Just curious.
I'm very interested in hearing more about antiwar efforts IN Vietnam. You tell
me a very interesting story. First of all, your story leads to a few questions:
Can you tell me the names of a few hospitals that were used in Vietnam for
drug treatment of soldiers?
To be perfectly honest, I can't remember the names. There was a hospital in Cam Rahn Bay and if memory serves me right, one near Longh Binh. These hospitals, where the 'sick" were to be treated for their "illness," before being returned home, were locked and guarded facilities with barbed wire and armed guards. Although some people were treated to proper medical help, they were not quite the picture being painted to the worried American public at the time.
I think you're saying that soldiers who had antiwar sympathies were sent to these hospitals as "patients," regardless of whether they had a drug problem or not. After their "treatments," they were discharged from the military -- with their reputations smeared by a drug problem. Am I correct?
Yes, you are correct. I don't know to what extent this happened, but without doubt it did happen. Soldiers who exited the army from these hospitals also had to spend a few weeks at hospitals back home before getting discharged from the army. Although the DD214 discharge papers never said "druggie" on it, they listed the last assignment from wherever the hospital was located. For some, that hospital was located in Leavenworth, Kansas. Having Leavanworth on your discharge papers was a definite black mark and could and did cost people jobs.In addition to using the drug test to weed out undesirables, the army set up a camp in Cam Rahn Bay (and perhaps other places) to house the GI's who were more into fighting the military than the "enemy." Inside this camp, the army took away all of the soldier's rights. They were restricted to the camp and forced to do hard physical labor day in and day out, until a young man went AWOL one night and located an army lawyer and woke him up. The next day the lawyer was at the camp serving notice to the military commander that he had to stop and desist this type of inhumane treatment.
I assume you have some firsthand knowledge about the situation. Are you willing to share it for the anthology? Do you know of anyone else who has a similar perspective?
Yes, I do. But, to me honest, although a number of us had antiwar attitudes, the military revolt against the war was equally against the army itself, the treatment we received (cannon fodder, etc.). I'm not sure it would support your anthology, even though it is a story that needs to be told.
By the way, can you also tell me about military antiwar activities?
There is a very thin line between anti-army and anti-war activities. The end result is that both of these activities helped bring the war to a close, but it is hard to differentiate them.