junta that overthrew
the president. In the process, Diem was assassinated. Jeff and the Phu Lam crew
were pulled out and returned to their base in the Philippines.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Up on the border
in harm’s way</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></b></div>
</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xwCllyNA6tA/VrD-mPLnHfI/AAAAAAAAOB0/JtwVvzywwf4/s1600/VN%2BPhu%2BBai%2Bsunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xwCllyNA6tA/VrD-mPLnHfI/AAAAAAAAOB0/JtwVvzywwf4/s640/VN%2BPhu%2BBai%2Bsunset.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sunset
at Phu Bai</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The junta proved incapable of
governing effectively, and within a few months was overthrown in another coup by
General Khanh. Jeff and the lingys were rushed back to <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Saigon,
</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">but it was a bloodless affair, over in a day. Jeff’s next duty station was Phu
Bai up below the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A lush, green attractive land, the
small remote ASA post at Phu Bai was not one of South Vietnam’s scenic spots.
Flat, surrounded by scrub brush, and with a single elevation – Hill 180 with
its antennas – the place was wedged in between the mountains of Laos to the
west and the South China Sea. However, it was an ideal listening post and
jumping off point for making mischief in the Communist North.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K0BORpEH6_U/VrD_XzlILkI/AAAAAAAAOB8/swFBftu7RwA/s1600/ops%2Bdet%2Bj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K0BORpEH6_U/VrD_XzlILkI/AAAAAAAAOB8/swFBftu7RwA/s400/ops%2Bdet%2Bj.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ops
buildings, Detachment J </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The ASA station was designated
Detachment J. Other than the operations buildings where the Morse code ditty
boppers and the lingys worked, it was a ramshackle place.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wnp5_KsDsJc/VrEAeG5AoKI/AAAAAAAAOCI/QUWYRVIwKpQ/s1600/tent%2Bpano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wnp5_KsDsJc/VrEAeG5AoKI/AAAAAAAAOCI/QUWYRVIwKpQ/s640/tent%2Bpano.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Tent life in the boonies</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><i style="font-family: 'Lucida Handwriting'; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 19.9733px;">The infirmary</i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Moldy old WWII tents were still in use.
Jeff lived in a six-man squad tent with a plank walk in front. Among the
hazards of life in a primitive place in the tropics, there were also rats and
insects to contend with. For those who had the bad luck to get sick, there was
the medical tent with little equipment. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
unfortunately had first-hand experience with the Army’s minimal medical
facilities. A mysterious pain which went into remission, was never successfully
diagnosed or treated. Agent Purple, the more toxic predecessor to Agent Orange,
was used at the time for defoliation – could Jeff somehow have been exposed? We’ll
never know.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNywM0QeGik/VrEBIYGgLtI/AAAAAAAAOCQ/cmjilwf77dk/s1600/Barber%2BStore%2BPano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNywM0QeGik/VrEBIYGgLtI/AAAAAAAAOCQ/cmjilwf77dk/s640/Barber%2BStore%2BPano.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The barbershop The Detachment
J Store</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The other
non-operational facilities weren’t much more impressive – a thatched roof
barbershop and a tiny store for buying toiletries and such.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bQ3WU85C82o/VrEBTV5a90I/AAAAAAAAOCY/LhKr_G33wHM/s1600/JEFF%2BSHARLET%252C%2BPhu%2BBai%252C%2BSVN%2B%252764.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bQ3WU85C82o/VrEBTV5a90I/AAAAAAAAOCY/LhKr_G33wHM/s320/JEFF%2BSHARLET%252C%2BPhu%2BBai%252C%2BSVN%2B%252764.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jeff,
a duty day at Phu Bai</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The primary mission of Jeff and
comrades, was tracking North Vietnamese Army communications. A secondary task
was maintaining radio liaison with South Vietnamese commandos slipped into the
North. Inevitably, most were soon killed or captured.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7YvcxVwXeBw/VrECRX9o85I/AAAAAAAAOCg/T8pSqn6fuF0/s1600/Hue%2BStreet%2BScene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="343" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7YvcxVwXeBw/VrECRX9o85I/AAAAAAAAOCg/T8pSqn6fuF0/s400/Hue%2BStreet%2BScene.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Street
scene, Hue</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not far down the
road was Hue, ancient capital of Vietnam. Light duty sometimes entailed
driving a truck to the city to pick up supplies. Off-duty days Jeff and pals
could tour the Citadel and have dinner at a French-style café.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qDB7L16HPn0/VrECkk-H4hI/AAAAAAAAOCo/jq1z-MpaXUY/s1600/Sampan%2BBeach%2BPano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qDB7L16HPn0/VrECkk-H4hI/AAAAAAAAOCo/jq1z-MpaXUY/s640/Sampan%2BBeach%2BPano.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Moorings,
the Perfume River</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">South
China Sea </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Other times the lingys could walk
along the Perfume River running through Hue to reach a white sandy beach on the
South China Sea.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fxFDxvgvzBA/VrEDeYHDAbI/AAAAAAAAOCw/GNzOjPdkU3w/s1600/Jeff%2Bcamera%2BVC%2BPano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fxFDxvgvzBA/VrEDeYHDAbI/AAAAAAAAOCw/GNzOjPdkU3w/s640/Jeff%2Bcamera%2BVC%2BPano.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Jeff
socializing Talking with a local man</span></i><i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Knowing the language, Jeff got around
easily. Off-duty, he could talk with government officials and civilians alike,
even reportedly the local Viet Cong (VC) cadre.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cMnRmtlV7ZY/VrEENqICniI/AAAAAAAAOC4/pBaXMPvucn4/s1600/VN%2BHai-Van-Pass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="472" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cMnRmtlV7ZY/VrEENqICniI/AAAAAAAAOC4/pBaXMPvucn4/s640/VN%2BHai-Van-Pass.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Over
the Hai Van (Sea Cloud) Pass to Danang</span></i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Another favorite venue was Danang on
the sea to the south. Jeff and John Buquoi would borrow a jeep and drive over
the Hai Van Pass down to Danang for a weekend.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8lW6pcbcpfE/VrEEZJ9FY_I/AAAAAAAAODA/06iczklIdg4/s1600/VN%2BDanang%2Bfloating%2Brestaurant%2B-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8lW6pcbcpfE/VrEEZJ9FY_I/AAAAAAAAODA/06iczklIdg4/s640/VN%2BDanang%2Bfloating%2Brestaurant%2B-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Floating
restaurant, Danang<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Less traditional than Hue, Danang
had more to offer young off-duty GIs – bars, restaurants, hotels. A commercial
hub, it was a livelier town.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NAS1Yr5j5m8/VrEEkYzwveI/AAAAAAAAODI/M_iU9aS-K_U/s1600/VN%2BDanang%2Bbus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NAS1Yr5j5m8/VrEEkYzwveI/AAAAAAAAODI/M_iU9aS-K_U/s320/VN%2BDanang%2Bbus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Danang
transit<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "lucida handwriting"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jeff’s Vietnam tour came to an end. He
headed home disillusioned and critical of the US mission in South Vietnam. He
had seen and heard a lot, none of it encouraging.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 21.3px;">[The concluding Part II will appear tomorrow, February 11th.]</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-88879491179869649352016-02-03T05:00:00.000-05:002016-02-23T06:43:19.704-05:00Deadline Extension<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EcntGnK41W4/VrEjWairDKI/AAAAAAAAODU/TGU46738nN0/s1600/VN%2B2%2B2%2BJeff%2Bin%2BHue%2B1%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EcntGnK41W4/VrEjWairDKI/AAAAAAAAODU/TGU46738nN0/s400/VN%2B2%2B2%2BJeff%2Bin%2BHue%2B1%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="311" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><i>Jeff in Hue, 1964</i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">Dear Readers:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"></span><br style="line-height: 21.3px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">For five years we have been <i style="line-height: 25.56px;">Searching for Jeff, </i>and happily we have completed the search and 'found' him, but regrettably for the first time we've missed today's deadline.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"></span><br style="line-height: 21.3px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">We're doing a voluminous photo essay in two posts covering Jeff's entire short but interesting life. The posts will be up in consecutive order on February 10th & 11th.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"></span><br style="line-height: 21.3px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">They will cover the following phases of Jeff's life:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span><br style="line-height: 21.3px;" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;">-- Small town boy</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;">-- Academy years</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;">-- Good times in Monterey</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;">-- Sojourn in the tropics</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;">-- Assassination in Saigon</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;">-- Up north in harm's way</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;">-- Indiana days</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;">-- Chicago destiny</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 21.3px;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: normal;">-- Journey's end</span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-63773209615470468822016-01-06T05:00:00.000-05:002016-01-08T05:57:12.149-05:00 Along the Roads of Vietnam at War – A Poet Remembers<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The
ex-Vietnam GI poet, John Buquoi, retraces his seven-year journey through wartime
Vietnam in his recently published collection of poems. He was first in Vietnam
as a soldier, 1963-65 – serving with my brother Jeff Sharlet*– and then as a
civilian as an independent contractor supporting the military mission from 1965
to 1970.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Following
his military tour as a Vietnamese linguist, John returned to the States in
April ’65. Texas was home, but a strong attraction to the exotic land he had
gotten to know soon drew him back to Southeast Asia. By midnight, Christmas ’65,
John was aboard a PanAm flight winging his way again to Vietnam. This time working
as a civilian in-country, the poet would range far and wide throughout South
Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Nl1bwx7OR0w/VoK-tbMdqwI/AAAAAAAAM_Q/H0jkqS0BeWo/s1600/VN%2BPanAm%2Bin%2BSaigon%2BEdit4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Nl1bwx7OR0w/VoK-tbMdqwI/AAAAAAAAM_Q/H0jkqS0BeWo/s640/VN%2BPanAm%2Bin%2BSaigon%2BEdit4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With
his language ability, civilian employment was not a problem for John. He was
soon snapped up by a large US electrical sub-contractor. The firm was under contract to a giant construction outfit that built air fields and other military
facilities for America’s growing involvement in the war against Communist North
Vietnam and its southern proxy, the Viet Cong, or VC. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After completing his initial contract, John signed on with Pacific Architects and Engineers and was assigned
to the staff of a former general who had retired through the revolving door to a
cushy position with the defense contractor. The poet traveled extensively throughout the embattled country, continuing apace as he subsequently became a Labor Relations manager for the Pentagon's largest defense contractor in South Vietnam. His poems look back nearly a half century to that
unforgettable time in his young life. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John’s
book of poems can be read as written one by one, or alternatively viewed as a
continuous narrative poem. Either way, the reader journeys with the poet
through a tumultuous time in the history of the 20<sup>th</sup> century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One
of John’s first work assignments is recorded in an early poem. He and the
general visited a major military base. As an ex-GI, the poet was aware that
combat riflemen were not only in harm’s way, but lived and fought in a war not
far from the Equator under conditions of extreme difficulty and hardship. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Even
at one of his relatively sheltered postings as an intelligence operative, he
recalled many men were billeted in tents with little relief from the searing
heat and enervating humidity of tropical Asia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
in the company of a general as a newly reminted civilian, the poet was able to
pass through the two-way mirror into the bifurcated world of the US military.
Travelling north from Saigon to Cu Chi, they arrived at the vast encampment of
the 25<sup>th</sup> Infantry Division – a base the size of a small city
complete with its own airfield.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pKnzBVDE66g/VoK--Q069EI/AAAAAAAAM_Y/768c9jA_zN4/s1600/25thID-patch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pKnzBVDE66g/VoK--Q069EI/AAAAAAAAM_Y/768c9jA_zN4/s400/25thID-patch.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Shoulder
patch 25<sup>th</sup> Inf, Tropic Lightning<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Driving
through base to the quarters of the commanding general (CG), they could see the
area where the ‘grunts’, the combat troopers, were billeted:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">the 11-bravos, ‘grunts’<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> are
tented in fetid ‘favelas’<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> of
rotting surplus canvas<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> from
Korea, world war two,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> …
to endure beyond combat<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the
heat, the bugs, the rats,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the
endless monsoon<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and
the most inelegant <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> mess
chow mélange<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> slung
to steel trays<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Moving
on to their corporate destination – to confer with the divisional CG, the poet
came upon a scene barely imaginable in his previous incarnation as a Spec-5,
roughly the equivalent of sergeant. His lines reveal the surprising contrast:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">in the commanding<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> general’s
mess<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> nestled
in officer country’s<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> manicured,
suburban<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> emerald
otherworld<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> of
putting green lawns<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and
air conditioned luxury<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> command
staff trailers<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> privacy
fenced and gated,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> guarded
against the envy<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and
anger of their own troops<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In
that inner sanctum of the highly stratified US Army, the poet and his general
were invited to lunch – a splendid repast worthy of colonial days in French
Indochina – first cocktails, then “</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">lobster, shrimp,
filet mignon, prime rib</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">,” washed down with fine wine followed by
cigars all around. The poet might well have wondered – Am I still in the same
war zone?</span><b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">1</span></sup><span style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John
married in Vietnam, and he and his wife began a family in Saigon. For help with
the house and the infant, they hired little Miss Anh. Early one Monday morning,
Anh came to work, punctual as always, and began playing with the baby.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
the poet noticed her quietly crying, choking back tears. She managed to say
very politely “<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">I need to take a week off/a personal
matter/I can be back next week.</span></i></b>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John
replied, of course, take whatever time you need and gently asked, “<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">is everything okay, are you okay.</span></i></b>” Amidst
a flood of tears, Anh explained that her brother had just died and she needed
to go back to the village in the Mekong Delta to help with his children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sympathetically,
the poet inquired had her brother been ill or perhaps in an accident? The
weeping young woman replied:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">he was just a farmer<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and
he was at home<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> standing
in his doorway<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> smoking
a cigarette<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> drinking
coffee<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> looking
out at his field<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> watching
his children play<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and
they just came<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and
killed him<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> from
the helicopter<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> from
the air<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> with
a rocket<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and
machine guns<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Shocked
and saddened, John said “</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">I am so sorry …
take whatever you need, it’s okay,</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">” but quickly realized “</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">it’s not ‘okay’ at all</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">” as … “</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">tears echo up in my own eyes/and, choked silent/in the
cold realization/of shared responsibility</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">.”</span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">2</span></sup><span style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another
poem mourns a company man working at a regimental base up country who had died
saving three GIs wounded by a road mine. If not for the poet’s eulogy, the man
would have been a hero unsung lost in oblivion:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">If he’d been an army man<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> his
name would be carved on the wall<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> but
he was just a civilian,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> a
blue collar construction guy,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> working
at Blackhorse, near Xuan Loc<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> not
a very important job<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> even
for an old guy like him,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the
oldest man on</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><span style="color: #0070c0;">Blackhorse base</span></b></span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">3</span></sup><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then
came Tet ’68, the VC’s coordinated attacks on every major urban center in South
Vietnam. Like an angry volcano, the war – long raging in the jungles and mountains
– erupted, its lethal flows coursing through cities and towns. Asleep at home
in Saigon, John <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">woke startled<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> with
the neighborhood<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> to
the mortars,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> grenades,
small arms,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> machine
gun fire<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and,
loudest of all,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the
eerie haunted<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> silences
echoing<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> muffled
in between<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> …
battle fires<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in
Saigon’s<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> bloodiest
alley<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> just
barely<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> a
block away<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">From
the rooftop, the poet watched the heavy fighting below “</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">like
picnickers/at Bull Run/ … ashamed/ embarrassed/ at our helplessness/ in our raw
exposed/impotence/as the city burned/and so, so many died/… just barely/ and
more than/those hundred/lost lives away/in this insanity/of war.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">”</span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">4</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DsgJ-T6pNXI/VoK_kQrXwhI/AAAAAAAAM_g/4WePs0I2vNk/s1600/VN%2BTet%2B%252768%2Bstreet%2Bfighting2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="379" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DsgJ-T6pNXI/VoK_kQrXwhI/AAAAAAAAM_g/4WePs0I2vNk/s640/VN%2BTet%2B%252768%2Bstreet%2Bfighting2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Saigon street fighting, Tet ‘68<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The
streets and alleys of the capital awash in death, civilians too fell victim as
the poet renders the fate of neighbors in verse. An old Vietnamese woman gone
mad in protective entombment from the violence outside her door. A priest,
fearful of becoming a casualty of the fighting elsewhere, had fled to Saigon
where – as in the ancient Persian tale of Samarra -- Death found him after all,
in the form of a Katyusha rocket.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
perhaps his finest and most memorable poetic image of the war, John was driving
on the road south of Saigon enroute toward the delta, the Mekong River Delta.
Stopping at a roadside soup stand near a large, well-tended rice paddy, the
poet attracted a small group of peasants, curious to see a lone American in
those parts, not to mention one who spoke their language.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the midst of the war, the countryside seemed like “<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">an
ancient watercolor scene/as from a silken scroll</span></i></b>” until the
crowd suddenly turned away toward the paddy berm, peering at something on the
far tree line.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Curious,
John looked over and saw “<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">the three/dark
shadow elephant-like hulks/approaching fast abreast</span></i></b>” – Armored
Personnel Carriers, or APCs, churning through the pristine green paddies, ugly
scars in their wake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sXq-8OUzcJY/VoK_x_6XAVI/AAAAAAAAM_o/vZsu0IlCM8Y/s1600/Rice%2BPaddy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sXq-8OUzcJY/VoK_x_6XAVI/AAAAAAAAM_o/vZsu0IlCM8Y/s640/Rice%2BPaddy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Rice paddies in
South Vietnam<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
the villagers watched, muttering angrily, the “<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">amphibian
herd</span></i></b>” closed the distance, crested the berm, one of them dragging
a cargo net. What occurred next the poet found disturbing:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">cheering soldiers jump running <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> to
drop their netted catch<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and,
as in a play, set up, laughing,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> their
grim trophy-like display,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> eight
bodies neatly laid in rows<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> along
the paddy dike<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> eight
dead boys, so young<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> eight
dead teenage boys,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> forever
teens, forever dead<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> from
today until forever<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mounting
up, the soldiers sped away “<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">jeering,
laughing, cheering/ …<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">as though their own still last tomorrows/might not ever come</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
an epiphany the poet foresaw<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">that the final victors in this<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> now
all American war<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> would
be not ‘assisted friends’<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> but
comrades, sisters<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and
blood’s brothers<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> of
these eight dead<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> these
eight so dead<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> teen
guerrilla boys<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> at
rest on the altar berm<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
this had not yet been grasped in Saigon “<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">where fantasies
of progress/still <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">sustained the war machine.</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">”</span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">5</span></sup><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
longer John worked in Vietnam during the war, the more he saw of the dark side
of US ‘assistance’ to our ally, the South Vietnamese. In a poem about an
orphanage run by Buddhist monks, the poet tells of the huge amount of rice
required daily to feed the children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
as rice boils, it multiplies in volume,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">so, too, the orphanage<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> swells
in numbers<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> of
orphaned children<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ever
since the Americans<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> came
to help their friends<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and
set the land<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> so
much to fire</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">6</span></span></sup><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Fast
forwarding to the end of the century and beyond to the new one, the last poems
in John Buquoi’s fine volume, </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i>Snapshots from the Edge of a War</i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">,
are suffused with sadness – for the
young of Vietnam, “</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">unearned deaths before they even lived</span></i></b><i style="font-size: 14pt;">;”</i><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">7</span></sup><i style="font-size: 14pt;"> </i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">for a buddy, an old soldier, with whom he visited the Wall, “</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">so many</span></i></b><i style="font-size: 14pt;">
<b><span style="color: #0070c0;">so long
dead/so many</span></b>;”</i><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">8</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> and for the country his wife Kim left
behind, “</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">older now, dazed at so much change/she
walked the Saigon of her youth</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">.”</span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">9</span></sup><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></sup></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-d8xXHLkxv5c/VoLAHtfqjWI/AAAAAAAAM_w/JoWMEjwfTmY/s1600/VN%2Bwall%2BWDC%2B-%2B1_.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-d8xXHLkxv5c/VoLAHtfqjWI/AAAAAAAAM_w/JoWMEjwfTmY/s640/VN%2Bwall%2BWDC%2B-%2B1_.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Vietnam War
Memorial, Washington, DC<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The poet closes his meditation on the
past reflecting on a final trip back to Vietnam, revisiting “<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">again</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0;"> <i>one’s youth/that was so shaped in that far
place</i></span></b><i>.” </i>And hence his
last lament<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">for those too soon<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> already gone who cannot go<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> or did not leave that never land<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and, yes, for all those times long lost<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> but to fast fading memory<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> this one last memorial trip<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> on landscapes now but faintly dreamed<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> across those ancient miles of time</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">10</span></span></sup><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*<a href="http://www.amazon.com/snapshots-edge-war-John-Buquoi-ebook/dp/B017MR461C" target="_blank"><b><span style="background: white; color: #0068cf;">http://www.amazon.com/snapshots-edge-war-John-Buquoi-ebook/dp/B017MR461C</span></b></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The book is available in e-book, Kindle, and
hard copy.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“tropic lightning, cu chi
base,” J Buquoi, <b><i>snapshots from the edge of a war</i> </b>(2015),
60. Quotes from the poems in the text are indicated in bold blue type.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“monday morning, early,” <i>Ibid</i>, 63.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“death and recompense,” <i>Ibid</i>, 69.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol start="4" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“surprise,” <i>Ibid</i>, 74</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></li>
</ol>
<ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“on the chau thanh road,” <i>Ibid</i>, 89.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol start="6" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“mindfulness,” <i>Ibid</i>, 100.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol start="7" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“collateral damage,” <i>Ibid</i>, 117.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol start="8" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“brother ghost,” <i>Ibid</i>, 101.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol start="9" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“quanta of memory,” 115.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol start="10" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“meditation on a trip back,”
<i>Ibid</i>, 128.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-70583492304738791802015-12-02T05:00:00.000-05:002015-12-08T15:26:38.195-05:00Arise! A Latter-Day Poet of the Vietnam War<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">The
war in Vietnam has long been over, but from time to time new writing still
appears illuminating the period in a fresh light. So it is with John Buquoi’s
just published book of poetry, </span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i>Snapshots from the Edge of a War.* </i></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Although
the eloquently and vividly written poems were written one by one, the
collection can be read as a single long narrative poem about a large part of
America’s war in Vietnam.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
perspective is John’s – as a Vietnam GI, later as a civilian contractor, he
bore witness from the fateful year of ‘63 until the end of his extended time in
Vietnam in ’70. From the distance of time and much reflection, the poet looks
back nearly half a century; his poems have a retrospective antiwar tilt with a
hint of the bittersweet.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John
was ASA – the Army Security Agency – a semi-clandestine communications outfit,
the military arm of the NSA, or National Security Agency, in Washington DC. After
a year of intensive study of Vietnamese at a military language school on the
California coast, he was shipped out to Vietnam. It was fall of ’63 as a
simmering coup in Saigon was coming to a boil.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">South
Vietnamese generals were plotting against President Diem with sub rosa support
from the Kennedy White House. To be on the safe side though, Washington sent in
a small team of Vietnamese linguists (lingys) to secretly monitor the generals’
communications to learn what they were up to outside the earshot of the US
Embassy. Jeff Sharlet, my brother, was part of the lead group stationed at a
remote listening post outside Saigon, the capital, in August. John Buquoi
arrived as a replacement in October.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Early
in the narrative poem, the poet is out on the town in Saigon with Jeff and
other lingys. They were walking toward the Imperial, a French-Vietnamese café
when </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">old waiters at l’Imperial/sprint out from the open air
café/racing a pursuing billow/of hot shrapnel steel, smoke and fire/from
Mr. Charlie’s tossed grenade.</span></i></b><sup> <span style="font-size: x-small;">1</span></sup><b style="font-size: 14pt;"> </b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">For John it was a violent welcome to the Paris of the Orient from
the Viet Cong (VC).</span><sup style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Saigon Street
Scene, 1960s</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Then came the coup a few weeks later on
November 1</span><sup style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">st</sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> as the lingys </span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">tapped into
conversations/between the general staff/we listened to the chaos/of the bloody
coup d’etat.</span></i></b><sup style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> 2</sup><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Overnight</span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Diem and his brother, the secret
police chief, were out, assassinated, and the generals were in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">The coup over, the linguists returned to their other assignments, but sometimes even those might be interrupted by the more mundane. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">One day he was on guard duty atop the American school for children
of soldiers’ trailing families in Vietnam. Very hot, very bored, John passed
the time watching two little Vietnamese ragamuffins spend the afternoon
laboriously draining a pond across the road – an arduous job.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The
pond finally drained, the kids gathered up </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">a mess/ of tiny
gasping fish and crabs/trapped dying on the bottom mud/maybe to take home for
dinner/or perhaps to sell at market.</span></i></b><i style="font-size: 14pt;"> </i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Admiring their industry and perseverance, the poet mused, </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">I can’t help myself but wonder/about which side will have
the will/to stick it out all the way until/that far off final ‘win’…and why.</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">3</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
’63 came to an end, John again bore witness on Christmas Eve to the
ever-present VC. Standing in a bar, he and a friend felt the tremor of a blast.
Running out they saw that a massive bomb had devastated a small hotel mainly housing
American military advisors. First on the scene before help arrived, the two GIs
sprinted toward the destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We made it through the fence/into the Stygian courtyard scene/of
burning cars, twisted steel/blasted brick and glass/into a silence beyond death/soundless
but for the crackle/of the scattered fires/and the occasional explosion.</span></i></b><sup style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">4</sup></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
wounded Vietnamese man stumbled from the wreckage, pointing back where his
friends were still trapped. John plunged into the choking smoke, found the two
bloodied, deafened guys, and <i style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">just hoping for
no second bomb/we crawled out along the floor.</span></i><sup>4</sup><i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>Merry Christmas from Victor
Charlie.<sup><o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Sent
up to an outpost near the border with North Vietnam in early ’64, John got a
call that two of his good buddies back at Saigon base had been killed – while
watching a softball game. The VC had planted a bomb under their section of the
bleachers – </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">they told me it was all over in a flash of
fire/… they told me all they thought there was to tell, except/they didn’t tell
me that 50 years on as I remembered them/I would see them so then time young ….</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">5</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">John
was at Phu Bai, ASA’s northernmost listening post where the linguists liaised by radio with South Vietnamese commandos infiltrated across the
border. Often as not, the commandos were soon killed or captured by the
Communist border troops </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">while watchers
just as young as they/listen here, close by, listening/listening, listening,
waiting/until their faint transmissions end.</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">6</span></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">To
unwind the stresses of the latest failed black mission, the guys went off to the base
club – a hole in the wall with cheap drinks – where they're greeted by </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">Bill, a great gruff, bluff, comic walrus/philosopher,
storyteller/our mustached brother holding court</span></i></b><i style="font-size: 14pt;"> </i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">with a bottle of whiskey. </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">Jeff, distracted, tired, slouches down/and Bill, in
greeting sloshes out/a double Cutty Sark his way/Jeff downs the shot but craves
a beer</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">6</span><span style="color: #0070c0;"><o:p></o:p></span></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Already
deeply disillusioned with the war, Jeff raged: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">this
place stinks and this war’s bullshit/<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">we’re
not fucking helping ‘em here/<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">just
makin’ some fat white guys rich/<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">from
people dyin’ on all sides/<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">’just
war’, my ass, there’s no such thing/ <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">not
here anyway, least of all</span></i></b><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.6667px;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">.</span></i></b><sup style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">6</sup></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Hearing
the last call for drinks, the gang loaded up and headed out to the base perimeter
to continue partying. </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">Peyton joins
them, a beat poet/philosopher, weaver of spells/young Kerouac still on the
road/the sandbag bunker full of drunks/…</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0;">
until <i>the first dim wash of dawn mists
up/pale pinked </i></span><i><span style="color: #365f91; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">orange and gold
pastels from/over east’s South China Sea, and/beyond those</span><span style="color: #0070c0;"> places once called home.</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">6</span></sup><i style="font-size: 14pt;"> </i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">So went many a night at Phu Bai.</span><sup style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In
the midst of the nightmare that would soon engulf their daily lives, the poet
showed his affection for the Vietnamese. Sitting in a bar with Jeff down the
coast in Danang, they encounter </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">a Tom Sawyer kid
called ‘Joe’, all/Vietnamese with a hug</span><span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">e smile</span><span style="color: #0070c0;">/and
sparkling eyes that made you think/you could probably trust this one/even as
you checked your wallet.</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">7</span></sup><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A bus in Danang<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Little
Joe, maybe all of eight years old, beaming mischievously among the bar girls,
made his pitch:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #4f81bd; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;">Hey, G.I. guys! I watch your jeep<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #4f81bd; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;"> make sure it not get stolen here? … <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #4f81bd; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;">guys, guys, for sure I watch it cheap<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #4f81bd; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;">only maybe 10-20 p</span></i></b><b><span style="color: #4f81bd; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;">[iastres]<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #4f81bd; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent1;">I guarantee you satisfied<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">nobody
else watch jeep like Joe<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">and
I can tell you about these girls.</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">7</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></sup></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">John
and Jeff laughed, gave him some coins, </span><i style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #0070c0;">you couldn’t
help but love the kid.</span></i><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">7</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></sup></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">It’s
’65, the war would soon be in full throat, John was back in Saigon. Tracing
favorite images from Graham Greene’s famous novel of Vietnam in the ‘50s, the
poet found himself on the street where the author’s heroine lived, perhaps even
in the same building.</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"> <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">Within this
perfect corner/at the razor intersection/ of the fiction and the real/ … we
relax … with a magical twilight meal/as we try to ignore the war/thunders
across the river.</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">8</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></sup></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Drawing
from his memories of the lively Saigon night scene, the poet records snapshots
from the past. A GI in from the field celebrating his first firefight, <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">just seventeen, already killed a man/<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> No shit, I stood up and he looked at me<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> motherfuckin’ zip maybe ‘bout my age<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and right then, man, it was like Dodge City<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I beat him on the draw Matt Dillon style</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">9</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></sup></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NfsWvUS_FaE/VlNLWfUCpZI/AAAAAAAAM90/9edKIMxU7YY/s1600/VN%2Bcombat%2Bpatrol.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="540" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NfsWvUS_FaE/VlNLWfUCpZI/AAAAAAAAM90/9edKIMxU7YY/s640/VN%2Bcombat%2Bpatrol.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">But
as the Dodge City kid keeps retelling the story, </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">he</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0;"> <i>dissolves to
tears, calling his ‘momma’/screaming for Jesus to come take him home.</i></span></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">9</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></sup></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">At
another bar was a lovely girl whose name meant ‘Teardrop’ She day- dreamed of childhood
days back in her village, </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">swimming in the
cool canals/nights listening to the soft rain/by the light of yellow
candles/near to comforting kitchen fires/safe from the thunderstorms of war.
All dead now except</span> <span style="color: #0070c0;">her mother/she works
here just to care for her/in this old taxi dancing club/a hostess to Americans.</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">10</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></sup></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Early
spring and the Marines were about to hit the beaches. Like an impending war
game, the US was moving its pieces into place. John and a radio operator were
dropped on a peak </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">eagle high above the coastal plain/just
eastward from bloody Route 19</span></i></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">11</span></sup><span style="color: #0070c0;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">– their mission to listen for the enemy’s counter
moves to challenge the arrival of the first US combat units. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Exploring
their turf, the two GIs </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">found trenches
hacked from bedrock/granite defenses all around the hill/hand hewn so deep so
long ago</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0;">.</span></b><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">11</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">From
which of Vietnam’s wars from over the decades and even the centuries, they
didn’t know. But the silent stone’s message was clear to them, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">those
who hand cut trench terraces<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> from
black bedrock had never quit<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and we
knew their heirs, our ‘enemies’,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> would
never give up their father’s land<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> not even
to us…Marines or no</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">11</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></sup></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Just
a few days off the hilltop post, the poet finds himself in </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><i><span style="color: #0070c0;">the</span></i></b><span style="color: #0070c0;"> <b><i>cramped cool cocoon/ of a World Airways
flight/homeward bound/trying to shake/cold turkey/the adrenaline high/of life
and death/in a war zone.</i></b></span><sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">12</span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></b></sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John’s
war was over – or was it? As the next post will show, he would soon be back in Nam,
but in a different role, one that afforded him even broader vistas of a society
being torn asunder by war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*</span><a class="c_nobdr t_prs" href="http://www.amazon.com/snapshots-edge-war-John-Buquoi-ebook/dp/B017MR461C" style="background-color: white; color: #0068cf; cursor: pointer; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.3px; outline: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: normal;"><b style="line-height: 21.3px;">http://www.amazon.com/snapshots-edge-war-John-Buquoi-ebook/dp/B017MR461C</b></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The book is available in e-book, Kindle, and hard copy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">1 </span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“frag racing,” J Buquoi, <b><i>snapshots
from the edge of a war </i></b>(2015), 10. Quotes from the poems in the text
are indicated in bold blue type.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<sub><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">2
</span></sub><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“oversight,” <i>Ibid</i>, 8.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">3
</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“hangin’
in,” <i>Ibid</i>, 14.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">4
</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“hangin’
in,” <i>Ibid</i>, 45.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">5
</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“what
they told,” <i>Ibid</i>, 16.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">6
</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“phu
bai nights,” <i>Ibid</i>, 18.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">7
</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“joe,”
<i>Ibid</i>, 34.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">8
</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“maybe,”
<i>Ibid</i>, 36.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">9</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> “dodge city
kid,”<i>Ibid</i>, 40.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">10</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> “two girls
called kieu,” <i>Ibid</i>, 42.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">11
</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“ground
truth,”<i>Ibid</i>, 51.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">12</span></sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> “homecoming,” <i>Ibid</i>,53.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-16289431721076686442015-11-04T05:00:00.000-05:002015-11-06T01:42:32.139-05:00Final Scenes of a Short but Interesting Life<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Back
to Nam, into the bush …<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QAimermdrVg/VjJE1YnMChI/AAAAAAAALlI/LCzWa0HxqOU/s1600/VN%2BPhu%2BBai%2Bsunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QAimermdrVg/VjJE1YnMChI/AAAAAAAALlI/LCzWa0HxqOU/s640/VN%2BPhu%2BBai%2Bsunset.jpg" width="640" /></a></b></div>
<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sunset
over Phu Bai </span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">–
<i>South Vietnam, 1960s<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Post-coup
Vietnam was not a happy place. True, Diem, the president, and his notorious
brother Nhu, the secret police chief, were gone, but the junta that assumed power
couldn’t govern effectively. The generals had few political skills, and by
early ’64 they had fallen out among themselves. General Khanh, one of the
tougher combat commanders, seized power, and Jeff and his crew of Vietnamese linguists
(lingys) were hastened back to Saigon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
there was nothing to do this time; Khanh bloodlessly consolidated control within
a day. Jeff, with time still to serve, then got sent north to Phu Bai, a remote
listening post just below the DMZ. The base was located in South Vietnam’s
narrow coastal lowland between the mountains of Laos in the west and the South
China Sea to the east. A chopper flew
Jeff and other replacements up. Short on crew, the pilot assigned Jeff to man
the door gun, a light machine gun on a 180 degree swivel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Phu
Bai was a fairly primitive base, but perfectly positioned to monitor North
Vietnamese military communications across the border. Jeff was billeted in a
six-man tent with plank walkways connecting the tents to the heart of the base. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">It
was blistering hot, and when the monsoon season came, the rains were
torrential.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
rest of the place was a series of small wooden structures – HQ, the club, the barber
shop installed in a small shack, and a store – except for the air conditioned
operational buildings where the Morse code operators, or ‘ditty boppers’, and
the lingys worked. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
entire base – not much bigger than a large baseball field – was encircled by barbed
wire and defensive bunkers in the event of a Viet Cong (VC) attack. The threat,
however, did not seem serious since there was only a single security guard with
a sidearm manning the ramshackle front gate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff’s
outfit, called Detachment J, had a two-fold mission in the then-early Vietnam
war. They were to intercept and listen to the North Vietnamese Army’s radio messages,
as well as maintain radio liaison with South Vietnamese commandos
infiltrated across the border into enemy territory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Off-duty,
there wasn’t much for a GI to do in the desolate environment. The little club
served cheap drinks to all ranks, and an occasional movie broke the monotony.
Boozing was the main preoccupation, as one of Jeff’s buddies who later rendered
a familiar scene at the club in a poem:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jeff
at the bar has a live one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> a
fool enough to take him on,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Phu
Bai’s favorite Socrates<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> debating
war’s ‘morality’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ‘<i>I’m telling you, this war’s bullshit<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and we’ve got no business
here<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> we’re not here to help these
people<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> we’re just getting lots of
them killed’ <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">…<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">later, last call
passed, cutty’s gone<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> so
with a case, two, sometimes more<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> st.
pauli girl, chilled black label<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> he,
Bill, Jeff … continue on out at the wire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> closer
there to the nearby war<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jeff
recreating his debate,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> dismissive
of his rival’s stance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> predicting,
boy Cassandra like,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> disastrous
outcomes from the war <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">the sandbag
bunker full of drunks</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> but
none too drunk to miss the stars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> moonless
clouds of constellations<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> laced
above their no ending war<i> … *<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
wasn’t just nightly boozing though; there were other laughs and good times as
well. Periodically guys were rounded up to drive 6x6 trucks to Hue, the ancient
capital, to pick up supplies. A junior officer in a jeep would lead the convoy,
issuing strict instructions that the trucks were to stay together in column. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
like in a slapstick movie, as the convoy reached the city the drivers would
sometimes peel off in various directions. That
way the ‘lost’ drivers and helpers could spend part of the day in Hue rather
than just loading up and heading straight back up the road to Phu Bai.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On
an off-duty day at other times, Jeff and a bunch of guys would drive to a wide
sandy beach on the South China Sea for an afternoon of sun and surf. A photo from
one of those outings reminds one of a relaxed beach scene on Long Island Sound
the morning after a rousing house party at a New England college.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Once
in a while Jeff and a buddy would borrow a jeep and drive south to the city of
Danang on the coast. They’d put up in a hotel and enjoy a few days of creature
comforts sorely missed back at tent city in Phu Bai.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Driving
back one time over Đèo Hải Vân (Sea Cloud Pass) high above Danang, the two
guys pulled over and took in the magnificent view of the heavily jungled
mountains rippling down to a beach at the edge of the sea. Spying a finger of
forested land jutting from the shore far below – a shimmering green peninsula –
Jeff and his good buddy wistfully talked about opening a casino down there
after the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
was then still early in the conflict and the war had a long way to go, but the
memory lingered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Hitting the books on the antiwar front …<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QuDeYnEPyTs/VjJGsbgNBjI/AAAAAAAALlY/9i7VlowUxuc/s1600/IU%2BPro-war%2Brally%2B%252766-%252767.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="488" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QuDeYnEPyTs/VjJGsbgNBjI/AAAAAAAALlY/9i7VlowUxuc/s640/IU%2BPro-war%2Brally%2B%252766-%252767.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Pro-war rally, Indiana University, 1966<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Vietnam
behind him, so he thought, Jeff headed back to college. He took a campus job
and hit the books hard that first term of ’64. But even before fall classes
began, there had been a skirmish in the Gulf of Tonkin between North Vietnamese
torpedo boats and an American destroyer. It was an election year, and the
incumbent President took full advantage with lethal retaliation, stoking war
fever in the land. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
a Vietnam GI with a critical MOS, or Military Occupation Specialty, Jeff took note
with some concern, but then the President quieted the drums of war as quickly
as he had roused them. It would prove to be a false calm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
he began his second term at Indiana University (IU), Jeff worried about the rising
tensions in Vietnam – deadly Viet Cong (VC) terrorism met by heavy US aerial
reprisals inevitably followed by renewed hot rhetoric. Having been assigned to
an obligatory reserve unit, as an experienced Vietnamese linguist would he be
recalled to active duty? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fortunately
Jeff wasn’t, but not long after his reelection, President Johnson (LBJ) set in
motion a massive escalation of US involvement against the VC and their sponsors
in North Vietnam. At IU, a small band of students began to organize against the
war. From those beginnings emerged the new campus chapter of SDS, or Students
for a Democratic Society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
was friendly with the activists, but stood aside from SDS, not convinced that
such a loosely structured group of idealistic students could do much to affect
the war, a war for which he had brought home a deep aversion. However, a new
friend fresh from the ‘free speech’ struggle at Berkeley arrived on campus and
persuaded him to lend his ex-GI status to SDS to strengthen its antiwar
posture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Taking
on the war was an uphill struggle at IU, a very conservative place. Default
sentiment was ‘rally around the flag’ – the country was at war. Adding to the
prevailing mood, the university president, Elvis J Stahr, a former high
Pentagon official, invited a string of pro-war Washington heavies to speak at
IU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nonetheless,
Jeff and the small band of activists shouldered on – mounting visible and
audible demos against the campus visits by Nixon and a brace of gung ho
generals. By his senior year, Jeff assumed leadership of the SDS chapter and
stepped up the tempo of antiwar protest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Decades
later, a fellow activist remembered him saying at a rally, “This is the second
time in my life that I have belonged to an organization run by Elvis J Stahr,”
going on to add that he had first served under Secretary of the Army Stahr in
the Army in Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then
Jeff posed a rhetorical question, “And so why is the man who was Secretary of
the Army, who was involved in making war on another country – <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">a
man of the war machine – qualified to become the President of Indiana University,
supposedly an institution of higher learning?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Wrapping
up, he concluded:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>We need self-determination for students to get the<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> education they want and need,
and we need self-<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> determination for the
countries in the world now<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> oppressed by the US military
machine, today<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> especially in Vietnam.**<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">An
outstanding student as well as a major activist, Jeff’s life at IU was not just
protest and no play. He and friends were regulars at Nick’s, a pub a block from
the IU library. For lighter refreshments, it was off to the Gables, the soda
bar and restaurant on Indiana Avenue, or the pizzeria just around the corner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sometimes
the group gathered for an evening of folk music at one or another off-campus
apartment – several of the activists were talented musicians. Then there were
the free-swinging parties at the East 2<sup>nd</sup> Street house Jeff shared
with a few of the guys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
not least, there were his long relationships with successive girlfriends – with
Karin, Karen, and Miki. All in all, good years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Chicago
bound – ready, set, go …<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E7pgSwgiYVY/VjJIcYp5nDI/AAAAAAAALlk/14Id427l1j8/s1600/VGI%2BChicago%2Bpostcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="408" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E7pgSwgiYVY/VjJIcYp5nDI/AAAAAAAALlk/14Id427l1j8/s640/VGI%2BChicago%2Bpostcard.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Chicago,
“City of Big Shoulders</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">,”<i> cauldron of
protest<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
headed for grad school. He had won a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship and
applied to Yale, Chicago, and Michigan. He had in mind an academic career— or
did he? Chicago was his choice – not only a top school, but in a city alive with activism and protest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
his IU mentor later recalled, in ’67 Jeff was ambivalent about his near
future, torn between competing visions. Would it be the rigors of a PhD program or his compelling desire to continue the fight against the war – in fact even upping
the ante in the process? He enrolled at University of Chicago for the fall
term, but his heart wasn’t in the academic game – at least not then with a war
that had to be stopped.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
the end of the term, Jeff had made the choice which would determine his destiny.
Dropping out of Chicago, he plunged headlong into the city’s many-sided antiwar
scene. Draft resistance, however, wasn’t his thing; neither was the pacifist
Quaker group, nor yet more SDS marches and demos – been there, done that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Instead,
Jeff poured all his energies into pursuing the grand vision he’d been nurturing
for some time – stopping the war by mobilizing the GIs, the guys
with the rifles, against it. Not as difficult as it sounded, for Jeff knew that many
fighting men in Nam had doubts about the US mission. Yet other than tete-a-tete
in bars and GI coffee houses, they had no way to make their voices heard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To
give expression to those GIs – to give them voice – Jeff used his fellowship
funds to create a GI-led, underground antiwar paper. It was to be by and for
serving GIs as well as their comrades in other armed services deployed in
Southeast Asia. With Jeff at the helm and an editorial board of ex-Vietnam GIs,
Marines, and airmen, <b><i>Vietnam GI </i></b>(<b><i>VGI</i></b>) launched in early
’68.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">VGI</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> was an almost
instant success with the guys in the trenches, on the ships off-shore, and at
the airbases arming the attack choppers and fighter bombers. It resonated as
well with many GIs at stateside bases being readied for deployment to Nam. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Letters-to-the-editor
praising the paper began streaming in to the Chicago office, with the writers
often asking for more copies of <b><i>VGI</i></b> to share with buddies. Most of
all, the letters revealed the real war behind the sanitized military briefings
in Saigon – aptly lampooned as the ‘Five O’clock Follies’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Getting
the monthly issue out was challenging work. The lead was always Jeff’s
interview with a recently returned combat veteran, but first a good source had
to be found and be willing to talk about an unpleasant experience. Other
stories arrived in the mail, some from the field in Nam, some from the
stateside infantry training depots. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
usually added an editorial, and there were also photos, including those the Pentagon
hoped would never see light of day; and of course the many ‘Dear Jeff’ letters
featured monthly in the ‘Mailbag’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Everything
had to be edited into good readable prose, but prose easily accessible to the
average grunt, usually a high school grad. Then came typesetting, proofing, and
printing. Printing <b><i>VGI</i></b> got harder and harder as the
FBI’s Chicago field office persuasively ‘urged’ many area typographers to
refuse to print a ‘subversive’ paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Finally,
there was the monthly distribution ritual. Normally a periodical could be
mailed at a low rate as ‘printed matter’. But Chicago postal inspectors were on
the lookout for leftist and anti-government material, hence Jeff and his staff
had to go the more expensive ‘First Class’ route not subject to postal
inspection. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Even
so, great numbers of First Class envelopes, especially addressed to military
addresses, could not be simply dumped at the post office without arousing
suspicion. Volunteers would therefore drive all over the greater Chicago area
depositing small numbers of the paper in many corner mailboxes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">All
of this this took money for typesetting, printing, and mailing, hence
fundraising was a constant of Jeff’s editorship. Getting the paper out was
nearly a fulltime activity, so for most of the time for Jeff and senior staff,
earning money from a regular job wasn’t a viable option.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
was an intense time, but Chicago was a lively town replete with legions of
activists supportive of the GI antiwar cause. Jeff and friends would
occasionally get respite from the fever zone with dinners at friends’ apartments,
bar hopping to cool music venues, as well as from parties at the place he shared
with fellow editors on the city’s North Side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Still,
the tension level remained high with the Feds, the Army’s military intelligence
group in Northern Illinois, and the Chicago Red Squad nosing around combined
with the chronic problems of scarce funds and deadlines looming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On
the road for <i>Vietnam GI</i></span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pp6QBSvyzmk/VjJNmsApPvI/AAAAAAAALlw/Q0N6HekSrqI/s1600/VGI%2BHarvard%2BYard%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pp6QBSvyzmk/VjJNmsApPvI/AAAAAAAALlw/Q0N6HekSrqI/s640/VGI%2BHarvard%2BYard%2B1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The ‘Yard’ at Harvard University, Cambridge MA,
1960s<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">From
his base in Chicago, Jeff covered a lot of ground traveling both at home and abroad on behalf of <b><i>Vietnam
GI </i></b>(<b><i>VGI</i></b>)<b><i> </i></b>or as a leader of the GI opposition to the war. By ’68 there was in place a
network of GI antiwar coffee houses in the little tank towns outside infantry
training bases. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
coffee houses run by antiwar volunteers were havens for GIs less than
enthusiastic about the war. Off-duty guys could get a cup of coffee, a piece of
pie, and read the irreverent underground press – especially the GI papers,
foremost <b><i>VGI</i></b> – undisturbed by disapproving non-coms or brass.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Periodically,
Jeff traveled the coffee house circuit to rap with GIs and gather their stories
for the paper. Some of them were awaiting deployment, while others were just
back from the ‘zone’ – the combat zone. During the spring Jeff hung out at ‘Mad
Anthony Wayne’s Headquarters’, the coffee house outside the gates of Fort
Leonard, MO; in the fall he was at the Oleo Strut, which served the growing
number of GI war resisters at Fort Hood, TX.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another
of Jeff’s travel beats were the two coasts, especially the Northeast and the
San Francisco Bay Area. That’s where the money was – where the well-to-do
antiwar liberals were to be found. Fund-raising was a pressing necessity to
keep <b><i>VGI
</i></b>afloat. Often a wealthy individual would throw a cocktail party with
Jeff as guest of honor to talk about his paper and the GI movement as the hat
was passed around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
was also in demand abroad. During the summer it was a trip to Kyoto to counsel
the Japanese peace group on how to handle Vietnam deserters being hidden from
the Japanese authorities and US military
police. When he served in the Philippines, Jeff had made a leave trip to Japan
and liked the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Late
fall ‘68 Jeff was with a delegation in Stockholm where the Swedish government
had given sanctuary to many deserters. Ideally, he would have preferred antiwar
GI’s to stay in the ranks and spread the word, but he respected an individual’s
decision to bail out of the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
far, Jeff’s favorite destination was the Boston area. He was familiar with the
town, having visited extended family there during his younger years. Many of
his classmates from the Albany Academy had also gone to Harvard, so he was
acquainted with Harvard Square and environs as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Several
of <b><i>VGI</i></b>’s
most generous financial supporters lived in and around the Square, so it became
a frequent stop whenever he hit Boston. Most importantly though, he would visit
the Boston Draft Resistance Group (BDRG) and his friends there further along
the Charles River embankment in Central Square.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
would give BDRG the templates for the latest issue of <b><i>VGI</i></b>, and they in turn would
have thousands of additional copies printed. Their cadre of activists would
then distribute the paper at military facilities throughout New England. It was
a good arrangement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
late in the year however, a medical problem that Jeff first experienced in
Vietnam flared up, and he decided to head home for some doctoring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Because I could not stop for Death …”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PvWqq7LXIUM/VjJPeCZ2gfI/AAAAAAAALl8/Y-_BCbLo1wg/s1600/VGI%2BMiami%2BVA%2BHospital%2BEdited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="388" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PvWqq7LXIUM/VjJPeCZ2gfI/AAAAAAAALl8/Y-_BCbLo1wg/s640/VGI%2BMiami%2BVA%2BHospital%2BEdited.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Veterans Administration Hospital, Miami FL, 1960s<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Home
for Jeff was the Miami area where his parents lived. Exploratory surgery in
early ‘69 detected cancer. It had spread, the odds were not good. Back at his
alma mater, Indiana University, a friend arriving at a party of Jeff’s old
college pals brought the news – the room went silent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Despite
his dire prospects, Jeff soldiered on, withstanding heavy doses of chemotherapy
along with uncomfortable rounds of radiation. He fought hard, and by early
spring the disease was in remission. The VA Hospital granted him a furlough.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
relays, friends and comrades from Chicago and Boston made the long drive down to
Florida to spend time with Jeff. All of them would sit around drinking wine,
listening to music, and laughing – there was lots of laughter about the many
good times together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">♫</span><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some will come,
some will go<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> We shall surely pass …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> We are but a moment’s sunlight<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Fading on the grass</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">†<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Through
the underground papers and the growing antiwar press inspired by <b><i>Vietnam
GI’s </i></b>(<b><i>VGI</i></b>) success, news of Jeff’s illness flashed across the country
and abroad. Dozens of cards and notes began arriving from myriad people in the
antiwar struggle – everyone from Bernardine Dohrn, a national SDS leader, to
individual GIs who only knew Jeff through his editorship of <b><i>VGI</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Unfortunately
the remission came to an end, and he had to return to the hospital for more
chemo, more radiation, and IV’s, always the IV’s. But all was to no avail as he
rapidly declined. In great despair one afternoon during late spring, Jeff
attempted suicide, but failed. The end was near.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
few weeks later he slipped away – his heart stopped – he was gone. Death at an
early age, he was only 27. He was widely mourned wherever an underground paper
carrying his death notice was read. At the last SDS convention, a minute of
silence in memory of Jeff was observed by the nearly 2000 gathered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
an uncanny foreshadowing of what would become his destiny, many years later a
friend recalled Jeff once telling him of his plans for <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>He told me that this was what he wanted to
do<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> at this time in his life. And he
thought this would<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> be the most important thing he had
ever done<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in life.</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Of
the many obits, the most eloquent one began:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>Many good men never came back from Nam. Some<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> came back disabled in mind. Jeff
Sharlet came back<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> a pretty together cat – and he came
back angry.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
Jeff started <b>VGI</b> and for
almost two years poured<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> his life into it in an endless
succession of 18-hour<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> days, trying to organize men to fight
for their own<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> rights.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
Emily Dickinson, the poet of Amherst, wrote, <i>Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; padding: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*J
Buquoi, “phu bai nights,” <i>Snapshots from
the Edge of a War. </i>e-book
forthcoming via Amazon, 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">**D
Kaplan, “Reminiscences of Jeff’s March 1967 Peroration,” August 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">***D
Kaplan, “Last Conversation with Jeff,” August 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">†
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4fWN6VvgKQ" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4fWN6VvgKQ</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-75054270859721245692015-10-07T05:00:00.000-04:002015-10-13T06:45:46.172-04:00Scenes from a Short but Interesting Life<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
formative years …</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
Albany Academy, Albany NY<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My
younger brother, Jeff Sharlet, spent his formative years well up the Hudson
River at a venerable old school in New York’s capital. The campus of the Albany
Academy with its extensive grounds and playing fields could be found just off
Academy Road. Established in the early 1800s, the school boasted a number of
graduates later distinguished in American life of the 19<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup>
centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
the Civil War, the Academy adopted a quasi-military structure, and students,
now called cadets, wore uniforms. Classes were small; the faculty, products of
elite colleges, were dedicated; and the facilities excellent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Private
school also came with a lively and upscale social life. The Academy boys mixed
with girls from the several country day schools of the Capital region. There
were proms, balls, and dinner dances as well as gala house parties at the grand
homes of the wealthier families.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
a word, the Albany Academy was not a bad place to get one’s education in a
pleasant setting while enjoying schoolboy life in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
spent his middle and high school years at the school, flourishing there nearly
up to the end. He excelled academically, played two sports creditably well, and
performed as an effective member of the Academy’s battalion. By senior year he
was appointed an officer in one of the line companies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then
things began to go awry. Our father, who had provided Jeff a comfortable
existence, lived beyond his means and ran his business into the ground. Jeff
had his eye set on Dartmouth College, and through junior year his grades and
activities strongly indicated he would get in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
at the end of football season that fall our father sat him down and broke the
news that they’d be unable to afford Dartmouth or, for that matter, the tuition
at any private college. Because our parents always made a point of never
discussing business in our presence, Jeff was caught completely by surprise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
a young man with a sports car who wanted for little, Jeff’s bright near-future
suddenly darkened. He plunged into an academic tailspin. From Cum Laude among the top ten of a class of 50, by spring
term Jeff had spiraled down to 36<sup>th</sup> in class rank, hardly competitive
for selective Dartmouth or for any comparable college, even if the funds had
been available.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Discouraged
by the changed family circumstances, Jeff took no steps to apply to college. He
seemed not to care, but the parents prevailed upon him to follow me to grad
school. I was headed to a Big Ten research university, and Jeff was coming
along as a freshman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
friend, remembering Jeff from their last days together before the Academy’s commencement
ceremony, recalled the two of them sitting in a convertible on a warm June
evening ‘under a Rembrandt blue sky’ happy to be putting their formative years
behind them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For
me graduate school was a heady experience, but Jeff was lost at that large
university of some 30,000 students. Far from home and his friends, all of whom
had gone on to the Ivy League back East, Jeff knew no one. He was not a happy
trooper. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
dropped out at the end of fall semester, drifting for several months through
part-time jobs in the small university town. However, no longer covered by a
college deferment, the draft and two years of Army life beckoned. Facing the
inevitable, Jeff enlisted for three years with the promise of a year of
language study. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Thus
began a journey which set him on a trajectory quite different from his peers. The
experience and reverberations would shape the rest of Jeff’s short but
interesting life. Though serious things lay ahead and Jeff’s personal story
would end sadly, there’d also be good times and lighter moments along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Out
to the coast …<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nepenthe’s
at Big Sur, California coast<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
got through Basic Training at Fort Dix uneventfully. All the marching,
drilling, and manual of arms of the Albany Academy years gave him an edge – top
sergeant made him a squad leader. That meant a more comfortable billet in the
barracks and a few privileges.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
had joined an autonomous intelligence outfit within the Army, and as promised,
they sent him to language school for a year of study. The school was perched on a hill along a
particularly beautiful stretch of California coast. Though uniforms were the
order of the day during classes, academic life took priority over military life
on the base high above Monterey Bay. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
was a lot of free time and just a minimum of duties typically expected of GIs
in garrison. After classes and on weekends, the military ‘students’ were off
duty and could don their civvies and go where they pleased. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
had a gung ho roommate and got stuck with a starchy Marine NCO as barracks
chief. Still, it was great duty only slightly removed from the collegiate
ambiance from which Jeff and his classmates had arrived at the school.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
was much to do after hours. Jeff had an old motorcycle, and he and a buddy would
ride across the peninsula to the charming village of Carmel-by-the-Sea or roar
up the coast highway to San Francisco. Sometimes they’d head off to a race
track for a day with the ponies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
far though, Jeff’s favorite weekend hangout was Nepenthe, a dazzling restaurant
built from redwood harvested from the surrounding forest. It was located on a
breathtaking strip of coast called Big Sur south of the language school. There
Nepenthe extended over a cliff high above the Pacific.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
patios, candle-lit as dusk fell, afforded magnificent views up and down the
wild and rocky coast. Food was delicious, but above all Nepenthe was a
marvelous place to drink, linger, and talk into the night. It was an easy place
to forget one was serving in the armed forces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Late
’62 Jeff graduated as a Vietnamese linguist, or lingy in the outfit's slang. Originally
he’d hoped to go to Europe on the Army’s nickel, but on arrival at the school
he’d had been bumped from a Slavic language program, so it was westward ho to
Southeast Asia. <b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Life in the tropics …<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Enjoying good times in the Philippines<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Flying
with stops in Honolulu and on Guam, Jeff found himself at a vast military airfield
in the Philippine Islands (PI), a major US base in the global Cold War. In a
far flung corner of the base – far from flight lines where fighters and bombers
constantly took off and landed – Jeff worked the graveyard shift in a
flood-lit, windowless, heavily guarded building. In effect, he was in the rear
area of the low key war underway across the South China Sea in Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Again,
military life in Jeff’s outfit was at a minimum, and when he wasn’t at his
classified tasks, life was very good in the PI. The billets were as comfortable
as good college dorms. There was an enlisted men’s club where drinks were
beyond cheap, and for the endless sunny days of the subtropics, a large outdoor
swimming pool. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Evenings
Jeff and buddies would often gather in the pubs and cafes of Angeles City, a
honky tonk GI town not far from the gates of Clark Airbase. Jeff joined the
glee club, which meant invitations to sing at other American bases in the
islands, usually followed by excellent dinners. At one point he considered
going out for the Clark football team, which would have meant away games all
over the US network of bases in Asia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
were also trains to Manila, the capital, and bus trips up into the cool mountains
as well as excursions to white sand and palm-fringed beaches of the South China
Sea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Travel
to other cities of Asia was available. On one occasion when Jeff had leave, he
flew military transport gratis to exotic Tokyo, while another time he caught
the 4x-a year leave-ship to British Hong Kong. Judging by his letters home, he
found those two great cities fascinating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
the saying goes, all good things come to an end, and Jeff was ordered one
evening, late summer ’63 to pack his gear and report to the flight line in the
morning. He was shipping out to Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To the <i>Paris
of the Orient</i> …<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A Saigon street scene, 1963<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
was a deadly serious matter that rushed Jeff and fellow lingys to Tan Son Nhut,
the capital’s airport. A coup was in the air. South Vietnam’s president was
mismanaging the country and botching the war against the Communist insurgency.
The general staff was thoroughly fed up, and President Kennedy (JFK) had lost
patience with America’s Southeast Asian client.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With
JFK’s secret blessings, behind the scenes the generals had begun plotting a coup.
The US ambassador had a liaison with the plotters, but Washington wanted to be
sure what it was getting involved in and dispatched Jeff and his team to
clandestinely monitor the electronic communications among the conspirators. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
mission was Top Secret lest the South Vietnamese government find out what we
were up to. The lingys were billeted in the capital and transported to their
operational site in a remote corner of a US base outside Saigon. They worked
around the clock. Each day’s ‘product’ – the intercepts – was sent down to
their parent outfit in the capital to be closely analyzed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So
sensitive was the operation that the daily product was packed with incendiary explosives
to be detonated should there occur any chance of interception by troops loyal
to the South Vietnamese president.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Despite
this grim routine, Jeff and buddies had unforgettable times in Saigon, then
still regarded as the ‘Paris of the Orient’. The American presence was not yet
overwhelming, and it was still a lovely city with broad avenues and a French
flavor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
young Vietnamese women wearing the white silk ao dai – long tunics slit down both
sides and worn over long pants – seemed universally attractive. Fine
European-style hotels served indigenous dishes and continental cuisine. A popular
dining place was a floating restaurant moored to a bank of the Saigon River.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Off-duty,
Jeff and his pals were fond of pub crawling through the town’s many attractive
bars and outdoor cafes. But – as depicted in the film <i>Good Morning, Vietnam</i> – all was not quiet. An insurgency had been
underway in the mountains and jungles for several years, and its impact was beginning
to be felt in the country’s capital where the American military advisors were
concentrated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
insurgents – called the Viet Cong (VC) – not only conducted hit and run attacks
on the South Vietnamese Army in rural areas, but carried out terrorist
activities against places where Americans gathered in Saigon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
VC attack hit a movie theater frequented by US advisers and their dependents,
but more often a VC action was no more than two young men on a motor scooter
racing down a busy street and rolling a live grenade into an open air bistro.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That
happened one evening as Jeff and friends were walking along a major avenue
toward one of their favorite Vietnamese-French places. Maybe a hundred feet ahead
of them, a couple of VC cowboys sped by and the café exploded. The place was
wrecked, but miraculously no one was killed in that incident.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">VC
terror was such a part of the urban scene in a city at war that GIs had grown
accustomed to it. Jeff and the guys glanced at the damage to the cafe, stepped
around it, and continued the night’s outing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
few days later when the café had been repaired, Jeff and the GIs went back to
enjoy the good food and pleasant ambiance. Their favorite waiters were decked
out in red sneakers instead of the customary sandals. When Jeff asked why, they
replied, “To run faster next time.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
nearly seven weeks on the secret op, Jeff and the initial team were pulled out
and flown back to the Philippines. Replacements continued the operation up to
the eve of the successful coup on November 1<sup>st.</sup>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">High above the heat and dust of the plains</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The road to the hill station at Baguio<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Returning
to his duties at the 9<sup>th</sup> ASA Field Station in the PI, Jeff resumed the
languorous life of the islands. Nearby Angeles City, however, was a come-down
after Saigon with its lovely girls in the flowing ao dai, flower vendors along
the sidewalks, and, despite VC interruptions – the night life of a romantic
Oriental city edged with a frisson of danger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
the Philippines still had its charms for a young college boy GI with money in
his pocket and plenty of downtime. It was back to the sunny beaches, catching the
train again to the bright lights of Manila, as well as occasional free-swinging
dinner parties with fellow lingys and crypts, or cryptographers. It felt once
again like extended spring break.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
relief from the tropical heat of the lowlands, Jeff and friends would make the harrowing
bus trip up to the refreshing air of Baguio along narrow, tortuous mountain
roads with sheer drops of 1000s of feet. In British India Baguio was the kind
of place they called a hill station, high above the dust and heat of the plains
far below.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
only break in the daily routine from the night shift in the windowless building
and days of beer and bar girls was a tragic one, the assassination of JFK in Dallas.
Profound shock was felt by Jeff and his buddies so far from home at a terrible
moment in the life of the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
early ’64, Jeff had had it with military life. He’d<span style="color: red;"> </span>been
in the forces for two and a half years with just six months to go, and was
thinking ‘short’ – shorthand for combat GIs counting the days until they were
out of harm’s way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff’s
most urgent concerns became getting his driver’s license renewed back in the
States, arranging to return to college, and generally transitioning back to
civilian ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But
then political conditions in Saigon became unstable, the post-coup junta proved
inept, and rumors of another upheaval were rife. Once more on short notice,
Jeff found himself transferred to Vietnam, but this time in different
circumstances, absent the creature comforts and good times of his first tour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
we shall see in the next posting, he was about to come face to face with the realities
of the smoldering, low intensity war in the bush.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-86357591700769235522015-09-02T05:00:00.000-04:002015-09-02T05:00:06.268-04:00A Minute of Silence<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The
tumultuous ‘60s ended with a bang – the implosion of SDS, the Students for a
Democratic Society. As the Vietnam War revved up in far off Southeast Asia, SDS
became the core of what morphed into a vast movement against the war.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Many
memoirs have been written on the decade, but a fairly recent one may be the
best.* Author John Maher bore witness to the evolution and subsequent decline
of the Vietnam antiwar movement. And along the way he had known the major
players on both sides of the split that rendered SDS asunder in ’69.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Born
in ’38, John Maher fell between me and my younger brother in age. During our
younger years it appears John and I had been doing some of the same things, although
in reality we were ships passing in the night. Later it was very different
between John and my brother Jeff Sharlet, a leader of GI protest against the
war; not only did they move in sync along near similar trajectories, but they
became good friends as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John
Maher and I both went to college in the Boston area during the late ‘50s – he to
Harvard, I to Brandeis. There our headings began to diverge since he was
already tacking left as I sailed a middle course – a standard liberal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WAMd8wJy_Wg/VeRvN4GQbtI/AAAAAAAALiI/7uJXyNkraI0/s1600/John%2BMaher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WAMd8wJy_Wg/VeRvN4GQbtI/AAAAAAAALiI/7uJXyNkraI0/s400/John%2BMaher.jpg" width="280" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John Maher during
his university years</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Paradoxically,
despite our different political vectors, John was associated with the junior
Harvard professor Zbigniew Brzezinski, destined to become an establishment
foreign policy specialist with whom I coincidentally worked in the ‘70s; simultaneously
at Brandeis I was studying with the Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse, soon
to become guru to the New Left.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Though
we never crossed paths, Maher and I shared some common experiences. We had both
hung out at Club 47, the folk café just off Harvard Square where each of us got
to know the fetching young Joan Baez as her brilliant career was taking off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TmtHPRsZXyI/VeRvfoHx-FI/AAAAAAAALiY/xUkjzxxR3bk/s1600/150507-joan-baez-04%2B1962.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TmtHPRsZXyI/VeRvfoHx-FI/AAAAAAAALiY/xUkjzxxR3bk/s400/150507-joan-baez-04%2B1962.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Joan Baez,
Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, 1962 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Upon
graduating from Harvard, Maher and a few friends traveled to the Soviet Union
as tourists. A few years later I spent a year at Moscow University researching
my PhD dissertation. Not long after, in the mid-‘60s, both of us happened to
land in Washington as consultants – he with the War on Poverty, I on the
Soviet-American arms control negotiations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
the war in Vietnam began to heat up, our paths sharply divided. I became an
academic preoccupied with Soviet politics & law as John moved into the
maelstrom of emerging antiwar activism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
soon acquired an impressive New Left resume, coming into contact with Noam
Chomsky of MIT; Marty Peretz, publisher of the <i>New Republic</i>; I. F. Stone, premier critic of Washington from the
left, as well as serving as a principal organizer of ‘Vietnam Summer’ – a
series of antiwar protests across the peace movement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
it was while working with the Boston Draft Resistance Group (BDRG), the most
effective anti-draft outfit in the country, that John first met Jeff, editor of
<i>Vietnam GI</i> (<i>VGI</i>). The foremost underground GI antiwar paper, <i>VGI</i> was published out of Chicago, but
Jeff periodically traveled east to raise funds for the paper among wealthy left
liberals in Boston and New York. Abby Rockefeller, into whose extended family
John Maher had married, was a generous contributor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lyNAfzJitAE/VeRwToifvzI/AAAAAAAALig/szgPagfnK_s/s1600/12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lyNAfzJitAE/VeRwToifvzI/AAAAAAAALig/szgPagfnK_s/s400/12.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">BDRG activist
distributing <b>Vietnam GI, </b>Boston Army
Center, 1968<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">BDRG
had linked up with <i>VGI</i>, printing
several thousand additional copies of each issue for passing around at military
installations throughout New England. The anti-draft activists took every
opportunity to hand out <i>VGI</i> to GIs as
well as civilians in the induction process. Speaking of his personal role in
the BDRG-<i>VGI</i> connection, John wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>I helped raise money for the paper and distributed<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> it around the Boston area.
When the work was<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> done, Jeff and I loved to sit around
and drink beer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and talk politics. We became close
friends.**<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Later
in ’68, an illness Jeff first experienced in Vietnam back in ’64, caught up
with him and he flew to our parents’ place in Florida for medical help. The
diagnosis was dire; though Jeff still had hope, he was to have only a few months
more to live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V8YQQwbBKvQ/VeRwlGXIJNI/AAAAAAAALio/4KaDr3oJuiY/s1600/JeffLastPhoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V8YQQwbBKvQ/VeRwlGXIJNI/AAAAAAAALio/4KaDr3oJuiY/s640/JeffLastPhoto.jpg" width="550" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff’s last
photo – with his parents and sister-in-law Nancy, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Coral Gables,
FL, March 1969<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">♫</span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Yes, how many
ears must one man have</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Before he can hear people cry?</span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></i>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows</span></i></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">
<div style="font-style: italic; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">That too many people have died?</span></i></div>
<div style="font-style: italic; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The answer is blowin' in the wind.</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">†</span></div>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Meanwhile,
SDS was veering toward destruction. Sharp factional conflict had been growing
within the organization during the past few years and by late spring ’69 had
gotten much worse. On one side was the national SDS leadership group styling
itself as the ‘Revolutionary Youth Movement’ (RYM). Opposed to RYM was a
strong, well-disciplined faction that identified with the Maoist Progressive
Labor Party (PL). Essentially an internal power struggle, it was fought out
under the guise of conflicting political theologies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
two groups’ implacable differences came to a dramatic climax at what was to
become the last SDS national convention, a gathering of nearly 2,000 delegates
in Chicago, mid-June ’69. In just a few days of wild proceedings, the
organization split irrevocably, with RYM, calling itself Weatherman, soon after
turning to violence and going underground. <s><o:p></o:p></s></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John
Maher was in the convention hall and initially hoped SDS might weather the
storm and survive intact, but it was not to be. At the opening session there
was a moment of unity, albeit extremely brief, as all the factions united in grief
for Jeff who had died two days earlier. As John remembered the scene:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>The chair asked us to rise for a <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> minute of silence
in memory of <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> my friend Jeff Sharlet, editor of <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>Vietnam
GI</b>.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*John
Maher, <b><i>Learning from the Sixties: Memoir of an Organizer</i></b> (2011)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">**<i>Ibid</i>, 159.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">***<i>Ibid</i>, 198-99.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">† </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFvkhzkS4bw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFvkhzkS4bw</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-3243747919095813082015-08-05T05:00:00.000-04:002015-08-05T05:00:00.923-04:00“A Typical Child of the Middle Class”<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">When
my younger brother Jeff died the summer of ‘69 at the ungodly young age of 27,
I vowed to write a memoir of his short but interesting life. He had been a Vietnam
GI well before the war became front page news. He came home and helped create
the GI antiwar movement. What occurred in the interim was a compelling story.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Though
there were seven years between us and I was away for much of his growing up, I
thought I knew Jeff pretty well. What I didn’t know about him I figured I could
fill in from the small archive of letters and documents he left behind.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-srLEpCLqSK8/Vb_EEC29g9I/AAAAAAAALJw/sGGbGRLmRsI/s1600/Jeffatcamp2%2B7%2B27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-srLEpCLqSK8/Vb_EEC29g9I/AAAAAAAALJw/sGGbGRLmRsI/s400/Jeffatcamp2%2B7%2B27.jpg" width="292" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
age 10, summer camp, Adirondack Mts, 1952</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
seems I was under an illusion – it turned out I really didn’t know my kid
brother that well. He had grown up, experienced things I had no idea of, and
generally, unbeknownst to me, had carved out an important niche in the history
of his time – the ‘60s. But much of that I learned only decades later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
before tackling a memoir my first order of brotherly duty was to try to get
Jeff his ’15 minutes’ of fame – an obit in the <i>New York Times. </i>Returning from the funeral, I shut myself in my
study for several days going through his papers to piece together an outline of
the final decade of his life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
had hoped an extended resume would serve as notes for an obituary. I knew
getting him a <i>Times</i> obit was a long
shot, but I intended giving it a helluva try. I didn’t know anyone at the paper
except, by reputation, a senior writer and editor. I was then a young academic
– a specialist on the Soviet Union – and Harrison Salisbury of the <i>Times </i>was a well-known author who’d been
on the Moscow beat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
was little chance he had heard of me – I hadn’t yet published that much – but
invoking our common interest, I sent him my notes on Jeff, hoping he might use
his good offices to recommend an obit, even a short one. Alas, I heard nothing
from the <i>Times</i> until more than a week
later when a short note from Mr Salisbury arrived.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
had found Jeff’s brief life interesting and worthy of special notice and had
passed the material on to the <i>Times’</i>
obituary editor, but unfortunately it was too late. The paper then had a rule –
no obits older than three days, and in my grief I had taken nearly a week to
assemble Jeff’s timeline. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s
not that Jeff’s death was unnoted – there were several obits in his hometown
papers in upstate New York and many death notices in the underground antiwar
press throughout the country, but he would not make it into the <i>Times</i>,<i> s</i>o I filed away the notes for another day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Many
years later I finally began researching a memoir on my brother, a project of
discovery both exhilarating and humbling. Learning about Jeff took me back to
that sad week following his death, June ‘69. I dug out the notes I had
originally written for the <i>Times</i> nearly
a half century ago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Rereading
them, I was surprised at how much about Jeff I had been able to glean from his
papers, but I was also taken aback at the important pieces of his life I’d been
then unaware of. In ‘searching’ for Jeff over the past several years, my
research assistant Karen Grote Ferb – herself a close friend of Jeff’s long ago
– and I drew on the memories of his countless contemporaries in both war and
antiwar, and have since filled in most of the gaps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That
left me wondering about how much a memoir begun in the summer of ’69 would have
missed of Jeff’s journey. Before the age of the Internet, I could not have
located the majority of our interlocutors. Cast your mind back to that era of
typewriters, snail mail, expensive long distance phone calls, and city phone
books as sources. <span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
the time of his death, Jeff’s GI buddies had returned stateside and scattered
to the four corners of the country while many of his college SDS co-activists
had graduated and gone hither and yon in pursuit of careers. And at that time
in the late ‘60s, Jeff’s comrades in the GI antiwar movement – mostly people on
the left – were still in the thick of battle, often living semi-underground,
and occasionally operating under pseudonyms to escape FBI surveillance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For
the <i>New York Times</i> back in ’69, I had
introduced Jeff as “a typical child of the middle class” and briefly summarized
his Vietnam experience:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> He learned
Vietnamese at the Army Language School<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in Monterey, California
and later worked as an interpreter<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and translator
in Saigon and in Phu Bai, an outpost north<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> of Hue. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[President] <i>Diem was overthrown at the time Jeff was <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> working in
Saigon, and he had left the country just a few months<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> before the Gulf
of Tonkin incident </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[in
‘64].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Indeed,
Jeff was trained as a Vietnamese linguist, and he had finished his Vietnam tour
not long before Tonkin – a major turning point in the slow burning war – but as
Karen and I subsequently found out, dramatic things happened between those two
moments of his life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
had missed the fact that Jeff had spent his first eight months overseas at a
secret facility in the Philippines translating North Vietnamese military
intercepts – until late one evening when he and several fellow linguists were
ordered to ship out to Vietnam on short notice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g2RpHTRlyGw/Vb_EXjdRsSI/AAAAAAAALJ4/nudeyPBTcfs/s1600/Clark%2Belephant%2Bcage%2B%2526%2Bops%2Bbldg-18_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="483" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g2RpHTRlyGw/Vb_EXjdRsSI/AAAAAAAALJ4/nudeyPBTcfs/s640/Clark%2Belephant%2Bcage%2B%2526%2Bops%2Bbldg-18_edited-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
'Elephant Cage', giant antenna array at the secret facility where Jeff worked in the Philippines, 1963</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">President
Kennedy had given a covert ‘green light’ to a group of South Vietnamese generals
plotting the overthrow of the inept and ineffective Diem, President of South
Vietnam, and his brother Nhu, the much despised commander of private armies and
secret police. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
and the team were hurriedly flown to Saigon to take part in a US undercover
operation in support of the coup. Billeted near the Saigon airport, they
performed their highly classified, politically sensitive duties in a remote,
off limits corner of a US base near the village of Phu Lam. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
fact, I was wrong in the resume; Jeff was not in Saigon when the coup went off.
Their assignment completed, he and his detachment had gone back to the
Philippines two weeks earlier. However, less than two months later as another
coup against the new president was in the offing, Jeff and the linguists were
rushed back to Saigon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Since
the second coup went off quickly and bloodlessly, Jeff was reassigned to Phu
Bai, a small US listening post just below the North Vietnamese border. There he
and others maintained radio contact with South Vietnamese commandos being
infiltrated into the north. Both of Jeff’s clandestine missions – in Phu Lam
and at Phu Bai – remained highly classified, and he had never spoken or written
about them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
was also in the dark in ’69 when I wrote Harrison Salisbury at the <i>Times</i> that Jeff came back from Vietnam,
finished college, and won a coveted Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship, which
he took to the University of Chicago for graduate school. I hadn’t known that
upon withdrawing from grad school to launch his soon-to-be famous GI antiwar
paper, <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>, Jeff had financed it with his fellowship funds –
for a prospective academic, a step unheard of then or now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Elsewhere
in the resume under the heading, <i>Other
radical activities</i>, I simply listed
that Jeff “Attended a conference of Japanese peace groups against the Vietnam
War in Kyoto, Japan, August, 1968,” an event that turned out to have a rather
dramatic back story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave
Dellinger, chairman of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in
Vietnam (the MOBE), thus, the titular head of the US antiwar movement, had asked
Jeff to join a delegation of leading American antiwar activists headed for Budapest
to meet with representatives of the National Liberation Front, the underground
political arm of the Communist insurgency in South Vietnam. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
reluctantly had to decline; he had worked under the aegis of the National
Security Agency in Vietnam and was still subject to restrictions on travel
behind the Iron Curtain. Instead, Dellinger sent him to Japan under the guise
of serving as a speaker at an international peace conference, but actually for
a very different and delicate purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
Japanese peace movement, Beheiren, encouraged US military personnel to desert
the Vietnam War and was secretly hiding some 20 deserters. However, the young
GIs had become restless and ill-disciplined and hard for the peace activists to
cope with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Beheiren
requested the American movement to send someone knowledgeable about GI protest
to counsel them on what to do. Jeff, as an ex-GI and authoritative leader of
the GI movement, was the ideal candidate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Suffice
it to say, in my initial attempt to reconstruct Jeff’s life there were other
gaps and missing parts that Karen and I eventually closed and filled in, including perhaps the two greatest omissions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
had failed to convey any sense of Jeff as a person. As my younger sibling by many
years, I assumed that an older brother’s perceptions would not have been of
interest to the historical record I was trying for at the <i>Times</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the ultimate illusion, as I was to repeatedly discover with each new interview
of Jeff’s contemporaries, I really didn’t know the brother who had gone off to
war and returned to achieve his destiny as an antiwar leader. When I asked a
half a dozen of his closest friends for a single word to describe Jeff, each
without hesitation independently replied with ‘charisma’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
was astonished. That was an aspect of Jeff that hadn’t been apparent to me or
our parents when we occasionally got together in his last years. A very nice
guy, well-spoken, and mature, but I had never thought of my kid brother as a charismatic
leader. I was of course pleased to learn this of him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qoRauP4ZvcQ/Vb_FOZZ25-I/AAAAAAAALKA/eaFbg6Bt670/s1600/JeffPortrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qoRauP4ZvcQ/Vb_FOZZ25-I/AAAAAAAALKA/eaFbg6Bt670/s640/JeffPortrait.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
back at Indiana University, 1965<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
had other personal qualities that I had also missed. In Karen’s words, “his
sense of humor and joie de vivre on the one hand and his dark side on the
other; his drive, his passion, his vision, his charisma, his foibles.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Finally,
the biggest surprise of all has been that Jeff had come back from Vietnam a
troubled soul with a secret about his involvement that he could never bring
himself to speak of, and eventually carried to the grave. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">No,
he didn’t kill anyone – neither enemy combatant nor innocent civilian; he was
in an intelligence agency, not a combat unit – but once in an anguished voice
he had said to Karen, “If you knew what I did in Vietnam, you’d hate me.” That
was as much as he would say despite her repeated denials and assurances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Karen
and I queried his numerous friends, asking if Jeff had ever spoken of his
troubling secret, but to no avail. Admittedly memories grow dim after so many years,
but that was the kind of thing someone wasn’t likely to have forgotten. The
best we’ve been able to come up has been an unverifiable ‘maybe’ and a couple
of hypotheticals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One
person thought she remembered Jeff relating a painful memory of an interrogation,
but we found no one else who had ever heard even a hint about it. In a hypothetical guess, a fellow ex-GI linguist
who had served with an airborne unit involved in unintended collateral damage
(civilian deaths), believed Jeff may have done the same thing with the Marines
on long range patrols, but we’ve been unable to unearth any firm evidence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
more recent speculation has been that Jeff may have been dispatched from Phu
Bai to nearby Hue a few times to sit in on harsh South Vietnamese Army interrogations
of Viet Cong prisoners to pick up any information of interest to his unit.
Witnessing such brutal interrogations would not have been something easily
forgotten, but as I shall say in the memoir, it seems we’ll never know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
never got his 15 minutes in the <i>Times</i>,
but his niche in the history of the Vietnam antiwar movement is now secure with
both a book and an award-winning documentary dedicated to him, a page in a
mainstream American history text about his editorship of <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>, and a
literary prize established in his name among other recognitions and honors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-50465275295753275652015-07-01T05:00:00.000-04:002015-07-01T05:00:00.036-04:00Another Eight in Search of Jeff<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Max Watts – James Bond of the left<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qAGSMMUk42I/VZLPSqrNP7I/AAAAAAAALHw/DEjEmgxlWW8/s1600/Watts%2Bat%2BSodom%2BCrossing%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qAGSMMUk42I/VZLPSqrNP7I/AAAAAAAALHw/DEjEmgxlWW8/s640/Watts%2Bat%2BSodom%2BCrossing%2B2.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Max Watts in the
Negev, Israel '52<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> A high government official described
Max, on the eve of his expulsion from France, as part Lenin, part James Bond.
Max Watts was his political pseudonym – his real name was Tomi Schwaetzer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Born in Vienna during the interwar
period, Max and family fled Austria one step ahead of the Holocaust. They took
refuge in Paris, but as war closed in, Max and his father went to London while
his mother and sister made it to Lisbon and a ship bound for America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> But Max’s father, failing to find
work, committed suicide in England, so as a boy of 10 he was stranded for
several years as the war raged on the Continent and in the Pacific. As a
youngster on his own, he became politically involved on the left, his lifetime
commitment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Eventually making it to New York to join
his mother, Max earned a BA at New York University where he joined the Young
Communist League, moving later to the American Communist Party. Eventually Max
would eschew parties and the dogmatics of ideology and adopt a kind of
ecumenical spirit toward the diverse factions of the left writ large.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Against war, he left the US to avoid the
Korean War draft and lived for a time in Israel. From Israel Max went to Paris
where he studied for a PhD in Geophysics and participated on the left, namely
for the Algerians in their war of liberation against the French. In the early
‘60s his work as a geophysicist took him to revolutionary Cuba where he met the
Castro brothers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Returning to France as American
involvement in Vietnam heated up, Max became a founding member of ‘Resistance
inside the Army’ or RITA, a group that helped and hid American deserters sought
by the French police and the US Army. Among other notables, he worked with Jane
Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave on behalf of the beleaguered GIs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> His work with his partner June van
Ingen was so effective that the government determined his presence in France
was not in the country’s best interests. Max was to be deported, but his
homeland, Austria, refused to take him, so the French police banished him to
the island of Corsica. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However, resourceful Max met Danish
activists making a port call who sailed him back to mainland France. Slipping
into Paris, now a fugitive himself, he nonetheless continued his antiwar work,
including helping to publish <i>Act</i>, RITA’s newsletter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Eventually caught again, Max was
deported to West Germany, settling in Heidelberg, headquarters of US forces in
Europe. There he continued his opposition to the Vietnam War. Now working as a
journalist in several languages, Max collaborated with a GI whistleblower to score
a media coup against US military surveillance of anyone in Germany thought to
oppose the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> In the early ‘80s Max was on the move
again, this time to Australia, where he spent the rest of his life working as a
local activist and international left freelance journalist. He took up many
progressive causes. A skilled sailor, he once maneuvered his sailboat to block
a US nuclear missile cruiser from entering Sydney Harbor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was in Australia that I ‘met’ Max by
phone and email. Back in Europe of the ‘60s he had known of brother Jeff
Sharlet and his underground paper <b><i>Vietnam GI,</i></b> and admired him from afar.
Although the two of them never met, they moved on parallel tracks in the global
struggle against the American war in Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Max, an extravagant personality, was prodigiously
effective on four continents – his death in 2010 was echoed throughout the
world in left circles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Michaela ‘Miki’ Lang – Long lost, but
found<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j_IUBV92viQ/VZLPq4F3cXI/AAAAAAAALH4/oSUj3bFLhTA/s1600/Miki%2BLang%2B2010_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j_IUBV92viQ/VZLPq4F3cXI/AAAAAAAALH4/oSUj3bFLhTA/s640/Miki%2BLang%2B2010_edited-1.jpg" width="609" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Miki Lang,
Sausalito CA '10<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> By an extraordinary stroke of luck we
finally found Miki after a long search. During their senior year at Indiana
University (IU), Jeff and Miki had been an item. I was hoping to talk with her
about that time. We had photos of the two of them together, but Miki was
nowhere to be found on the Internet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> However, my research assistant Karen
Grote Ferb, was determinedly persistent and eventually found Miki’s long cold
trail by an unusual route. Although we assumed she had probably married and
taken her husband’s name, Karen tried a wild card approach of searching under
Miki’s surname. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Her search for ‘Lang’ brought up a German
web site about paintball, an unusual sport. Featured was an American, Oliver
‘Ollie’ Lang, rated the best player in international competition. To round out
the homage to Oliver, there was an interview with his mother, none other than
Miki Lang of Sausalito, CA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Miki had finished up at IU with an MA in
’70 and a few years later joined the Peace Corps. Thus began her long career
abroad, later working for C.A.R.E. and the US Agency for International
Development. Miki began her service in Sierra Leone, but then worked in Chad,
Mali, and Cameroon, as well as India.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
16 years in Africa and South Asia, she finally returned to the States in ’88.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> She remembered Jeff well as one of the
first voices at IU to bring back from Vietnam dire warnings about US
involvement in the war. Miki had been especially struck by “the intensity with
which he talked about Vietnam and how relentlessly he pursued the subject.”
Looking back over time, she recognized that opposing the war was Jeff’s
singular purpose in life. So true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jim Wallihan, California radical<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U3deoBDRVJY/VZLQB3_VxXI/AAAAAAAALIE/3Dvb1wzxBsc/s1600/IU%2BJim%2BWallihan%252C%2B%252764%2B116.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="504" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U3deoBDRVJY/VZLQB3_VxXI/AAAAAAAALIE/3Dvb1wzxBsc/s640/IU%2BJim%2BWallihan%252C%2B%252764%2B116.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jim Wallihan
addressing Governor Brown, Sacramento CA '64<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> A veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech
Movement (FSM), Jim arrived in Bloomington in the fall of ’65. He had come to
Indiana University (IU) for grad school from the University of California (UC).
When the mass arrests of student protesters occurred at Sproul Plaza on the
Berkeley campus, Jim, having eluded the sweep, became spokesman for FSM before
the governor in Sacramento.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Unbeknownst to Jim, the Davis CA police
had sent ahead to the Bloomington authorities an unsolicited warning that a
California radical was on his way. Outlandishly a couple of years later, while
on trial for a raucous anti-Dow Chemical demo at IU, the local District
Attorney asked Jim, “Isn’t it true that you organized the California riots?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jim had been a so-called faculty brat at
UC-Davis, not far from San Francisco. When his father, a noted agricultural
biologist, was invited to spend a year in the Philippines, Jim took a leave of
absence and joined his parents. Later he did a summer stint as a smoke jumper
fighting fires in the Alaskan wilderness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Arriving at IU,
Jim naturally sought out the small coterie of New Left students who were
stirring the pot on that conservative campus. He met Jeff, who had returned
from the Vietnam War the previous year. Jeff hung out with the activist group,
but had not joined their efforts to launch a chapter of Students for Democratic
Society (SDS) at IU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff was skeptical of the efficacy of
student protest against the war. At that point in the antiwar movement, SDS was
not well focused or effectively organized. Jim persuaded him to join the new
SDS group and lend his authority as an ex-Vietnam GI opposed to the war. Jim
and Jeff soon reorganized the chapter and became part of the leadership of campus
SDS. Later, under Jeff’s aegis as SDS president, the frequency, focus, and
effectiveness of antiwar actions greatly increased.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff moved on to grad school at
University of Chicago, but his heart wasn’t in the academic game. After just a
semester he withdrew and used his fellowship funds to launch a GI antiwar
paper, <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>. Jim joined him several months later, lending a hand
on the paper as its circulation grew rapidly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Together they travelled the country
visiting military bases looking for returning combat GIs with stories about
what was really going on in Vietnam. During the summer of ’68 Jeff and Jim took
off for the West Coast. Chicago was hosting the Democratic Presidential
Convention, sure to be a magnet for unrest, and the Chicago police, with help
from the Army, was gearing up to block the massive, planned antiwar protest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Work was underway on the August issue of
<b><i>VGI</i></b>,
and Jeff and Jim felt the better part of valor would be to temporarily move the
editorial process out of town. Around that time the two of them sat for a long
interview with a major underground paper – their topic: How civilian antiwar
protest could benefit from working with the numerous disaffected GIs. The GI
antiwar movement was gathering steam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff died before the war he fought in
and against, came to an end, but Jim retained his memories of their joint
struggle, which when we met early in the new century he shared with me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Showdown in
Kyoto<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M1Uat-0coJU/VZLRNZWNbJI/AAAAAAAALIM/YN9Kqqr0FKg/s1600/VGI%2BJapanese%2Briot%2Bpolice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M1Uat-0coJU/VZLRNZWNbJI/AAAAAAAALIM/YN9Kqqr0FKg/s640/VGI%2BJapanese%2Briot%2Bpolice.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Japanese riot
police at the ready<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Late summer ’68 – Jeff was supposed to go
to Prague. A group of US antiwar leaders was to parley with a delegation from
the National Liberation Front (NLF), the shadowy political arm of the Communist
insurgency in South Vietnam. The NLF was particularly interested in emerging GI
protest against the war and hoped to meet Jeff. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff was interested, but didn’t want to
go. He had worked in intelligence in Vietnam, and was under interdiction not to
travel behind the Iron Curtain for five years after finishing his tour in ’64. Penalties
for violating the restriction were stiff, and Jeff had more important work
editing <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> than doing time in federal prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Just about the same time, Jeff’s deputy
editor, Dave Komatsu, was invited to Japan as a representative of the GI
antiwar movement. As a Japanese-American Dave felt he was chosen for his
language ability, and he wasn’t enthusiastic
about going. However, Dave came up with a solution – he would replace Jeff in
Europe, and Jeff would head for Japan – to the city of Kyoto.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Japanese peace organization, the
host group, was harboring nearly 20 US deserters from the Vietnam War, but they
were proving hard to keep safely hidden from the Japanese authorities and US
military police. The peace activists needed counsel from someone of authority on
the rising GI antiwar protest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff was their man, but to cover his
real purpose in Japan, they folded him into an international peace gathering in
Kyoto. There Jeff did his thing – spoke publicly at the conference by day, and
in the evenings privately counseled on the deserter problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At the end of the conference, an antiwar
march on Kyoto town hall was planned. Jeff had seen such confrontations with
the Japanese police on television and wanted no part of it. He said he had
business elsewhere, but his hosts wouldn’t hear of it. As an honored guest as
well as an ex-Vietnam GI, they insisted Jeff join them – and in the front rank
no less.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He could see the massed police in riot
gear dead ahead and was filled with trepidation. Arms locked, the protesters
set off. A melee ensued, but happily Jeff got through it unhurt. Another day on
the Vietnam antiwar front.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bernard ‘Bernie’
Morris – Mentor to the New Left<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-87iPw8hihbw/VZLRv6ev7aI/AAAAAAAALIU/Fn1W6nIxZq8/s1600/BernieBettyMorris60%2527sCornH%2Bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="500" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-87iPw8hihbw/VZLRv6ev7aI/AAAAAAAALIU/Fn1W6nIxZq8/s640/BernieBettyMorris60%2527sCornH%2Bcopy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bernie &
Betty Morris, summer on Cape Cod, '60s<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bernie was no stranger to bucking the
system. As a young man he went to Yale for a graduate degree, but was thought
too far to the left and pushed out. America was then on the cusp of WWII so
Bernie went to Washington and landed a job in the Justice Department.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At Justice, his office mate and friend
was a young woman named Judith Coplon. ‘Judy’ was later convicted as a Soviet
spy which subsequently created problems for Bernie when he moved to the State
Department. When the anti-communist Red Scare got underway in the late ‘40s,
simple ‘guilt by association’ could be a source of trouble.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bernie survived that, but then at the
end of the ‘50s as the USSR and Communist China began to fall out, he offered a
novel explanation. As an intelligence analyst, he was among the first to spot
the coming split between the two Communist giants. However at State, the
prevailing consensus was of a unified Communist Bloc, and Bernie was told to
cease advocating a contrary interpretation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A few years later in the early ‘60s
Secretary of State Dean Rusk became a key point man for President Kennedy’s
growing involvement in the civil war in Vietnam. At that point, Bernie had had
enough of government and left for academe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He accepted a position as Professor of
International Relations at Indiana University (IU), offering courses on Soviet Foreign
Policy, International Communism, and the like. Within his courses Bernie
basically taught critical thinking on the great issues of the day. No longer
subject to Washington rules, he became an outspoken public intellectual. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As Bernie gained a student following, he
added a course on Marxism, the first time the subject was offered at IU.
Neither an advocate nor a critic, he taught Marxism as a course in political
theory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Many students were drawn to the course
and reached their own conclusions. Campus New Left activists were especially
attracted to the course, including Robin Hunter, Paulann Groninger, and my
brother Jeff Sharlet among others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As a chapter of the Students for a
Democratic Society (SDS) got up and running at the university, Professor Bernie
Morris became the group’s unofficial adviser. Though not an activist himself,
he did attend SDS’s Friday afternoon rallies and some of their major antiwar demos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">President Nixon’s 1970 invasion of
Cambodia transformed antiwar protest at IU and other schools from essentially a
minority voice into a huge expression of dissent. More than 8,000 IU students
turned out to register their protest and hear speakers condemn Nixon’s policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For Bernie, that afternoon was perhaps
his finest hour as mentor to the critically minded. Of all the speakers, he
received the greatest ovation. Professor Morris scorned Nixon’s plan for
terminating the war by widening it as<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>strategically unsound,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> politically
self-defeating,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and morally
indefensible.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Ralph Levitt, A
life on the left<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Bloomington
3, Ralph Levitt (l), Indiana University '63<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When I first met Ralph, he was intent on
pursuing an academic career. We were both newly minted graduate students in
Russian and East European Studies at Indiana University (IU). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Brother Jeff was also on campus as a
freshman. He too crossed paths with Ralph, but ‘politically’, as Ralph took a
very different path, eventually spending his life on the left.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The first intimations of protest against
the emerging Vietnam War were starting to stir on campus when Ralph joined a
nascent Trotskyist group, the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA). YSA’s political
writ was broad. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of fall ’62, the group
organized a protest march against the American naval blockade of Cuba. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That action, which took great courage,
was not well received either on campus or in town as the rally around the flag
spirit swept the country. Several months later, the YSA chapter brought a
speaker to campus. His remarks were in no way inflammatory, yet the county
prosecutor chose to indict Ralph and fellow leaders for inciting the overthrow
of the government of the United States, an absurd contention. Clearly it was
payback for the earlier provocative pro-Cuba march.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The charges were without merit, but
defending against them took up the next three years of the lives of the
‘Bloomington 3’ (B-3), Ralph and his co-defendants. They tirelessly traveled
the country, speaking wherever a sympathetic audience could be found – trying
to raise public consciousness about their case and raise funds to fight it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By ’65 the indictment hanging over the
B-3 had been withdrawn, but by then Ralph Levitt never looked back to academe.
He moved up and became a major activist in the Socialist Worker’s Party (SWP),
the YSA’s parent organization. As a party heavy he went wherever needed – to a
political demo or a labor action. His home base was the San Francisco Bay Area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Intent on showing solidarity with the
proletariat, Ralph became a motorman in the Bay Area Rapid Transit system
(BART). His organizational talents recognized, he eventually moved up in the
ranks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Upon retirement, Ralph moved back to his
home town of Indianapolis where his elderly parents still lived. Highly
intelligent and well informed, he continued his involvement in SWP, serving as
the party candidate in both statewide and federal elections in Indiana. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With few illusions about winning office,
Ralph nevertheless skillfully used the campaign platforms to reach a broader
audience with the party line.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
lifetime on the left.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Susie ‘Creamcheese’, Antiwar groupie<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I0u_6eiu0Jg/VZLSYUjxTDI/AAAAAAAALIk/kYfF-sZOePU/s1600/VGI%2BReal%2BSuzy%2BCreamcheese%2B-%2BSusan%2BZeiger_edited-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I0u_6eiu0Jg/VZLSYUjxTDI/AAAAAAAALIk/kYfF-sZOePU/s640/VGI%2BReal%2BSuzy%2BCreamcheese%2B-%2BSusan%2BZeiger_edited-3.jpg" width="474" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
real Suzy Creamcheese '67<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I spoke to Susie Creamcheese just
once; that was over 40 years ago. I had no idea who she was, and she didn’t
identify herself. In a highly agitated voice, she said I must come immediately,
my brother was dying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> My brother Jeff was indeed very ill,
but my father assured me his condition was stable. I had planned to fly to
Florida two days hence to talk with his doctors, but to my profound shock he
died the next day. The caller was right, and I arrived too late.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I only learned the identity of the
young woman who called me decades later. She was nicknamed Susie Creamcheese.
Having driven from Chicago to Miami to visit my brother during his last days,
Susie was so stunned by his condition she called me to sound the alarm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Susie’s real name was Susan Rosenberg.
From an affluent Chicago family, she neither had to earn a living, nor was she
going to college. Susie Creamcheese was said to have been on ‘the wild side of
hippyism’, styling herself in the manner of Janis Joplin, one of the zaniest
musical icons of the day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> She had hung out with Jeff and the
circle of people around his underground paper <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> – as a kind of
antiwar groupie. Susie got her moniker from a Frank Zappa song about a young
music groupie he called Suzy Creamcheese who followed the band on the road. Her
real name was Susan Zeiger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> By great coincidence, the original
Suzy Creamcheese is the sister of film maker David Zeiger, who in 2005 premiered
his award-winning documentary on the Vietnam GI antiwar movement, <i>Sir! No Sir!</i>, dedicated to Jeff Sharlet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Lincoln Bergman,
Revolutionary poet<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Lincoln Bergman in recent times, California redwoods<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My brother Jeff died young – he was only
27. In the final years of the ‘60s, he
had become an admired leading figure of the growing GI protest against the war
in Vietnam. He knew the war well; he had served in Nam ’63-’64.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Decades on, Jeff is still remembered for
his leadership of the antiwar paper, <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>, an almost instant
success in the world of underground journalism of that day. His untimely death
was widely noted in the Movement press, in both civilian and GI publications
alike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Among the many obits and death notes,
one particularly stood out, a eulogy framed as a long narrative poem by Lincoln
Bergman, a revolutionary poet. His poem was published in <i>The Movement</i> in July ’69 not long after Jeff’s death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A man of the left, Linc Bergman’s
political activism went beyond the issue of the day, the Vietnam War. During
the ‘60s he had taught English as a second language in Communist China. And as
the war in Southeast Asia was winding down in the early ‘70s, Bergman had spent
a year in revolutionary Cuba broadcasting for Radio Havana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In his poetic tribute to Jeff, <i>Seeds of Revolution</i>, he began, “Brothers
and Sisters, Part of us is dead. … He did time in Vietnam … And when he came
home, He gave [the GIs] something to believe in.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Linc continued:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>Not long ago he said:<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ‘We felt a newspaper Was the best way
to begin<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> To talk to the enlisted men<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The guys on the bottom. …’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> He was a quiet, vital guy <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Who thought before he spoke.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Looked straight in peoples’ eyes<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> And those who listened learned. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Talking to the men in uniform<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Feeling the pulse of the people<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Working long hours to help<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The paper serve their needs.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Concluding his paean to Jeff, the poet
wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>He told us to plant the seeds<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> People had to change<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Change through their experience<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> He spoke the truth. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> A good man.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> So many things<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Embodied in those three words<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Death leaves so much unsaid.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Courage from his courage<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Example of his deeds.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> For Jeff is dead…<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Like Johnny Appleseed.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In a note to the poem in a volume of his
collected poetry, which appeared several years ago, the poet added a fitting valediction
to Jeff. Within the antiwar movement,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>Jeff Sharlet was an authentic leader,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> modest and sincere, calm, a good<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> listener, with iron determination<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and large vision.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-46190238149242472252015-06-03T05:42:00.001-04:002015-06-09T05:55:50.265-04:00Eight More Characters in Search of Jeff<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Paulann Sheets, one time revolutionary<o:p></o:p></span></u></b><br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Taking a break
on the Mediterranean coast, Paulann Sheets, 1966</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Paulann
Sheets, nee Hosler, and I first met in an arty town in the Hudson valley north
of New York. She was staying at the Morning Glory B+B on Upper Tinker run
by an attractive Chinese woman with freckles named Pansy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Once an all-American girl, then a student
revolutionary, now a counselor of the law with leftward bent, Paulann knew my
brother Jeff Sharlet at Indiana University (IU) some 40 years back. She was of
good memory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Paulann’s life has been an interesting
journey. Entering IU as a freshman in ’59, a politically conservative young
woman – a Goldwater Republican – within a short time she was an ardent Marxist.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A Nixon supporter in the 1960
presidential campaign, by ’62 Paulann had become a committed Trotskyist. The FBI
field office took note, enlisting 11 confidential informants at IU to keep
track of her activities. Initially a rah-rah sorority girl, she became a key
player in the two most salient events on the left in the history of the
university at that time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Paulann joined the tiny campus chapter
of the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA), junior affiliate of the Trotskyist
Socialist Workers Party. IU YSA in turn founded a local branch of the Fair Play
for Cuba Committee (FPCC) in support of Castro’s Cuban Revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As the Cuban Missile Crisis heated up in
‘62, YSA and FPCC supported Cuba. When President Kennedy (JFK) blockaded the island
to stop Russian missile-carrying freighters, Paulann and comrades announced a
protest march against US policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Gathering on the steps of the campus
auditorium to begin their march, the small band of brothers was stunned to see a
sea of angry, shouting students lining their route. Facing the dozen
demonstrators were well over a thousand counter-protestors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The situation was dangerous so the guys
decided to defer the protest, but Paulann and Polly Smith, the only women in
the group, disagreed and declared their intention to march. With little choice,
the young men joined them, and they set off brandishing their colorful signs –
Paulann’s, ‘a fierce JFK head on a huge eagle with its talons sunk into the
small island of Cuba’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Within minutes, ugly catcalls began, punches
were thrown, and the provocative signs ripped up by enraged young ‘patriots’.
Miraculously, the protestors made it to the library and escaped the raging mob.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Several months later the group invited a
YSA national officer to speak on campus. Although his remarks were fairly moderate
– ‘a sedate, academic affair’ in Paulann’s words – the politically motivated
county prosecutor saw it differently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Partly as payback for their ‘un-American’
pro-Cuban march, he indicted the YSA leaders under Indiana’s anti-communism
statute for attempting to overthrow the Government of the United States. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Paulann organized the defense of the
‘Bloomington 3’ (B-3), whose lives would be disrupted for the next two years.
She led the ‘Committee to Aid the Bloomington Students’, or CABS, which
involved her taking a leave of absence, traveling extensively to publicize the
case and raise defense funds. Thanks to her leadership, a prominent radical
lawyer joined the case and soon brought to an end the trumped up charges.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Back from the Vietnam War, Jeff returned
to IU as the B-3 case was winding down. Paulann well remembered him for his
charisma as chair of the campus SDS group. I noted that several others had also
referred to Jeff’s charisma. Paulann’s comment—‘How could anyone have missed
it’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Spooks at the
rifle range</span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Specialist-3 John Buquoi (haloed),rifle range, outside
Saigon, 1963</span></i><b><i><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Looks like a picture of regular GIs,
doesn’t it? The time late ’63, the place South Vietnam, specifically an Army
rifle range. The guy haloed in the middle is John Buquoi, a great friend of
brother Jeff.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John and Jeff were soldiers, although in
name only, part of the Army Security Agency (ASA)—an autonomous intelligence
outfit. ASA’s priorities did not include good marksmanship. The agency prioritized
a very different set of skills</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">training young men, usually college boys, as
linguists, cryptographers, and intelligence analysts—a far
cry from combat, the heart of the warrior profession.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I too had served in ASA, but in the
‘50s. The setup however was the same John and Jeff experienced—eight weeks of minimal
military training before we were sent off for up to a year to acquire
specialized skills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Since John and Jeff looked like regular
GIs—ASA was the military arm of the National Security Agency (NSA) in
Washington—their superiors occasionally paid lip service to the soldierly
calling with a little close-order drill or a tune-up trip to the rifle range. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John Buquoi followed Jeff at the Army
Language School where they met. Completing his Vietnamese language course,
he was dispatched to Saigon. Jeff met him on arrival and gave John a kind of
social introduction to Vietnam, a tour of Saigon’s great bars and cafés.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Taxiing into town, they set off on a
whirlwind pub crawl starting at the Papillon and ending many hours later at the
Happy Bar. Along the way, they dined at the Peacock where 60 piasters (50 US cents back then) bought them a steak (probably water buffalo), fries, salad, and a<span style="color: red;"> </span>Vietnamese beer to wash it down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On another night out, they were
approaching one of Jeff’s favorite places—French style, Vietnamese run—and
were stunned by an explosion at the café just ahead on the street. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Two Viet Cong (VC) ‘cowboys’ had
sped by on a motor scooter and rolled a grenade into the place. Injuries were
fortunately very minor. The guys peeked in and walked on. VC street bombings were
not infrequent in the South Vietnamese capital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Later both John and Jeff were assigned
to Phu Bai in the far north of the country. Occasionally they borrowed a jeep
and drove down Highway 1 for a weekend in Danang on the coast, staying at a
hotel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another time driving over the high
mountain pass enroute, they turned on to a side road. Down below poking into
the South China Sea was a small verdant peninsula. The two young GIs mused, wouldn’t
it be a great place to set up a gambling casino after the war. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That was early ’64, and of course
neither could foresee the war would go on for many years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John later told me that some of their
buddies became Vietophiles while others were Vietophobes, but Jeff was neither.
He was a realist, skeptical about the US mission in Vietnam, and critical of
the emerging war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fred Gardner, antiwar impresario<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fred Gardner in
recent times<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Fred
Gardner never got the credit he deserved for the rise of the GI movement
against the Vietnam War. Trained as an Army reservist, he remembered the sleazy
GI town near the base with its grungy bars and dives. With that and his growing
opposition to the war in mind, Fred came up with the idea of setting up coffee
houses for GIs near major base camps as alternative hangouts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They’d be pleasant places where a GI could get away from the military milieu – to drink coffee, listen to some music, and,
especially, peruse the small but growing number of underground antiwar papers,
notable among them brother Jeff’s <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Start-up capital was needed, so Fred
turned to the New Left antiwar movement for help. He got a cold shoulder—the
New Left at the time was hostile to GIs, saying they were ‘no better than
cops’. Like Jeff, Fred knew differently—there were many GIs with doubts about
the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With<span style="color: red;"> </span>$10,000
of money he raised, he and two friends opened the first GI coffee house near Fort
Jackson, SC. In a play on the WWII USO canteens offering troops sandwiches and a little entertainment, they called their place the ‘UFO’. It soon
attracted hundreds of off-duty GIs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">More such venues followed, the next one
outside Fort Leonard Wood, MO; then another near the gates of Fort Hood, TX –
the lively Oleo Strut. The Army took notice and, in collusion with local
authorities, orchestrated a harassment campaign against the new GI gathering
places.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nonetheless, Fred’s idea took off and
new GI coffee houses began springing up at bases all over the country. With few
exceptions, harassment was the norm, and in some instances anonymous violence—
in Idaho the Covered Wagon was firebombed one night, while a grenade was tossed
into the coffee house near Fort Dix, NJ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fred has had an extensive career as a
writer and editor. Starting with the Harvard <i>Crimson</i>, he wrote for the critical magazine of the day, <i>Ramparts</i>; served as an editor at <i>Scientific American; </i>and frequently
contributed to other<i> </i>publications.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In 1971, he published a widely read,
still definitive book, <i>The Unlawful
Concert: An Account of the Presidio Mutiny Case, </i>an account of a major event
in antiwar history. Fred dedicated his book to Jeff:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff Sharlet,
founder of<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Vietnam
GI,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">dead at 27<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Once upon a time in Indianapolis</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> (Life is what happens while you’re making
other plans, as the saying goes. That is
precisely what happened to Karen Grote Ferb on July 23, 1966. Here’s the story she related to me.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Soldiers and
Sailors Monument, Indianapolis, IN<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) made a Midwestern swing for
the off-year congressional elections that included Indianapolis
(Indy) IN in the heartland.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">My old friend Jeff Sharlet was spending the summer there working
on the railroad, and I often went up from Indiana University (IU) in
Bloomington to spend weekends with him; one of those weekends LBJ spoke at
Indy’s downtown Monument Circle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The IU New Left planned to welcome the president with a peaceful
antiwar protest. I went up to Indy to join them the night before. Jeff,
disappointed that he had to work that sultry Saturday, dropped me off at the rally
point early. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">I joined a handful of protesters, parade permit in hand and
antiwar signs at the ready. That’s as
close as we got to protesting. In short
order, cops arrived and told us to move. Showing our permit, we refused.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Then they returned with
Chief Jones, a good-sized man wearing </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">a
tan trench coat, a brown fedora, and an annoyed expression.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: red;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: red;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Unbeknownst to the IU activists, the feds and local law
enforcement had worked together to preempt the protest. License numbers of their
cars had been relayed ahead, and the Indy police arrested them on arrival. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Each time the paddy wagon filled up, the group was transported to
a sheriff’s bus out of sight of the crowd, the press, and especially the
president’s podium. LBJ finished speaking and left for a businessmen’s luncheon
where he ironically </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">declared, “We will abide civil protest”
as the would-be protesters were carted off to jail. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chief
Jones thought the roundup of the protesters with their “lousy signs” was a good
idea, but the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU) immediately protested: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">It is incredible that responsible public
officials would utilize the power </span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">of their position in such a flagrant suppression
of the efforts of the citizens </span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">to exercise their fundamental right of freedom
of expression.</span></i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">By </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">dark we’d all been released. A small crowd of supporters awaited us outside the
jail. Jeff was there, quietly outraged.
He intuitively understood how frightened I’d been and how anxious I was
about the pending court case. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That
Sunday’s <b><i>New York Times</i></b> gave the story brief coverage in the back pages,
saying the president had vigorously defended his Vietnam War policy before a
crowd of several thousand at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As
for the thwarted protesters, the report included a statement by a sheriff’s
deputy that we might be kept overnight and charged with breaking up a public
meeting. Only one arrestee was named, IU
Professor James Dinsmoor, charged with interfering with the police.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">When I came to trial, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the
initial charge of Disorderly Conduct had morphed into Resisting Arrest. The
arresting officer falsely testified I had struck
him with my sign. I was nonplussed and felt little satisfaction with my
eventual verdict of not guilty. <span style="color: #00b0f0;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dan Kaplan, to create a better world<o:p></o:p></span></u></b><br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b>
<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dan
Kaplan, SDS chair (carrying books), leading a demo, Indiana University, 1967</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A teenage stalwart, Dan has done it all
– civil rights activism, SDS leader, Trotskyist journeyman, antiwar organizer,
college professor, and longtime union activist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At a New Left reunion in 2013, Dan, conceding
that their side hadn’t been winning the battle for fundamental social change, said he still remained committed to engaging in the struggle ‘to create a
better world’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dan knew Jeff at their alma mater,
Indiana University (IU), succeeding him as president of the campus SDS chapter.
Dan remembered him well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They first met at an SDS meeting. Both
were following the discussion with interest when someone remarked that since
Jeff was an ex-Vietnam GI, he should be asked his opinion on the matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dan, a freshman, recalled being amazed
that the activist next to him had been in the war. Turning to Jeff, he asked, ‘<i>Are you really a Vietnam veteran</i>?’<i>‘Yes, I am’, </i>Jeff said,<i> ‘but this is where I really belong.</i>’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Later that year, Jeff as SDS leader gave
a speech at a rally Dan has always remembered, a demo outside the residence of the university
president. Jeff opened, saying ‘This is the second time in my life that I’ve
belonged to an organization run by Elvis Stahr’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He explained that he had served in
Vietnam under Stahr as Secretary of the Army, and was now again under his aegis
as President of IU. Rhetorically, Jeff asked why a man of the ‘war machine’ was
qualified to be president of an institution of higher learning, then answered
that in various ways the American university system served the
military-industrial complex, hence senior personnel of the two organizations
had become interchangeable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff went on to grad school at University
of Chicago with a prestigious national fellowship. Dan’s memory of their last
encounter had an elegiac tone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff told Dan he had decided to drop out
of Chicago, instead using his fellowship funds to launch a much needed GI
antiwar paper, <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>. Dan
expressed surprise that Jeff was throwing away a coveted fellowship at a
distinguished university. Jeff replied– and presciently, given his short but
interesting life:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He told me that
this was what he wanted to do at this time in his<br /> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">life. And that he thought this would be the most
important thing</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> he had ever done.</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i></blockquote>
<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Anti-hero of GI
protest<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1jAXaHAEepc/VW4JX9fw7WI/AAAAAAAALDs/bL1ZumDn2RU/s1600/VGI%2BRusty%2BBunch%2BPresidio%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1jAXaHAEepc/VW4JX9fw7WI/AAAAAAAALDs/bL1ZumDn2RU/s640/VGI%2BRusty%2BBunch%2BPresidio%2B2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Grave
marker, Pvt James Richard 'Rusty' Bunch, 1949-1968</span></i><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">High above San Francisco Bay sat a
nondescript white stone building, the Army stockade at the Presidio of San
Francisco. The majority of the prisoners there were maladjusted soldiers
serving short-term sentences, mostly for AWOL
(absent without leave).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In the fall of ’68, conditions at the stockade
were seriously wanting – it was badly over-crowded with insufficient sanitation facilities and
sometimes short rations. Many of the GI prisoners were a disorderly bunch–some
had gone AWOL during their first days and weeks in the Army, others multiple
times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A number of them came from unstable
homes, were poorly educated, and generally unable to adapt to military life.
Mental illness was not uncommon among the prisoners, some of whom repeatedly attempted
suicide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Among this odd lot, one young prisoner
stood out as truly bizarre. From his arrival at the stockade barracks, it was
apparent to all that Private James Richard ‘Rusty’ Bunch was a very strange
bird. He often conducted two-way conversations with himself; fantasized about
space ships; believed he had been reincarnated; and claimed he could walk
through walls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He was clearly suicidal, asking a bunk
mate the best way to do it–slashing wrists, drinking a toxic fluid, or trying to
escape while under guard. The guards had standing orders to shoot fleeing
prisoners. Rusty chose to run, and died of a shotgun blast.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The next day 27 prisoners protested his
death and prison conditions generally with a sit-down. Refusing an order to
disperse, they were arrested. The 27 were charged not with ‘Willful
disobedience to orders’ entailing a light sentence, but the extreme charge of ‘Mutiny’
calling for death or life imprisonment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">None of the offenders had expressed any
interest in the war–Vietnam was not their issue, stockade conditions were – but
the Army prosecutor construed their actions as antiwar and anti-military. The
alleged ringleaders were court-martialed first and got 14 and 15 year
sentences. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The heavy sentences for a peaceful
protest immediately ignited press and public reaction in the San Francisco Bay
area. Jeff’s <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> got on the story as outrage spread quickly
throughout the broad antiwar community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Presidio case soon took on national
dimensions, reaching the halls of Congress. The Pentagon hastily reduced the
sentences, but it was too late; and GI protest, heretofore buried in the back
pages, became national news.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">No matter that not one of the Presidio
27 was protesting the war; in the public mind the late Pvt Rusty Bunch went
from a tragic figure to an unintended martyr to the GI cause, or, as a GI
antiwar activist later put it.</span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Presidio 27
was the best thing that ever </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">happened to the
GI movement – it put us on </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">the front page.</span></i></blockquote>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave Komatsu, keeper
of memories<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Header
for Dave Komatsu's obituary for Jeff,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Vietnam GI</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">,
1969</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Perhaps no one knew Jeff in his last
years as well as Dave Komatsu of Chicago. Jeff harbored a big vision of how to
stop the war; Dave helped him realize it. The two first met through a mutual
friend in New York, summer, ’67. The rest is antiwar history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave, an exceptionally bright and
insightful individual, skeptical of all certainties, had long been a left
activist. He led a breakaway faction of the American Socialist Party that
became the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSL). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave and Kit, his wife, set up a newspaper
for YPSL, <i>American Socialist</i>, a
briskly written, well-edited tabloid Jeff happened to read and admire. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Returning from the Vietnam War, Jeff
planned to organize GIs to oppose the war from within the military, a
formidable undertaking. Dave suggested an interim step, a newsletter or
bulletin reflecting GI opinion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Thus was born Jeff’s antiwar underground
paper, <b><i>Vietnam GI </i></b>(<b><i>VGI</i></b>), which soon became a platform
for raising GI political consciousness and encouraging self-organizing against
the war. An instant success from the initial issue, <b><i>VGI</i></b> ultimately inspired
dozens of antiwar papers created by serving GIs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff’s aim was to mobilize GIs to bring
the war to a halt, but unfortunately his time was cut short. An illness he
first experienced in the Vietnam bush resurfaced and took his life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> Dave had known my brother much better
than I. For me Jeff was a much younger sibling, while Dave remembered him as a man
he greatly admired. He compared Jeff’s tightly wound power and self-containment
to Steve McQueen's racing car driver in
the film </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Le Mans.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Many obits on Jeff appeared in the underground
press, but Dave’s, in a posthumous edition of <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>, was the most
eloquent, the most poetic, as reflected in the opening and closing lines:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Many good men
never came back from Nam. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some came back
disabled in mind. Jeff Sharlet </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">came back a
pretty together cat – and he came </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">back angry. Jeff
started </span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">VGI</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>and, for almost </i></span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">two years poured
his life into it, in an endless </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">succession of
18-hour days, trying to organize </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">men to fight for
their rights. </span></i></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[At
the end] <i>he said he had many new ideas<br /><o:p></o:p></i></span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">for our fight,
but was just too exhausted to </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">talk about them.</span></i></blockquote>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Tran Van Don, coup-maker<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Major General
Tran Van Don, South Vietnam, 1963<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Vietnam War was not going well in ’63;
the Viet Cong controlled much of the rural countryside. South Vietnam’s President
Diem was a generally benign but inept leader. There was much dissatisfaction
among the populace as well as the elites.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Minority Catholics, Diem and his brother
Nhu, the secret police chief, ordered a violent assault on the Buddhist clergy.
For the army generals, mostly Buddhists, who long felt that both the war and the
country itself were being badly mismanaged, that was the last straw.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">General Don was delegated to find out
what the US would think of a coup. He contacted an old friend, a CIA officer at
the embassy. The US was secretly supportive – Washington was fed up with Diem’s
ineffective leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Born in France of Vietnamese parents,
educated in Paris before WWII, Tran Van Don had been a senior officer in the
South Vietnamese Army since the establishment of the republic in the mid-‘50s.
He held the trust of both the general staff and the presidential palace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Late summer/early fall ‘63, Don and
Lucien Conein (US liaison to the plotters) maintained surreptitious contact. Although
Jeff never met Conein, he and fellow Vietnamese linguists were part of his operation. From a secret location outside the capital, they clandestinely
monitored the generals’ communications as backup to Conein’s meetings with
General Don.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The day before the planned coup, Don tried
again to persuade Diem to change his policies asking, ‘Can you make some
changes to your domestic policy by reopening the pagodas, freeing the monks and
nuns, and bringing about a more flexible government?’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> His plea was to no avail, the president
replied, ‘No, there is nothing to do … the situation is fine.’ The next day the
generals carried out the coup. Diem and Nhu were executed. General Don was
distressed; they were supposed to have been sent into exile.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-29111498357556641712015-05-06T05:00:00.000-04:002015-05-13T07:44:01.332-04:00Still More Characters in Search of Jeff – III <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bill
O’Brien, Chicago go-to guy<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bill O’Brien,
Chicago, 2006<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bill
came to New York for a few days and suggested we meet. I chose a funky place in
the East Village. He had been a great pal of my brother, Jeff Sharlet, in the
late ‘60s during his time in Chicago. Jeff had arrived there with a big vision
and a large mission and soon learned Bill O’Brien was the go-to guy for getting
things organized.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">An
ex-Vietnam GI, my brother strongly opposed the war and was determined to give
those fighting it a way to voice their concerns. Bill was one of the key people
helping Jeff launch <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> (<b><i>VGI</i></b>), the first GI-edited
underground paper designed for the guys stuck in the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bill
O’Brien “considered Jeff a brother” and was indispensable to him. Chicago born,
Bill knew most of radical Chicago’s major activists as well as officers of the unions
and even people in Boss Daley’s machine. A man of many parts, Bill’s political
and academic resume was impressive. He’d been invited into University of
Chicago’s prestigious honors program though he lacked a high school diploma. Later
he transferred to the New School for Social Research in New York and finally
took a social science degree at Columbia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bill
was already into community organizing in his school boy years; Chicago was rife
with deserving local causes. Moving on to New York, he demonstrated against the
infamous HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and led the initial ’67 protest at Columbia
when the university first proposed taking over a Harlem park for a new gym. A
year later that protest morphed into the great Columbia student uprising. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Returning
home to Chicago, Bill used his political connections for ‘good guy’ causes, one
time blocking a hospital expansion that would have taken out a nearby
neighborhood. Later he created ‘Radio Free Chicago’, broadcasting from his
attic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
’68, Bill, Jeff, and Jim Wallihan, another <b><i>VGI</i></b> editor, shared a pad on
Chicago’s Near North Side. Bill was working in the Office of the Cook County Clerk,
but at the end of the day he lent a hand for whatever was needed – a <b><i>VGI</i></b>
editorial meeting, arranging useful contacts in the city, procuring office
equipment, or strategizing the emerging GI movement against the war. When they
needed a break, they’d hit Bill’s favorite joint, the jazz bar ‘Get Me High’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Funds
to put the paper out were always tight, so in the fall Bill pulled strings and
got Jeff and Jim well-paid jobs in the press rooms of Chicago dailies. But the
work was hard, and an ultimately fatal illness that first surfaced in the
Vietnam bush started taking its toll on Jeff. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Forty
years on, Bill had never forgotten Jeff. When I began this memoir on my
brother, he devoted endless time tracking down Jeff’s former Chicago friends,
many by then scattered around the country and abroad. When Bill died a few years
ago, his many old friends remembered him with a gala memorial evening at the
hip Heartland Café, long a haunt of radical Chicago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nearly
50 of us were there; many had driven great distances from all over the Midwest
while others flew in from San Francisco, Seattle, New York, and even Honolulu
to celebrate Bill O’Brien’s memorable life – an unforgettable evening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Marty
Seligman, an evening long ago</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
prominent psychologist and author of international acclaim, Professor Martin
Seligman is a noted pioneer of the school of Positive Psychology. As a
schoolboy though, Marty was a good friend of brother Jeff. They were cadets at
a private military school – uniforms, rifles, drill, the whole nine yards. As
often happens, after graduation they lost track of each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
Marty and I got in touch, he was only aware that Jeff had dropped out of
college, gone to military language school, and died several years later of
causes unknown. But Marty fondly remembered their school days together,
especially an occasion late in their senior year. Both of them had been at the
academy for a long time and were restless to move on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sitting
in a green Ford convertible, as Marty described the moment:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
remember a spring evening, the sky Rembrandt blue,</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">graduation
and freedom in sight, looking up and<br /> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">thinking
‘This is the happiest I’ve ever been’. I think</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
thought the same thing, and he may have said so.</span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
lifetime later at the 50<sup>th</sup> Reunion of Jeff and Marty’s class, it was
fitting that the two long ago friends shared the Albany Academy’s coveted
Distinguished Alumni Award, Jeff the first posthumous recipient in the history
of the school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Looking back on their time together,
Marty wrote that he still misses Jeff, “the first of my friends to die.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Karen
Grote, the searcher</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Karen Grote,
Indiana University, 1964<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Out
of the blue one day, Karen got in contact. She found me through my son Jeff the
writer, namesake of my long lost brother of the ‘60s. Brother Jeff had gone to
Indiana University (IU), but dropped out and landed in Vietnam. That was before
the Pentagon launched Rolling Thunder sent in the Marines. Back in the world, as
GIs called coming home, Jeff returned to IU to continue his education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
was on his second academic ‘tour’ in America’s heartland that he met Karen
Grote (now Ferb), a very attractive fellow undergrad. She knew him well, both socially
and politically, and was willing to share her memories. During Jeff’s college
years, I had just begun my career as an academic. I was elsewhere teaching and doing research,
so had known little of my younger brother’s experience at IU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
Karen filled me in on Jeff’s extensive antiwar activism at the university, she
offered to help research the memoir I had started on his short but interesting
life. Fortunately, I accepted and we’ve collaborated since to my great benefit.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Aside
from short accounts about my brother in several books and periodicals on the
Vietnam War period, I soon realized Jeff’s final decade would have to be
reconstructed piece by piece through memories of his contemporaries. But
locating many of them was not going to be easy – the trail had gone cold after
nearly four decades. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
PC keyboard whiz, Karen’s talent was in finding dozens of my brother’s
schoolmates, GI buddies, and fellow SDS activists as well as the main people in
Chicago who helped Jeff get out his antiwar underground paper directed to the
troops fighting the war. He named it <b><i>Vietnam GI </i></b>(<b><i>VGI</i></b>).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Several
of Karen’s notable initial ‘finds’ bear mentioning. Early on, she located Tom
Barton, who had worked closely with Jeff as <b><i>VGI</i></b>’s East Coast
distributor responsible for shipping the paper to GIs in Vietnam. A lifetime
left activist, Tom had then recently begun publishing a nightly online anti-Iraq
War newsletter, first called <b><i>GI Special</i></b> (later, <b><i>Military
Resistance</i></b>). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
one of his first issues Tom reprinted the most eloquent of the many obits on
Jeff, the one from <b><i>VGI </i></b>of August ’69. When I rang him up, he told me that he’d
conceived his antiwar newsletter as the successor to Jeff’s <b><i>VGI</i></b>
and saw himself continuing Jeff’s work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another
remarkable find was Joe Carey, a fellow Vietnam GI whom Jeff had known at
Indiana University. A combat photographer, Joe brought back his personal photos
of what the war really looked like, pictures which he shared with Jeff for the
pages of <b><i>VGI. </i></b>However, Joe had not taken the most shocking image – it
had been slipped to him by a GI who had witnessed a war crime. Trophy-style,
the photo showed several GIs posing with the severed heads of two Viet Cong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
ran the shot in a spring ’68 issue, and as the first atrocity photo of the war to
surface in the public domain, it caused quite a sensation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another
of Karen’s successes was perhaps her finest coup. A fellow Vietnam GI in the
Chicago area who had been on Jeff’s editorial board for <b><i>VGI</i></b> seemed to have
disappeared without a trace. As we subsequently reconstructed, he had become a
Chicago cop, got in trouble with the law himself, served prison time, and, on
release, left the city with the intent of getting away from that chapter of his
life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Zeke,
as I’ll call him to spare embarrassment, had moved to the West Coast, obtained
an unlisted phone number, and hoped to put his past behind him. That was before the Internet as a valuable
search medium. Through great perseverance, Karen had stayed on the trail and
eventually ran Zeke to ground. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
knew his wife was an amateur artist, and she happened to be active in art circles.<span style="color: red;"> </span>For an upcoming exhibition, she had posted her name
and telephone number online. When I rang Zeke, he exploded in anger, “<b><span style="text-transform: uppercase;">This
is an unlisted number! How did you get it</span></b>?” From your wife, I said.
What could he say? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave
Reinhardt, badlands rancher<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave Reinhardt,
Lehr, North Dakota, 2004</span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Far
from Vietnam of his youth, Dave, proud Marine, is today a rancher in the Dakotas.
He never knew Jeff Sharlet, but had preceded him at the same remote post in
what might then have been dubbed the badlands of South Vietnam – right up
against the border of the Communist North.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave
Reinhardt joined the Marines in ’59 and was subsequently in the first Vietnamese
class at the Army Language School (ALS). Jeff arrived at ALS and bunked in the
same Vietnamese barracks a few years later. Dave deployed to Vietnam as a linguist
in ’61, with a small Marine radio intelligence unit in Pleiku and Phu Bai. Jeff
was based with the Army Security Agency (ASA) detachment at Phu Bai in early
’64.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Because
Jeff’s work was highly classified, his letters home were spare. Yet I needed to
know about Phu Bai, the place where he had spent much of his Vietnam tour.
Luckily Karen, my searcher, turned up Dave Reinhardt on the Internet. Dave served
as a fount of information on Phu Bai. Along with describing the physical layout
of the base – the barbed wire perimeter, the various antennae, and the ops
buildings – Dave also conveyed a sense of the daily routines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
told me how the Marine intel group worked side by side with ASA, although tasked
with different but related missions. The Marines were listening to North
Vietnamese (NVN) Navy radio traffic, while the larger ASA unit was tracking NVN
Army communications. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
the differences between the military culture of the Marine radio intercept
contingent and its ASA counterpart were stark. All the Marines, regardless of
specialized skills, had undergone several months’ of combat infantry training and were all
qualified riflemen. They were a very shipshape crew. In contrast, ASA was a laidback
outfit, military in only the broadest meaning of the term. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
spite of the great heat and humidity at Phu Bai, the Marines wore their olive
green field uniforms, while many of the ASA guys went about their jobs
shirtless in boxer shorts and flip flops. Similarly, the Marines had rifles,
M-14’s with ammo, while the unit Jeff would join was given only low caliber
carbines and no ammo. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
Dave said, that was probably a good policy since ASA troops had little weapons
training, and someone could have gotten hurt. One time the Army colonel
commanding both units, a veteran of WWII and Korea, summoned Lance Corporal
Reinhardt and asked him to drill the ASA troops, try to whip them into shape.
While the ASA Morse Code operators and the linguists did their work well, Dave
concluded that trying to turn them into soldiers was a lost cause.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
his Marine enlistment, Dave returned to Vietnam on the CIA payroll. With his
language skill and military training, he was in effect a civilian combatant for
the next several years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Later,
back in civilian life, he struggled with undiagnosed PTSD. When the Pentagon
eventually acknowledged his condition and gave him back compensation, Dave
bought the ranch in North Dakota where he raises a variety of animals and takes
in, cares for, and puts to pasture injured, abused, and neglected horses
otherwise destined for the glue factory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Robin
Hunter, Marxist guru<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Robin Hunter,
antiwar rally, Indianapolis, 1967<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Born
outside London during WWII, educated in Canada, Robin came to the States to
take a PhD in Political Philosophy. He chose Indiana University (IU), arriving
on campus in the early-mid ‘60s where he became a co-organizer of the IU
chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In its earliest
incarnation, Robin later wrote of IU SDS, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">we were seen as not
just political, but as part of every-</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">thing groovy and
anti-establishment: folk music,</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">radical,
‘concerned’, politics, dope, sex, bohemian</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">style, cool, and
<u>hip.</u></span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
became the Marxist guru of the new group, leading theoretical discussions in
Bernella and David Satterfield’s living room a stone’s throw from the campus
gates. In spring ’65 when the fledgling group went to Washington for the first big
New Left anti-Vietnam War demo, Robin was there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Brother
Jeff Sharlet joined SDS a few months later, and he and Robin became good
friends and close collaborators. In early ’67 when Jeff headed the chapter,
Robin helped draft his speech to the activist community, ‘The Role of the New
Left on Campus: The State of the Student’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That
spring, Robin attended a rally in the state capital where Jeff addressed the
assembled audience, and then back on campus the two of them worked together to
ensure the election of Guy Loftman as student body president, the first New
Left activist to win the post.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
Robin Hunter’s most lasting contribution to the Indiana scene was to serve as
its diarist. In the English political-literary tradition of Samuel Pepys, the
great diarist of the 17<sup>th</sup> century; and later Harold Nicolson, a
heralded chronicler of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, Hunter recorded in fluent
prose a decade of the IU New Left’s main actions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Robin
has been well remembered even by a major adversary, a leading campus
conservative who became a national leader of the pro-war New Right. A few years
ago, Robert Turner spoke of Robin Hunter as “the most able of the anti-Vietnam
activists I encountered at Indiana.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Terry
Whitmore – Marine hero to deserter<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Lance Corporal
Terry Whitmore, Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, 1967 </span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
poor boy from the Upper South, Terry enlisted in the Marines and was sent to
Vietnam. He and brother Jeff never met there, but would later cross paths in
Scandinavia. Whitmore was a good Marine for whom the US mission in Southeast
Asia went unquestioned. However, as a fire team leader in a company-size sweep
of a suspect village, he found himself in a moral quandary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">The company CO had lost a brother to the
war and was bent on revenge. When a single shot came from the village, he ordered
it leveled. That meant tossing grenades into family shelters, burning huts,
killing adults, and rounding up children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">The Marines followed orders, but when
the vengeful captain ordered the youngsters to be ‘wasted’, Terry and other
Marines were taken aback. Not likely the kids were Viet Cong, but nonetheless a
Marine mowed them down. The CO noticed one hut still standing and told Lance
Corporal Whitmore to take it out with a rifle grenade.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Orders were orders, Terry fired, the
grenade hit the hut but didn’t detonate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
mother and child stuck their heads out the door -- Terry, seeing the captain
looking elsewhere, silently motioned to them to run for their lives, to get
away. He turned to walk back to the unit when a loud explosion went off. Out of
curiosity the little boy had picked up the unexploded but live grenade. Terry
felt remorse, but remained silent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Later
in his tour, Terry distinguished himself in battle, saving the platoon leader
and his radioman, both wounded and pinned down under enemy fire. But in the
melee, Terry himself was severely wounded by a mortar round and medevacked out
of the line. He was convalescing at the Navy hospital in Cam Ranh Bay when
President Johnson (LBJ) made a lightning visit to the facility. LBJ took the
opportunity to personally award medals to wounded Marines recommended for
bravery, including Corporal Whitmore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Subsequently,
Terry was transferred to a major US military hospital in Japan. After some
months he was well enough for out-patient treatment and allowed to go out on
the town. Then the day came when the docs cleared him to return to his combat
unit. By now Terry was developing misgivings about the war, but duty called.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Twice
his plane back to Vietnam was canceled due to weather, and he had to return to
barracks. His growing doubts about the war then came to the fore. Try as he
might, Terry couldn’t think of any justification for Uncle Sam “to be wiping
out the Vietnamese people [or] one good reason for me to help Sam in his dirty
work.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Lance
Corporal Whitmore had finally had enough – he deserted, as had others, and was
sheltered by the Japanese left, moving the American deserters from safe house
to safe house to evade the US Military Police. Eventually the Japanese
activists found it hard to keep the deserters safely hidden, and arranged to
spirit them out of the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Terry
and several others were clandestinely transported to northern Japan. They boarded
a Japanese fishing boat whose skipper rendezvoused with a Soviet coast guard
vessel that took the Americans aboard. After a whirlwind tour of the USSR
during which the Soviets exploited them for propaganda, the US Vietnam
deserters were flown to the West and sanctuary. Stepping down at the Stockholm airport,
Terry Whitmore began his long exile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It
was there in the Swedish capital in late fall ’68 that Terry and Jeff crossed
paths. Jeff was in town with a delegation of American antiwar clergy and laity to
offer support to the deserter community – Jeff the sole ex-Vietnam GI in the
group, representing the burgeoning Vietnam GI movement against the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Door
gunner distributor</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YVKbjZEt9xw/VUJEqhuwuJI/AAAAAAAALBg/NblOZTjuNU0/s1600/Terry%2BDeMott%2BDoor%2BGunner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="503" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YVKbjZEt9xw/VUJEqhuwuJI/AAAAAAAALBg/NblOZTjuNU0/s1600/Terry%2BDeMott%2BDoor%2BGunner.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Door gunner over the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam, 1968<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Terry
DeMott went to Nam as a grunt, humping a rifle in the bush, but later transferred
to the division’s aviation wing, finishing his tour as a helicopter door
gunner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Early
on, returning from a patrol, he remembered coming upon a copy of <b><i>Vietnam
GI</i></b> (<b><i>VGI</i></b>) in his squad tent, avidly reading it front to back, and
immediately clipping the free subscription coupon to send off to Chicago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
added a note that if they could spare extra copies, he’d pass them around.
Thus, Terry became part of Jeff’s network of nearly 200 sub rosa <b><i>VGI </i></b>military
‘distributors’ in units up and down South Vietnam. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Carrying
copies in his backpack, Terry would pass them to guys in his squad who’d share
with the other squads. Once <b><i>VGI </i></b>made
the rounds of the platoon, the copies would be handed off to other units. Later
Terry similarly circulated the paper in the aviation wing. Thus the multiplier effect
as a handful of copies was read by dozens of GIs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While Terry was
careful to keep the antiwar paper out of sight of the brass, he told me he wasn’t
too worried about getting caught, saying in so many words, What could they do,
send me to Vietnam? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nancy Goodlin
Sharlet, secret writer<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xD03BF4fWRI/VUJE1_q0_FI/AAAAAAAALBo/0wU7cmig5mo/s1600/Nancy%2BGoodlin%2BSharlet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xD03BF4fWRI/VUJE1_q0_FI/AAAAAAAALBo/0wU7cmig5mo/s1600/Nancy%2BGoodlin%2BSharlet.jpg" width="614" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nancy Sharlet
and Jeff the namesake, The Cloisters, New York City, 1974<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nancy died way
too early, but at least, unlike her brother-in-law Jeff, she made it into her
40s. Unbeknownst to anyone who knew her, she had been writing for years. After
her death, a trove of myriad unpublished writings was discovered in the drawers
and cupboards of Nancy’s house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When our son Jeff,
my brother’s namesake, later came of age, he wrote a memoir of his mother by
drawing on her many journals, short story fragments, character portraits, and
word sketches of people she knew as well as things going on around her. Young
Jeff dubbed her a ‘secret writer’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One piece Jeff
found among her papers was a brief but beautifully written, poetic evocation of
his Uncle Jeff’s last days. It was, in
effect, Nancy’s obit for brother Jeff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A few lines
illuminate Jeff’s fleeting passage through our lives:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>He had that ancient look of a Persian or an Assyrian</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i> He had a gift for friendship</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i> His mind was facile, theoretical</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i> His experience was valuable</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And Nancy’s
final image – as we walked the grounds of the VA medical center, Jeff’s
hospital robe, caught by the wind, “billowed like an Arab’s caftan.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-68543324775618351442015-04-01T05:00:00.000-04:002015-04-06T15:56:40.104-04:00More Characters in Search of Jeff – II<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Bernella Satterfield</span></u></b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">,
<b>fiddler on the left<o:p></o:p></b></span></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b><br /></b></span></u></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I2gDvayfe4I/VRq_hV7DC5I/AAAAAAAAK_M/or5t5eFhjIY/s1600/Satterfields1962.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I2gDvayfe4I/VRq_hV7DC5I/AAAAAAAAK_M/or5t5eFhjIY/s1600/Satterfields1962.jpg" height="640" width="636" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Bernella
& David Satterfield, San Francisco Bay Area, 1962<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Bernella and David Satterfield hailed from very
different places, but music was their bond. A ‘red diaper’ kid, Bernella came from
a family of socialists and anarchists – even an aunt in the Communist Party.
Bernella went off to UC-Berkeley. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">David, an all-American boy, grew
up in tiny Stoney Lonesome, deep in southern Indiana. He headed to Dartmouth in
staid New England where he captained football and studied literature. The two connected
in Greenwich Village as folk music, their mutual love, was coming of age at<span style="color: red;"> </span>now iconic music venues. They hung out with young Bob
Dylan and other folkies of the day. <span style="color: #548dd4;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Arriving at deeply conservative,
politically quiet Indiana University (IU) in the early ‘60s, the Satterfields
helped found a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter. They continued
making music, David the guitarist, Bernella on the fiddle – folk, blues,
bluegrass, country. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">The war in Vietnam was escalating,
and their living room just off campus became the hangout for Marxist rap
sessions as well as planning for emerging antiwar protest at IU. Bernella later
wrote of their fellow SDS co-founders:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Most of us were 'outsider' types</span></i></span><i style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> – we were</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> beatniks, grad students, often older than</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> the typical IU undergrad, and some of us</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> were from different parts of the country or</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> the world. We were the weirdos, the</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> bohemian fringe, the vanguard. </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">My brother Jeff Sharlet, an
ex-Vietnam GI, was part of the group. Bernella described him as less a Marxist,
more a strategic realist and tactical pragmatist – he well understood
Bloomington was not St Petersburg on the eve of the Russian Revolution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Later however, when Weatherman<span style="color: #548dd4;"> </span>seized control of national SDS and turned to
violence, Bernella, saying she “didn’t sign up for this,” took off for the
coast where she resumed music full time. For the next two decades she toured
the country and beyond with various bands, making music and writing songs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Moving later to Tennessee, Bernella,
now Nell Levin, again took up political activism, becoming a prominent
statewide activist. Ever the musician though, her new Shelby Bottom String Band
recently issued its first CD, <i>East
Nashville Rag</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Ed Smith III, soldier-poet-minister-salesman<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZolN4kKknTQ/VRrAms08RrI/AAAAAAAAK_U/FMBHiBSsc8A/s1600/VN_Ed_Smith_'03%5B1%5D%2Bcopy_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZolN4kKknTQ/VRrAms08RrI/AAAAAAAAK_U/FMBHiBSsc8A/s1600/VN_Ed_Smith_'03%5B1%5D%2Bcopy_edited-1.jpg" height="640" width="626" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Ed Smith reciting
his poetry, 2003<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Born to missionary parents in war-torn China by the
light of a lantern under Japanese bombing, Ed Smith was raised in America. Twenty
years later, he returned to the Orient, a Vietnamese linguist (lingy in
army-speak) in a semi-secret outfit. Ed was the first of Jeff’s friends I
encountered for this memoir.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ed and Jeff met at military language
school and then shipped out to the Philippines (PI) where they awaited the call
to war just across the South China Sea. Both had dropped out of university – Ed
had gone to Harvard – so for them life in the tropics was akin to an extended
college break with weekend sojourns to the capital a train ride away, a high
mountain retreat above the heat of the plains, or beautiful white sandy beaches
beneath swaying coconut trees. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> In late summer ’63 on very short
notice, Jeff, Ed, and several fellow lingys received orders to pack their gear
and report to the flight line for assignment to Saigon. A coup was brewing with
the White House’s covert blessing. Still, Washington wanted to make sure it
knew the generals’ moves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> The lingys were brought in to tap
the conspirators’ phones in a top secret operation. Two months later, after the
coup took place, the lingys were reassigned, Jeff up to Phu Bai near the DMZ.
Later, back in civilian life, Ed and Jeff kept in touch for a while before
losing contact.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Forty years on, unaware that Jeff
was long gone (d. ’69), Ed searched the Internet for his old pal. Instead, he
found me. I was glad to hear from him –
I knew few of my brother’s friends, least of all the GIs he served with. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Returning stateside, Ed had studied
Oriental languages; become a published poet; and then, following in his
father’s footsteps, took up the ministry for some years. When I met him, he had
moved on to the corporate world – as an agent for a large insurance company.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> When
we talked, I sensed Ed was restless – he was trying to regain his poetic voice
as he waxed nostalgic for his adventurous youth. A few months later when I
dropped him a line with further queries about Vietnam, there was no reply. Nor
did he answer his phone. Finally I rang Ed’s office, but learned only that he
was no longer with the company, had left no forwarding address.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Years
later, my research assistant, Karen Ferb, finally resolved the mystery. Less
than three months after Ed had first contacted me, he had taken ill with the
flu and died suddenly of a rare complication the day after Christmas, 2003.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Fred
Halstead</span></u></b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">, <b>presidential
candidate<o:p></o:p></b></span></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j0v9j3ZaF7g/VRrAzBRwldI/AAAAAAAAK_c/-Yi0AOUs1t4/s1600/Halstead%2Bwith%2Bbutton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j0v9j3ZaF7g/VRrAzBRwldI/AAAAAAAAK_c/-Yi0AOUs1t4/s1600/Halstead%2Bwith%2Bbutton.jpg" height="640" width="442" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Halstead for President, '68
election, official portrait & campaign button</span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> An immense man at 6’6”, 350 lbs, one
couldn’t miss Fred Halstead on the campaign trail. As presidential candidate
for the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the ’68 election – a quixotic pursuit
for a Trotskyist – he traveled the country and even took his campaign abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Fred had cut his teeth politically
in the southern Civil Rights movement during the ‘50s. A garment-cutter by
trade, he became a lifelong member of SWP. As able writer and effective public
speaker, Fred was one of SWP’s most skilled political operatives. His greatest impact was in the Vietnam
antiwar movement. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> The parties of the left routinely
ran candidates for public office. Harboring no illusions of winning public
office, the left regarded elections as a chance to reach a wider audience with
their political message. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">In ’68, Halstead ran for the
presidency on the SWP line. Since the Vietnam War was an issue between the two
major candidates, he used his campaign
to project the party’s opposition to the war.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Halstead’s campaign took him to
Japan to speak at an international peace conference. There he met Jeff who, as
a GI antiwar leader, had also been brought in as a speaker. Acknowledging that
the two of them didn’t share the same ideological outlook, Halstead was
nevertheless impressed with Jeff and his role in the GI antiwar movement. Writing
about GI opposition to the war, he said of Jeff:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> <i> An important development was the growth</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> of antiwar GI newspapers. The first of</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> these were published by civilians and </i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> aimed at GIs. The most influential in the</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> early period was <span style="font-weight: bold;">Vietnam GI</span>, published</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> in Chicago by Vietnam veteran Jeff</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> Sharlet, who managed to accumulate a</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> mailing list of thousands of GIs in </i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> Vietnam itself.</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Joe
Carey</span></u></b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">, <b>combat
photographer<o:p></o:p></b></span></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WuPJd56tN3w/VRrCG8q1TnI/AAAAAAAAK_o/5KnAdcS9II8/s1600/VGI%2BSp4%2BJoe%2BCarey%2Bdarker_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WuPJd56tN3w/VRrCG8q1TnI/AAAAAAAAK_o/5KnAdcS9II8/s1600/VGI%2BSp4%2BJoe%2BCarey%2Bdarker_edited-1.jpg" height="640" width="628" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Sp4 Joe Carey, near
Cu Chi, South Vietnam, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> On patrol with the Wolfhounds, an infantry
outfit out of Cu Chi, Joe Carey was handed a shocking film – a grinning<span style="color: red;"> </span>GI holding two Viet Cong (VC) heads near their
decapitated bodies, he and his buddies posing like great white hunters. As a
combat photographer, he had witnessed and photographed many rough scenes, but
nothing like this. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Joe’s
job was to get publicity shots of the Wolfhounds in action for the 25<sup>th</sup>
Division magazine back at base as well as for distribution to other military
and civilian publications. Knowing that his edgier shots would never pass muster
for publication, Joe filed them away in his personal portfolio on the war.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Some combat GIs carried small
cameras in their backpacks and one of them had photographed the grisly scene –
the beheaded enemy bodies. Seeing Joe arrive with cameras slung around his
neck, the GI wordlessly slipped him the roll of film.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Joe and Jeff had been acquainted
at Indiana University. After graduating, Jeff had moved to Chicago where he
launched <b><i>Vietnam GI </i></b>(<b><i>VGI</i></b>), his antiwar paper. Finishing
his Nam tour, Joe also found himself in Chicago, heard what Jeff was doing, and
passed along the headless photo. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">It was the first atrocity photo
to surface; Jeff ran it in <b><i>VGI</i></b>, and it was picked up and reprinted
elsewhere in the country and abroad, causing the Pentagon considerable
embarrassment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Joe had brought his own revealing photos home
as well – the ones too hot for publication in the 25<sup>th</sup> Division’s <b><i>Tropic
Lightning News</i></b>. He shared them with Jeff, who printed several in subsequent
issues of <b><i>VGI</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> In
spring ’68 the French Left contacted the American antiwar movement requesting
an antiwar ex-GI be sent over to speak at a rally; Jeff was tapped. But too
busy getting his paper out, he sent Joe Carey to Paris along with blow-ups of
his photos showing what the war really looked like. Narrating the shots for his French audience,
Joe was a big hit and much in demand by other Parisian anti-Vietnam War groups.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Long after Jeff was gone, Joe became
a noted American chef. As Chef Joseph, he ran an acclaimed culinary school and
wrote two cookbooks. He is now a novelist. As for the postwar fate of that shocking headless photo
Jeff ran in <b><i>VGI</i></b>? – it hangs today in the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh
City, the former Saigon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></u></b><b style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lynn
Wilson</span></u></b><u style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">,<b> keeper of a
‘safe house’</b></span></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PXRvI2_85FY/VRrCeTj50rI/AAAAAAAAK_w/xXGSN4iAujM/s1600/30_310_464_wilson_wj_headshots_2208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PXRvI2_85FY/VRrCeTj50rI/AAAAAAAAK_w/xXGSN4iAujM/s1600/30_310_464_wilson_wj_headshots_2208.jpg" height="640" width="494" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Lynn Wilson on a
walk near Seattle, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Chicago in the late ‘60s was a city
of tumult where the Red Squad roamed – undercover cops tailing and harassing
activists of all persuasions. UC-Berkeley may have been the cynosure of campus
antiwar activism, but Chicago was the big stage, an epicenter of protest in all
its colors and hues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Jeff set up shop in Chicago and
began publishing <b><i>Vietnam </i></b><i>GI. </i>The
choice of locale was fortuitous since he needed not only editorial help, but
myriad other hands to get the paper out. When the print run of many thousands
of copies of the monthly issue was ready to stuff and mail, local lefties came
forward with willing<span style="color: red;"> </span>hands. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Not everyone made the mailing
parties though. Lynn Wilson and her ex- helped Jeff in another way. They lived
in a comfortable apartment not far from his place. <b><i>VGI</i></b> didn’t have an office
as such – it would have been too easy a target for the Red Squad and their
minions. Instead, the paper’s editorial operations moved like a floating crap
game around Chicago’s Near North Side where Jeff shared a pad with two of his
editors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Fund raising to support <b><i>VGI</i></b>
and putting the paper out kept Jeff under relentless pressure. To give him an
occasional breather, Lynn and her ex- offered their place as a kind of ‘safe
house’. When she first mentioned the phrase, I was thinking hideout, but Lynn
meant a retreat, a place of temporary respite from the fever zone of antiwar
activism. Jeff had an open invitation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> He would walk to Lynn’s place “after
dark, having followed a circuitous route” to ensure he wasn’t followed. He was
off-duty, no one knew where he was. Lynn set a nice table, and Jeff often
arrived for dinner. Other times, he’d come later, and the three of them would
just hang out, play music, and drink wine. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Jeff
talked about Vietnam – not his secret work of course, just the social scene –
Saigon’s fine restaurants, his fondness for the Vietnamese, and how he liked their
food. Lynn remembered he loved to laugh, his wonderful smile.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> A
year later, Jeff lay dying of an illness that first hit him in the bush in
Vietnam. To spend a weekend with him,
Lynn, her ex-, and Jeff’s roommate Bill O’Brien, drove her VW Bug day and night
straight through to Miami. Just as
before, the good friends hung out, drank wine, and listened to music. Jeff was still
optimistic, but he didn’t make it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Gordon
Livingston, ‘an embarrassment to command’</span></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lbZXacD6FVs/VRrDewPmQ6I/AAAAAAAAK_8/Jiu3irjaTKM/s1600/VN%2BG%2BLivingston%2C%2BVN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lbZXacD6FVs/VRrDewPmQ6I/AAAAAAAAK_8/Jiu3irjaTKM/s1600/VN%2BG%2BLivingston%2C%2BVN.jpg" height="496" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Major Gordon Livingston, Bien Hoa,
South Vietnam, 1968<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> In the ‘50s, Gordon Livingston and
my kid brother were schoolmates at a private military school. Jeff was just a
freshman in one of the line companies when Gordon Livingston, a senior, was an
officer of the cadet battalion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Gordon and Jeff later ended up in
Vietnam, and both returned to the States disillusioned about the war. Each of
them took on the military – Jeff as an ex-GI, Gordon as a senior officer in a
combat unit. Jeff now has a posthumous niche in the history of the antiwar
movement, but Gordon – today a noted psychiatrist and author – is undeservedly
a nearly forgotten footnote in the literature.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Gordon was no ordinary soldier; he
had gone off to West Point and was destined for a brilliant military career.
Qualifying as an Airborne Ranger, he commanded an 82<sup>nd</sup> Airborne
unit, was certified as a pilot, and, not least, Gordon was Regimental Surgeon
in a crack outfit in Vietnam. As a soldier-physician, he even earned a combat
medal for valor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> However, as an officer endowed with high
moral conscience, he became increasingly disturbed with what he was witnessing
in the 11<sup>th</sup> Armored Cavalry (‘Blackhorse’), and grew progressively
disenchanted with the US mission in Vietnam. Knowing that he was running afoul
of command, he carried out an audacious protest before the entire in-country military
establishment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> The occasion was Easter Sunday ’69,
the change of command ceremony for Colonel George S Patton III on completing
his successful tour as CO of the 11<sup>th</sup> ACR. The audience included the
commander of all US forces in Vietnam and 20 generals. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">In what an angry fellow officer referred
to as a blasphemous rendering of the Bible<b>,
</b>Major Livingston wrote a highly irreverent ‘Blackhorse Prayer’, surreptitiously
mimeographed it, and handed out copies to the assembled officers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> In swift reaction, a court-martial
was contemplated, but the idea was shelved as much too awkward – after all, the
miscreant was a West Pointer as well as a physician. Instead, the Regimental
Surgeon was deemed ‘an embarrassment to command’, shipped home, and allowed to
resign his commission. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Gordon Livingston went on to a
brilliant career of a different kind – in medicine and letters – but his ‘prayer’,
a wicked satire on a terrible war should not be forgotten:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> God, our heavenly Father, hear our prayer.</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> We acknowledge our shortcomings and</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> ask thy help in being better soldiers for</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> thee. Grant us, O Lord, those things we</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> need to do our work more effectively. </i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Give </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">us this day a gun that will fire 10,000</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> rounds a second, a napalm that will burn</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> for a week. Help us to bring death and</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> destruction wherever we go, for we do it in</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> thy name and therefore it is meet and just.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> We thank thee for this war, mindful that,</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> while it is not best of all wars, it is better</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> than no war at all. ...In all things, O God,</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> assist us, for we do our noble work in the</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> knowledge that only with thy help can we</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> avoid the catastrophe of peace, which</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> threatens us ever. All of which we ask in</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> the name of thy son, George Patton. Amen.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Elvis
Stahr, the man whose luck ran out</span></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Dean Rusk being heckled, Elvis
Stahr glowering, Indiana University, 1967</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Buried in Arlington Cemetery with
full military honors, from childhood on Elvis Stahr had been a winner in life.
A prodigy, he went to university at age 16, attained the highest average in the
school’s history, won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, was decorated for valor
in WWII, served as Secretary of the Army, and methodically climbed the ladder
of academic leadership – until he slipped.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">With his impressive winning
streak, Elvis probably thought why not reach for the pinnacle of academe – in
due time, perhaps an Ivy League presidency. His relentless ascent took him to
top positions at several universities until he made it to the presidency of a
major research institution, Indiana University (IU) – and that’s where his luck
finally ran out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Elvis Stahr arrived at IU just as
the war in Vietnam was heating up and the first shouts of student protest could
be heard on that politically dormant campus. In his opening address, he said
all the right things and initially handled dissent calmly and with forbearance.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">But with each new campus protest,
President Stahr, a classic liberal, grew more uncomfortable with radical
activism. Complicating the situation, his Washington connections enabled him to
attract major national figures to IU – all of them pro-war. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">It was a march of the titans –
Richard Nixon; General Maxwell Taylor; General Hershey of the draft (who, in
terms of student reaction, was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back);
and Secretary of State Rusk, the ultimate bête noire of the antiwar protestors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> By the time Nixon, Taylor, and
Hershey had come and been met with noisy but peaceful, albeit small demonstrations,
Elvis had lost patience with the student minority who were roiling the campus
waters, disturbing his presidency. In the fall of ’66 in a talk to incoming
freshmen, the president criticized an upcoming New Left demonstration, invoking
the bogey of a threat to ‘basic freedoms’ at IU.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Several months later in his
annual address to the faculty, Elvis let loose a harsh broadside against the
campus New Left. Using intemperate language normally not heard at a university,
least of all from its president, Stahr bluntly questioned the motives of the
New Left at IU, peppering his remarks with such inflammatory terms as ‘dogma’,
‘deceit’, ‘propaganda’, ‘conspiracy’, and ‘puppets’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Jeff had just assumed the leadership
of the IU SDS, and he and fellow activists were not about to let Stahr’s
remarks go unanswered. Initially, Jeff addressed a polite open letter to the
president, asking him to either substantiate his allegations or retract them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Although Jeff quoted back to him
the offensive remarks, Stahr declined to retract. Speaking as SDS president, Jeff
responded with a counter-address, ‘The Role of the New Left on Campus’, a
reasoned defense of the rise of student protest at universities across the
nation. Published verbatim in IU’s alternative paper and issued as a small
booklet, Jeff’s well-crafted rebuttal of Stahr’s “enemies of freedom” diatribe
gained wide attention on and off campus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Elvis Stahr staggered on at for
another year at IU before throwing in the towel. After a relatively short
tenure, he claimed he was ‘retiring’, citing “presidential fatigue”, but from
his bitter exit interview, it was clear he had fled the university in some
disarray. Stahr’s race to the top had
come to an end in a setback at IU, his long winning streak broken.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Nonetheless, quick on his feet,
Elvis Stahr landed at the Audubon Society where he enjoyed a successful tenure,
but it wasn’t the same. He’d been shunted off the main line of academe to a
quiet siding more suited to his comfort zone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-73008413155291447122015-03-04T05:00:00.000-05:002015-03-04T05:00:00.421-05:00Characters in Search of Jeff - I<div class="MsoNormal">
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When I began a
memoir on my late brother Jeff Sharlet, I never imagined the fascinating
journey that would ensue, a journey of discovery not only about my brother but
myself as well. Along the way I’ve encountered many interesting people – well
over 150 – who inhabited Jeff’s life and times during his last decade. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff was a
Vietnam GI before the war came up on the public’s radar, later a founding
leader of the GI antiwar movement. He died young in ’69. I’ve been mightily
assisted in the ‘search’ for my brother by Karen Grote Ferb, a very close
friend of Jeff’s during his college days.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Four years ago
we launched this blog, which I’ve used to put together a preliminary draft of
the book underway. In the next several posts, I’d like to introduce and in some
instances re-introduce, through a gallery of photos and brief descriptions, a
number of the individuals I’ve met “Searching for Jeff.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Bob Sharlet <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Lucien Conein,
‘Lawrence of Vietnam’</span></u></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Captain Lucien
Conein, 1945<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Though they both played roles in a
clandestine operation in Saigon now part of history, my brother Jeff never met
Lou Conein. Neither did I much later – Conein died in ’98, but my college
roommate knew the man in Vietnam, both were CIA. The closest I’ve got to Conein
was his legend. Born in Paris, raised in Kansas, he was a swashbuckling soldier
of two wars. In Europe he served as a commando behind German lines, then moved
on to Asia where he fought alongside the French and Vietnamese as they drove
the Japanese from Indochina.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Fast forward to 1963, Conein’s back in
Vietnam, the embassy’s secret liaison to the South Vietnamese generals planning
a coup. As the plot thickened, Conein and his general staff contact rendezvoused
as unobtrusively as possible. One time it was at the dentist both men shared,
Conein was in the chair ostensibly waiting for the drill when General Don
slipped in the side entrance. Behind closed doors in Washington, Conein became
known as “a kind of T.E. Lawrence.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> What was the connection to my kid
brother Jeff Sharlet? A Vietnamese-speaking GI, Jeff and fellow linguists
played a supporting role to Colonel Conein in the successful coup of November 1<sup>st</sup>
– by wiretapping the generals. The White House wanted to know what was being
said when Conein wasn’t around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">George Shriver,
founder of the campus left<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Young Socialist
Alliance meeting, Indiana University,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">George Shriver
presiding, 1962<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> A stalwart of the Left, Jeff and I met
George at Indiana University (IU) in the fall, 1960. I was there in the PhD
program, Jeff a freshman. George was my fellow grad student in Russian studies.
Though I thought I knew the guy pretty well, obviously I missed the main story.
Sure, George was studying for a PhD in Russian lit, but he was also quietly
working as a skilled political organizer on campus as I only learned many years
later. He had come out to IU from Harvard where he’d been a member of the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA), junior
affiliate of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Before George dropped out for a career
in radical politics, he set up a YSA chapter at the university as well as a
branch of the national Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC), created in the wake
of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Though overlapping and very small, the groups were
focused and highly dedicated. In effect, George Shriver was the link between
the Old Left and emerging New Left at conservative Indiana University. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During Christmas break at the end of fall
term ’60, George was organizing a trip to revolutionary Cuba. My brother signed
up to go, but it turned out there weren’t enough takers, so Jeff never made it
to Havana <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Ditty Bopper at
Phu Bai</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Phu Bai, the
mountains of Laos to the west, 1964<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> At the beginning of this memoir project,
Karen and I were trying to locate ex-GIs who’d been based at Phu Bai, a small
intelligence outpost just below the border of Communist North Vietnam. Jeff had
served there, but we knew little about the place. We turned up an ex-Vietnam GI
who had been posted at Phu Bai. He had been a Morse code operator, ‘ditty
bopper’ for short, and, like Jeff, was doing secret work. Ditty Bopper gave us
a lot of helpful information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Then one day he asked Karen about the
memoir project. He knew Jeff had preceded him to Phu Bai, but not that he
subsequently became a founder of GI protest against the war back home. We had
nothing to hide, but that was too much for Ditty Bopper. A ‘lifer’, or career
soldier, he was proud of his Vietnam service and wanted no traffic with
criticism of the war, even decades later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> He cut us off, no more emails, but we
had learned a great deal and were grateful. He would shudder to see his name in
this blog. <b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Larry Heinemann,
ex-soldier-writer<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A lifetime
Chicago boy and an ex-Vietnam GI, the author, late ‘70s</span></i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> After the Vietnam War ended in ’75, I
decided to teach a course on the conflict – as a kind of memorial to my
brother. Since I was a Soviet specialist and knew about the war only from the <i>New York Times</i> and nightly television
news, it was to be a learning experience. That’s when I came across the name of
Larry Heinemann, an ex-Vietnam GI. I had the students read his first novel, <b><i>Close
Quarters</i></b>, a gritty story of close-combat, much of it drawn from his
experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Many years later when I got into this
memoir, I sought out the author. By then he had won the National Book Award for
a later novel. I asked if he by chance had known my brother back in the late ‘60s
when Jeff was editing <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> (<b><i>VGI</i></b>). A lifelong Chicago boy,
Larry replied, “Among those ex-GIs around Chicago, Jeff was, well, famous.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Matt Rinaldi,
antiwar chronicler</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Matt Rinaldi’s ground-breaking
essay on GI protest, 1972<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A young man of the left and an antiwar
activist, Matt Rinaldi and Jeff met at a GI coffee house near Fort Leonard Wood,
Missouri. As <b><i>VGI</i></b> editor, Jeff went on the road from time to time, touring
training camps as well as nearby coffee houses run by activist friends. He was
trawling for combat GIs to interview and other Nam stories for his next issue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Decades later when I was spoke with
Matt, he was still chuckling about something Jeff had told him. My brother had
recently telephoned his parents, and our apolitical father asked his youngest
son, “Jeff, are you still with those anti-groups?” Not long after Jeff’s early
death, Matt Rinaldi published one the first accounts of GI protest against the
war:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Vietnam GI</i> was created by Jeff Sharlet, a vet who had served in Vietnam in the early years of the war. He came back to the States fairly disillusioned. ... <i style="font-weight: bold;">VGI</i> was widely circulated and well received. ... It represented a significant breakthrough when it first appeared and helped play a catalytic role throughout the services.</span></blockquote>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Destiny
Handelman, campus SDS leader</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Destiny
at rest, Bloomington, 1966<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Coming home from Vietnam in ‘64, Jeff
headed back to Bloomington, to Indiana University (IU) to finish his education.
By the following year the country was edging toward full-blown war in Southeast
Asia. When LBJ escalated in March ‘65, protest against the war came alive
throughout academe. At IU every Friday
afternoon, a small band of protestors rallied in Dunn Meadow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jeff was also opposed the war and as
the rare Vietnam vet on campus, was drawn into protest circles. The group
became the nucleus of an SDS, or Students for Democratic Society, chapter at
IU. Hostile to hierarchy, the chapter evolved a rotating 4-person leadership
team.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Bernella Satterfield, Jim Wallihan,
Destiny Handelman (nee Kinal), and Jeff took turns chairing the group. Under
Jeff’s aegis, demonstrations were mounted against pro-war speakers who came to
campus – General Maxwell Taylor, former US Ambassador to South Vietnam; and
General Lewis Hershey, Director of the Selective Service System, aka the draft.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Eventually the four moved on –
Bernella to professional social activist; Jim to academe, a specialist on labor
relations; Destiny, to environmental activism<b>,</b> later a novelist; and Jeff to his place in history as founding
leader of the emerging GI antiwar movement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Vachel
Worthington, gung-ho linguist</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">101<sup>st</sup>
Airborne on patrol, Vietnam, late ‘60s<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff came back from Vietnam with a
troubling secret. Something he couldn’t talk about. I only learned about it
decades later when Karen told me. What had he done, what had he witnessed? I
sought out GI buddies, but they had no
idea. Except Vachel Worthington. <span style="color: #548dd4;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At the Army Language School (ALS), Jeff
and Vachel shared a room in the Vietnamese language barracks. Most of their
classmates were fairly casual about military life, something to put up with. Vachel
was the exception, a gung-ho trooper, reveling in the military culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We located Vachel in Florida. He had a
notion of what Jeff had been doing that troubled him. Vachel told me he’ been
doing the same thing. As the only linguist in Jeff’s cohort to re-up –
re-enlist – gung-ho Vachel was attached to the 101<sup>st</sup> Airborne, the
‘Screaming Eagles’ of WWII fame. Specifically, he soldiered with the
Pathfinders, a deep recon unit operating in the Central Highlands. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Pathfinders’ assignment – locate
Viet Cong (VC) radio transmitters and call in air strikes or artillery missions
to take them out. Because VC units were often near villages, inevitably the
rain of bombs and shells caused considerable collateral damage – the death of
civilians. Vachel took it in stride – the fog of war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
believed Jeff had worked with the Marines in I Corps earlier in the war on
similar long range recon patrols.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The Marines’ modus operandi was to
call in naval fire missions from warships off shore with unintended
consequences quite familiar to Vachel – more collateral damage. He speculated
that Jeff felt guilty about his complicity in the killing of innocent
civilians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Maybe, but we’ll never know. Jeff died
young, taking his secret to the grave.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Keith Willis, friend
to the end</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dgn7q8evfnY/VPbMSWYji9I/AAAAAAAAK-o/423Xi9Icqok/s1600/AA%2BKeith%2BWillis%2B'58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dgn7q8evfnY/VPbMSWYji9I/AAAAAAAAK-o/423Xi9Icqok/s1600/AA%2BKeith%2BWillis%2B'58.jpg" height="640" width="476" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Cadet Captain
Willis, Albany Academy, 1958</span></i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’ve interviewed many people from Jeff’s
life and times, but just one had known him through that final decade of his
short but interesting life. Keith Willis and Jeff had gone to the same military
prep, Keith two years older and an officer in the school battalion. Jeff was in
his company. Both were jocks, Jeff – football
and track, Keith lettering in three Varsity sports. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Taking a degree from Penn, Keith enlisted
in ASA, the Army Security Agency, to avoid the draft and possibly the infantry.
He followed Jeff to ALS in the same Vietnamese program. The two of them bought
a used motorcycle and on weekends cruised the beautiful California coast – up to
San Francisco, down to Big Sur. Jeff and Keith both deployed and were stationed
with the 9<sup>th</sup> ASA in the Philippines; later Jeff was sent over to
Vietnam. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After his Vietnam tour, Jeff went back
to college, Keith into the corporate world, but the two guys landed in Chicago
and kept in touch. Later, in spring ’69 Jeff fell terminally ill, but remained
hopeful. It was Keith he contacted to help him draft an appeal to the
government for a disability pension. The letter went off to Washington, but the
reply came too late – Jeff was already gone. It didn’t matter anyway, it was a
rejection letter. Keith Willis though, friend to the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-40627754241060772932015-02-04T05:47:00.000-05:002015-02-04T05:47:00.254-05:00A Voyage of Discovery – From Bloomington to Saigon<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[On this the 4<sup>th</sup> anniversary
of <b>Searching for Jeff</b>, the present
post has been written by my collaborator on this blog, Karen Grote Ferb. Karen
knew my brother Jeff well during their university days. In 2013 she and her
husband Tom traveled to Vietnam where Karen retraced Jeff’s steps as a Vietnam
GI during 1963-64.]</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
first met Jeff Sharlet at a house party
in early January 1966, a little over a year after he returned to Indiana
University (IU) from his tour as a US military advisor in Vietnam. It was a chance meeting. One of my house mates had been invited, but
did not want to go alone; she begged me to go with her. I really didn’t want to, but she pleaded so
long I finally gave in. Jeff was there,
sitting in a dark corner alone. I’d seen
him once before on campus, standing with a group of guys in front of Ballantine
Hall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
introduced myself, and we began a lengthy conversation in that corner, then got
away from the general din to continue talking student style sitting on a pile of
winter coats in the bathtub. We talked
about socioeconomics, racism, and the war in Vietnam. The war had been building
dramatically since the Tonkin Gulf incident in August ’64 shortly after Jeff
had returned stateside – culminating in the launching<span style="color: red;"> </span>of
a major bombing campaign over North Vietnam followed by the landing of the Marines
at Danang in early ‘65. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Our
conversation continued over the next eight months until I left for graduate
school, and more and more it turned toward the war, as was happening all over
the country. Why were we fighting in
Vietnam was the question many were asking, and how could we stop it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">____________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #558ed5; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #558ED5; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">Fast forward to the digital age and 2004 when I
finally<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #558ed5; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #558ED5; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;"> learned of
Jeff’s tragically early death in ‘69.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">____________________________________________<span style="color: #558ed5; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #558ED5; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Although
Jeff was clear that he had done something in Vietnam he couldn’t bring himself
to speak of, he didn’t talk much at all about his experiences there that had
soured him on our involvement in the war. At the same time, he had developed an
admiration for the Vietnamese people, although not for their oppressive regimes
beginning with Diem and his cruel brother Nhu, so he joined the IU chapter of
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) during fall of ‘65; I too joined around
that time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Antiwar
protests grew exponentially from the mid-‘60s, not only at home, but abroad, and
even in Vietnam itself. The Buddhist
crisis, in particular, had drawn worldwide attention as clergy began to set themselves
afire in public places as a protest against the Diem regime.<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zjXoYZ0GKFk/VM-5SmxgLJI/AAAAAAAAK7I/ohXTpvENlGI/s1600/sharlet_sharlet-R1-E022%2Bcopy%2B1%2B22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zjXoYZ0GKFk/VM-5SmxgLJI/AAAAAAAAK7I/ohXTpvENlGI/s1600/sharlet_sharlet-R1-E022%2Bcopy%2B1%2B22.jpg" height="400" width="358" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff at Indiana University, 1965<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fast
forward to the digital age and 2004 when I finally learned of Jeff’s tragically
early death in ‘69. I had come across
his namesake nephew, at the time beginning his illustrious career as a
writer. At first I thought he was the
Jeff I’d known, but a little exploration proved it not so; the namesake was too
young and did not resemble his
uncle. The truth was a shock. Jeff had died of cancer at age 27. I knew he had an older brother, Bob, so I set
out to offer much-belated condolences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
it happened, Bob, an academic approaching
retirement, was determined to give his brother his rightful place in the
history of the GI Movement against the Vietnam War by writing a memoir of
him. Jeff too had intended to pursue an
academic career. He had begun grad school at the University of Chicago, but
dropped out and used his Woodrow Wilson Fellowship funds to create the first GI-led antiwar,
underground newspaper. <b><i>Vietnam GI </i></b>was aimed at GIs serving
in Vietnam as well as on US bases in
the States and abroad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Contacting
Bob at that time was serendipitous because he had little idea of how to reach
out and find Jeff’s friends and comrades from his IU days. We determined that,
although I’d lost touch with my
fellow IU antiwar activists, I could find them for him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ___________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #558ed5; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #558ED5; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">I began a voyage of discovery I could not have
imagined when I last spoke<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #558ed5; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #558ED5; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">with Jeff just a few months before the first issue of <b>Vietnam GI </b>appeared.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">____________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Over
time I did find many of those people as well as others from Jeff’s high school years,
his Army days, and the time he
spent in Chicago as an underground editor, which also took him across
the country and abroad. Bob eventually interviewed over 150 people who had
known Jeff to one degree or another, and I began a voyage of discovery I could
not have imagined back in late 1967 when I last spoke with Jeff just a few
months before the first issue of <b><i>Vietnam GI </i></b>appeared. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
my wildest dreams I couldn’t have foreseen the depth of knowledge and
understanding I would achieve about Vietnam and the war, nor that I would visit
Vietnam, now unified, and walk in Jeff’s footsteps, seeing the places he had seen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
found myself in Saigon’s cavernous Bến Thành Market, in front of which a
massive nonviolent Buddhist protest had taken place on August 25, 1963, the
very day Jeff arrived in Saigon for the first time. South Vietnamese government troops had opened
fire, killing several people, including Quách Thị Trang, a 15-year old student. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hQGX1aLhki0/VM_BpK9cClI/AAAAAAAAK8E/x8nkbb3hfMg/s1600/Quach%2BThi%2BTrang1%2BEdit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hQGX1aLhki0/VM_BpK9cClI/AAAAAAAAK8E/x8nkbb3hfMg/s1600/Quach%2BThi%2BTrang1%2BEdit.jpg" height="301" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Bến Thành Market Protest and Quách Thị
Trang, 1963</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
traffic circle was subsequently renamed in her memory and now holds a statue of
her in a space shared with a mid-15<sup>th</sup> century general, Trần Nguyên
Hãn, a great poet, talented politician and strategist under Emperor Lê Lợi, and
a hero revered for his role in liberating Vietnam from China’s Ming Dynasty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p1Vw8r7SeRo/VM-53N_HOUI/AAAAAAAAK7Y/ouwEkj4BZf4/s1600/Quach%2Band%2Bemperor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p1Vw8r7SeRo/VM-53N_HOUI/AAAAAAAAK7Y/ouwEkj4BZf4/s1600/Quach%2Band%2Bemperor.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Quách Thị Trang & General Han, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">No
longer there to see were street-side execution posts as well as the trenches
which Jeff could not have failed to notice; they surely would have added to
soldiers’ anxieties about the dangers that too often erupted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JLx0BeJoBY8/VM-6PrePRYI/AAAAAAAAK7g/zEsLupraRMg/s1600/VN%2BSaigon%2BCity%2BHall%2BTrenches.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JLx0BeJoBY8/VM-6PrePRYI/AAAAAAAAK7g/zEsLupraRMg/s1600/VN%2BSaigon%2BCity%2BHall%2BTrenches.jpeg" height="253" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Trenches in front of Saigon City Hall,
mid-‘60s<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nor were the famously well-known Buddhist self-immolations
the only evidence of a profound cultural conflict and repression in the cities
of South Vietnam. Widely reported, the
images of monks engulfed in flames stunned the world, although the root cause
was not widely known. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Catholic Diem regime had retained a French colonial<span style="color: red;"> </span>rule that Buddhism was not a religion, but an
association, which severely limited the rights of Buddhists as opposed to those
of the Catholic minority. A request to fly Buddhist flags on the occasion of Buddha’s
2,507<sup>th</sup> birthday in 1963 had been turned down while the Vatican flag flew on the occasion of the consecration of Diem's older brother as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Hue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A protest in the ancient capital of Hue of about
3,000 Buddhists was fired on by government troops. The regime, attempting to minimize the damage
and even pin the blame on its civil war adversary, the Viet Cong, was hotly
contested by a huge protest march the next day of more than 10,000 demonstrators.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The protests and self-immolations</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.6666660308838px; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">six in all,
including a Buddhist nun</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.6666660308838px; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">—</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">continued throughout the summer of ’63, resulting in
several clashes between Buddhists and troops, as well as hunger strikes—over
10,000 participated in Saigon alone—sit-ins, and<span style="color: red;"> </span>street
fighting between Buddhist and Catholic civilians. All during the summer the great gong at
Saigon’s Xa Loi Pagoda’s tolled, while in Hue the violence had left the main
pagoda, Tu Dam, nearly a complete ruin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Although
President Diem had insisted he was pursuing a policy of conciliation, the
tragedy in the streets of Saigon in August of ’63 would discredit any notion of
it. Having declared martial law, the
president had given the police under his brother Nhu free rein starting that
August.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">_________________________________________________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #558ed5; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #558ED5; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">Nhu’s police plundered, looted, beat, and brutally
murdered </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #558ed5; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #558ED5; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">Buddhists with abandon, killing no fewer than 100 in Hue alone.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">___________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nhu’s police plundered, looted, beat, and brutally
murdered Buddhists with abandon, killing no fewer than 100 in Hue alone. The
overall number murdered or ‘disappeared’ was in the hundreds. Thousands of Buddhists across the country
were arrested and tortured by forces under Nhu, Diem’s brother<span style="color: #548dd4; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">,</span> who also
headed the special forces. On August 25<sup>th</sup>,
6,000 monks, nuns, civilians, and students were arrested followed by many
thousands more over the course of the following month. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A war that had had not yet received much attention
back in the States suddenly had many Americans asking questions that before
long would result in massive demonstrations against it. The rest of the world
began to wonder what our objectives in Vietnam actually were. In the end, Washington declared, “… it
appears that the government of the Republic of Vietnam, has instituted serious
repressive measures against the Vietnamese Buddhist leaders…The US deplores repressive
actions of this nature.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In spite of this, the American media were not quick
to pick up on extent of the underlying conflict between Buddhists and the
Catholic regime; that is, within the overarching civil war between Communist North
and non-Communist South Vietnam, a religious civil war was raging in South
Vietnam between Buddhists and Catholics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Soon
after the police attacks against Buddhists and their pagodas, the commander of
the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) announced military control over
Saigon, instituted censorship of the press, and cancelled all commercial
flights into the city. As the US
Government began to lose confidence in its client Diem, Jeff and fellow
Vietnamese linguists were quickly rushed to Saigon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">_____________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #558ed5; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #558ED5; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">As the US Government began to lose confidence in its
client Diem, </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #558ed5; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #558ED5; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">Jeff and fellow Vietnamese linguists were quickly rushed to Saigon.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">______________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Washington had finally recognized that the Diem
regime was behind the attacks and had no intention of reconciliation with the
Buddhists, a direct violation of a promise made. President Kennedy was also
aware that a group of South Vietnamese generals were planning a coup.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The ensuing events in September and early October
‘63, to which Jeff was privy in his position of clandestinely eavesdropping on
the ARVN General Staff, led on November 1st to a successful military coup and
the execution of Diem and Nhu. <span style="color: #548dd4; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Coincidentally, a year later in ‘64 – also on August
25 – a group of 10,000 Buddhists attacked and burned to the ground a Catholic
village near Danang, after which horrendous bloody clashes erupted between Buddhists
and Catholics killing and mutilating each other in the streets. The violence soon spread to Saigon and other
urban centers, creating an atmosphere of anarchy in the entire country.*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jkkCOFeqj5o/VM-9WtCrUMI/AAAAAAAAK74/uP8j50PdWog/s1600/VN%2BBuddhist%2BCatholic%2BClash_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jkkCOFeqj5o/VM-9WtCrUMI/AAAAAAAAK74/uP8j50PdWog/s1600/VN%2BBuddhist%2BCatholic%2BClash_edited-1.jpg" height="281" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Violent
clashes between Buddhists and Catholics, August, 1963<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Contemporary Vietnam: Now a single unified country
under Communist rule, the situation from the early-mid ‘60s has been reversed –
the officially atheist Communist government now persecutes Christians, but
allows Buddhists to practice their religion, although only a single sect, the
Buddhist Church of Vietnam, intended to encompass any and all Buddhist sects firmly
under state control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">______________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">* R
J Topmiller, <b><i>The Lotus Unleashed: The
Buddhist Peace Movement in South Vietnam 1964-1966</i></b> (2002), 19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-67623354116853761542015-01-07T05:30:00.000-05:002015-01-30T08:57:29.072-05:00GI in a Pagoda – From Olive Drab to Saffron Yellow<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The
Army Language School (ALS) sat on a vast bluff on the central coast of
California overlooking Monterey Bay. Subsequently renamed the Defense Language
Institute (DFI), the school still sits high on that bluff above the now
revitalized Cannery Row. When the writer John Steinbeck roamed the area during
the Great Depression, the canneries along the waterfront below thrived on the
catch of the sardine fishing fleet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Much
later in the mid-‘50s when I was assigned to ALS for language study, the
sardine fisheries had collapsed, and the canneries had gone into decline; it
was a ramshackle scene notable only due to Steinbeck’s novel <b><i>Cannery
Row </i></b>(1945). After I graduated, the street of defunct canning factories
was officially renamed in honor of the novel and its famous author who a few
years later was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
language school was first established in ’41 for training GIs in Japanese.
After the war, ALS moved to its present location, the Presidio of Monterey, an
old Spanish fort. The school’s curriculum grew rapidly apace with the challenges
of the postwar international situation. When I studied at Monterey, over 25
languages were being offered by native speakers from various countries. By the
end of the ‘50s, more than 20,000 military personnel had passed through ALS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not
surprisingly, given international tensions, the school emphasized the intensive
training of service personnel in the languages of the United States’ Cold War
adversaries and their client states as well as instruction in the languages of
our allies in the global struggle. Russian was by far the largest language
program then, followed by Chinese and Korean. Collectively, the various
languages of the USSR’s Baltic and East European satellites also enrolled a
large group of military students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">__________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Given international tensions, the
school emphasized the intensive training of service personnel in the languages
of US Cold War adversaries as well as in the languages of our allies in the
global struggle.</span><span style="color: #548dd4;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Smaller
numbers of soldier-students studied Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Burmese,
Indonesian, and Thai as well as several West European and Scandinavian
languages. During the year I spent at ALS studying Czech, one of my college
friends was learning Persian across the post.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
I revisited the school several years ago the curriculum had changed radically
since the end of the Cold War and onset of the war on terrorism. The barracks and
classroom buildings where the East Europeanists had lived and studied still
stood, but had been repurposed. With the liberation of the former Soviet
Union’s satellites and the inclusion of most of the now-independent countries
in NATO, the study of their languages was no longer essential. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Instead,
my old billet and neighboring barracks had been converted to additional
classrooms for the hundreds of men and women soldiers training for America’s
contemporary challenges – studying among others two of the heretofore secondary
languages of the ASA/DLI curriculum -- Arabic and Farsi (Persian) – as well as
new additions such as Pashto, a language of Afghanistan, and Urdu, spoken in
Pakistan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the ‘60s, my brother Jeff Sharlet followed me to Monterey as a GI student of
Vietnamese. In ’62 a low intensity ‘hot’ war was underway in South Vietnam, and
the Pentagon was steadily but quietly building up its cadres of translators and
interpreters. As the war heated up, Jeff and most of his ALS cohort ended up in
Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Vietnamese
had first been taught in the US during WWII. A special program for a small
number of GIs was created at University of California – Berkeley and University
of Wisconsin – Madison. Later during the Cold War ‘50s, Vietnamese was added to
the roster of languages taught at ALS. Vietnamese native speakers joined the
school’s faculty in ’54, the year of France’s defeat in the first Indochina War
when the US began to assume its fateful responsibility for the newly created
state of South Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">____________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In the course of the second Indochina
War – the American war – </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">20,000 military personnel passed through the gates of
the Defense<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Language Institute and its regional branches
to study Vietnamese.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">__________________________________________________________<span style="color: #548dd4;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the course of the second Indochina War – the American war – 20,000 military
personnel passed through the gates of the Defense Language Institute and its
regional branches to study Vietnamese. The great majority were sent for a short
course (8-weeks) designed for officers and non-commissioned officers headed to
Southeast Asia as military advisors to units of the Army of the Republic of
Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
much smaller contingent, including Jeff and his buddies, spent 11.5 months in
the classrooms of the Monterey Presidio being trained as translators and
interpreters. Most of the long-term students were part of the Army Security
Agency (ASA), an autonomous communications intelligence outfit, or they were
assigned to the Military Intelligence (MI) branch of the Army.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Unlike
my generation of Cold War GIs who, because of the Iron Curtain could at best
only observe the countries of the Soviet Bloc from afar, Jeff and his fellow
linguists lived and worked in a Vietnamese language environment. As a result
they were able to hone their language skills with some of them becoming quite
fluent in Vietnamese.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Of
my fellow linguists of the European communist states who continued using their
languages after leaving the military, a number became academics, specialists on
the countries whose languages we had learned and worked in for a couple of
years of our military tour. Jeff and his group also parlayed their language
skills as well as the Vietnam experience after the service, but in more varied
ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
least two became academics, one becoming a distinguished scholar of Vietnamese
politics. Another stayed on in Vietnam, and yet another returned as a civilian
employee of a US company that constructed infrastructure for the military.
Another GI linguist, for whom the romance of Vietnamese culture was strong,
became a student of Oriental languages back in the States as well as a poet of
the Vietnam experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Doffing
the uniform, a couple of others became players in the Vietnam War writ large. One
young ex-Vietnam GI became station chief for the National Security Agency (NSA)
in Saigon, later rising to the number two position in the agency back in
Washington. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then
there was brother Jeff who founded the first GI-edited underground antiwar
paper directed to serving GIs and in the process became an early leader of the
emerging GI opposition to the war. *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">___________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Among Jeff’s generation of Vietnam
GIs, one young ex-Army Security <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Agency linguist took the unusual step
of becoming a Buddhist monk.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">__________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
among Jeff’s generation of Vietnam GIs, one young ex-Army Security Agency
linguist took the unusual step of becoming a Buddhist monk. Steve Shlafer had
completed a couple of years of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(RPI) when he dropped out and enlisted in ASA. Like Jeff, Steve was sent to ALS
for intensive language training in Vietnamese and upon graduation deployed to
South Vietnam for classified work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Steve Shlafer
(r) at an ASA base outside Saigon, 1963<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
the requisite 12-month tour in-country, Steve Shlafer became not only an
outstanding linguist, but also deeply interested in Vietnamese Buddhist
culture. After completing his military obligation, he returned to Vietnam,
enrolling at Saigon’s Van Hanh University in – a Buddhist-run school – where he
studied Buddhist theology as well as Chinese and Vietnamese literature.
Finishing his studies in ‘67, Steve was hired by an American subcontractor to a
Washington agency to research and write an in-depth study of a particular Buddhist
sect. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
early December of ‘67, he submitted an extensive report on the Hoa Hao religious
tradition. Hoahaoism is a relatively modern version of Buddhism with a populist
and social welfare orientation. The movement, which today claims two million
adherents across Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta, focuses mainly on peasant
farmers, emphasizes Buddhist lay worship at home and in the fields rather than
primarily in temples, and favors aid to the poor over pagoda-building and
expensive rituals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Three
years later, Steve Shlafer’s nearly 300-page study was cited in a State
Department training manual for Foreign Service officers assigned to Vietnam.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g0-GN7IQce4/VKrFDsH29gI/AAAAAAAAKyE/RKkAd3QYGBU/s1600/FSI%2BManual%2BCover_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g0-GN7IQce4/VKrFDsH29gI/AAAAAAAAKyE/RKkAd3QYGBU/s1600/FSI%2BManual%2BCover_edited-1.jpg" height="400" width="278" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Cover page of
Foreign Service Institute manual on Vietnam (1970)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
few days after handing in his manuscript, Steve Shlafer completed final preparations
for becoming a Theravada (also known as Southern Buddhism, the most prominent form in Southeast Asia) Buddhist monk, an extraordinary commitment for a
foreigner in general and an American ex-GI in particular. After performing the
ritual of walking three times around the pagoda, he entered and took his vows. With
shaved head he donned the traditional saffron gown with yellow sash and was
assigned a cell in the pagoda. Almost immediately the new monk became the
center of media attention back in the States.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1qyiZ_56_wU/VKrGWeMUVKI/AAAAAAAAKyU/6mV6M2qV1co/s1600/VN%2BShlafer%2Bto%2Btake%2Bvows%2Bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1qyiZ_56_wU/VKrGWeMUVKI/AAAAAAAAKyU/6mV6M2qV1co/s1600/VN%2BShlafer%2Bto%2Btake%2Bvows%2Bcopy.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Steve Shlafer
making the ritual walks around the pagoda, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To
further characterize Steve Shlafer’s dramatic act in the midst of the Vietnam
War, the Associated Press (AP) highlighted that he was Jewish. Of course, for
the American public it would have been hardly less remarkable if a Vietnamese
speaking ex-GI of the Christian persuasion had been inducted into the Buddhist
religion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cjkWj75xXI8/VKrGhNeShtI/AAAAAAAAKyc/0GPqzUg4OdA/s1600/Shlafer%2BVows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cjkWj75xXI8/VKrGhNeShtI/AAAAAAAAKyc/0GPqzUg4OdA/s1600/Shlafer%2BVows.jpg" height="312" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Steve Shlafer
(l) taking his monastic vows, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
a mini-press conference in his pagoda cell, Thich Thien Hien, aka Steve Shlafer,
told the newsmen that his parents back home were aware of his plans, and he had
just written them that he had taken the step. He fended off questions about his
parents’ reaction, saying – perhaps with a smile, “They probably think it’s
another one of my wild schemes.”** <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Simultaneously,
the <i>New York Times</i> interviewed his
mother in New Jersey who expressed skepticism of her son’s whole venture.
Saying that she had tried to “kid him out of it,” his mother speculated that
Steve would give up the idea of being a monk in a few months and return to
college in the States.***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not
long after the solemn ceremony – in late January ’68 when the Viet Cong and
North Vietnamese Army launched the Tet Offensive throughout South Vietnam –
Steve in his religious regalia reportedly took temporary cover with his old
unit out near the airport. Given the fact that Saigon was a battle zone, it was
probably a wise decision notwithstanding his new status and appearance as a
monk – especially as a rather conspicuous American Caucasian Buddhist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the end Mrs Shlafer was right since Steve eventually did give up monkhood.
However, that wasn’t and still isn’t unusual in Buddhist practice where men
have been known to enter the pagoda for a period of time and then return to
their previous lives. In any event, Steve Shlafer married and spent a dozen
years in Sweden from 1974 to 1986 where he completed medical school at the
University of Goteborg. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Returning
to the States, he did his medical residency and became a physician. Many
decades on since wartime Saigon, Dr Stephen Shlafer has long been a respected
pediatrician in the Pacific Northwest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*For
an account of the GI antiwar paper, <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>, see http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">**AP story run in the <b><i>New York Times</i></b>, 4 December 1967 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">**<b><i>New York Times</i></b>, 4 December 1967<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-38020764226168370952014-12-03T05:30:00.000-05:002014-12-03T15:57:52.837-05:00Last Days of VIETNAM GI<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Jeff
Sharlet, my brother, died in June ’69 from complications of something that may
have begun earlier during his tour in Vietnam. He was only 27, but left behind
a notable legacy.* Jeff had founded </span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i>Vietnam GI</i></b><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">(</span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i>VGI</i>)</b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> in early ’68 as the first GI-edited underground antiwar
paper addressed to GIs. </span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i>VGI</i> </b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">quickly found its audience in
Vietnam and in stateside training camps and gave impetus to the emerging GI
protest against the war.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
it turned out, June ’69 was a turning point in the war itself as well as in the
antiwar movement writ large. Recently elected President Nixon announced the
first withdrawal of troops and the beginning of the reduction in US force
levels in Vietnam during the week before Jeff’s death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then,
shortly after news of his premature death, what became the last national
conference of <b>Students for a Democratic
Society</b> (<b>SDS</b>) opened in Chicago
with a minute of silence in memory of Jeff. Over the next few days of
contentious debate, the largest youth organization in America and the backbone
of the civilian antiwar movement met its demise, splitting asunder into two
mutually hostile irreconcilable factions, one of which was the infamous
Weatherman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Meanwhile,
in the wake of Jeff’s passing, Dave Komatsu, his deputy editor, did his best to
carry on, but money was tight, and his heart was no longer in it. As the US war
effort began to decline, Dave and his wife Kit, both long term left activists,
moved on and founded the underground paper <b><i>Wildcat</i> </b>directed primarily toward
factory workers, the classic proletariat of Karl Marx.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nevertheless,
out of loyalty to Jeff’s memory, Dave and staff managed to publish three more
posthumous issues. Most notable was the August issue of <b><i>VGI</i></b>, the cynosure of
which was Dave’s long, eloquent obituary for Jeff under the<span style="color: red;"> </span>heading <b><i>Jeff Sharlet Dies</i></b>. The tribute
opened with writerly élan and inevitably closed on a sad end note:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i> Many good men never came back from Nam. Some<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> came back disabled in mind.
Jeff Sharlet came back a<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> pretty together cat….<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> At the end he said that he had many new
ideas for<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> our fight, but was just too
exhausted to talk about<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> them.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xMJPxYynfvI/VHhI5jTuC6I/AAAAAAAAKwI/yDzLwjOwXIo/s1600/VGI%2BObit%2Bfor%2B109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xMJPxYynfvI/VHhI5jTuC6I/AAAAAAAAKwI/yDzLwjOwXIo/s1600/VGI%2BObit%2Bfor%2B109.jpg" height="640" width="353" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
fall ’69, Dave tried to hand off editorial responsibility to other staff
members, but in the vacuum left by Jeff’s death, staffers had started drifting
away to various political projects and other GI papers. Also, absent Jeff who
had been the paper’s principal fundraiser, the cash box was empty, and the
reluctant decision was made to suspend publication of <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That
was not to be the end of the story however. The tale of <b><i>VGI</i></b>’s decline, its subsequent
short-lived revival in ‘70, and its final demise can be seen in the following
excerpts from <b><i>VGI</i></b>’s office correspondence for the last year of the paper’s
existence.** <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
initial excerpts bear brief explanation – due to unusual circumstances at the
time, they are from consecutive letters two months apart. The first is from <b>RESIST, </b>a national organization in
Cambridge MA led by radical academics such as Noam Chomsky of MIT and Richard
Flacks of the University of Chicago; the prominent left public intellectuals
Paul Goodman, the writer, and Marcus Raskin of the Institute of Policy Studies,
a critical think-tank; and, among others, a Harvard College chaplain. The
group’s mission was to provide financial assistance to all parts of the broad
Vietnam antiwar movement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Komatsu
had written to the Cambridge organization in the early fall to request funding
for a follow-on October issue of <b><i>VGI</i></b>. <b>RESIST </b>replied much later:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>RESIST</b> November
17, 1969<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>Dear David,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> With the number and
amounts requested by<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> other groups this month, we
were unable to provide<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the entire $650 your letter
specified. However, a</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> check for $400 is enclosed
here. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I apologize for the
weeks delay in getting<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> this off to you.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Because
of government interference, Komatsu – unaware that <i>VGI</i> had been re-funded – replied belatedly two months later:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><b> </b><b style="text-decoration: underline;">VIETNAM
GI</b> January 19, 1970</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>Your letter (with the $400 check) of November 17, <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> 1969 just arrived two days ago. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> We had no idea that <b>RESIST</b> had voted us that money<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in November. … As we are now finding
out, the Post Office – or<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the FBI – completely disrupted our
mail. We are just now<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> starting to get some November and
December mail. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Publication of Vietnam GI was
suspended until<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> February-March [1970]…. Next month two
new Vietnam<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> vets (both with base newspaper
experience) are moving<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> here [to Chicago] to take over this
operation.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
the next couple of weeks, Dave and fellow staffers began answering long delayed
mail from late ’69 held up by the postal inspectors or more likely the FBI:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><u>VIETNAM GI</u> </b>January 28,
1970<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>After Jeff died we staggered along for three issues,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> then decided to suspend publication
temporarily. We had<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> no money….<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Before he died … Jeff
recruited the core of what<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> would be a whole new staff. The first
of these cats gets<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> out </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[of the Army]<i> next month.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><u>VIETNAM GI</u> </b>January 29, 1970<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>The new editor </i>… <i>is Maury
Knutson and he was one<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> of the cats who started <b>Little Giant</b> (first underground paper<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in Vietnam) and later <b>RAP!</b>, the GI paper at Fort Benning </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[GE]<i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
much heralded Maury Knutson did indeed arrive in Chicago to take over where
Jeff left off. In Vietnam, in addition to working on the first GI paper in the
war zone, Maury had been part of Jeff’s extensive network of below the radar GI
distributors of <b><i>VGI</i></b><i> </i>in-country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
he got caught in the act and as punishment was ordered to ‘walk point’ (i.e.,
to lead), the most dangerous place on a combat patrol. The idea was to get him
killed or wounded. Maury survived unscathed, but the experience left him in
some disarray.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
finishing his 12-month tour, Maury was sent back to his home unit at Fort
Benning to complete his military obligation. While there he continued his
antiwar work, launching the underground paper <b><i>RAP!</i>,</b> especially
addressed to issues of concern to Black GIs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Maury
also played a minor role in a feature film on the war – ironically a pro-war
movie – while waiting for his release at Benning. Gung-ho actor John Wayne was making
his film, <i>The Green Berets</i>, on post,
and the Pentagon ‘loaned’ him a number of troops to play extras. Maury ended up
playing a diminutive Viet Cong officer (he was 5’5”) in a scene opposite The
Duke, the iconic rightwing Hollywood star.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-syl5hkYGL2g/VHhJZIwItdI/AAAAAAAAKwQ/PztzGvCZm1Q/s1600/Maury%2BK%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-syl5hkYGL2g/VHhJZIwItdI/AAAAAAAAKwQ/PztzGvCZm1Q/s1600/Maury%2BK%2B1.jpg" height="320" width="279" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Maury Knutson (r)
pictured in </span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">VGI</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">,<i> April ‘68<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
Chicago during the spring of ’70 the much anticipated revival of <b><i>Vietnam
GI</i></b> under Maury’s aegis did not go smoothly. The re-launch was beset
with difficulties. Liberal antiwar money was drying up as US involvement in the
war continued to wind down. In addition, many hands were needed to get the
paper out, but the local <i>VGI</i> staff,
who had experience in production and distribution, had redirected their
energies to <b><i>Wildcat</i></b>, Dave Komatsu’s new paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
final straw for Maury though was the arrival on the <b><i>VGI </i></b>staff of a group out
of the auto factories in Detroit who identified with Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle), a tiny Trotskyist party
originating in France. The newcomers, according to Maury, were “old-time sectarian
leftists who wouldn’t give an inch”; hence, there was no coherent viewpoint in <b><i>VGI</i></b>.***
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nonetheless,
Maury hung in there and brought to press his first and, as it turned out, only
issue. The <b><i>VGI</i> </b>May ’70 issue with its blurred focus reflected Maury’s concerns.
Aside from several pieces obviously drawn from his own experiences at Benning
as well as his tenure as editor of <b><i>RAP!</i></b><i> </i>and an interview with a combat Marine buried in the back pages,
the rest of the May issue drifts away from <b><i>VGI</i></b>’s formerly exclusive emphasis on
GI issues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
front page leader is appropriately on President Nixon’s surprise invasion of
Cambodia in late April, but it spins off into a broad political critique of the
president, who is also blamed – instead of the governor of Ohio – for sending
state National Guard troops onto the Kent State campus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
second lead at least has a GI angle – Operation Graphic Hand dispatched
military personnel to New York City to man 17 post offices during the largest
wildcat strike in US history – but soon the piece wanders off into a discussion
of federal labor relations and collective bargaining issues specific to postal
workers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
even more discursively for a front line GI paper, the rest of the issue is
devoted to pieces on the Woodstock pop festival and on working conditions for
women. Editorially frustrated and preoccupied with personal problems, Maury
Knutson resigned in despair and departed Chicago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Although
Maury left town, he didn’t leave <b><i>VGI</i></b> in the lurch. He turned over the
editorship to his sidekick from Ft Benning, David Patterson, who had worked
with him on <b><i>RAP!</i></b> Patterson, who chose to operate under the nom de plume Joe
Harris, was in turn assisted by two ex-Vietnam veterans – Craig Walden, a
Marine; and John Alden, a sailor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
fund-raising circles from afar, the revival of <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> – albeit a
rocky process internally – was greeted with enthusiasm:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">RESIST </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">April 1, 1970<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dear Joe,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> We
are all very cheered that <i>Vietnam GI</i>
is again<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">a reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another left fund-raising outfit – this
one dedicated exclusively to funding GI antiwar initiatives – quickly came to
the rescue of the newly revived<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">VGI</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">with a check for $400 to cover the cost
of mailing the paper hither and yon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Like
<b>RESIST, </b>the <b>United States Servicemen’s Fund</b> (<b>USSF</b>) sported a distinguished board of directors designed to
attract money from wealthy individuals opposed to the war on its masthead.
Based in New York, <b>USSF</b> listed Fred
Gardner, creator of the GI antiwar coffee house network, as president, but he
later told me that his leadership of the endeavor was nominal. He had merely
lent his name with the understanding that Robert Zevin, listed as
Secretary/Treasurer, would run the show.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Zevin,
a PhD economist then teaching at Columbia University, was a masterful
fundraiser and manager of money. The two officers of <b>USSF</b> were joined on the board by Donald Duncan, the famous Green
Beret, a soldier’s soldier who resigned from the Army early on in protest of
the war; and Dr Howard Levy, the officer who served time in federal prison for
refusing to train Special Forces medics bound for Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
former naval officer, Susan Schnall, who had had the temerity to fly a small
private plane over West Coast Navy facilities, including an aircraft carrier in
port, and ‘bomb’ them with antiwar leaflets, was recruited for the <b>USSF </b>board. Reverend Richard Fernandez,
the executive director <b>of Clergy and
Laymen Concerned about Vietnam</b> (<b>CALCAV</b>),
an influential antiwar group, was also brought on board. The list was rounded
out with an array of nationally known public intellectuals, including Dr
Benjamin Spock, the distinguished antiwar baby doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Unaware
of the shifting political complexion of <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b><i> </i>since Jeff’s time, Bob Zevin of <b>USSF</b> sent Joe Harris a warm welcome for the revived paper:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>United
States Servicemen’s Fund</b> April 6, 1970<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>I agree … that <b>Vietnam GI</b>
used to fill a need which is<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> still not being met by any other base
or national GI paper.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The unique asset of <b>Vietnam GI</b> was always that it told<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the truth in the language of its
readers. … GI editors </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[now]<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> seem almost universally susceptible to
the temptation to<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> preach at their readers and to edit
the news to fit a political<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> dogma.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> It was precisely because <b>Vietnam GI</b> told the truth that<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> it was such an invaluable organizing
tool.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Taking charge of <b><i>VGI</i></b>, Joe Harris attended
to its running correspondence with other antiwar editors, with groups seeking
multiple copies for local distribution, and most importantly, with the steady
flow of ‘letters to the editor’ from individual GIs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
one such letter, a Vietnam GI offered to distribute copies of <b><i>VGI</i>
</b>within his unit. In ’68 and ’69 Jeff had had a phantom network of some 200
GI volunteers surreptitiously circulating the paper – considered subversive
material by the military authorities – to Vietnam GIs. However, with guys
completing their tours and rotating stateside and because of the long hiatus
between the September ’69 issue and the May ’70 revival, the sub rosa
distribution setup in Vietnam probably no longer existed, so Joe Harris
embraced the opportunity to rebuild as he wrote in reply:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>As to your wanting to distribute papers we can help <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
you. Our papers are sent in a plain envelope and wrapped<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
inside in white paper with a phony </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[return]<i> address on the<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
outside </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[to
avoid detection by military authorities].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
June ’70 <b><i>VGI</i></b> was Joe Harris’s first issue as editor and reflected his
tighter editorial control over content. Compared to the May issue, nearly all
the articles were GI-relevant. By then, with GI protest rising in the ranks,
several pieces were on GI antiwar activity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
lead was a story on the Big Red One, the 1<sup>st</sup> Division. Other articles
covered a large antiwar demonstration at Ft Dix NJ on Armed Forces Day, an
account of a wounded Marine’s sad fate in a poorly run Veterans Administration
hospital, and a first-person piece by an ex-Vietnam GI who became an antiwar
activist on return to the States.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
most dramatic item was a longish letter to the editor from a GI based at Chu
Lai describing a Viet Cong assault on the post.
In the course of an hour nearly 200 rockets and mortar rounds pummeled
the area to lethal effect – 11 dead, 10 wounded. It a grim reminder to readers
that, while the US may have been gradually pulling out, Vietnam still remained
a dangerous place for American troops.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
the June issue still contained a few instances of windy political rhetoric – a
political analysis of CIA machinations in Cambodia’s capital and a broadside
editorial on American ‘imperialism’ in the Third World that concluded with a message
reminiscent of the British Empire in the 19<sup>th</sup> century:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>Throughout the world, US troops are protecting American<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> business and political
investment. <b>The government and<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> big business come in with the
money and gain a new colony,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and the troops are brought in
to ensure that the colonists<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> don’t get restless </span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[emphasis in
original]<b><i>.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
first indications of impending problems for the editorial collective appear in
the June ’70 correspondence file. Joe Harris writes to <b>USSF</b> that <b><i>VGI</i> </b>has lost the use of its
typesetting machine, which means that all typesetting will have to be done
commercially at increased cost. In another letter concerning the delay of the
July <b><i>VGI</i></b>,
he explains that in the midst of final production he learned that his sister
had fallen seriously ill and had to fly back east immediately.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
a result of the rushed catch-up on the July issue, it was only half the length
of previous issues at just four pages. Nevertheless, in the tradition of <b><i>VGI</i>
</b>on Jeff’s watch, the leader was a front-page combat interview, “<i>If it’s Tuesday, this must be Laos</i>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
long piece, which takes up nearly half the issue, describes in dramatic terms
Marine Force Recon infiltrating small teams of commandos into Laos, Cambodia,
and North Vietnam as early as 1965. Although the interviewee was unnamed, it
was Craig Walden who had returned from the war grievously wounded and in the
summer of ’70 was an associate editor of the paper.****<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Cpl. Craig
Walden in Vietnam<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
July a bombshell letter arrived at the <b><i>VGI</i> </b>office. In retrospect it
foreshadowed the end of Jeff’s project. It was a long missive from <b>USSF</b> sent to all the GI groups being
supported by the fund. The threat to <b><i>VGI</i></b>’s future was self-evident:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>United
States Servicemen’s Fund</b> July 1970<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Dear Friends, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>The United States Servicemen’s Fund received a<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> letter from the Manhattan District
Director of the Internal<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Revenue Service [IRS] stating that
‘this office will<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> recommend to the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue that<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the exemption from federal income
taxes granted to you<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> … be revoked since inception’.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The stated reasons are that
the USSF is a political<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> action organization whose primary
purposes are ‘ending<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the war in Vietnam and abolishing the
draft’.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The IRS maintains that the
Fund has supported ‘that<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> segment of the military establishment
who are opposed to<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the Vietnam War and the use of
conscription to wage<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> that war’.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
spite of the foreboding news, both <b>RESIST</b>
and <b>USSF</b> managed to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">send
small checks to <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> during July to help fund production costs for the
August issue. But then in early August ’70 the situation darkened considerably.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">News
of the IRS recommendation had gotten around, and with the likely loss of the
fund’s tax-free status, donations had begun to dry up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
a consequence, <b>USSF</b> was forced to
send out another ‘Dear Friends’ letter:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>United
States Servicemen’s Fund</b> August 4, 1970<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>We cannot send out your monthly checks for August<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> right away. There just isn’t any
money. It seems the </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[donation]<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> drought is beginning even sooner than
we thought.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
end was not far off. Funds from donors slowed to a trickle as <b>USSF</b> predictably lost it tax-exempt
status, and without a funding source <b><i>Vietnam GI</i></b> met its final demise as a
voice of GI protest. David Patterson, aka Joe Harris, got out one last abbreviated
issue for August before resigning and flew home to be with his dying sister.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
Maury Knutson mused many years later, perhaps “<b><i>Vietnam GI </i></b>[had] died
with Jeff’s passing [in ‘69]” which meant the revival efforts of 1970 were
essentially denouement.*****<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">____________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*See
his Wiki for a brief account of Jeff’s life and posthumous recognition: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sharlet_(activist)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sharlet_(activist)</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">**
Many thanks to Craig Walden of Chicago, who for nearly 40 years, saved the
invaluable <b><i>Vietnam GI </i></b>office files until I finally located him as part of
the memoir project on my brother Jeff. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">***
Maury Knutson, via email October, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">****
For accounts of Craig Walden’s commando and combat experiences in Vietnam, see <a href="http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/08/bad-intelligence-sorry-bout-that.html">http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/08/bad-intelligence-sorry-bout-that.html</a>
and <a href="http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2012/01/if-its-tuesday-this-must-be-laos.html">http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2012/01/if-its-tuesday-this-must-be-laos.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*****
Maury Knutson, via email October, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-20403522149357116882014-11-05T08:11:00.000-05:002014-11-14T06:17:49.423-05:00FBI – Covert Historian of the ‘60s?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The
‘60s were fast-moving for those involved in the Vietnam antiwar movement of the
day. Most of the young activists on the campuses considered themselves New Left
(NL). The Old Left, epitomized by the American Communist Party (ACP), was merely
a shadow of itself after years of hounding by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, better known as the FBI, and by Congressional committees and
federal prosecutors.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
NL had arisen from the ashes but not without significant changes in shape and
style from its predecessor. Gone were the Old Left notions of ideological
fidelity; a hierarchical structure capped by centralized leadership; policy
discipline; and secrecy. The NL tolerated diverse ideas; eschewed rigid structure
and top-down leadership; disdained preoccupation with organizational
discipline; and, most differently, the NL banished closed-door meetings in
favor of functioning as an open organization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Predictably,
it was only the rare activist who had presence of mind or the time – full time
students comprised the vast majority of the NL – to take notes or keep a
journal on those exciting times in their lives. But, unbeknownst to them, the
FBI had assessed the NL as a security threat to the government and dedicated
itself to covertly recording the political doings of the activists as proxies
for the sprawling, amorphous NL writ large.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Working
through agents of the FBI field offices in large cities near universities but
more often through local informants, little that targets of surveillance did in their daily
routines was not of interest to the Bureau. Whether in a formulaic-style memo
written by an agent summarizing an informant’s report or a direct account – say
of a NL meeting – in an informant’s own words, a large volume of documents
known as the target’s file was assiduously compiled in the FBI field office and
dutifully copied to FBI HQ, Washington.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
their earlier penetration of the Old Left, the Bureau had relied on undercover
agents who joined the ACP or its Trotskyist rival, the Socialist Worker’s Party
(SWP). However, the typical NL activist was a college student and much younger
than the average FBI agent; hence, the use of campus informants who, given the
open nature of most NL gatherings, had no difficulty mingling freely with the
activists they were observing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Decades
later when the tumult of the antiwar movement was but a memory, many
individuals began invoking the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to access
information the FBI had gathered on them. By then the confidential reports had
been declassified. The vast trove of FOIA files constituted a de facto history
of the New Left – or did it? Even in the heavily redacted format (to protect
informants’ names), reading several individual FOIA files side by side offers
an unusual up-close view inside the antiwar movement and the activities of many
of its young supporters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">No
one reading these long ago accounts is likely to suggest that the FBI and its
clandestine minions had set out to contribute to the historical canon on the
period. However, given the Bureau’s mission to stymie and disrupt the NL
through disinformation and other patently illegal tactics, the emphasis in the
numerous reports that flowed relentlessly into the ‘files’ tended to be
unvarnished writing and factual accuracy to the greatest extent possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Accuracy
was generally achieved such that many former activists, upon reading their FOIA
files 20 to 40 years later, have been reminded of moments in their early
political lives they had forgotten and have often been astonished to find near
verbatim accounts of their remarks at meetings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Two
major Indiana University (IU) activists from the ‘60s – friends of my late
brother Jeff Sharlet – shared their FOIA files and gave me permission to
discuss them in this blog. One of the former activists is Dwight Worker, who
recently published an autobiographical memoir, <b><i>The Wild Years</i></b> (2013),
and with whom I spoke and corresponded extensively. Dwight’s complete FOIA file runs 1300 pages
and weighs in at around 7 pounds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fxaEAhhJ5_I/VFNtsGrLiWI/AAAAAAAAJ_c/7Wv6ZhD7PgM/s1600/DW%2BFBI%2BFile%2BCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fxaEAhhJ5_I/VFNtsGrLiWI/AAAAAAAAJ_c/7Wv6ZhD7PgM/s1600/DW%2BFBI%2BFile%2BCover.jpg" height="320" width="243" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Cover sheet,
Dwight Worker’s FOIA file<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
effect, I have two versions of Dwight Worker’s IU years (1964-68) as a New Left
activist – his own and the FBI’s. Often Dwight’s personal account and the
covert government rendering concur on particular events, but sometimes the eager
beaver informants (there were 6 of them) missed or were unable to observe, not
to mention comprehend, the full extent of his actions. In some instances the
FBI version and Dwight’s’ narrative are at variance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
comparing the two accounts of Dwight Worker’s activist years, we will be able
to better judge the reliability of FBI files as apertures into the
micro-history of the opposition to the war in Vietnam. To be sure though, the
extensively redacted government documents need to be used cautiously and
carefully as guides to the past.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Once
the FBI field office in Indianapolis – 50 miles to the north of the IU campus
in Bloomington – drew a bead on Dwight during fall ’65, a memo on his personal
background was among the first documents placed in the confidential file opened
on him. The special agent who wrote the memo indicated that the information had
been obtained from the IU Admissions office, one of several administrative
branches of the university that cooperated with the government in its
surveillance of students. The profile gave a bare bones description:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">DWIGHT JAMES WORKER was born 5/17/46 in East Chicago, Indiana. His parent was referenced as Fred Worker, 2518 Hart Road, Highland, Indiana. He graduated from Highland High School, 1964, ranking 14th out of 249 students. ...He is registered with Draft Board 178, Hammond, Indiana....He has attended Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana, from 6/19/64 to the present date....He is employed 10 hours [a week] at the Big Wheel Restaurant and resides at 505 East 8th Street, Bloomington, Indiana.</span></i><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"> </span></span><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-size: large;"> </span></i></blockquote>
</div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dwight’s
version of his background is understandably more extensive than the Admissions
file. He was one of seven children of Fred Worker and his spouse, a housewife.
His father dropped out of school in the seventh grade during the Depression,
served in WWII with General Patton, was very patriotic, and ran his home like
‘a boot camp’. According to Dwight, the family was working poor, living from
paycheck to paycheck.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Two
significant aspects of Dwight’s early years were missed by the FBI – to wit,
that one of his older brothers served in Vietnam in ’64 and that in his first
year at IU he took his first political step by joining SNCC, the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and working on their campaign to register
Black voters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zgqHHhHuYmo/VFNt9oC0l1I/AAAAAAAAJ_k/Q6ltbiP2NdA/s1600/DW%2BHero%2B1967%2Bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zgqHHhHuYmo/VFNt9oC0l1I/AAAAAAAAJ_k/Q6ltbiP2NdA/s1600/DW%2BHero%2B1967%2Bcopy.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dwight Worker at
Indiana University</span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
his Sophomore year in the fall of ’65, an SDS chapter, Students for a
Democratic Society, took shape at IU, and Dwight became actively involved.
Accordingly, the FBI designated him a target for surveillance. SDS’s open
organizational meeting on October 3, 1965 became the subject of a 5-page report.
The document’s cover sheet indicated that a new file had been opened on Dwight
Worker. Other than as a rank and filer, he
didn’t play a particularly active role at that meeting at which officers were
elected and various proposals voted on:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
Indiana University chapter of SDS held a public </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">meeting at Indiana University
to elect officers for the </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">current academic year on
October 3, 1965. Approx</span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">imately 45 people were in
attendance. </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The International Days of
Protest, October 15 and 16, </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">1965, were discussed. It was
decided that since SDS </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">did not have enough members </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">and is a minority on the </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Indiana University campus, a
demonstration would not </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">be effective on these dates.
It was felt it would be far more effective if SDS turned out all of its member </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">to protest against Richard
Nixon when he speaks at </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Indiana University on October
17, 1965.</span></i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What
the FBI was unaware of was that Dwight Worker didn’t simply drift into the
fledgling IU New Left; he was quite purposeful in his decision to get involved.
As mentioned, he had already become politically active in the Civil Rights Movement
on campus during his first year, but it was a family tragedy that drove him
into the ranks of the antiwar movement. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">His
brother Wayne, while serving with the Navy in Vietnam, suffered a very serious
head injury in late ’64. In a coma for seven months, Wayne regained
consciousness in a Chicago Veterans Administration (VA) hospital to find
himself paralyzed, unable to speak clearly, and with severe memory loss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dwight
spent time with his brother at the VA hospital. His father was devastated by
his son’s condition, and Dwight returned<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i>to school in the fall angry.
Angry at the war<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> drums going on in the US,
angry at what I<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> had seen at Hines VA
hospital, angry at the<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> terrible waste, angry at the
big lie. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">[<u>The
Wild Years</u> (WY), 52]<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not
long after that SDS organizational meeting, former Vice President Nixon arrived
on campus to speak in support of American </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">involvement
in the war in Vietnam, by then well underway since President Johnson’s (LBJ)
major escalation during the spring of ’65.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dwight
joined the SDS protest demonstration outside the university auditorium where
Nixon was speaking. An undercover informant reported seeing him at the demo.
Otherwise the report had little to say about the protest. Nonetheless, three
days later an FBI agent called upon Dwight’s high school guidance counselor who
handed over his school records without hesitation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
his recent memoir, Dwight had much more to say about the Nixon action, his
first demonstration as an antiwar activist:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>We were a pretty harmless bunch, perhaps<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> 20 of us in total …
surrounded by 10 campus<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> cops and over a thousand
jeering, shouting<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> counter-demonstrating
students. COMMUNISTS!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ‘COWARDS! TRAITORS! Send them
to Vietnam<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> instead’ they were shouting.
…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I held up my sign that said
‘Negotiate, Don’t<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Bomb’. … They were throwing
things at us. …<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I looked at a nearby
policeman and told him<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> about it…. He answered, ‘I
would be throwing<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> things at you too’. (WY, 54)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
he became more active in SDS, Dwight became a singular focus of the FBI’s
attention. In late ’65 and early ’66, he attended an SDS National Council at the
University of Illinois on behalf of the IU chapter, as well as taking part as a
speaker at a campus SDS forum and an all-day SDS conference at the
university. FBI informants duly filed
accounts of these occasions:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Informant
attended the SDS forum at Indiana</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> University on November 5,
1965. He stated that<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the first speaker was DWIGHT
WORKER, an<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> active member of SDS, who
spoke on a trip to<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Europe he had made recently.
WORKER con-<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> cluded that international
student opinion is<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> heavily against US policy in
Vietnam … [a policy]<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> he described as
‘Imperialism’. WORKER seemed<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> insistently against US
foreign policy in Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another
informant reported that Dwight Worker was among 50-60 people attending an
all-day SDS conference on February 19, 1966 at which a ‘reorganization
proposal’ by Jeff Sharlet and Jim Wallihan was passed, and plans were made for
a major demonstration in the spring when General Lewis Hershey, Director of the
Selective Service System, was scheduled to speak at IU.*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Either
out of modesty or memory lapse, Dwight was silent in our communications as well
as in his memoir on his participation in various SDS gatherings, so it would be
reasonable to assume that the FBI got it right that he was quite active in the
IU chapter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For
further confirmation, Dwight makes cameo appearances in two other FBI documents
amidst the Bureau’s heavy black-ink redacting – in February ’66 at the
Activities Fair for Spring semester registration, he is observed manning the
SDS table, while in a brief August memo he is listed among the new leadership
as SDS Treasurer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Elsewhere
in Dwight’s FOIA as a result of the frequent black cross-outs, the file is
simply cryptic. One report reads, <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">‘On February 24,</span></i> <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">1966 this source advised’</span></i>
followed by six blacked-out paragraphs. Another document states mysteriously:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">On July 23, 1966, DWIGHT WORKER was
observed<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in the vicinity of the
Indiana University Auditorium<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> and Showalter Fountain by
[redacted] in company<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> with an unknown girl. WORKER
and the girl got<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> into a 1959 Ford, green,
bearing 1966 Indiana<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> license plate [redacted].<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Presumably
the report alludes to the campus rendezvous point for people heading to
Indianapolis that day to demonstrate at LBJ’s scheduled speech there. A group
of IU students, among whom was Karen Grote, collaborator on this blog, did
indeed make it to the capital for the protest, but at the instigation of the
Secret Service 28 of them were preemptively arrested before the President
spoke.**<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
IU’s Spring semester ’67, Jeff Sharlet became president of the campus SDS. A
student informant reported to the FBI that Dwight Worker among 46 others attended
the first meeting at which Jeff presided on February 23, 1967. He described the
session in some detail:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Jeff
Sharlet was chairman of this meeting…. Sharlet<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> stated that he had attended
the regional SDS <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> conference at Northern
Illinois University. … He said<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> that next month there will be
another regional<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> meeting. He volunteered
Bloomington, Indiana as<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the site for the next
meeting.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">SDS HQ in Chicago accepted the
invitation, and the next regional meeting was held at IU on March 17-19, 1967.
The campus chapter announced that the conference would not be open to the
public, only members, and credentials would be checked. Given the FBI file’s
comprehensive account of the event, including the lengthy agenda, it’s obvious
that the informant was a member of SDS.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> According to his or her oral report to
an FBI agent, the conference theme was ‘Student Power’ in the universities with
draft resistance a secondary topic:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">At the Sunday afternoon session … Jeff
Sharlet<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> gave a talk on the subject of
student power. All<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> of the discussion was focused
on the point of<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> student leadership in the
university by SDS<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> members. ***<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dwight Worker who was in
attendance that Sunday as well as at other sessions saw himself as a kind of protégé
to Jeff Sharlet, the SDS leader. Jeff was an older ex-Vietnam GI and as Dwight
saw him quite mature. He added:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>Jeff was absolutely unique at IU. He had this<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> charisma, an understated
charisma. He was<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> always calm, the one who put
things in bigger<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> perspective. Jeff was
masterful in handling<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> meetings with agent
provocateurs and dis-<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ruptive individuals in
general.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> He liked my energy and
enthusiasm for antiwar<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> stuff – Up against the wall
mother-fucker – but<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> thought I had just too much
unrestrained<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> energy at times. Jeff would
tell me to calm down,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> relax, it’s going to be OK. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">****<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In Dwight’s case, there was
little about him that the Bureau </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">did
not regard as worthy of the file. They even kept track of what </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">might
be considered his ‘extracurricular’ or at least non-antiwar activities.
Apparently FBI Indianapolis had a mail subscription to </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">the
IU campus paper, </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Indiana Daily Student</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">
(</span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">IDS</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">). S</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">everal
clippings turned up in Dwight’s FOIA. One was unrelated to opposition to the
war, while the other was a purely human interest story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In the former article, <i>IDS</i> wrote that Dwight Worker had
conducted the initial organizational session of the Sexual Freedom </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">League
at which a slate of officers was elected. In the latter clipping, which
included a head shot of Dwight, he is credited with saving a </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">toddler
from drowning at a local lake.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">By the fall of ’67, the FBI had
fashioned an imposing political profile for Dwight Worker that they shared per
request with a US Army Military Intelligence (MI) unit at a base just north of
Indianapolis. Dwight was characterized as a major political activist at IU. No
doubt he came to MI’s attention because of his involvement in draft resistance
at the university. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rufgC9Wuhrk/VFN5B7Udu1I/AAAAAAAAJ_w/AQPZ6tyIqFY/s1600/DW%2BFBI%2BProfile%2BBordered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rufgC9Wuhrk/VFN5B7Udu1I/AAAAAAAAJ_w/AQPZ6tyIqFY/s1600/DW%2BFBI%2BProfile%2BBordered.jpg" height="326" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">FBI profile on
Dwight Worker, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Reporting
on a meeting of the IU anti-draft organization on October 5, 1967, a
confidential source wrote that:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">At this meeting DWIGHT WORKER proposed<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> minor harassments of the
draft boards. He<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> stated that he thinks the
Selective Service<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> System is very
discriminatory, and he will<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> refuse
to go to Vietnam under any<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Just
several weeks later, the New Left at Indiana University staged its most
dramatic action, and the FBI gave the event and Dwight Worker’s considerable
role in it maximum coverage in his file. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dow
Chemical corporate recruiters were scheduled to meet with interested IU
students at the Business School. Campus activists heard that the manufacturer
of napalm was in town, and the Committee to End the War in Vietnam (CEWV), an
umbrella group for the university New Left, hastily organized several dozen
students to sit-in at the B-school, effectively blocking the recruitment
effort.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dow
had recently visited the University of Wisconsin where a pitched battle
hospitalizing a number of people had ensued between protestors and the Madison
police. The IU Administration took note and prepared for all eventualities. The
sit-in got underway with Dwight Worker conspicuously in the forefront of the
group, and police in riot gear quickly moved in. The room was cleared of
protestors but for four students who chose to resist, among them Dwight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fT3e4kS73Xw/VFN5cuQMeBI/AAAAAAAAJ_4/IvpA64yEwZA/s1600/IU%2BD%2BWorker%2C%2BDow%2Bsit-in%2B10-'67.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fT3e4kS73Xw/VFN5cuQMeBI/AAAAAAAAJ_4/IvpA64yEwZA/s1600/IU%2BD%2BWorker%2C%2BDow%2Bsit-in%2B10-'67.jpg" height="260" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dwight Worker (see
arrow) at the Dow sit-in, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
FBI’s extensive account relied on newspaper coverage of the clash as well as on
their well-placed informant. Given the violence which occurred between the
police and the four resisters, the latter’s report was relatively bland:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">About 3:15 PM on
October 30, 1967, a group of<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> students in the Business
School attempted to<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> enter the interview rooms
occupied by Dow<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> representatives. [IU] Safety
Division police<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> were unable to close the
door. The students<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> made a concerted rush, and
several of them<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> assaulted police officers.
Police reinforcements<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> rushed to the scene and
arrested 35 students….<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Actually,
another memo in the FBI FOIA file provided a clear hint of the forthcoming
battle with the Dow. At a meeting earlier in October, the discussion turned to
police harassment of protestors generally. Dwight was present and offered the
group karate lessons, promising ‘<i><span style="color: #0070c0;">he could teach them some simple karate techniques and …
how to combat the police’.</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Apropos,
a clipping in the file from the Bloomington press gave a more vivid account of
the Dow story, focusing its coverage on Dwight Worker. Their angle was the
irony that Dwight, whom they had lauded earlier in the year for saving the
toddler, was back in the news as the title of the piece indicated:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Heroism
Forgotten in Aftermath<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Worker
Faces Charges After Riots<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Dwight Worker made the news<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">again for
conspicuous conduct.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Pictured in
Bloomington and<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">statewide papers
as a young<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">man being
dragged semi-<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">conscious by a
policeman<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">… he was
identified as one of<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">36 demonstrators
arrested in<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">the IU Business
School after a<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">wild clubbing,
slugging fight<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">between
policemen and sit-ins<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">protesting Dow
Chemical’s<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">on-campus job
interviews.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Worker, a 21-year old <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Psychology
Senior faces charges<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">of disorderly
conduct, assault and<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">battery and
resisting arrest. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
<i>A police night stick had<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> clipped Worker on the back of<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> the head and he spent two days<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in the IU Health Center with a<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> concussion.*****<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rdf6QxgySeg/VFN6hYeaZ1I/AAAAAAAAKAA/0DD-jZll95Y/s1600/IU%2BD%2BWorker%2BDow%2Bdemo%2B'67%2B(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rdf6QxgySeg/VFN6hYeaZ1I/AAAAAAAAKAA/0DD-jZll95Y/s1600/IU%2BD%2BWorker%2BDow%2Bdemo%2B'67%2B(2).jpg" height="338" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dwight Worker
being dragged to police bus following Dow protest, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Meanwhile,
unbeknownst to Dwight as he was pursuing his activism at IU, the Indianapolis
FBI had been anonymously mailing newspaper clippings on his activities to his
parents. Often handwritten marginalia was added, ‘Do you know this is what your
son is doing’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
the Dow melee, Dwight drove home to visit his family after a long interval. As
soon as he entered the house, his father confronted him in a rage, calling him <b>“a GODDAMN COMMUNIST” </b></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">and
took a swing at his son.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ‘<b>We know, we know what you been doing<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in Bloomington. Get out of
here and don’t<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ever come back!’ … <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I hugged my crying mother and
left. That<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> was the last time I saw or
spoke with them<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> for years. (WY, 78-79)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Following
Dwight’s involvement in the mayhem at the B-school, the local FBI had amassed a
thick file on him and decided to recommend him to the Secret Service as a
serious national security threat. The recommendation was to include him in the
‘Security Index’, individuals who, in the event of a national emergency – and
depending on the priority assigned – were to be either immediately detained or
put under close surveillance.<b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">FBI
HQ, Washington, was sufficiently persuaded so that J Edgar Hoover sent the
Director of the Secret Service a summary of Dwight Worker’s file under a cover
sheet with a box checked off stating:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">Because of background is potentially
dangerous;<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> or has been identified as
member or participant <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in a communist movement; or has
been under <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> active investigation as
member of other group<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> or organization inimical to
the US.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
early January ’68 the Secret Service had accepted the FBI’s recommendation, and
Dwight Worker was described in a document as <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">“a Priority I subject of the Security
Index.” </span></i> However, a semi-annual
update on the ‘subject’, which the Indianapolis field office owed to the
Indianapolis branch of the Secret Service, was overdue because Dwight had left Bloomington
abruptly for parts unknown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What
the FBI for all their professional diligence did not know was the full extent
of Dwight’s rather dramatic running conflict with his draft board over his
refusal to go to Vietnam. The conflict had come to a head in the first weeks of
1968; to avoid arrest, Dwight had gone on the lam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
a last letter to the Selective Service System, Dwight:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>told them I had changed my name from <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Dwight to Adam, my address
from 446 ½ <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> East 2<sup>nd</sup> Street,
Bloomington, Indiana, to <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Mountains, Streams, and
Forests, and my<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> race from white to Indian.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I signed it, ‘Fuck You
Paleface’. (WY, 91)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dwight
ended up in New Mexico where to avoid detection he “<b>lived entirely off the grid. No phones, electricity, water, gas, rent,
or traceable bills of any sort.” (WY, 77). </b>Despite these elaborate
precautions, he was astonished to learn from his FOIA file a quarter of a
century later that the FBI had known his whereabouts within six weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
conclusion we’ve traced Dwight Worker’s journey from a typical Indiana
University Freshman in 1964 to a major campus New Left activist and ultimately
a fugitive national security risk by 1968. But what about the FBI as a covert
historian in recording Dwight’s story?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
Dwight’s case, the Bureau with all its resources missed the drama of their
subject’s culminating confrontation with the draft, which was the catalyst for
his abrupt disappearance when for a time he went off the FBI’s radar. In
addition, even with half a dozen conscientious informants feeding them a steady
stream of information, the FBI was clueless on Dwight’s motivations, his
crucial relationships with fellow activists, and the influence of certain
individuals on him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">At best we can conclude that the tens of
thousands of pages now revealed in FOIA files mainly provide occasional glimpses of
the New Left pursuing its goals in myriad campus venues as well as the skeletal
framework of a decade of tumultuous dissent.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><b>Epilogue</b></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2IVEPlyYaZg/VFN7241xxNI/AAAAAAAAKAI/W812y26mQuY/s1600/IU%2BD%2BWorker%2C%2Bgentelman%2Bfarmer%2B'13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2IVEPlyYaZg/VFN7241xxNI/AAAAAAAAKAI/W812y26mQuY/s1600/IU%2BD%2BWorker%2C%2Bgentelman%2Bfarmer%2B'13.jpg" height="286" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dwight Worker at
his farm outside Bloomington, Indiana<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
for Dwight Worker, he eventually worked for years for IBM as a software
engineer and was recruited by Indiana University to teach in the Business
School where he won a number of teaching awards. These days in retirement, he
describes himself as an international bicyclist, an organic farmer, and a
writer – the memoir of late being his second book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">__________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*
<a href="http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2012/04/tall-tales-new-left-according-to-j.html">http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2012/04/tall-tales-new-left-according-to-j.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">** <a href="http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/06/preemptive-arrest-karens-day-in-court.html">http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/06/preemptive-arrest-karens-day-in-court.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">***
For a brief account of the election of an SDS activist as Student Body
President of IU, Spring ’67, and Jeff Sharlet’s part in the campaign,<span style="color: red;"> </span>see <a href="http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/08/elvis-and-new-left-at-indiana.html">http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/08/elvis-and-new-left-at-indiana.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">****
Author’s interview with Dwight Worker, February 11, 2009<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*****
<i>The Bloomington Tribune, November 13, 1967<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-44104894402187081072014-10-01T05:00:00.000-04:002014-10-01T05:00:03.523-04:00 Marching to Different Drummers*<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">[</span><i style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Dear
Reader: The time is at last at hand to turn full-time to writing the
memoir. To facilitate the writing, the blog continues to post, but now monthly
on the 1st Wednesday of each month. We will keep you informed about our
progress to publication.</i><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two
generations of Sharlets, Bob and Jeff, recently participated in a remote
interview with long-time activist Thorne Dreyer of <i>The</i> <i>Rag Blog</i> and<i> Rag Radio,</i> cutting edge alternative
media out of Austin TX. The long time
reader is no doubt aware that Bob, the well-known scholar of Russian
constitutional law, is the older brother of the subject of this blog, the late
Jeff Sharlet, 1960’s ex-Vietnam GI, activist, and underground press founder and
editor; and that the other Jeff in the interview is his son, the best-selling author
and namesake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The
interview covers a wide range of topics, many of which have appeared in more
detail in this blog, but here, for the first time on air, father and son speak
candidly, not only about the remarkable man who was one’s brother and the
other’s uncle, but also about their own career trajectories and thoughts about
the memoir in progress for which this blog is a precursor. The interview has
been preserved as a podcast here: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://archive.org/details/RagRadio2014-06-27-JeffSharletRobertSharlet">https://archive.org/details/RagRadio2014-06-27-JeffSharletRobertSharlet</a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"> “</span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">A</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"> </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">more congenial man I never knew</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">”</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">L to R: Bob Sharlet; Jeff, his late
brother; and Jeff, his son<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">During the
interview you will hear Bob recount his path from aspiring writer at Wesleyan
University in the ‘50s to the army, where he was posted to the Army Language
School (ALS, now the Defense Language Institute). At ALS he was taught Czech, and
then stationed in Germany from where he toured Europe before returning to college,
and becoming a political scientist schooled in the rigors of his field. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His
brother Jeff, expecting to follow in his footsteps, was diverted onto a very<span style="color: red;"> </span>different path at ALS – the Army Security Agency (ASA)
anticipated an imminent need for Vietnamese linguists. Jeff’s experience in Vietnam and the
subsequent buildup of American forces there would turn him into an antiwar
activist once he was back in school in the States. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For a
time, he and his brother Bob were at odds over the Vietnam War politically,
each influenced by his personal angle of vision – Bob as an academic Soviet
specialist focused on the Cold War, Jeff as an ex-Vietnam GI activist.<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After his
brother Jeff died at a young age in ’69, Bob promised himself he would give his
brother’s short but accomplished career as a founder of the GI Movement** its place in the history of the antiwar
movement. Upon his retirement from academe, Bob at last had the opportunity to
finally fulfill that commitment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With
invaluable assistance from Karen Ferb, a good friend of his brother’s from long
ago, he set out to make contact with Jeff’s GI buddies, fellow college antiwar
activists, <i>VGI</i> staffers from his
Chicago days, and friends, all of whose memories of Jeff he assiduously
collected. Bob also began studying memoirs to learn how they are made as well
as to help him slip the bonds of analytical social scientific writing. It was not an easy task.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Along the
way his son Jeff blossomed into a writer of national reputation known for his
research skills and for turning out notable creative nonfiction that eventually
landed him in his current professorship at Dartmouth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jeff the
son had grown up in a writerly family where Jeff the brother acquired “mythic
status” from Bob’s recounting of his brother’s activism as the founder-editor of
the influential underground paper, <i>Vietnam
GI</i> (<i>VGI</i>). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>VGI </i>was </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the first antiwar paper to be
written by ex-Vietnam GIs for the troops. Jeff the namesake remembers first
stumbling upon issues of the paper as a boy and seeing the uncle he never knew
peering out of his own obituary and later memorialized in verse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He knew and loved the men<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Who write the letters home<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And when he came home<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He gave them something to believe
in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not long ago he said:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We felt a newspaper<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Was the best way to begin…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To talk to the enlisted men<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The guys on the bottom<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Help bridge the gap between<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The movement and the people.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was a quiet, vital guy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Who thought before he spoke,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Courage from his courage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Example of his deeds,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For Jeff is dead…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> ~</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <i>Lincoln Bergman in ‘Seeds of Revolution’<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bob and
his son talked often about the memoir with Bob eventually inviting Jeff to
collaborate on the book. After all, Jeff
was a successful writer and would have much to impart to what he called his
father’s “towering work of historical investigative journalism.” He should know – his own achievements include
the important investigative works <i>The
Family</i> and <i>C Street</i>, both of
which address the fundamentalist threat to democracy in America and elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_qdmLuNB4gY/VCqTi47SPaI/AAAAAAAAJ-4/kaUeECZwdhc/s1600/Fam%2BC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_qdmLuNB4gY/VCqTi47SPaI/AAAAAAAAJ-4/kaUeECZwdhc/s1600/Fam%2BC.jpg" height="272" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the <i>C Street</i> book, he traveled at great risk
to Uganda to expose the influence of American fundamentalists and politicians
on the so-called Ugandan “kill the gays” legislation. He later went to Russia
to report on the virulent homophobic movement there – both journeys a kind of
reprise of his uncle’s travels to Sweden and Japan as well as to the GI coffee houses
across America on behalf of beleaguered American servicemen – many of them
hounded by the military for their opposition to the Vietnam War.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*This post
has been written by Karen Grote Ferb, Bob’s collaborator on the blog.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">**For more
information about the GI Movement, underground press, and GI coffee houses, see
</span><a href="http://www.sirnosir.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://www.sirnosir.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> , an award-winning documentary film covering those subjects
dedicated to GI activist Jeff Sharlet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-36808006597545742632014-09-03T05:00:00.000-04:002014-09-06T06:53:24.388-04:00War in the Bush – Atrocity the Norm <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[<i>Dear Reader: The time is at last at hand to turn full-time to
writing the memoir. To facilitate the writing, the blog will continue to post,
but now monthly on the 1st Wednesday of each month. We will keep you
informed about our progress to publication.</i>]</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Atrocity is usually thought of as the
exception in war – certainly the American way of war. Witness the My Lai
massacre of ’68 in Vietnam – when the cover-up was finally penetrated, it was
considered a terrible aberration, a one-off tragedy of the war. Its horrific
singularity was glibly explained away as failure of leadership and an infantry
platoon that went berserk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">It wasn’t until years later we learned that it
was only the scale of My Lai – the number of South Vietnamese civilians killed
– that was unique. In fact, as was discovered when the Pentagon’s archives were
at last opened, numerous US combat units – many of them well led by competent
officers – committed atrocities in the countryside throughout that long, futile
war. They were war crimes that went undetected, unreported, or, more often,
investigated and quietly shelved.* <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">The Vietnam War was not a war of fronts with
identifiable armies, but instead a series of relentless guerrilla actions large
and small and counter- insurgent reactions. While US forces in the jungles of
SVN were clearly recognizable by uniform, their main opponent for much of the
conflict – the Viet Cong (VC) – was not, at least not until they attacked with
AK-47s blazing. More often than not, the VC wore the black pajamas of the South
Vietnamese peasantry, rendering them indistinguishable from civilians – like a
‘fish in water’ to quote Mao.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">That was war in the bush with all the
ambiguities of an elusive enemy in an often impenetrable terrain. There were
few certainties in the Vietnam War – moral or otherwise. What, then, if we
strip away all illusions to the contrary and assume the perverse position that
the war’s many atrocities, especially against civilians, was frequently either the
unacknowledged norm or certainly not the exception?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">For the VC, the commission of atrocities was
usually a coldly calculated policy for the purpose of intimidation in order to
gain control of the peasant villes caught in the middle between the forces. The
idea was to sever the allegiance of the countryside to the government in
Saigon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">For American units, mistreatment of civilians,
not to mention atrocities, was strictly against command policy. Many of the incidents
that did occur were usually the result of the frustration caused by not being
able to locate the elusive VC or tragic mistakes in the fog of war, but others
were malevolent acts of barbarism by entire units. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">In ’68, when brother Jeff Sharlet, an
ex-Vietnam GI, founded <i>Vietnam GI,</i>
the first GI-edited underground antiwar paper addressed to GIs, he was handed a
photo of four US troopers who had just beheaded two VC bodies. It was an
appalling sight – the first atrocity photo to emerge in public – and Jeff ran
it over an antiwar caption, commenting, what did the generals expect from
18-year olds with M-16s acting like God in an ethical wilderness far removed
from civilization?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">The most eloquent and starkest case for atrocity
as a bush war norm is made by the fictional character Colonel Kurtz, a maverick
Special Forces commander in the Vietnam War flick, <i>Apocalypse Now </i>(1979). The story is straightforward – the colonel
had become an embarrassment to the Army, to Saigon HQ, for his unorthodox
tactics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">A Green Beret officer was dispatched to
terminate his command, to take him out. In the end, even high command’s hit man,
who had studied his target’s thick file and talked with him, came to see the
perverse logic of Kurtz’s unbridled way of war. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ghbv_7Xw-Zk/VAXTYLuXzMI/AAAAAAAAJ9g/X1CXJQW7btg/s1600/106%2BApocalyse%2Bposter%2B(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ghbv_7Xw-Zk/VAXTYLuXzMI/AAAAAAAAJ9g/X1CXJQW7btg/s1600/106%2BApocalyse%2Bposter%2B(1).jpg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Viewed appreciatively for its antiwar story
line,** fine acting, and spectacular visuals, the film is a rare vehicle for
traversing uncharted territory from atrocity as war crime to atrocity as strategic
choice and tactical necessity in bush war. To see Kurtz’s contrarian rationale
unfold, we need to accompany the designated terminator on his journey upriver
to the colonel’s remote jungle camp.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Captain Willard is no innocent in Vietnam.
He’s a seasoned Green Beret officer previously assigned to carry out targeted
assassinations. The assignment awaiting him, however, will turn out to be
radically different. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Willard is summoned into the presence of a
general and his aide as well as a mysterious civilian, no doubt CIA. They hand
him sealed orders for a classified mission – to travel hundreds of miles up a
jungle river into off-limits territory, nominally neutral Cambodia, to
terminate Kurtz. The general’s aide adds – with ‘extreme prejudice.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Willard is mystified by the assignment, but is
told only that Walter Kurtz, once a promising officer with a stellar record
slated eventually for flag rank, had wandered off the reservation, broken with
military authority, and was out there running his own war with ‘unsound
methods’. Willard is given the colonel’s career file and sent on his way. He
had done this kind of work before, but never against an American, least of all
a fellow officer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">His route is to proceed upstream on the
fictional Nung River through the Mekong Delta from Vietnam into Cambodia. Transport
is a small, well-gunned Navy river patrol boat (PBR) manned by a crew of four.
The crew’s initial obstacle is that the mouth of the Nung is controlled by a
strongly fortified VC village. Movement orders call for Willard and crew to
rendezvous with an infantry unit that will get them past the Cong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Thus, the film becomes a riparian view of the
Vietnam conflict or, as Willard puts it, a journey ‘up a river that snaked
through the war’. The voyage will alternate between moments of sheer terror and
interludes of manic frivolity ranging from war zone hijinks to bizarre
encounters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Their
first encounter involves the full array of combat, oddly culminating in a
recreational break more suitable to the Southern California coast than the shores
of the Nung. Willard meets the swashbuckling Colonel Kilgore, whose hot shot
air cavalry unit is to get the patrol boat past the VC strong point. Kilgore
and troopers do so with heavy firepower and great panache.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WBke1VZW-eg/VAXTmQ-iSUI/AAAAAAAAJ9o/L99Ip6VmhS4/s1600/Apocalyse%2BHuey's%2Battacking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WBke1VZW-eg/VAXTmQ-iSUI/AAAAAAAAJ9o/L99Ip6VmhS4/s1600/Apocalyse%2BHuey's%2Battacking.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Hueys in attack formation out of the sun<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">In the old horse cavalry tradition, a bugler
sounds the call for a chopper attack on the VC ville. Outfitted with
loudspeakers blasting out Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’, the lethal Hueys
charge out of the sun, .50 cal machine guns blazing and rockets swooshing into
the seemingly peaceful ville.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">The surprise attack a success, the choppers
land on the beach to carry out mopping up operations. Noting the waves where
the Nung empties into the South China Sea, the cowboy colonel—decked out in a
frontier-style campaign hat—begins planning a surfing exhibition. He’s been
told that one of Willard’s crew is a famous Los Angeles surfer. Steaks and beer
are choppered in, and the combat mission turns into a beach party as Willard, shaking
his head in disbelief, and the PBR depart the unreal scene and head upriver.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">♫ <i>Let's
go surfin' now<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Everybody's learning how<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Come on and safari with me</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">†<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R31buHAPs_Y/VAXUOCJoZVI/AAAAAAAAJ9w/xXnQWjFwM_4/s1600/Apocalyse%2BKilgore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R31buHAPs_Y/VAXUOCJoZVI/AAAAAAAAJ9w/xXnQWjFwM_4/s1600/Apocalyse%2BKilgore.jpg" height="162" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Robert Duvall as Colonel Kilgore<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">As the boat makes its way upriver, Willard
periodically reads Kurtz’s file in narrative voiceover, and we gradually hear
the renegade colonel’s story and glimpse his ‘unsound’ philosophy of war. We
learn that Kurtz was a soldier’s soldier, third generation Army, West Point, Green
Beret airborne ranger, highly decorated. He had first been in Nam early in the
war, ’64. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Tasked to assess the prospects for greater US
involvement in the then still low profile guerrilla conflict, Kurtz
disappointed the Joint Chiefs by handing in a pessimistic report. It was not
what President Johnson (LBJ) and the Pentagon wanted to hear, and the report
was buried in Washington. LBJ’s escalation followed in ’65.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">The PBR steams on through the dense tropical
terrain, unexpectedly coming upon more strange encounters – a run-in with a
huge, snarling tiger ashore, a USO show with Playboy bunnies at a remote combat
base strung with colored lights like a country fair, and a rendezvous at the
last US outpost on the Nung where Willard is advised, ‘You’re in the asshole of
the world, Captain’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Willard continues reading Kurtz’s dossier,
which reveals bit by bit his draconic approach to bush war. Key to Kurtz’s
departure from the Army’s way of war was the first tour in Vietnam in ’64.
Willard wonders what he saw that ultimately led him to become a hunted
fugitive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">According to Pentagon documents in the file, Kurtz’s
alienation from the military’s ‘good order and discipline’ occurred gradually.
Returning to Nam for another tour as a Special Forces commander in ’67, he
pulled off a highly successful, but officially unorthodox, operation against the
VC using his Montagnard force without authorization from HQ. The Saigon
generals were about to come down hard on Kurtz, but stateside publicity for his
notable victory caused them to back off.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">From his file, Willard understands that Kurtz
scorned US policy of limiting GIs to one-year tours, which he felt only
produced dilettantes, tourists passing through Vietnam. In contrast, for the VC
the war was zero-sum. They had only two ways home – death or final victory.
Hence, to fight the diehard VC the colonel relied on his savage native troops
who were also in for the duration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">In late ’68 Kurtz finally went over the edge
from his superiors’ point of view. His outfit had been suffering frequent
ambushes, so he conducted a thorough investigation, identifying several South
Vietnamese personnel as double agents. He ordered them assassinated. Obviously
he was right because enemy activity in the area dropped dramatically, but for
Saigon HQ he had finally gone too far – they charged him with murder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">By then, Kurtz and his ragged force were
beyond reach – he had gone deep into Cambodia, out of bounds for US personnel.
Thus, when Willard received his lethal assignment, he was told his mission did
not officially exist. The Army was operating off the books to get one of their
own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">As for the fugitive colonel, in a letter to
his son that somehow found its way into his official file, Kurtz defended
himself against the charges. As Willard thought to himself, charging someone
with murder in Vietnam was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.
To his son, Kurtz expressed the same opinion of the charges, which he found
‘under the circumstances of this conflict, quite completely insane’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">As the PBR makes its approach to the river’s
end and Kurtz’s compound, surprises await Willard and his naval comrades. The
first is an attack on the boat by hundreds of natives hidden along the banks.
Thousands of arrows rain down on the crew as they frantically return fire with
their M-60s and twin .50 cal machine guns raking the tree lines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">None of the arrows hit their mark, but a spear
kills ‘Chief,’ the boat captain and helmsman. As Willard soon discovers ashore,
the attackers were fearful he was coming to take away their man-god, Kurtz.
They were, of course, right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">As the boat closes on the dock, ghastly sights,
obviously intended to ward off intruders, greet Willard – dozens of skulls on
poles, dead bodies dangling from trees like so much strange fruit, flaming
torches, and most gruesome, numerous bodies impaled on sharp stakes. At the
edge of the river, he sees piles of corpses, half in, half out of the water.
Already apprehensive, Willard can have little doubt of what lies ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Going ashore he walks toward a vast throng of
heavily-armed natives, many with bows and spears, others gripping modern
weapons. A spaced-out American, part of Kurtz’s exotic entourage, serves as his
guide as he seeks out the colonel to talk with him. Willard is guided to an
enormous ancient Cambodian temple on a rise dominating the sprawling encampment.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">It’s Kurtz’s headquarters, his command center,
his sanctuary from the civilization he left behind downstream. Before Willard is
ushered into Kurtz’s presence, his hands are bound, and two loin-clothed
warriors bearing AK-47s fall in behind him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O-GFa1j9RNU/VAXUmjuxDUI/AAAAAAAAJ94/zEP9adYGAUs/s1600/Apocalypse%2BKurtz%2B-%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O-GFa1j9RNU/VAXUmjuxDUI/AAAAAAAAJ94/zEP9adYGAUs/s1600/Apocalypse%2BKurtz%2B-%2B1.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">What followed was more an ‘audience’ than a
meeting between two officers of the US Army. Sitting in a shadowy recess, Kurtz
does most of the talking – at first his questions to the captain are prosaic,
but then turn ominous:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Kurtz: Are you an assassin?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Willard: I’m a soldier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Kurtz: You’re neither. You’re an errand boy
sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">On an unobtrusive signal to the escorts,
Willard is hauled off and confined to a tiger cage in the scorching sun. Nearly
losing consciousness, after a time he is brought before Kurtz again who is
reading aloud from T.S. Eliot, a poem foreshadowing what his departure from
civilized norms and the adoption of brutal methods of warfare have cost him
personally:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">We are the hollow men,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">The stuffed men <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Leaning together<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Headpiece filled with straw.***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Willard realizes that the strange, highly
articulate man before him has slipped the bounds of sanity into madness. He
grasps that, for the generals, Kurtz’s assassination of the South Vietnamese
double agents was merely the pretext for his own deadly mission. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">In reality, the Army has to get rid of the mad
colonel whose ‘unsound methods’ in prosecuting the war – his private war – have
made a mockery of the ‘rules of engagement’ as well as the standing directive
on avoiding collateral damage whenever possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Instead, Kurtz faces the VC, a ruthless and
implacable foe, by adopting their harsh norms absent the superficial
‘etiquette’ of Western-style warfare. In effect, the outlaw colonel gives the
lie to the policy of ‘limited war’, instead conducting his own war within the
war writ large as one of total annihilation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">As Willard sits passively before him, Kurtz
opens up further, revealing the traumatic scene that first unhinged him and
became the source of his progressive alienation from higher authority. Unmoored
by his experience, Kurtz had become a deeply troubled figure ruling a primitive
empire, alone and adrift in a bottomless sea of darkness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">The colonel describes the moment at which he
broke with his previous persona and career. It was in ’64. Aside from assessing
the situation for Washington, part of his mission was to win the ‘hearts &
minds’ of villagers in his area of operation – to garner good will for the
South Vietnamese government in the capital by good deeds on its behalf.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Kurtz’s A-team entered a ville where his medic
inoculated the children against polio. After the team returned to its camp, a
village elder came running to tell them a terrible thing had happened. Kurtz
and his men rushed back and beheld a shocking sight. The VC had hacked off the
inoculated arms of every child, and thrown the severed limbs into a pile. Kurtz
was overwhelmed with grief:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">I cried, I wept … I wanted to tear my teeth
out.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">And I want to remember it, I never want to
forget it.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">But calming down he looked at the waking
nightmare clearly, and understood the VC’s message:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">My God, the genius of that! … The will to do
that.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">I realized they were stronger than we. Because</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">they could stand it. These were not monsters.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">These were men.</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Thus, his initiation to bush war where horror
and moral terror were the norm – to kill without feeling, without passion,
without judgment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">By the time Willard had reached his
destination, Kurtz had gone over the edge and was leading his personal legion
of fierce native warriors in a private war on the VC. For Kurtz, atrocity was
no longer the exception, but the norm. He summarizes for Willard his
unvarnished philosophy of war:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Horror and moral terror are your friends [in
war]. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">If not, they are your enemies to be feared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Furtively reentering the temple later, Willard
carries out his assignment, assassinating Kurtz, but he has become deeply
affected by his exposure to the colonel’s primordial, uncompromising logic of
war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">His grisly task accomplished, Willard makes
his way back to the boat where the voice of command can be heard over the radio,
awaiting the signal for an air strike to eliminate the remnants of Kurtz’s
tribe from the face of the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">♫ <i>This
is the end<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Beautiful friend<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">This is the end</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">††<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">However,
a profoundly changed Willard flips the radio off and sails away downriver,
turning his back on the Army, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">_________________________________________________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">*N Turse, <b><i>Kill Anything That Moves </i></b>(2013)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">**V Canby, <b><i>New York Times Movie Review</i></b>
(August 15, 1979)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">***T S Eliot, “The Hollow Men” (1925)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Links to music videos:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">† <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_C0t1ljIV4"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_C0t1ljIV4</span></a><span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">††<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b26BD5KjH0"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b26BD5KjH0</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-21600723495871484852014-08-06T05:00:00.000-04:002014-08-06T05:00:04.297-04:00Antiwar Activism or Pro Football – Never the Twain Will Meet<span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[<i>Dear Reader: The
time is at last at hand to turn full-time to writing the memoir. To facilitate
the writing, the blog will continue to post, but now monthly on the 1st Wednesday
of each month. We will keep you informed about our progress to
publication.</i>]</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
editor of <i>Vietnam GI </i>(<i>VGI), </i>his underground antiwar paper,
Jeff Sharlet traveled the country constantly and even occasionally went abroad
seeking stories to run in the paper. In the States, he most often sought out
GIs just back from Vietnam, but he also met with antiwar activists. Aside from
his charisma, Jeff had the additional cachet of being an ex-Vietnam GI – Been
there, done that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One
of the most unusual people Jeff encountered was Dave Meggyesy, a pro football
player. Meggyesy was then a star linebacker for the Cardinals, the National
Football League (NFL) team in St Louis. He was one of the very few players in
the NFL who was also an activist. Even more unusual, he was the rare political
radical in the ranks of pro ball.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave
Meggyesy had been a poor farm boy from Ohio whose stellar performance as a high
school player earned him a football scholarship to Syracuse University, a
football power in upstate New York. The previous season, Syracuse had won the
national championship. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">_____________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One of the most unusual people Jeff encountered was Dave
Meggyesy…the rare political radical in the ranks of pro ball<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">_________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Meggyesy
fulfilled the coaches’ expectations, being named All-American honorable mention
in his Sophomore season, although from the outset he was also something of a
maverick on the Syracuse squad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d6ZaZhmLZ3g/U9lN5Vd-X3I/AAAAAAAAJ8I/XCpvMSelw5w/s1600/VGI+D+Meggyesy+vs+Notre+Dame+'61_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d6ZaZhmLZ3g/U9lN5Vd-X3I/AAAAAAAAJ8I/XCpvMSelw5w/s1600/VGI+D+Meggyesy+vs+Notre+Dame+'61_edited-1.jpg" height="400" width="330" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave Meggyesy tackling
a runner, Syracuse-Notre Dame game, 1961<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Football
players were expected to take so-called remedial courses, the easiest possible
to ensure their academic eligibility to play under NCAA rules. However, Dave
bucked the coaches and insisted on taking regular, more demanding courses of
his choice. Then, as he proved himself in the games, he was offered cash under
the table for his ‘services’ to the team – a standard illegal practice in big
time college football – but as an athletic purist he was taken aback and
initially refused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Further
worrying the authoritarian head coach was his non-conformity – Dave lived
off-campus with his girlfriend instead of in the team dorm. To make matters
worse, the two of them hung out with irreverent arts students the coach
regarded as ‘beatniks’. They also read
‘subversive’ literature by Aldous Huxley, Ernest Becker, and Jack Kerouac,
America’s ultimate rebel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After
a standout gridiron career at Syracuse, the St Louis Cardinals drafted him for
the ’63 NFL season. A tackle in college, the pros converted him to linebacker,
a key position on the defensive team requiring speed, agility, and
intelligence. Dave had a very good rookie season in St Louis and was considered
a player of promise, but he nonetheless continued his free-spirited ways to the
distress of the coaching staff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
the off-season, Dave enrolled in grad school at Washington University, a very
distinguished institution in St Louis. Intending to eventually become a doctor,
he took pre-med courses, but later switched to Sociology where he came under
the influence of a noted politically active mentor. Professor Irving Louis
Horowitz put him on to the writings of recently deceased C Wright Mills,
arguably the most radical, intellectually combative scholar of the day.<s><o:p></o:p></s></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aHzgSBhTPoc/U9lOgVNuxUI/AAAAAAAAJ8Y/CIXlI4ZcjDk/s1600/VGI+Dave+Meggyesy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aHzgSBhTPoc/U9lOgVNuxUI/AAAAAAAAJ8Y/CIXlI4ZcjDk/s1600/VGI+Dave+Meggyesy.jpg" height="320" width="266" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave Meggyesy,
St Louis Cardinals<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Once
the football season got underway each fall, Meggyesy was all business,
constantly perfecting his game and making significant contributions to the Cardinals.
Off-season however, he began taking an interest in politics. Although he was Caucasian,
in ’64 he was asked by the St Louis chapter of the NAACP to lend his name for
fund-raising. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
momentarily hesitated, worrying what the team owner might think of him stepping
out of his purely jock role, but then gave his consent and retrospectively
considered the decision to get involved his first political commitment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
the following year, 1965, as President Johnson dramatically escalated the war
in Vietnam, Dave became politically active. As antiwar opposition heated up on
the nation’s campuses, he attended Washington University’s ‘teach-in’ against the
war where he made contact with the campus Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS) chapter. Although he didn’t formally become a member, he attended SDS
meetings and found himself in agreement on the war issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">His
new SDS friends at the university introduced Dave to the radical press – the
hard-hitting magazine <i>Ramparts</i>,<i> </i>published in the intensely political
San Francisco Bay Area; and the left paper, <i>The
Guardian, </i>out of New York. That fall the march on Washington conflicted
with his daytime job as linebacker, but his wife made the trip to the capital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Football
was the singular focus and all-consuming passion during the season for most of
Meggyesy’s teammates. Dave, however, was privately conflicted about his
profession. He disliked the coaches’ treating adult men as juveniles, the many
petty rules such as bed check, and the fact that players were often compelled
to play injured – shot up with painkillers by the team doc. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">____________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave was privately conflicted about his profession, disliked
being treated like a juvenile, petty rules, and players compelled to play
injured shot up with painkillers<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">____________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pJzomvYpFj4/U9lODrcZVOI/AAAAAAAAJ8Q/G9fiE7_c4Vc/s1600/VGI+Dave+Meggyesy+%2360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pJzomvYpFj4/U9lODrcZVOI/AAAAAAAAJ8Q/G9fiE7_c4Vc/s1600/VGI+Dave+Meggyesy+%2360.jpg" height="400" width="268" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave Meggyesy,
linebacker<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Most
of all he was shocked by the racism in the St Louis organization – for road
games Black players were segregated in accommodations and eating arrangements. On
the personal side during annual training camp, Meggyesy – to some degree a
straight arrow – wasn’t particularly keen on post-scrimmage rituals of boozing,
brawling, and philandering. Although he got along with his teammates, who respected
him for his ability, he never ‘fit in’ with the culture of the outfit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
effect, Dave Meggyesy was not in sync with his peers. His innate intellectual
curiosity alone set him apart, but it was his progressive radical activism that
began to open up a growing divide between him and the politically conservative
owner and coaches. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">_________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dave’s intellectual curiosity alone
set him apart, but his activism opened a divide between him and the
conservative owner and coaches<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">_______________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
had given an antiwar talk at nearby Southern Illinois University, which
elicited an outraged letter from a Cardinal fan to the owner. Then, in April of
’67 Dave took off for New York to be part of the huge march against the war and
later that fall helped organize and finance buses to Washington for St Louis
activists participating in the great demonstration at the Pentagon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
spring ’68, brother Jeff was on the road again for <i>VGI</i>, visiting GI antiwar coffee houses where he’d meet with combat
veterans and men training for Vietnam. On this tour, his itinerary took him
down to the Mad Anthony Wayne GI coffee house outside the giant infantry training
base at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
meeting was arranged between Jeff and Dave Meggyesy in St Louis. Unfortunately,
with the passage of time when I contacted Dave in recent years, he couldn’t
recall their conversation, but presumably they rapped about the war and the
emerging GI protest movement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That
spring Dave and his wife were in the thick of the antiwar movement, often
hosting large SDS meetings at their house. By then, his political resume was
nearly as impressive as his football feats, and he had attracted FBI
surveillance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Cardinals’ management had grown quite
uncomfortable with his dissidence, which was attracting many letters from angry
‘patriotic’ fans. The bottom line for management was of course the gate and
profits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Just
before the ‘68 summer training camp, Meggyesy received an oblique but clear
indication that management was going to ask him to make a choice – politics or
football, never the twain will meet. He was only saved from the ultimatum when
the team’s racism finally broke in the news, and the owners felt they couldn’t
handle a political scandal as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Undeterred
by the threat looming over him, at training camp in northern Michigan Meggyesy
circulated a petition among his teammates in support of Senator Eugene McCarthy
of Minnesota, the peace candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Eugene McCarthy button" src="http://media.npr.org/politics/politicaljunkie/2005/dec/mccarthy200-6b384d4a0c2682cfa0e79a4529e90d3a8e26a70a-s3-c85.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
collected a surprising number of signatures from teammates and after practice
drove down to the Chicago convention to lobby the Missouri delegation on behalf
of McCarthy. To no avail however – Missouri was firmly in the camp of the
mainstream candidate, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
’69, which would turn out to be Dave’s final season in pro ball, he publicly
irritated fans, management, and teammates when he consistently refused to
salute the flag during the National Anthem before games. During one game, a
belligerent fan heckled the maverick linebacker unremittingly, shouting that he
was a ‘commie’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
the season, the St Louis organization finally lost patience when Dave gave an
extensive interview to a major Philadelphia daily criticizing the Cardinals’
management, the culture of football in general, and, of course, the war. The
coaches no longer spoke to him, and he was benched, sitting out most of the
games.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the highly divisive and charged atmosphere over the war in the country in the
late ‘60s, activist politics and pro football – his conscience and his
profession – proved a toxic mix for Dave Meggyesy. By that point, he was
thoroughly disenchanted with everything about football, and being punitively benched
for lesser players was the final straw for him. At the height of his career, he
quit the game at the end of his seventh season, packed up his wife and kids,
and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There,
with the help of a Berkeley professor, Dave wrote his controversial
autobiography, <b><i>Out of Their League</i></b> (1971). One reviewer called it “the first
critical look at the dehumanizing aspects of pro football,”* and the book soon
became a best seller. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VOmpmaSsOz4/U9lO8KY419I/AAAAAAAAJ8g/X883RlLujuk/s1600/VGI+Meggyesy+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VOmpmaSsOz4/U9lO8KY419I/AAAAAAAAJ8g/X883RlLujuk/s1600/VGI+Meggyesy+Cover.jpg" height="320" width="191" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Subsequently,
in addition to a personally rewarding stint coaching high school football, Dave
devoted the rest of his working life to following his conscience. He went on to
teach courses on the sociology of sports at Stanford University, founded
‘Athletes United for Peace’, co-founded the Esalen Sports Center, and
eventually headed the western region of the NFL Players Association, the labor union of pro ball,
finally retiring in 2007. <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">___________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*<i>San Jose Mercury News, date unknown<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-83923088887478638302014-07-02T05:00:00.000-04:002014-07-02T05:00:01.181-04:00Rear Echelon Blues – Then Came War<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #ac193d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">[</span><i style="color: #ac193d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Dear Reader:
The time is at last at hand to turn full-time to writing the memoir. To
facilitate the writing, the blog will continue to post, but now monthly on the
1st Wednesday of each month beginning August 6th. We will keep you
informed about our progress to publication.</i><span style="color: #ac193d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Duty
in the Philippines (PI) seemed like a playground to my brother Jeff Sharlet, stationed
there in early ’63. It was a bit like being back on a college campus, but instead
of going to classes the GIs worked shifts on classified material. They were
Vietnamese linguists (lingys) in a communications intelligence outfit, the Army
Security Agency (ASA), an adjunct of the NSA, the National Security Agency.
Off-duty, their time was theirs, and Jeff made the most of it as if on
prolonged spring break.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
by June he was growing weary of the routine in the PI. You might call it the
rear echelon blues. The action was elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Also the
drenching rains of the monsoon season, which began in May, had a
depressing effect. And the work translating intercepted North Vietnamese
military communications, initially interesting to Jeff, had become predictable
and tedious. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Equally
tiresome was the usual GI social scene of starting out at the Airmen’s Club at
Clark Air Force Base (AFB) with its cheap drinks, then moving on to the
low-life bars of Angeles City – the nearby GI town -- and the occasional trips to
the more upscale watering holes of Manila, the capital. Jeff was becoming jaded
with endless pub crawling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
PI scene had become all too familiar to him until the abrupt call to war
suddenly changed everything, as we’ll see in the following excerpts from his
letters home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">2 Jun 63 – back from leave at the 9<sup>th</sup> ASA, Clark AFB,
the Philippines<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>I
recently returned from Hong Kong. It’s a great place, sort of an orientalized
San Francisco or an anglicized Chinese city.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NjK0IASZkVk/U7KPbFYGN0I/AAAAAAAAJ6Q/0b0rjPJOnFo/s1600/PI+H.K.+harbor+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NjK0IASZkVk/U7KPbFYGN0I/AAAAAAAAJ6Q/0b0rjPJOnFo/s1600/PI+H.K.+harbor+2.JPG" height="236" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Hong Kong harbor<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Thanks for the book on Southeast Asia. I
haven’t read it yet, but I have little hope for the future of this region. The
present situation is the fault of the British, French, Dutch, and American
colonialists.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">4 Jun 63<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Last night I went to town, the night
before I went to town, the night before that I went to town. Tonight I will go to
town, tomorrow night I’ll go to town, the next night I’ll go to town, as a
matter of fact I go to town frequently.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I also sing with the Clark Glee Club
to improve Philippine-American relations.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">♫ Just an old sweet song<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Keeps Georgia on my mind</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">†<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">19 Jun 63<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>Well,
I’ve completed about a third of my tour of duty. My only useful activity is
singing in the Clark Glee Club. We sang on Manila TV on a Jack Paar-type show
last week. Our group is very popular with the American and Filipino
communities.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> We sing some songs in Tagalog.* We
sang at the joint US military aid group in Manila for all the generals and
admirals who advise this country on its defenses. They gave us a filet mignon
and lobster dinner.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Last week we sang at an officer’s club
on an American naval base where we got roast beef. I was talking to a Navy
captain’s wife in the bar, and she told me single Navy officers find this a
very boring assignment, as do peons like me.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Nice Asian girls, except in westernized
Japan and Hong Kong, do not go out with Caucasians. It is not socially
acceptable. Therefore, all GIs from lieutenants to privates are relegated to
bar girls. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Right now I’m off the hostess kick and
spending less time in the local GI town. I’m going more often to Manila where
the people are a little more worldly.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">♫ Hit the road, Jack<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And don’t you come back’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">No more, no more</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">††<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I never realized how great the little
conveniences of the States were. For instance – toilet seats, sidewalks, paved
streets, air-conditioned buses, trash collectors, clean food, clean people, and
the absence of bugs and dust.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Here when you travel on an intercity
bus, if someone has to go to the bathroom, he yells, the driver stops, people
get off, women squat on one side, men on the other.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> At least with the rain, everything’s
no longer brown; the sugar cane and rice shoots are green now. All in all, I
try to make the best of a hurting situation.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8VrwkTOO4-c/U7KPruAKqBI/AAAAAAAAJ6Y/kLLJNeEl7zM/s1600/VN+monsoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8VrwkTOO4-c/U7KPruAKqBI/AAAAAAAAJ6Y/kLLJNeEl7zM/s1600/VN+monsoon.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Monsoon downpour</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">30 Jun 63<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>My
‘whole goal in life’ is not to go into town drinking every night. I have some
good friends here in the unit who are extremely intelligent, mostly guys from the
Army Language School (ALS). <o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We travel together, have great
intellectual discussions over beers, and do other things. I’m making the best
of it. I do a lot of reading and keep busy all the time. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I think about important problems in the
States and the world. For example, three cops beating a Negro woman in
Birmingham, a fanatic assassinates a Negro leader in Jackson, Mississippi, and
another fanatic in Atlanta slashing a sit-in student. Filipinos ask about these
incidents, and there is little one can say.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">23 Jul 63<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>I
have read most of the books you sent, but I’m still reading the last few. I
just finished ‘Dr. Zhivago’ and I’m now reading ‘The Marxists’ by C Wright
Mills.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Southeast Asia is an amazingly
complicated problem. In my own mind, I haven’t yet come up with a way of
offsetting Chinese Communist influence and keeping these states non-communist. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For instance, Burma has pro-Chinese
Communists and more nationalist Communists; it’s not a cohesive entity in any
sense, politically, ethnically, or geographically. This situation is repeated
in every Southeast Asian state.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">19 Aug 63 on leave in Tokyo<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is a very beautiful country, which
is much like the US economically and physically, but very different culturally.
It has been an interesting and educational experience.</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lTgukSf7ACI/U7KP2nl665I/AAAAAAAAJ6g/J5i1jbMXnt4/s1600/VN+springtime+in+Japan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lTgukSf7ACI/U7KP2nl665I/AAAAAAAAJ6g/J5i1jbMXnt4/s1600/VN+springtime+in+Japan.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Japan in bloom</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then
a week later, a sudden brief, cryptic message home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">27 Aug 63 from the Clark AFB flight line <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m leaving for Vietnam for some ‘field
work’.</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">♫ <i>If you miss the train I’m on, you will know
that I am gone<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">†††<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Back
story: Jeff and a small team of Vietnamese lingys were abruptly dispatched from
the PI as the internal political crisis in South Vietnam intensified during
summer ‘63. Relations between the Catholic political elite around President
Diem and the Buddhist clergy had worsened. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
Buddhist monk publicly burned himself to death in protest against the regime. The
shock waves were felt throughout the country and beyond as the horrific news
photo went around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
a second Buddhist self-immolation occurred soon after, the South Vietnamese
military elite cautiously inquired of the American Embassy what the US attitude
might be toward a coup. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
war against the Viet Cong was not going well, and by then President Kennedy
(JFK) had lost patience with Diem’s resistance to the reforms needed for
winning ‘hearts & minds’ in the villages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
late August, JFK cabled his new ambassador to ‘green light’ the South
Vietnamese generals. The conspirators immediately began secretly planning an
anti-Diem coup. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Anxious
to keep abreast of the clandestine developments in Saigon, the White House
relied on reporting from its military and intelligence sources in the Embassy
as well as the special team of ASA specialists flown in from Clark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
and his fellow lingys had been quickly assembled with full field gear and sent
off posthaste to Vietnam. They were installed in a remote corner of a base
outside Saigon where they worked around the clock covertly tapping all the
coup-planners’ voice communications.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
to the ‘big picture’ of why they were eavesdropping on allies, the plans afoot
were well above the ASA team’s pay grade and ‘Need to Know’. However, daily
arrangements for the transfer of their translated intercepts to a nearby air
base to be flown out to NSA-Washington, gave the team a pretty good idea of how
serious the matter was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Each
day’s intelligence product was packed in ammo cans rigged with thermite
grenades, then transported by jeep under armed guard. ASA’s security guards
were under orders to pull the grenade pins and run like hell if there was any
danger the material might be compromised and the clandestine US operation
exposed to the South Vietnamese government.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">15 Oct 63 ASA monitoring base at Phu Lam <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>Jeff
wrote me from Saigon that he and the special ASA group were pulling out and
returning to the Philippines.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
the rush deployment from the PI, Jeff had forgotten to leave a forwarding
address at the Clark mailroom, and while he was in Vietnam on that first tour
he never wrote home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Of
course he couldn’t write about the secret operation – not even fellow ASA troops
in the area with high security clearances were entitled to know – but off-duty Jeff
did do other things that could be put in a letter. He was especially taken with
Saigon, then called the Paris of the Orient.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QUrvDB_GEKQ/U7KQFgGHo2I/AAAAAAAAJ6o/dNwfjBBVNnI/s1600/Saigon+flower+stall.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QUrvDB_GEKQ/U7KQFgGHo2I/AAAAAAAAJ6o/dNwfjBBVNnI/s1600/Saigon+flower+stall.JPG" height="209" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Saigon flower
stall, 1963</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Meanwhile,
our Mother wrote him at Clark AFB, but her letter came back marked ‘UNKNOWN’.
Understandably upset, she called their local Congressman who advised a letter
to the Army’s Adjutant General. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">She
wrote the general at the Pentagon that very day, “Dear Sir: I will appreciate
your advising me by return mail exactly where my son is.” Unaware of the
distress he had caused our parents, Jeff casually resumed corresponding from
the PI.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">29 Oct 63 – back at 9<sup>th</sup> ASA, Clark AFB<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>I’m
now back in the PI after 49 days in Vietnam. Don’t believe what Madame Nhu</b></span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">** <i>is saying in
the States. The fact remains that South Vietnam is a complete dictatorship and
the Buddhists are persecuted. <o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The rainy season has ended, but heat
and humidity linger. Hopefully we’ll have cooler weather soon. This climate
breeds lethargy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">♫ We’re having a heat wave,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A tropical heat wave</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">††††<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My driver’s license was supposed to be
renewed by September 30<sup>th</sup>, and I didn’t do it. I was in Vietnam at
the time, in the jungle. I’ll write to Motor Vehicles and tell them I was
fighting a war and to please excuse this oversight.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On
1 Nov ‘63 the South Vietnamese generals carried out their successful coup
during which the president and his brother, the notorious secret police chief
Nhu, were assassinated. General Minh, leader of the junta, became the new head
of state, beginning a long period of political instability in Saigon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O8SfRm3hA4g/U7KQi0XeFLI/AAAAAAAAJ6w/M3Z2f8E6zZU/s1600/VN+Gen+Minh.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O8SfRm3hA4g/U7KQi0XeFLI/AAAAAAAAJ6w/M3Z2f8E6zZU/s1600/VN+Gen+Minh.JPG" height="320" width="242" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">General Minh,
new head of state, 1963<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Meanwhile,
on the lighter side of history, our Mother’s insistent inquiry as to Jeff’s
whereabouts had worked its way down the chain of command from Washington to
Saigon and back to the 9<sup>th</sup> ASA at Clark – much to his embarrassment:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">5 Nov 63<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>I
know you must have been worried when your letter was returned to you,
especially after reading about the coup in Saigon (by the way it’s the best
thing that's happened in Vietnam in a decade; now the people are very happy).<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> I neglected to write to tell you I had
returned to the PI, but I wish you hadn’t contacted your Congressman. It caused
a lot of trouble for the field station commander, my company commander (CO),
and me. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m writing this letter because I have
received a direct order from my CO to write one <u>tonight</u>. He even wants
to see me put it in the mail.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Please be more discreet in the future.
The Army and I (although at opposite ends of the philosophical totem pole), do
not relish embarrassments and inconveniences like this.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">22 Nov 63<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b><i>In the middle of the night we heard of the
President’s assassination. No words can describe the gloom that hangs over this
place. It’s as if a little bit of everyone suddenly died. It was more than a
shock – much more than a shock.<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">20 Dec 63<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>I
think the States are going to hell under the strain of the ‘Cold War’. As for
me, I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going to agitate in my society to better
it, or retire from the struggle completely to hide in some environment like the
academic community.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <b>Vietnam
is a little quieter these days. Happy Holidays.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> The turbulent year ’63 came to a
subdued end, but then just several weeks later in early ‘64 another coup took
place in Saigon, and Jeff was soon on his way back to Vietnam – back to war – a
story for another time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*Tagalog,
along with English, one of the two official languages of the Philippines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">**Diem’s
sister-in-law, then on a speaking tour in the US promoting the regime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">† <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZceOIAh1i0&feature=kp">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZceOIAh1i0&feature=kp</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">†† <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKvhxapM5zo&feature=kp">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKvhxapM5zo&feature=kp</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">†††
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stwt_ew6Bac">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stwt_ew6Bac</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">††††
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57qy7MCzLXA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57qy7MCzLXA</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-41099510627933864352014-06-18T05:00:00.000-04:002014-06-19T13:44:49.175-04:00Sojourn on the South China Sea<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Jeff
Sharlet hoped to be shipped to Europe, but landed on the shores of the South
China Sea. He had enlisted in the Army Security Agency (ASA), a semi-secret
communications intelligence outfit, the military arm of the National Security
Agency in Washington. ASA sent Jeff to the Army Language School (ALS) in sunny
California.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
late ’62 he’d completed the 47-week Vietnamese course, received Top Secret and
Cryptographic clearances, and was soon dispatched to the 9<sup>th</sup> ASA
Field Station at Clark Air Force Base (AFB) in the Philippine Islands (PI).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Life
in the islands – a quiet backwater of the global Cold War – was relatively pleasant
for ASA personnel. Across the South China Sea a low intensity civil conflict was
underway in Vietnam, and the Pentagon was gradually stockpiling Vietnamese
linguists (lingys for short). ASA was temporarily parking most of them in the
Philippines out of harm’s way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With
so many interpreter/translators on hand, the workload at the 9<sup>th</sup> ASA
was not heavy, and the troops enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. But for the war
looming in Vietnam, one might call it an extended spring break in the South
Pacific. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For
the young college-boy lingys, it was something of an adventure. While they bided
their time waiting for the call to war, daily life in the tropics resembled scenes
from <i>From Here to Eternity </i>without
the romance – a sprawling military base, a nearby GI town, palm trees swaying
in the breeze. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Excerpts
from Jeff’s letters home trace his carefree time as a GI in the PI during the
early months of ’63. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">13 Jan 63 – from Honolulu enroute to the Far East<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Hawaii
is beautiful and warm. I’m on a Super-Constellation. It will take 30 hours to
get to the Philippines. The South Pacific looks enchanting</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">29 Jan 63 – at 9<sup>th</sup> ASA Field Station, Clark AFB, PI</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This
base is like a little piece of America. It has everything. We live in a fairly
new billet in three-man rooms. Outside walls, and inside walls as well, are
louvered for ventilation. We have houseboys at $2.50 a month to make beds and
shine shoes as well as clean rooms, the billet, and its grounds.</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1GD8AKOeJZs/U6BuS5FrIoI/AAAAAAAAJ40/tYZJGs_6-XI/s1600/PIFBauman_Jeff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1GD8AKOeJZs/U6BuS5FrIoI/AAAAAAAAJ40/tYZJGs_6-XI/s1600/PIFBauman_Jeff.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff (r) &
Fred Baumann outside barracks, Clark AFB, 1963<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
pool is across the street, tennis courts are nearby, and the enlisted men’s open
mess, called the Coconut Grove, is next door.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ajb3fSGGSmE/U6Bv_3NxX0I/AAAAAAAAJ5A/2K4TZZIwa5M/s1600/PI+Clark+Pool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ajb3fSGGSmE/U6Bv_3NxX0I/AAAAAAAAJ5A/2K4TZZIwa5M/s1600/PI+Clark+Pool.jpg" height="307" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The pool across
the street<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You
hear music everywhere on base. It’s from Armed Forces Radio (AFR), which we get
on our transistors, and you can also hear it through speakers in the clubs and
the rec areas. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s
a strange combination of Country Western and Rock ‘n Roll, everything from
‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ and ‘Oklahoma Hills’ to Little Richard’s ‘Good Golly,
Miss Molly’ and lots of Ray Charles. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">♫ I’m an old road-hog/I drove a big truck<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Shot the pinball machine, but it brought me bad luck</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">†<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
work is interesting, informative, and not too hard. I work the mid-shift from
Midnight to 7:00 AM. The place where we work, called Operations (Ops for
short), is a windowless, concrete building in a heavily-guarded, barbed wire
enclosure in the middle of an enormous field.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
I wake up in the afternoon, I do errands, read in bed, or go to the pool. I
generally go to Happy Hour at the Airmen’s Club from 4:30 to 5:30 afternoons. All drinks are only 10 cents,
normally 20 cents, while weeds run 95 cents a carton. I either stay there for a
while or go into town with a buddy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
town called Angeles City is right outside the base. It’s like something out of
Susie Wong’s world, just like those Far Eastern army towns you read about in
war novels. All the joints have American names.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EnKxwgeM3Kc/U6BwhkQoxVI/AAAAAAAAJ5I/ycyJWLORR3k/s1600/Lenny's.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EnKxwgeM3Kc/U6BwhkQoxVI/AAAAAAAAJ5I/ycyJWLORR3k/s1600/Lenny's.jpg" height="286" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A GI joint,
Angeles City, PI, 1963<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s
one huge collection of bars, whores, beds, Jeepney taxi drivers, horse and
buggy conveyances, and the most poverty stricken people I’ve ever seen. The
girls are mostly young.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Thus
far when I think of this country, the R&R song ‘Babycakes’ (Ooooh, baby,
oooh), the dance ‘Mashed Potatoes’, strong San Miguel beer, as well as comments
in the bars like ‘Hey Joe, you buy me a ladies beer’ – come to mind as
representative of the PI.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">♫ <i>Hey Mama, don’t you
treat me wrong<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Come
and love your daddy all night long</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">††<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">15 Feb 63<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
Filipinos and the bar girls don’t need any information. The first night I went
to town, all the girls asked me if I was ‘9<sup>th</sup> ASA’. I’m trying to
organize the girls into an entertainment union so they can get a guaranteed
wage for hustling drinks.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mqp65jZZDH0/U6BxGe3geuI/AAAAAAAAJ5Q/NrbB8qtUcR8/s1600/PI+Bar+Scene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mqp65jZZDH0/U6BxGe3geuI/AAAAAAAAJ5Q/NrbB8qtUcR8/s1600/PI+Bar+Scene.jpg" height="285" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff (2d on l)
& buddies, Angeles City, 1963<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Manila,
the capital, is 65 miles away. I just got back from there. It’s just like any
large city in the States, a total imitation of the US with gangs, the PTA, an
American Legion, and a Chamber of Commerce. English is the common language, and
just about everyone speaks it. The University of the Philippines even has
sororities.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
like it here, but I don’t know why.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">24 Mar 63<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
have a chance to get a hop to New Delhi next month, but I’m going to pass it up
for a while. They have space available on planes to India once a week and to
Saigon, Bangkok, Taiwan, and Japan every day. They also have a ship, which goes
to Hong Kong 4 times a year, expressly for guys going on leave.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
might go out for football because they go on game trips to Japan, Korea, and
Okinawa. This station has a good team. They almost beat the Far Eastern
champions last year.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">11 Apr 63</span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some
friends and I took a train to a place called Dagupan, a few hours from here.
Just beyond the city is a beautiful white sandy beach on the South China Sea
where we rented a hut for a couple of days, took in some sun and surf, and
drank a lot of beer.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">♫ </span></b><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Where the deep blue pearly waters</span></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Wash upon white silver sands</span></i></i></div>
<i>
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></i>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">We watched the sun set in the evening</span></i></span></i></div>
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In a far and distant land</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">†††</span></div>
</span></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
cut it too close getting back from town last night and almost missed the
shuttle to Ops for mid-shift. If a guy’s had one too many in Angeles, the flood
lighting around the Ops building for night security definitely has a sobering
effect.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">28 Apr 63</span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
PI is quite different from any other environment I have ever seen. This country
is a cross between the 20<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> century. Even in
Manila, a large (pop. 2 million), Westernized, and extremely dirty city, one
will see horse-drawn carts on the streets with old WWII jeeps used as taxis and
private vehicles.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Urh_tgAuTx0/U6BxVx21p9I/AAAAAAAAJ5Y/x82WcPguGkw/s1600/Manila+bay+63.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Urh_tgAuTx0/U6BxVx21p9I/AAAAAAAAJ5Y/x82WcPguGkw/s1600/Manila+bay+63.jpg" height="230" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Manila Bay<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">About
85% if the people are extremely poor, ill-fed, ill-clothed, and unhealthy.
Begging for money or cigarettes is very common here.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
strong national police force secures the peace. In the expensive commercial
sections of Manila, there’s a cop on duty every hundred yards. There are guards
on all the trains. Most cops carry submachine guns or shotguns.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s
starting to get very hot now with the rainy season approaching soon.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">17 May 63<b><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some
of us took a bus to Baguio, a mountain resort about 120 miles north of Clark
AFB. It’s about 5000 feet up in the clouds and nice relief from the heat of the
plains.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">♫ I’m gonna climb that mountain<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Walk
up there among the clouds</span></i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">††††<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On
the way up – before the steep ascents – we passed many poor farmers and their
water buffalo. The trip was one of the most beautiful as well as the most dangerous
bus rides I’ll probably ever take.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AUW-hADDPOY/U6BxjvVpFgI/AAAAAAAAJ5g/hWsNKxllYSs/s1600/Baguio+road+perilous.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AUW-hADDPOY/U6BxjvVpFgI/AAAAAAAAJ5g/hWsNKxllYSs/s1600/Baguio+road+perilous.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Perilous Baguio
road, 1963<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
the Philippines, Jeff availed himself of the Army’s recruiting slogan ‘Fun,
Travel, and Adventure’ or FTA,* but the bloom was beginning to fade. The weather
in the South Pacific – rising temps and drenching monsoons – was a damper, but
he was also finding the repetitive classified work less challenging, while the
allure of an endless party life had begun to pall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As
will be apparent in the next post, it was war just over the horizon that would
dramatically change Jeff’s experience in the military.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">____________________________________________________________ </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">*With
the later rise of GI anti-Vietnam War protest in which Jeff was a principal
player, the Army’s slogan FTA became ‘Fuck the Army’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Links
to music videos:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">† </span> <span style="color: #0070c0;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIbK9LWKO5g">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIbK9LWKO5g</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">††</span> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjSaHcBcI4I&index=3&list=RDfgfYSLNddGo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjSaHcBcI4I&index=3&list=RDfgfYSLNddGo</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">††† </span> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrErJRCovSw&list=RDGrErJRCovSw&index=1">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrErJRCovSw&list=RDGrErJRCovSw&index=1</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">††††
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JsYKHTJlg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JsYKHTJlg</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-77495401280082798332014-06-04T05:00:00.000-04:002014-06-05T07:16:19.674-04:00Red Squad Chicago – The Wild Wild Midwest!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Summer
’68, Chicago: My brother Jeff Sharlet, an ex-Vietnam GI, was putting out an
underground antiwar paper, </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Vietnam GI </i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">(</span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">VGI</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">). He had launched it in January to
reach active-duty troops uneasy with, uncertain about, or in some cases opposed
outright to the war in Vietnam.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">VGI </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">soon found a responsive
readership – letters to the editor poured in from young men training stateside
awaiting deployment as well as GIs, Marines, and airmen based in South Vietnam
and sailors and airmen on station off-shore. Circulation grew exponentially. By
mid-summer, the paper had become a worldwide phenomenon – read wherever
American troops were based, cautiously, of course, out of sight of the
disapproving brass and lifer sergeants. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
and colleagues decided to supplement <i>VGI</i>’s ‘Asian Edition’ with a ‘Stateside
Edition’ addressing the particular concerns of the guys in the pipeline. It
would be a big undertaking – money was always tight – and the new edition would
double the printing and far-flung distribution costs. The two editions would
come out simultaneously, the inaugural stateside issue scheduled for August
’68. Jeff and his team wanted the launch to go smoothly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Outside
of the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago was probably the next most lively center
of protest in the country – both antiwar opposition as well as Black civil
rights activism. In the windy city, both movements were up against a formidable
political machine led by blunt, hard-nosed, long time Mayor Richard J Daley. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
April ‘68 his cops had waded in and roughly dispersed an antiwar demo. A week
later when major rioting broke out in the ghetto following Martin Luther King’s
assassination, the mayor called for and received federal troops to help police
restore order.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KUVjsXxXXUc/U47TmHQPVSI/AAAAAAAAJ3o/RqQwoulzMBg/s1600/Chi+Dem+club+sign_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KUVjsXxXXUc/U47TmHQPVSI/AAAAAAAAJ3o/RqQwoulzMBg/s1600/Chi+Dem+club+sign_edited-1.jpg" height="270" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Federal troops
in Chicago, May 1968<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
Democratic Presidential Convention was scheduled for Chicago that August, and
it was expected to be contentious because of divisions over the war. Vice
President Humphrey, representing the war policy, and Senator Eugene McCarthy of
Minnesota, standing for peace and withdrawal, were the leading contenders for
the nomination. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">McCarthy
was a long shot, but the huge, diverse national antiwar movement mobilized to
go to Chicago to support his antiwar position. They intended to take to the
streets in massive acts of civil disobedience and sleep in the parks. The
prospect gravely worried the Daley organization. When a Yippie, in the spirit
of street theater, spoke of dumping LSD in the city’s water supply, the mayor
took the wild rhetoric seriously, redoubling defenses for convention week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Anyone
reading the Chicago press knew that a confrontation was coming – the antiwar
legions versus the Chicago police backed up by state and federal law enforcement
authorities as well as the military. To finish and get the new double edition
of <i>Vietnam GI</i> out in timely fashion,
Jeff decided to play it safe and avoid getting caught up in the impending
convention turmoil.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">_______________________________________________</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mayor
Daley, spooked by scuttlebutt of hundreds of thousands hippies and radicals
descending on Chicago, boosted the Red Squad’s roster to 500 men.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">_________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
and fellow editor Jim Wallihan gathered the preparatory materials for the
August issues and headed for the Bay Area, a more protest-friendly part of the
country. In San Francisco, they stayed with a friend, an ex-Vietnam GI combat
photographer, Joe Carey†,<span style="color: red;"> </span>where they assembled
the two editions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jeff
had moved the <i>VGI </i>editorial operation
temporarily out of town because he was aware the Chicago Red Squad, which
surveilled all New Left activity, had the <i>VGI</i>
collective in its extensive dissident files. Under pretext of protecting the Democratic
convention from possible disruption, Jeff reasonably assumed the Red Squad
might use the opportunity to preemptively raid local protest outfits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Given
the Red Squad’s modus operandi in the ‘60s, Jeff made a good decision.
Originally formed as a special unit of the Chicago police in 1886 to hunt down
the men who set off a bomb that killed and injured many policemen during the
Haymarket Riot, the unit evolved, targeting the ‘agitators’ du jour – anarchists
and leftists in the teens, labor activists in the ‘20s, Communists from the
‘30s on, and civil rights militants and anti-Vietnam War opponents in the ‘60s
and ‘70s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
country was then in the grip of Cold War anti-communism. To the Chicago Police
Department’s (CPD) way of thinking, both Black and white ‘radicals’ were
considered ‘fellow travelers’, if not potentially dangerous ‘commie’
subversives.<span style="color: red;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
the time, the official name for the CPD’s special unit was the ‘Subversive
Section of the Intelligence Division of the Bureau of Inspectional Services’,
but it came to be known by friend and foe alike as the Red Squad. In the early
‘60s it was a small outfit of several dozen agents seconded from other
divisions of the CPD. But as the decade heated up with rioting in Black ghettos
across the nation and the escalation of the Vietnam War – both triggers of
unrest beginning in ’65 – the squad grew rapidly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w5WpGyK0hnk/U47VDVIFSjI/AAAAAAAAJ3w/XnFM-H1N9dM/s1600/VGI+J+Cunningham,+Red+Sq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w5WpGyK0hnk/U47VDVIFSjI/AAAAAAAAJ3w/XnFM-H1N9dM/s1600/VGI+J+Cunningham,+Red+Sq.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
late James Cunningham, former Red Squad Agent<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Its
liaisons with other enforcers– the FBI and US Army Military Intelligence (MI) –
grew apace. Under its counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO††, mainly aimed
at the left, the feds provided the Red Squad with specialized training and
significant funding. MI, based in nearby Evanston, transferred military
equipment and know-how for specific operations the squad was planning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Outside
the public eye, the three outfits shared intelligence and coordinated major
actions, especially against the Black Panthers and the main antiwar groups,
civilian and GI. In the case of <i>Vietnam
GI</i>, in May ’68 J Edgar Hoover had signaled the FBI’s Chicago Field Office
to put <i>VGI</i>’s staff under surveillance
for the paper’s seditious content. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Soon
FBI agents dropped by the apartment on Halsted that Jeff shared with Jim
Wallihan and Bill O’Brien, hoping to be admitted for an interview. They were
refused entry. In August when Jeff and Jim were staying at Joe Carey’s in San
Francisco (supposedly not known to anyone), MI agents paid Joe a visit inquiring
about their whereabouts. Jeff happened to be out, but Jim was in the back
bedroom. However, Joe told his visitors he had ‘no idea’ where they were.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Back
in Chicago the Red Squad tended to conduct its oversight more covertly. Techniques
included watching a target’s residence, tailing the person, and photographing
him and anyone with whom he met. The camera was a favored tool. Often covert
agents would discreetly snap a picture of a person of interest; sometimes, if
he was participating in a demo, the agents would pretend to be press
photographers. In other instances, if the Red Squad wanted to scare or
intimidate someone, an overt agent would photograph him or her conspicuously. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">______________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With
the blessings of Boss Daley, the Red Squad became bolder </span></i><i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">and </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">more arbitrary,
akin to cowboys in a wide-open frontier town.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Overt
agents would make their presence known as if to say, we know who you are, we
know what you’re up to, and we’ve got our eye on you. Jeff’s friends and
supporters of <i>VGI</i> received such
attention on occasion. In early ’66, Earl Silbar was at Roosevelt University
organizing students against the draft when his son was born. It was too late in
the day to make it into the newspapers’ new births columns, yet the next
morning in the student lounge a Red Squad regular came up and congratulated him
on the happy event. <span style="color: red;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Similarly
another friend, Joan Lichterman, a staffer on Roosevelt’s student paper, was at
a meeting of area student journalists at the University of Chicago. A visiting
Berkeley student was briefing the group on the Free Speech Movement then
underway at Cal-Berkeley in ’64. Several Red Squad overt agents arrived and wordlessly
began snapping pictures of each of them individually.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Progressively
in the late ‘60s, with the blessings of Boss Daley, top police commanders, and
major Chicago papers, the Red Squad became bolder and more arbitrary, akin to
cowboys just off the trail in a wide-open frontier town. Illegal actions
routinely involved undercover invasion of privacy, violation of free speech
rights, and eavesdropping. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Rougher
tactics included physically intimidating individual targets, assaulting
peaceful demonstrations, raiding residences of both Black and white radicals,
and ‘black-bag’ jobs – burglarizing offices of targeted organizations.
Sometimes covert agents inside a group provocatively encouraged its members to
commit acts of violence, even to shoot at cops.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Covert
agents were usually young cops who could blend in with the ‘60s scene, dressing
hippie-style, smoking pot, and digging the same music as their assigned
subjects. Another of Jeff’s friends, Lynn Wilson, was the object of covert
surveillance. She was at a political meeting. Most of the New Left gatherings
were open in the spirit of participant democracy, making it easy for Red Squad
agents to join the gathering undetected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">No
doubt one or more covert agents were present that evening. When the discussion
abruptly turned to bombing buildings, Lynn promptly got up and left – she
hadn’t signed up for that. Outside, Lynn was almost immediately intercepted by
uniformed officers. Obviously a covert agent inside had signaled her departure.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">She
was in her car, a VW Bug, the radical’s car in cop-land – patriots drove Chevys
– heading home when a police cruiser cut her off. The two cops jumped out and
aimed shotguns at her through the windshield, no doubt thinking she was a
would-be bomber. Lynn managed to avoid being detained only after showing her
state ID from the Illinois mental hospital where she worked. The guardians of
the law backed off – to them that meant they were all on the same side, and
they apologized profusely. <span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
another instance of a covert op, Jeff Segal, then a student reporter, later a
national officer of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), who knew Jeff
earlier when he had headed SDS at Indiana University, tells a story of the Red
Squad at work. The student newspaper staff at Roosevelt University believed the
office phone was tapped. How did they know for sure – easy? A staffer went out
to a pay phone and called Roosevelt’s student newspaper press office to get
coverage of a fictitious demo to be held the next day. At the time of the phony
demo, a couple of staffers went to the ‘announced’ site and watched the Red
Squad arrive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
its outset, the Red Squad’s mission statement was relatively specific and
focused, but it was revised and its operational criteria changed in the early ‘70s
when it became considerably broader in scope, much more ambitious, and somewhat
fuzzy in interpretation. Initially the mission was to identify and possibly
prosecute individuals, groups, and organizations advocating the disruption of
the democratic system through violence and criminal action.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then
the mission was augmented to specify the use of both overt and covert
intelligence-gathering techniques against any person or group presenting a
threat to national, state, or municipal security. As if this revised statement
wasn’t ambiguous enough, the Red Squad was no longer just on the lookout for
actual threats, but for any ‘potential for disruption’ as well. In an
emendation, the targets for surveillance were not only members of groups
representing disruptive potential, but also their financial supporters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
street level where the Red Squad agents operated, official rhetoric all boiled
down to what the cop on the ground considered subversion and sedition. As a
retired agent put it more colorfully, the agents’ objectives were terrorist and
seditious activities as well as those who aided and abetted perhaps with a
nominal donation. Shades of the late ‘30s during the Spanish Civil War when
even a small contribution to a fund for orphans on both sides later landed the
contributor on a Congressional list of left-wing subversives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">___________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Keer,
a Red Squad covert agent, dressed hippie-style in ragged jeans and<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">banged-up
sneakers, wore his hair long, and sported a Zapata moustache.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">___________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Armed
with such a broad writ, the Red Squad not only went after radical groups from
the Old Left and the New Left, especially SDS, but also the Chicago branches of
nationwide liberal organizations such as the ACLU, the League of Women Voters,
the World Council of Churches, and even the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA)
and Reverend Jesse Jackson’s local anti-poverty group PUSH. Area universities
and local churches were automatically suspect and fell under Red Squad purview.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Similarly,
prominent individuals who supported urban reform, such as the CEO of Sears Roebuck
headquartered in Chicago; the head of 1<sup>st</sup> National Bank of Chicago,
and even Father Hesburgh, widely respected President of Notre Dame University,
also fell under the baleful eye of Red Squad agents. In effect, anyone
challenging or even questioning the status quo in Chicago warranted watching.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
typical rank and file Red Squad covert agent provided a candid account of his
exploits during the ‘60s. At the outset, Pete Keer (a pseudonym), worked the
streets and parks of Chicago surveilling radical demos. To pass unnoticed among
the subjects he surveilled, Keer dressed hippie-style in ragged jeans and banged-up
old sneakers, wore his hair long, and sported a Zapata mustache. So effective
was his disguise that it occasionally fooled uniformed cops sent to break up
rallies. He got clubbed a few times before he could flash his badge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Working
with a partner, Keer’s routine was to unobtrusively photograph the assembled
protestors and then tail any unfamiliar face leaving the scene and jot down his
license plate. Back at the Red Squad office with the plate number, the team could
then check public records for the individual’s name and address, and a file
would be opened on him in the squad’s voluminous directory of putative subversives.
Occasionally, when the agents got bored on a repetitive surveillance stakeout,
they’d duck out and simply fabricate information for the target’s file.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another
standard op was wiretapping phones of subjects of interest. Describing morning
briefings when the duty sergeant would explain to the field agents – with a
broad wink – that a wiretap without a court order was illegal, Keer chuckled.
Simple taps involved an agent climbing a telephone pole; others required
installing a tap inside a building. To gain access to the basement without
attracting undue attention, Keer would don a fireman’s uniform to carry out a
bogus ‘safety inspection’ of the premises.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Keer’s
most notable assignment was in summer ’68 during the time of the Democratic
Presidential Convention in Chicago. A power in the national Democratic Party,
Mayor Daley was proud to host the convention, but was spooked by scuttlebutt of
hundreds of thousands of hippies and radicals descending on the city to support
Eugene McCarthy’s peace candidacy. The Chicago machine mobilized for the
challenge, including dramatically boosting the Red Squad’s roster to 500 men –
temporarily coopting cops from other divisions of the force.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By
then Keer was specializing in the Chicago branch of the Yippies, the Youth
International Party, and got a choice assignment tailing the national Yippie
leader, Abbie Hoffman. A fellow agent got in even closer, serving as bodyguard
to the unwitting Jerry Rubin, a Yippie co-founder. Although Keer and partner drove
an unmarked car, they followed Hoffman everywhere for a week, were inevitably spotted,
and became familiar to Abbie, who’d give them the finger, and on one occasion
managed to lose the tail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ynQXpzzDNuw/U47VtAmFVvI/AAAAAAAAJ34/u48ojXfu3HU/s1600/102+J+Rubin+on+book+cover+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ynQXpzzDNuw/U47VtAmFVvI/AAAAAAAAJ34/u48ojXfu3HU/s1600/102+J+Rubin+on+book+cover+(1).jpg" height="400" width="272" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jerry Rubin on
the cover of his book, 1971<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Talking
with a writer about his Red Squad career a decade later, Pete Keer had no
regrets. Though he never uncovered any earth-shaking plots, he felt his duties
were necessary and honorable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Red
Squad agents, all plainclothes policemen, were supplemented by a corps of civilian
spies. Estimates of their numbers ranged from 200+ to over 500. Many of them
worked at snooping steadily while part-timers were a sizeable minority. Some
were on the payroll, others pro bono. All were motivated by a strong sense of
patriotic duty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
young woman, Sheli Lulkin, was an exemplar of the civilian apparatus, but quite
atypical. Intelligent, highly articulate, and an energetic natural leader, she
was ideologically-driven, extremely zealous, and an over-achiever when it came
to spying. A Chicago school teacher, Sheli began her clandestine career by
infiltrating and informing on teachers’ organizations from the local to the
national level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kc70plB4_Io/U47WFFPhK6I/AAAAAAAAJ4A/naK6t-RtD3s/s1600/Lulkin,+Sheli+Edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kc70plB4_Io/U47WFFPhK6I/AAAAAAAAJ4A/naK6t-RtD3s/s1600/Lulkin,+Sheli+Edited.jpg" height="400" width="342" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sheli Lulkin,
civilian spy, Chicago Red Squad, 1964<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">An
enterprising informer, Sheli was quite eclectic in the groups she targeted,
from the American Nazis on the right to the Communist Party, Progressive Labor,
the Socialist Worker’s Party, and SDS on the left. She also zeroed in on groups
opposed to the Vietnam War, including the umbrella group Chicago Peace Council,
as well as local affiliates of Vietnam Veterans against the War (VVAW), Women’s
Strike for Peace, and CALCAV (Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">______________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sheli
saw her mission as ferreting out Communinst influence and the ‘terrorist<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">infrastructure’…all
a vast conspiracy to overthrow the American system.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">___________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
her zeal Sheli also infiltrated anti-draft activists (CADRE),university reformers,
the National University Conference, and street-level outfits agitating for
tenants’ and welfare rights. She even got down to the grittiest level of ‘Rising
Up Angry’, a tough group of young white migrants from Appalachia committed to
working with Black and Latino street people trying to ameliorate neighborhood
conditions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Finally,
she penetrated unions as well as local branches of widely respected liberal
organizations – for a grand total of over 80 groups, undoubtedly the record for
a Chicago civilian spy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sheli
not only joined a wide array of groups for nefarious purposes, but given her
talents, often gained influential or leadership positions in the organizations
targeted. She saw her mission as ferreting out Communist influence and the
‘terrorist infrastructure’. Accordingly, in her reports to the Red Squad, she
tarred everyone – liberals and radicals alike – with the same brush. As she later
testified before Congress after being exposed in Chicago, all her targets were
part of a vast Communist conspiracy dedicated to the violent overthrow of the
American system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One
last shadowy adjunct to the Red Squad bears mentioning – the Legion of Justice,
essentially an outfit of right-wing local thugs several hundred strong. Beginning
in ’69, Red Squad agents used the Legion for the dirtiest jobs – all illegal,
but carried out with impunity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Equipped
with crow bars, bats, tire irons, and mace, the Legionnaires pulled off
burglaries of designated organizations, theft of office equipment and files,
physical intimidation of targeted individuals, and outright assaults while invading
premises of radical gatherings. On one occasion their outlaw activity included
firebombing a car, another time shooting through the windows of an office.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During
its heyday the Chicago Red Squad was largely unaccountable. Much of what the
agents and their civilian minions did – until brought up short in the mid-‘70s
by law suits and court orders – fell under the heading of suppressing lawful
dissent – not law enforcement. As a grand jury concluded in 1975, the Red Squad
“had assaulted the fundamental freedoms of speech, association, press, and
religion as well as the constitutional right to privacy of hundreds of
individuals….”*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However,
the Red Squad’s most egregious involvement was complicity in the late ’69
police assassination of the Black Panther leader, Fred Hampton, asleep in his
bed. An undercover police agent serving as Hampton’s bodyguard provided the
layout of his apartment and slipped him a Mickey Finn the night of the police
hit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Under
the cloak of official terminology of ‘subversion and sedition’, the Red Squad
and its adjuncts were actually in the business of protecting the autocratic
Daley organization from liberals as well as radicals. Radicals with their
‘revolutionary’ rhetoric – largely utopian talk – were feared for their
potential to embarrass the mayor and damage the city’s image with their
free-style demos and rallies. Hence, they were considered off the charts – out
there in the political wilderness – justifying the Red Squad’s often extralegal
cowboy tactics against them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
more sedate liberals were regarded as potential challengers to Daley’s grip on
Chicago. With their advocacy of political reform and criticism of police
excesses, they were viewed as natural enemies of machine politics. Thus,
liberals were fair game for Red Squad infiltration, spying, and surreptitious
efforts to neutralize their organizational effectiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
Richard Daley’s Chicago of 1965-75, as one of his aides succinctly put it, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">sanctioning
the extralegal behavior of the Pete Keers, the Sheli Lulkins, and the
Legionnaires of Justice was ‘Do whatever is necessary’, and, as the head of the Red Squad later added, do
it to ‘any organization that could create problems for the city or the
country’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">___________________________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> * R J Goldstein, <b><i>Political Repression in Modern
America</i></b> (1978), 505.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">† <a href="http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2012/07/mission-to-paris.html">http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2012/07/mission-to-paris.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">†† <a href="http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/03/60s-surveillance-culture.html">http://jeffsharletandvietnamgi.blogspot.com/2011/03/60s-surveillance-culture.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1301952642398683604.post-41874714365248468432014-05-21T05:00:00.000-04:002014-05-21T05:41:07.825-04:00Danse Macabre High above San Francisco Bay -- Rise of GI Protest<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It might
be said that GI protest against the war in Vietnam first came to public
attention in South Carolina at Fort Jackson. At least that was the locale of
the first major indication that not all soldiers wanted to ‘get with the
program’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The war
was well underway in the fall of ’66 when Captain Howard Levy, a physician,
refused to train Special Forces because the Green Berets committed war crimes
against civilians. America was again in a hot war, the first since Korea, and
the Army was in a no-nonsense mood. Levy was brought before a court-martial and
sentenced to three years in federal prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">His
martyrdom to conscience made him a <i>cause
celebre</i> in the national media – it was not every day that a medical officer
was sent to prison. But the unflagging US escalation continued, and the Levy
case was soon swallowed up in a cascade of combat stories coming out of
Vietnam. Was it then nothing more than a futile, isolated gesture?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Actually
no, since Dr Levy had been preceded by other GIs breaking ranks. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In June
’65, just months after President Johnson’s initial dispatch of the first US
combat units, a West Point graduate in Vietnam refused to board a plane for a
distant outpost, stating that the war was not ‘worth a single American life’.
He was court-martialed and dismissed from the service. Later in the year,
another officer participated in a civilian peace demonstration stateside carrying an antiwar sign. He was given two years at hard labor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Several
months before Capt Levy spoke up, three privates at Fort Hood TX announced they
would not participate in an immoral war. They too were imprisoned. Just days after
Levy’s conviction in ‘67, two Black Marines were arrested for questioning the
war and in short order sentenced to six and 10 years. In early ’68 an Army
lieutenant was arrested for picketing the White House.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--h35KxGItoA/U3vhzo8IwoI/AAAAAAAAJ2M/DubT1wGD958/s1600/101+VGI+Capt+H+Levy+'67_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--h35KxGItoA/U3vhzo8IwoI/AAAAAAAAJ2M/DubT1wGD958/s1600/101+VGI+Capt+H+Levy+'67_edited-1.jpg" height="400" width="303" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Capt Levy being escorted to the
courtroom, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Other
than the Levy case, these incidents made barely a ripple in the media – the
public barely noticed. The juggernaut rolled on – by December ’65, 165,000
troops had been deployed, and by the end of ’67 the total had topped 485,000.<span style="color: red;"> </span> As Soviet
leader Khrushchev aptly noted, America had staggered into a bog and was caught
in a quagmire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">However,
listening to US commander General Westmoreland (Westy), you wouldn’t have known
it. By late ’67 he was speaking optimistically of our progress in the war, but only
a month later the Viet Cong (VC) launched the Tet Offensive against every major
city in South Vietnam. They were defeated militarily, but achieved a tactical
political victory by piercing the illusion of Westy’s rhetoric.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The VC
had penetrated the US Embassy compound in Saigon, and it was seen live on
television back home. After three years of war the American public got its
first sense that all was not going well. To put a fine point on it, the
country’s most trusted broadcaster, Walter Cronkite, concluded a nightly
newscast with the statement, “we are mired in stalemate.”*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">By ’67
the public, still largely supportive of the war, had become aware of the
burgeoning civilian antiwar movement – massive marches had been mounted in New
York and Washington – but the notion of unrest over the war in the military had
not registered, not even with civilian activists. No one reading a newspaper or
watching television could have missed the fact that the nation had grown
increasingly divided over the war, but the various isolated incidents of GI
protest – mostly hidden away on military installations – had not resonated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Then in
’68 amidst the swirl of dramatic political events, a series of incidents at the
Army stockade, the military prison at the Presidio of San Francisco, at last
called attention to rising GI opposition to the war. However, those events
couldn’t have involved men less likely to have spiked interest in the emerging
GI antiwar movement.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uJRab5N6nDA/U3xyZTWfQWI/AAAAAAAAJ2c/FPAx6UZw50s/s1600/101+Presidio+Stockade.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uJRab5N6nDA/U3xyZTWfQWI/AAAAAAAAJ2c/FPAx6UZw50s/s1600/101+Presidio+Stockade.png" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Presidio stockade, San Francisco<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
prisoners in that stockade were not antiwar activists. Only a few of the 27 men
involved were even conscious of or interested in the war issue. A couple of the
prisoners had served in Vietnam and were proud of their service while the vast majority
consisted simply of maladjusted young men at odds with the regimentation of
military life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It was
the Army itself in the person of the commanding general of the Sixth Army who,
through wild overreaction to their behavior and his own exceptionally poor
judgment, managed to convert a gaggle of relatively apolitical prisoners into
martyrs of GI protest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
event became known by the misnomer, the ‘Presidio Mutiny’. Originally an 18<sup>th</sup> century Spanish
fortress, the Presidio of San Francisco sat on a cliff overlooking the Gold
Gate Bridge. Within the complex was the stockade where soldiers violating military
discipline in one way or another were confined to serve short sentences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Most of
the stockade inmates had gone AWOL – an acronym for ‘away without leave’, a
common offense – and had been caught. The stockade – usually well over capacity
– sometimes had to ration food when the prisoner count soared. Conditions were
miserable – serious overcrowding, too few toilets that regularly backed up, and
arbitrary punishments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Add to
that poor, if not incompetent, prison administration and grudging, surly guards
– some cruel and sadistic – and the stockade became a potential tinderbox of
unrest and unruly prisoner behavior. One prisoner thought the place resembled
an 1850’s insane asylum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Daily
routine involved prisoners leaving the barracks under guard for work details on
the grounds of the base – usually mowing lawns, washing cars, chopping firewood,
and the like. Guards were armed with shotguns and had standing orders to shoot
anyone trying to escape. There had been two shooting incidents in the summer of
’68.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">_____________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The heavy caliber
buckshot hit him in the back, </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">blowing a hole the size of a grapefruit<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">_________________________________</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">That
fall, a mentally unbalanced young GI asked another prisoner for advice </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">on
attempting suicide – a fairly common occurrence at the stockade. He was told half-facetiously that, if all else
failed, he could make a run for it and get shot by a guard. The next morning on
a work detail after taunting the guard, the prisoner did just that – started to
run and was fatally wounded by a shotgun blast.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Looking
at the profiles of the victim and the shooter, there was almost a strange
inevitability that their intersection that day would end in death. Private James
Richard ‘Rusty’ Bunch was a frail, seriously disturbed boy of 19 who had been
in trouble on and off since enlisting in the Army. Caught AWOL, he had arrived
at the Presidio stockade just a few weeks earlier in the fall of ’68.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Even by
the standard for eccentric behavior in the stockade, Rusty stood out as quite
bizarre. He appeared to be living in a fantasy world complete with flying
saucers and Martians. He told fellow prisoners he could walk through walls and
often sat on his bunk conducting two-way conversations with himself and writing
incoherent notes. Before his arrest, he had told his mother he had died twice
and been reincarnated as a male witch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
guard in charge of Bunch’s detail was a 22-year old Mexican-American who reportedly
had served as a military policeman (MP) in Vietnam and was due for discharge in
the next few months. He had little experience with the shotgun he carried. The
guard was well aware there had been a recent rash of escape attempts and that a
fellow guard was being court-martialed while two others were being charged for
escapes occurring on their watch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">During a
smoke break, Rusty Bunch speculated aloud to the other three prisoners in the
work detail whether the guard would actually shoot anyone. Hearing this, the
guard said that if he didn’t open fire on someone trying to get away, he
himself would be punished. There were several versions of what Rusty then said
to the guard:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Will</i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">you promise to shoot me?</i></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">I
won’t run unless you promise to shoot me.</i></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Aim
for my head.</i></span></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: large;"> You’d
better shoot to kill.</span></i></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And <i>If I run, will you shoot me? </i>to which
the guard replied, <i>You’ll have to run to
find out.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
guard thought he was kidding – often prisoners would taunt their minders – but
then Rusty started to run. The guard chambered a round, shouldered the weapon,
aimed, and pulled the trigger. Later he said he intended to shoot at the
fleeing man’s buttocks, but the heavy caliber buckshot hit Bunch in the back,
blowing a hole the size of a grapefruit. He died enroute to the hospital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The brutal
death of Rusty Bunch set off a rumble in the detention barracks – beds were
tossed, windows broken, latrines trashed. That night the prisoners held a
meeting about the killing. All agreed that the victim had been off his rocker.
In a place where behavioral outbursts were not infrequent, Bunch’s strange
pronouncements about supernatural powers and space ships had set him apart.
Confirming his self-destructive intent, death notes were found in his bunk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Nonetheless,
the inmates were outraged and decided that a non-violent protest against the
shooting and to air their grievances against stockade conditions was called
for. The next day, following morning roll call, 27 of them stepped out of the
ranks, walked to the lawn, and sat down in a circle. They were quickly
surrounded by guards, and the stockade commandant was summoned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">When he
arrived, a prisoner stood up and began reading the list of grievances they had
drawn up, but the officer almost immediately interrupted him. Holding a copy of
the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the commandant began reading aloud
the article on mutiny. When the prisoners started singing to drown him out, he
moved to a command car with a loudspeaker and continued.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zcMvjhEnopM/U3xzjdK9byI/AAAAAAAAJ2k/vvnz2YPECCc/s1600/101+VGI+Presidio+demo+'68.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zcMvjhEnopM/U3xzjdK9byI/AAAAAAAAJ2k/vvnz2YPECCc/s1600/101+VGI+Presidio+demo+'68.jpg" height="355" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Demonstration at
the Presidio stockade, 1968<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The group
was ordered to disperse and return to the barracks. Most complied, but some
remained sitting and were carried away by the MPs who had arrived. The 27 were
confined to the barracks while the stockade commander conferred up the chain of
command. In an over-reaction to a peaceful protest, the politically
conservative commanding general of the Sixth Army confirmed the decision to
press mutiny charges against the 27.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A
preliminary inquiry was held before a military judge – the equivalent of a
civilian arraignment – to determine if charges were justified and, if so, under
which article of the UCMJ to proceed in a general court-martial. Army defense
counsel for the 27 argued cogently for a lesser offense than mutiny – willful disobedience
– but the prosecutor, echoing the command line, insisted on going forward with
the extreme charge of mutiny.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A mutiny
conviction in the event of violence carried a maximum penalty of death by
hanging – in other instances life imprisonment. The lesser offense of willful
disobedience entailed a max of three years confinement and a dishonorable discharge.
Obviously, having gotten the word from on high, the presiding judge came down
for mutiny.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Normally,
soldiers charged under the most serious articles of the military code are court-martialed
individually before a military tribunal, but the 27 were broken up into several
groups for a series of collective trials, a procedure which effectively made
defense more difficult.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
first batch tried – the alleged three ringleaders – were defended by both
military and civilian counsel. Prominent among the latter were Terence Hallinan
and Howard DeNike of the San Francisco bar. Defense counselors did their best
on behalf of their clients in the face of command bias in a system aptly described
as ‘military justice is to justice as military music is to music’. At the heart
of the proceeding were differing perceptions of what had happened to Pvt Bunch,
whose death was the catalyst for the alleged mutiny.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iFlRt7CaBvw/U3xzsIuxBBI/AAAAAAAAJ2s/TyygUt0MSP0/s1600/101+VGI+Terence+Hallinan+'03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iFlRt7CaBvw/U3xzsIuxBBI/AAAAAAAAJ2s/TyygUt0MSP0/s1600/101+VGI+Terence+Hallinan+'03.jpg" height="320" width="258" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Attorney Terence Hallinan, San
Francisco, 2003<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There
was a <i>Rashomon</i>-like quality to the
conflicting versions of prosecution and defense. To an outside observer in
retrospect, the victim had clearly set out and managed to achieve so-called
‘suicide by cop’ or in this instance by armed guard. The competing versions of
Rusty Bunch’s death, however, were irreconcilable – justifiable homicide vs
murder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Argument
then turned to motive for the ensuing protest, at the core of which was whether
it was simply a peaceful demonstration (the defense), or a mutinous assembly,
an ‘unlawful concert’ in the language of military jurisprudence (the
prosecution).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">From
the defense table, motive was described as a reaction to a fellow prisoner’s
death, but the prosecution held a radically different view. For the Army, the intent
of the unlawful concert was antiwar, anti-military, and in opposition to the Johnson
administration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">______________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Was the motive
simply a peaceful protest or a mutinous assembly?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">_____________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
latter assertion of intent prevailed despite defendant testimony that at the
barracks planning meeting the night before there had been absolutely no
discussion of US policy in Vietnam. In fact, the list of grievances drawn up
had entirely concerned local stockade conditions and the guards’ inhumane
behavior.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
first trial concluded predictably with a verdict of guilty of mutiny by the
panel of officers. Taking note that no violence had occurred, the court abjured
the maximum penalty but handed down extremely stiff sentences of 14 to 16 years
imprisonment. The defendants were stunned. The San Francisco press promptly ran
news of the heavy sentences, and public outrage in the Bay Area – a hotbed of
antiwar sentiment – was immediately ignited.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The news
and reaction to it soon went national and reached the halls of Congress.
Several members took to the floor in protest, and the phones began ringing at
the executive suites of the Pentagon. It was felt in Washington – both in senior political and military circles – that
the Presidio 27 had been over-charged under the UCMJ and that the sentences
were wildly excessive for what had transpired.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
Secretary of the Army felt the heat and reacted swiftly. The Sixth Army
commandant was contacted and urged to tone things down in subsequent trials,
but, given the Pentagon’s policy of not interfering in courts-martial within
commands, the general ignored the signal and proceeded with mutiny
prosecutions. But exercising command prerogative, he reduced the sentences to
two to five years, which, however, did not quiet the negative public and
political reaction to the case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Having
received thousands of letters protesting the sentence, the Secretary of the
Army took action. The Army’s top jurist, who normally reviews all court-martial
verdicts, with barely time to glance at the long trial record quickly reduced
the five-year sentences to two years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Shocked
by the outcome of the initial proceeding, defense counsel mobilized for the
ensuing courts-martial<s>s</s>. Studies were made of the backgrounds of the 27,
and psychiatric expertise enlisted. The survey of the defendants presented a
sad picture of young men from checkered personal situations who were almost
uniformly unfit for military service and unable to adapt to Army life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">___________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Undeterred,
military justice ground on; </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">all remaining defendants were convicted.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">___________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">They
were largely small town boys from unstable families where alcohol abuse was
rife and children suffered violence. Some of them were runaways, truancy was
not uncommon, and several had been abandoned by one or both parents. Many were
school dropouts or had been expelled. The median education for the 27 was 10<sup>th</sup>
grade. Some of the soldiers had exceptionally low IQs, well below the Army’s
minimum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Individual
stories were horrific. One defendant’s mother had been involved with a dozen
men before he was 15 while another never lived in one place longer than 18
months. Most had enlisted to escape from the family or to get out of trouble
with the law. The deceased, Rusty Bunch, who, according to his mother, was a
quiet, religious boy, had joined up when his best friend was drafted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All of
the 27 had been AWOL, some multiple times. One man went AWOL on his first day
of Basic Training, another took off after just three days in the Army, while
seven others never made it through the eight-week course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Once in
the stockade, suicide attempts were not infrequent – usually by cutting one’s
wrists – one prisoner who did so was bandaged up and sent back, only to hang
himself with his bandages – or drinking
toxic liquids. In some instances guys were trying to get a psychiatric discharge,
a so-called Section 8, but others were seriously trying to kill themselves, one
man five times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The
stockade authorities classified all suicide attempts as ‘suicide gestures’
merely designed to gain attention. Usually the man would be patched up and
thrown in an isolation cell on reduced rations. No surprise then that an Army
psychiatrist examining one of these individuals exclaimed, “My God, you’re
insane – what are you doing in the Army?”**<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Testifying
for the defense at a follow-on trial, a prominent civilian psychiatrist told
the court that at the time of the demonstration, all 27 “if given proper
psychiatric testing by military authorities, would have been declared unfit for
service.”***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Undeterred,
military justice ground relentlessly on, and all remaining defendants were
convicted. However, the public furor and Pentagon concern over adverse
publicity for the Army had reached such a level that the heretofore obdurate
General Larsen had abandoned his crusade. Sentences went from one extreme to the
other – from the original 16 years to a few months. The rest of the 27 ended up
with three to 15 months confinement time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">By the
conclusion of the final court-martial in June ’69, Pvt Bunch had gone from a
tragic figure to an unintended public martyr to the rise of GI protest against
the Vietnam War. Given his heavy-handed reaction, General Larsen had nearly
singlehandedly stimulated GI antiwar protest and the public’s awareness of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">No
longer isolated acts, by ’68 GI opposition had begun to come together into at
least an inchoate movement spanning stateside bases, European and Far Eastern
installations, and the military’s most vulnerable point – among the troops in
Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Early in
the year, brother Jeff Sharlet, back from his Nam tour, had founded the first
GI-edited antiwar paper addressed to the troops – <i>Vietnam GI</i> (<i>VGI</i>), which,
along with <i>The Bond</i> and <i>The Ally</i>, formed the trio of papers that
inspired the creation of dozens, eventually hundreds, of GI underground base
and unit papers. As the Presidio trials proceeded, <i>VGI</i> and the local GI papers seized on the case as a rallying point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In 1970
the Presidio Mutiny case gained an enduring place in the annals of the GI
movement thanks to Fred Gardner’s still definitive book – <b><i>The Unlawful Concert: An Account
of the Presidio Mutiny Case</i></b> – dedicated to “Jeff Sharlet, founder of <i>Vietnam GI</i>, dead at 27.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">No one
put the impact of the case better than Hal Muskat, a major GI activist of the
day, speaking years later, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <i>The Presidio 27 was the best thing that ever<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> happened to the GI
movement – it put us<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i> on the front page. </i>****<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">_________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">*CBS
television news, February 27, 1968.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">**R
Sherrill, <b><i>Military Justice is to Justice as Military Music is to Music</i></b>
(1970), 31.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">***<i>Ibid</i>, 21.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">****G
Nicosia, “The Presidio 27,” <i>Vietnam
Generation</i>, vol 2, no 1 (1990), 77.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Karenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03600466853173516354noreply@blogger.com0