Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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, Jp ' ' i,\ J i m J mk w&Bm * m . 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 §i JM fei wM 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.’