Newspaper Page Text
APRIL 30, 1971
Student Marches in Washington
Vietnam Veteran Against the War Seeks
Termination of Southeast Asian Conflict
By JEANNE MATHEWS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
“We want the people of this
country to quit praying for peace
and paying for war, and we’ll tell
them how it is if we have to make
them sick at every meal,” said
the blond-haired, moustachioed
West Georgia student. “We want
to communicate with people,
have them accept things the way
they really are.”
This student, William (Buddy)
Carroll is an intense young man.
His belief that something is
terribly wrong with this country
came out more and more during
our interview. However, Carroll
is different from many of the
nation’s intense young men - he is
trying to work through the
system to change it.
Carroll’s belief that the people
can influence governmental
policy was what led him to
Washington in the first place. As
a member of the Vietnam
Veterans Against the War
organization, the 25-year-old
former warrant officer pilot
spent several days in the nation’s
capitol last week lobbying for an
immediate end to the war in
southeast Asia.
ATROCITIES
“I didn’t even know about the
activities in Washington until two
days before I left,” he said, “but I
had been interested for a long
time in giving testimonials about
my experiences in Vietnam.” He
added that he wanted to “con
vince government officials of the
importance of immediate with
drawal” from that country and to
“talk about the daily atrocities”
that are being committed there.
Carroll himself talked to as
many officials as would see him,
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WILLIAM (BUDDY) CARROLL was one of hundreds of Vietnam
veterans who spent last week in Washington lobbying for an end to
the war in southeast Asia. The West Georgia student is trying to
organize a Vietnam Veterans Against the War chapter here.
although a number of
Congressmen were “out” to the
visiting servicemen. One case in
particular he mentioned involved
an incident that came about as
his group tried to see
Representative Fletcher
Thompson of East Point.
“We tried for two days to see
him, and finally the third day we
got to his office before he did,”
said Carroll, “He was trapped.”
The student went on to say that
Thompson wouldn’t believe that
they were really veterans and
asked for their names, rank, and
serial numbers. According to
Carroll, he sent the three num
bers he did get to the Pentagon
for verification.
DISBELIEF
Also, he said that the
congressman refused to believe
some of the incidents they had
witnessed, or taken part in, in
Vietnam, especially when one
veteran told how he had obeyed
orders to kill civilians. Thompson
refuted the testimony.
Carroll emphasized his own
feelings of horror now that he is
back home. “I am a murderer,”
he said, “and so are my friends.-
The men just don’t realize what
they are doing over there. The
Army teaches them to hate gooks
(Vietnamese), and it’s im
possible for men to draw the fine
line between enemy and non
enemy.”
Not only is the veteran upset
about the killing of innocent
people, but he is irritated by the
total waste of land, food, and
natural resources that the Army
inflicts upon the countries in
THE WEST GEORGIAN
Southeast Asia. The Americans
have a “super-racist” attitude
toward all Vietnamese, he
claimed, and that is one reason
for the slaying of innocent
civilians.
HOSTILITIES
Otherwise, the veteran noted
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AT THE CONCLUSION OF their Washington protest last week, Vietnam veterans threw away
their medals and honors. One young man bitterly tossed away a cane during the moving
ceremony in front of the Capitol.
that men have been conditioned
to murder long before they arrive
overseas. “In the beginning
children see it on the news, or
they see cowboys killing each
other, and later the Army
dehumanizes them by filling
them with hate and cutting off
sex drives. What else can you do
but take out hostilities on the
Vietnamese?”
While in Washington, Carroll,
like hundreds of his fellow
veterans, left his medals in front
of the statue of John Marshall at
the Capitol. In doing so, the West
Georgia freshman gave up his
service medal, air medal, wings,
officer’s insignia, and 26 oak leaf
clusters.
Often the protesters felt super
discouraged, he said. Once while
returning to the capitol to find out
about senate hearings, a man
came out of a government
building and began screaming
obscenities at his group.
He did add, however, that he
had left a senate hearing because
he feared “a bunch of radical
freaks were possibly going to
mess it up.” Later, he said, this
same group shaped up inside and
made a fine showing.
TURNED AWAY
The former pilot was among
those who marched to Arlington
National Cemetery and were
turned away at the gates.
Although the next day a similar
group was allowed in, Carroll’s
group did hold a memorial ser
vice outside the gates after they
were refused admittance.
Carroll began taking Capitol
tours during his second day in
Washington in order to try and
reach the average citizen.
However, the student said that
people appeared “afraid” of him,
and so later he managed to talk
with office staffers in a doughnut
shop in the Capitol basement.
Although he felt these people
were also unsure of his motives
and seemed to suspect that he
might be an infiltrater, they did
talk to him.
The Vietnam Veterans Against
the War presented a 16-point
demand to government officials
in Washington. Carroll himself
was at first fearful that some of
these demands were “a little too
strong,” he feels that all of them
are valid arguments.
SCAPEGOATS
He foresees two possible ways the
government can possibly follow
up the veterans’ petition. “They
can find more scapegoats like
Calley,” he said, “only higher up,
and when they get to the top
ranking officers, they’ll be told
that these men didn’t know
anything about those daily war
atrocities.”
Carroll’s chief hopes are that
the people, as well as the
government, will accept the
things that have gone on and
begin to change things. He
believes that the requests of more
than 8,500 servicemen who state
emphatically that they took part
in such atrocities, witnessed
them, and are willing to confess
and be tried for them will be
heard.
Carroll’s immediate plans are
to return to Washington soon to
testify at the McGovem-Kennedy
hearings which have been
initiated by the two senators to
probe incidents in Vietnam which
the veterans reported.
KENTSTATE
As for himself, when asked why
he came to West Georgia after he
came home from Vietnam,
Carroll insisted that he didn’t. “I
was so sick of America that I just
traveled all over the country
trying to find some good left in
it.” He was in Canada when the
Kent State slayings came about
last spring and “almost didn’t
come home.” He finally came
because he professes to believe
that if the people of America can
be awakened to the horror of
PAGE NINE
Vietnam, then the country’s
involvement in the war over
there can be ended.
Slightly bitter, he said that job
opportunities aren’t “too good”
for returning servicemen. He
began to travel after he was
unable to find a job, and finally
came to West Georgia because
his brother David went to college
here.
“I want to talk to as many •
people as I can about the war,”
he insisted. “I will be available
for discussions, talks, or lectures
because I want to communicate
with the people about what
exactly is going on over
there.”
The young man’s sincerity was
most apparent when he quietly
acknowledged, “I’m not proud of
my part in the war at all. If
someone could only give me a
reason for being there...”
And so, concluded the student
who spent 19 months in Vietnam,
fighting a political war against a
loosely defined enemy, faced
with joblessness at home and
confronted with personal shame.
DEAF EARS
Buddy Carroll is at home now,
hoping for a brighter war-free
future for his children by talking
continuously to anyone who will
listen to his tales of woe and
horror.
Fletcher Thompson wouldn’t
listen, President Nixon flew to
Camp David, and an unknown
man hurled epithets at the
veterans his country had sent
overseas. Yet, Buddy Carroll and
others like him will continue to
confront the public with the truth
about Vietnam.
Will anyone hear them, or
better yet, will anyone un
derstand the words of John
Kerry, a veteran who addressed
a senate committee - “Each day
to facilitate the process by which
the United States washes her
hands of Vietnam, someone has
to give up his life so that the
United States does not have to
admit something the whole world
already knows, so that we don’t
have to say ‘we made a
mistake.’
