Vietnam Veterans Against The War - Post Vietnam War Activities

Post Vietnam War Activities

By 1973, US combat involvement in Vietnam ended, and VVAW changed its emphasis to include advocating amnesty for draft resisters and dissenters. President Jimmy Carter eventually granted an amnesty in 1980.

There were two significant battles fought simultaneously by VVAW after the fighting in Vietnam ended in 1975, that of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Agent Orange.

As VVAW gained members in the late 1960s, they realized that many veterans were having readjustment problems. As early as 1970, VVAW initiated "rap groups" in which veterans could discuss the troubling aspects of the war, their disillusionment with it, and their experiences on arriving home. They enlisted the aid of two prominent psychiatrists, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton and Dr. Chaim F. Shatan to direct and add focus to their sessions. Their continued pressure and activism caused what had been known as "Post-Vietnam Syndrome" to be recognized in 1980 as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The VVAW "rap group" treatment methods are the basis for treating PTSD today.

In 1978 Chicago Veterans Administration caseworker Maude de Victor noticed a pattern in cancers and other illnesses suffered by Vietnam veterans and linked those illnesses with exposure to herbicides like Agent Orange, and its dioxin contaminants. VVAW led veterans organizations in the struggle to force the government to test, treat and compensate the victims of those poisons. Congress mandated a study of Agent Orange in 1979. Veterans sued the herbicide manufacturers, Dow Chemical and Monsanto, in 1982. Two years later the companies settled the suit for $180 million to compensate what at that time was over 200,000 claimants.

These were lonely campaigns since the "main stream" veterans groups regarded Vietnam veterans as "crybabies and losers" in general, and VVAW in particular was seen as being unpatriotic and anti-American. A natural ally, Vietnam Veterans of America, was not founded by VVAW member Robert Muller until 1978. It was not until 1990 that the American Legion and VVA filed suit against the government for failing to conduct the study ordered by Congress in 1979.

Several members moved on to prominent positions in society. In 1978 former VVAW member Bobby Muller co-founded the Vietnam Veterans of America. Former member John Kerry became Lt. Governor of Massachusetts in 1982, and won a United States Senate seat in 1984. Ron Kovic went on to write Born on the Fourth of July, an autobiography which became an Academy Award winning movie in 1989.

Every five years, members and former members attend regular reunions, with the 1992 event attracting hundreds of veterans to commemorate the founding of the organization twenty five years earlier. VVAW continues to organize programs and fundraising events in support of veterans, peace, and social justice. ”