The Winter Soldier Investigation: An Inquiry into American War Crimes.

by Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Wrapper "More than a 100 Vietnam veterans gathered in Detroit to testify about how the US [was] waging war in Indochina. For three days--1/31 & 2/1-2/71--the Vietnam Veterans Against the War talked about what they had seen & done in Vietnam, information which was often testimony to American war crimes as defined by international law. The verbatim transcript of the hearings runs almost 1,000 pages. This abridgement highlights crucial testimony from some 75 veterans as well as statements from 4 of the civilians who also appeared in Detroit."Need for Investigation. Remarks by Sen. Mark O. Hatfield of Oregon In the Senate of the United States, Monday, 4/5/71.Opening Statement of William Crandell 1st Marine Division !st Air Cavalry Division Weapons Panel 3d Marine Division Racism Panel "What Are We Doing To Ourselves?" Prisoners of War Panel Miscellaneous Panel Third World Panel "What Are We Doing to Vietnam?" 25th Infantry Division & Public Information Office 82nd & 101st Airborne Divisions & 173rd Airborne Brigade 1st, 4th & 9th Infantry Divisions Americal Division Medical Panel Closing Statement of Don Duncan

Genres: History, War, Politics, Nonfiction, College

cloth

Published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in college. It was quite upsetting, not just for the graphic, first person descriptions of the atrocities committed by our military in SE Asia, but also because of my confused feelings about the individuals who allowed themselves to be used by the government, those who gave up their wills and bodies to the authority of others. I myself was a resister who got off easy. This allowed me an easy sense of moral superiority. However, the fact that I did not suffer for my resistance, that I was never threatened with, say, military service or jail, meant that my smugness had little real foundation. What would I have done in such a circumstance? I would have feared either prospect, prison or the barracks, but prison would have seemed scarier since most military personnel never actually faced combat or even went to Vietnam. Yet, if I had chickened out, gone into the US Armed Forces, this would clearly have been an immoral choice.

My moral condemnation of the young men who spoke at the VVAW meeting in Detroit was, of course, qualified by reading their testimonies of shame, guilt and traumatization. They had all done evil, but they had all paid a price for it and, to their credit, had the courage to go public.