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We are well into the new year--and ever greater concern about our nation's leaders and the domestic and international problems they pose.
One thing we agree with Ken Burns about is that the national experience with Viet Nam still echoes today. However to learn its lessons productively, we must more honestly recall what took place and why.
In this newsletter, we review how we honored the fiftieth anniversary of the march on the Pentagon and invite your participation in remembering the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre on March 16th.
Other fiftieth anniversaries that are notable in 2018 have already included the indictment of Dr. Spock et. al. for supporting draft resistance plus the Tet Offensive. Ahead of us are the McCarthy and Kennedy campaigns, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the Democratic Convention protests and two national draft card turn-ins.
Wide distribution of the PBS Vietnam Series provides many opportunities for broader grass roots education.
Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee
Sally Benson *
David Cortright *
Ann Gallivan *
Susan Hammond * Susanne Jackson *
Frank Joyce *
Steven Ladd *
Paul Lauter *
John McAuliff *
Terry Provance *
Brewster Rhoads *
Nancy Jane Woodside
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The media is already noting the significance of the 50th anniversary of the massacre at My Lai on March 16th. This offers a reason for us to go deeper about the horrific event itself and how it was mishandled by military and political leaders. It is also a moment to direct attention to similar still hidden smaller atrocities as well as the larger atrocity of the human costs of the war then, and of the reality that it is still taking lives today.
We ask you to consider doing the following:
1)
Add your name
here to a public appeal for moral responsibility that will be released for the anniversary. Circulate this link to your lists tinyurl.com/MyLaiAppeal
2) If you live near Washington, join the
vigil at the White House
on March 16th, and educational programs Thursday through Saturday.
3) Create a
vigil in your own community
in front of the office of a Senator or Representative.
4) Incorporate the My Lai liturgy into
religious services
on the March 16-18 weekend.
5) Organize a community or campus event to
watch and discuss the videos
"Four Hours in My Lai" and "Winter Soldier", based on the shattering hearing organized by veterans to bear personal witness to other atrocities.
6) Be part of commemoration ceremonies at My Lai itself with survivors and descendants, the centerpiece of a two week program for anti-war activists in Vietnam (deadline for last minute registration March 1, 2018).
More information about these projects on our
website.
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Articles
Excellent Wikipedia entry
here
"The Ghosts of My Lai" in Smithsonian Magazine
here
Books
"My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness" new book by Howard Jones
"The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story" by Trent Angers
Videos
"Four Hours in My Lai, Anatomy of a Massacre" Yorkshire Television on youtube
here
"Winter Soldier" testimony by veterans at the hearing they organized on atrocities (DVD available on Amazon)
"Whistleblower of My Lai" The preview of a moving new film by Connie Field about the making of Kronos opera on Hugh Thompson and My Lai can be seen
here
Web site
Best source on agent orange, land mines, unexploded ordnance
here
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| Peter Yarrow at the Pentagon vigil October 20, 2017 |
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Celebrating the March on the Pentagon
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We were very pleased by the participation and content of our program honoring the 50th anniversary of the March on the Pentagon October 20-21.
Brief reports and links to videos can be found on our
web site . There was good local media coverage of our vigil at the Pentagon on Friday, the 50th anniversary of the first mass turn-in of draft cards that led to the indictment of Dr. Benjamin Spock, et. al.
The morning sessions of the conference on Saturday were broadcast by C-SPAN. We have posted links on our web page to its archive and to our own videos of the afternoon programs. Dan Ellsberg was not able to join us, but sent an excellent video linking then and now that can be seen
here or by clicking below.
The walk to the Vietnam Memorial opened for the first time at least symbolically the issue of what it would mean to recognize all the people killed in the war. As illustrated by the poster, one wing of the memorial would go beyond the Pentagon and the other beyond the Capitol building.
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Echoes of the PBS Vietnam Series
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PBS reported t
hat across the 10 nights of the series, "The Vietnam War" reached more than 33.8 million viewers and had an average audience of 6.7 million. As of November all 10 episodes of the series have been streamed more than 8.4 million times, including 620,000 streams of the Vietnamese language version.
A donor has made it possible for 25,000 copies of the DVD set to be donated to schools, which will presumably make use of the PBS teachers' guides that can be seen
here.
VPCC member Paul Lauter, former President of the American Studies Association, is working on Ten Questions of use to educators that will be posted on our web site.
A thoughtful overview appeared in
The Christian Century,
"The Vietnam War was worse than just a tragic miscalculation
".
The author is Lyle Jeremy Rubin, a Ph.D. candidate in American history at the University of Rochester, who served in the Marine Corps for five years, including nearly a year in Afghanistan.
We have posted other articles on the blog. Suggestions of additions should be sent to [email protected]
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Voices of Conscience Conference
University of Notre Dame
May 22-24, 2018
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The Kroc Institute is sponsoring"Voices of Conscience," a conference at the University of Notre Dame in the Hesburgh Center for International Studies. It will examine the history and moral and political implications of opposition to war within the military during both the Vietnam and Iraq wars.
Details here
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The Pentagon Papers Revisited
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A review of Stephen Spielberg's memorable film "The Post" was written by Rick Goldsmith, co-producer and co-directer (with Judith Ehrlich) of "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" (2009) His review
here
contains a link for inexpensive rental viewing of the Ellsberg film, an invaluable complement to Spielberg.
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Martin Luther King Backed Draft Resisters
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Recently discovered brief footage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at a demonstration
at Santa Rita Jail
in support of draft resistance, January 1968. .
View it here.
His full speech can be heard
here
from about
minutes
2:30 to 11:30. Either could fit into programs for April 4th, the 50th anniversary of King's assassination and the 51st of his Riverside Church sermon on the war.
(Preparations should begin now for April 4 readings and discussions of the sermon so King's courageous and costly anti-war leadership is part of the memorialization of his death one year later. Worth watching here, last year's 50th anniversary program at Riverside Church. Particularly notable is the speech by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, which begins at 1:06.)
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Since VPCC reconstituted itself after Tom Hayden's memorial
a year ago, we have forged ahead with a part time
representative
in Washington (Terry Provance), a national committee of volunteers and a network of local activists. Personal contributions and grants from $10 to $5,000, with most in the $25 to $100 range, have made that possible.
To sustain an otherwise unheard voice,
we depend on you.
Make tax deductible contributions
or by mail, payable to "Fund for Reconciliation and Development"
64 Jean Court, Riverhead, NY 11901
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