Student Questions: NLF and the Peace Movement

[David G. Healy]

"Seventy-nine percent of the men who served in Vietnam had a high school education or better when they entered the military service. Three-fourths of the soldiers had family incomes above the poverty level. (In 1969, my income as soldier was only slightly above the poverty level, in spite of a middle class background and a four year undergraduate program prior to being drafted into service. The Issue of Military pay effects the statistics here. One could do a study of the number of soldiers who dropped socio-economically, because of military service.) Fifty percent of the US Soldiers in that war were from middle income backgrounds. Some twenty-three percent of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial or technical occupations. 76% of the men who served as US Soldiers in Vietnam were from lower middle/working class backgrounds. (In the US, then and now, a good percentage of younger workers begin in the lower midddle/working class and as they age they work their way up.) According to Barry McCaffrey, Servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do areas had a slightly elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or infantry officers. He has also pointed out that Vietnam veterans' personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent. (Speech by Lt. Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, (reproduced in the Pentagram, June 4, 1993) assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Vietnam veterans and visitors gathered at "The Wall", Memorial Day 1993.)" (Bob Fromme)

The above is a bit self serving, at best! Let's get to the REAL figures, those figures that make: Be, All You Can BE in the ARMY television commercials, look foolish!

1 in 10 that served in Vietnam from 1959 - 1975 were line or direct combat support troops at the business end of a shooting war, that's 1 in 10. Which covers USArmy Infantry, Army Aviation, Artillery, Armor [all combat arms units], the US Marine Corps grunts and associated combat arms units, some Navy direct combat seamen and of course the Air Force/Navy Pilots. These folks made up, and suffered, 95%+ the casualties [KIA, MIA,WIA - killed in action - missing in action - wounded in action... 1 in 10! Determine how many "1's," served in direct combat get your fuzzy math going see what that total is, then we'll get to the 57,000+ names on the WALL! Hopefully, your fuzzy math will tells us what "those names represent" and what their socio-economic condition was, not to mention individual RACE.

A Infantry Line Company 2nd Lt. squad leaders' life expectency was, what? Less than a day in combat? Not as bad as a PRC-25 operator, but close.

Who does the fighting and WHO does the dying isn't a secret! McCaffrey's a good guy, too bad he likes FOX, but he's a pawn of the system -- he'll tell us what he's told to tell us, we call it "damage control" this side of the pond. Vietnam was a huge screwup, and we got another one on our hands. As do the Brit's!

Which leads me to believe a few posts hereabout resemble -- propoganda, from a few US flag draping neocons.

In short, rep's from the current GOP (Grand Old Party - Republican) administration and a few *Swiftless* shills have arrived on this forum.

Welcome aboard guy's!

David Healy

[Richard Pullen]

I doubt the U.S. peace movement helped or hurt anyone, anywhere, at any time. I see how the movement may have made the war last one day longer- or maybe, it was one day shorter. Irrelevant.

Did you see the peace moves by some 1 million Americans protesting our Iraq invasion THE DAY we invaded?? They've been proven irrelevant, right? The mainstream press either ignored or lied about the number of protesters. Simply made um irrelevant and took the wind out of their movement in a day! KWEL!!

The U.S. gov consists of 3 branches; the exec, ledge, and jud. Plainly we should see - If your not a member of one these branches-... if your just a student people, or a working people, or a parent people, or a protesting people.....Your irrelevant.

Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, didn't want, nor write it this way in 1776. In fact they warned us irrelevants this could happen. Sorry for my part in making it this way. I don't even know what happened. How we became so irrelevent. (well, I sorta think I do.)

Seems to me, young people have a war to fight. And its not in Iraq.

Again, I think the 60's-70's peace movement, of which I was a part, did not help or hurt the VC. I doubt they knew it existed. And it changed nothing in regards to time or the style of struggle in VN.

Richard Pullen

(VN-69-70)