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109 Vietnam veterans and 16 civilians made statements about war crimes they had either committed or witnessed during the years of 1963- 1970. Journalists and film crews recorded the event, and a transcript was later read into the Congressional Record. The most complete transcript is available here.
Prompted by revelations from numerous investigations into war crimes, such as the Russell Tribunal, National Veterans Inquiry and Citizens Commissions of Inquiry , leaders of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War saw the need for a large scale public hearing. With the murder trials for the My Lai MassacreThe My Lai massacre (pronounced Me Lie was a massacre by US American soldiers of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children, on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. It prompted widespread outrage around the world and reduced pu making front page news, and the recent disclosure by members of the CIA's Phoenix ProgramThe Phoenix Program known as K Hoch Phng Hoang (a word related to fenghuang, the Chinese phoenix) in Vietnamese, was a covert intelligence operation undertaken by the US Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA) in close collaboration with South Vietnamese intel of its record of terror, torture and murder, the VVAW was determined to expose a broad pattern of war crimes in Vietnam. The Winter Soldier Investigation (WSI) was organized to show that criminal incidents like My Lai were not isolated and rare occurrences, but were instead the frequent and predictable result of official American war policy.
The groundwork for what would become the Winter Soldier Investigation was laid by Jeremy Rifkin, Tod Ensign, Michael Uhl and Bob Johnson of the Citizens Commission of Inquiry (CCI). In search of first hand information on war crimes, they contacted the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and gained the support of VVAW co-founder Jan Crumb. During the summer of 1970, the CCI were approached by Al HubbardAlfred H. Hubbard is an Air Force veteran that entered the Air Force in October 1952, re-enlisted twice and was honorably discharged 14 years later in October 1966, when his enlistment expired. At the time of his discharge he was an Instructor Flight Engi who had become a full-time organizer with VVAW. Al proposed that CCI join forces with Jane FondaJane Seymour Fonda is an Academy Award winning American actress, model, writer, producer, activist and philanthropist. Biography Born December 21, 1937, in New York City, to actor Henry Fonda and socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw. She was named after Lady, Mark Lane, Rev. Dick Fernandez of Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam (CALCAV) and Donald Duncan (the Green Beret who had testified at the Russell Tribunal in Denmark). An initial steering committee formed of Duncan, Ensign, Fonda, Lane, Hubbard, Rifkin, and Fernandez continued to organize the WSI through September, 1970.
Among the growing collective of organizers, differences of opinion and direction arose concerning the planned public event. VVAW leaders felt it should be an all-veteran event, to maintain its credibility. Less than three months into planning for the Winter Soldier Investigation, most of the Vietnam veteran organizers and Jeremy Rifkin had become adamant that WSI disassociate itself from Mark Lane. Lane had recently published a book, Conversations with Americans, which was denounced by a Vietnam expert in the Sunday Times Book Review as a poor piece of research. A new six-member steering committee for WSI was composed of three national office leaders (Al Hubbard, Craig Scott Moore, and Mike Oliver) and three members of the growing list of chapters (Art Flesch, Tim Butz, and William F. Crandell), reflecting the increasing importance of the membership.
The organizers of the national hearings separated into two groups, each developing their own events. The CCI advanced its plans for a December event in Washington, DC, while the WSI's new organizers continued with the original plan to hold its hearings in Detroit. The Washington, DC, event would be called The National Veterans Inquiry. The Detroit event would be called the Winter Soldier Investigation. Seven of the 142 total participants would provide testimony at both events.
The support of antiwar celebrities was considered essential. Jane Fonda and her agent, Steve Jaffe, created a series of benefit concerts to raise funds, including "Acting in Concert for Peace," in which Fonda, Dick Gregory, Donald Sutherland, and Barbara Dane performed, and two musical concerts given by Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young), and by folk song legend Phil Ochs.
The WSI also relied on considerable community support. Five Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic clergymen arranged housing for witnesses because, as Dr. John B. Forsyth, director of missions for the Detroit Metropolitan Council of Churches put it, "it is important that the public realize that American atrocities in Vietnam are an every day occurrence." Attorneys Dean Robb and Ernie Goodman raised money from local area lawyers. UAW Secretary-Treasurer Emil Mazey and Michigan Secretary of State Richard Austin also endorsed the program and sought contributions for it.
The purpose of the Winter Soldier Investigation was to show that American policies in Vietnam lead to war crimes. In the words of one participant veteran, Donald Dzagulones, "We gathered not to sensationalize our service but to decry the travesty that was Lt. William Calley's trial for the My Lai Massacre. The U.S. had established the principle of culpability with the Nuremberg trials of the Nazis. Following those principles, we held that if Calley were responsible, so were his superiors up the chain of command — even to the president. The causes of My Lai and the brutality of the Vietnam War were rooted in the policies of our government as executed by our military commanders."
The name "Winter Soldier Investigation" came from Thomas Paine's first Crisis paper written in December 1776, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in which he wrote:
These words were written to inspire a depressed band of American patriots whose number had diminished due to a series of defeats - the "sunshine patriots" and "summertime soldiers" having deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough. Thomas Paine had begun a series of pamphlets which helped inspire the American Revolution. There were those, known as Tory conservatives, who branded Paine and his fellow patriots as traitorous radicals. The principles of freedom and liberty were radical ideas and independence the treason for which these patriots fought and died. They were the original Winter Soldiers.
Future Senator John Kerry, then a decorated Lieutenant in the Naval Reserve (Inactive), while later speaking before a Senate Committee, further explained "We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out."
The gathering of testimony had begun under the aegis of CCI the previous summer, and it took almost two months of on-site planning in Detroit to put the conference together. Detroit was proposed by Fonda because of its central location in the American heartland, and the "blue-collar" social status of most of the residents. The steering committee set up a collective in a house on the industrial east side of Detroit with the help of Catholic antiwar activists; and five clergymen of different denominations, including the director of missions for the Detroit Metropolitan Council of Churches, offered housing for the witnesses.
The program was crammed with testimony, with 109 Vietnam veterans to appear on panels arranged by unit so they could corroborate each other's reports. Grouping these veterans by unit would also help to establish that events and practices to which they testified were unit-wide policy, and not just random and rare occurrences. Several civilian experts who had been to Vietnam were also to speak during this event. Arrangements had been made to include the testimony of several expatriated Vietnamese students residing in Canada, but they were denied visas to the United States by the Canadian government.
Organizers also investigated the legal implications of veterans publicly admitting to criminal acts which they had witnessed or participated in. With legal assistance from the Center for Constitutional Rights they were able to conclude that the armed forces could not try veterans for alleged crimes committed while they were on active duty. The veterans giving testimony were also instructed not to reveal the specific names of others involved in war crimes. The goal of these hearings was not to indict individual soldiers, but instead to expose the frequency of criminal behavior and its relationship to U.S. war policy.
As confirmed by the subsequent investigative work of Burkett, Lewy and others, there were many imposters and liars who joined the ranks of the anti-war movement, and, in some cases, falsely claimed to have witnessed war crimes and atrocities in order to get attention and sympathy. In one documented case, a particularily convincing fraud was able to obtain medals and honors. The organizers of the Winter Soldier Investigation were acutely aware of this, and took several steps to guarantee the validity of the participants.
Each veteran's authenticity were checked before the hearings by the investigation event organizers. To help prevent the Detroit hearing from being tainted by irregularities, all of the veterans testifying fully identified the units in which they had served and provided geographical descriptions of where the alleged atrocities had taken place.
Those who wanted to testify were carefully screened by Oliver, Hubbard, Scott Moore, and other officers of VVAW, as well as by Fonda and her associates, to make sure that they were who they said they were, that they had served where they said they did, and that only the strongest testimony went before the microphones.
After the severe criticism of the accuracy of Mark Lane's book a month before the event, the organizers of the Winter Soldier Investigation made the credibility of the participants a top priority. All veterans participating in Winter Soldier were required to bring their discharge papers (DD-214's) and IDs.
In addition, Oliver and Moore had fashioned a special "atrocity room" in a nearby house, with hundreds of papers taped to the walls -- lists of troop movements and unit assignments which they correlated with the individual claims of war crimes that were being brought before them every day.
As noted in VVAW records, each veteran's authenticity and testimony were checked after the hearings by Nixon's "plumbers." Charles Colson was assigned the task. In a CONFIDENTIAL "Plan to Counteract Viet Nam Veterans Against the War", Colson wrote, "The men that participated in the pseudo-atrocity hearings in Detroit will be checked to ascertain if they are genuine combat veterans." At one point, the Nixon team suggested in a memo about VVAW, "Several of their regional coordinators are former Kennedy supporters." With the exception of an attack on non-participant Al Hubbard, revealing that he had lied about his rank (Staff Sergeant E-5 instead of Captain), nothing worse was ever produced by these investigations.
Despite this meticulous documentation, several of the Midwest papers and news organizations, such as the Detroit News, tried to discredit the hearings by questioning the authenticity of the veterans who testified. Discharge papers were closely examined; military records were checked against the Pentagon records; with all their digging, not one fraudulent veteran was discovered. The Detroit Free Press reported daily of participants that had been confirmed by the Pentagon as veterans.
However, NBC News did later discover that VVAW executive and Winter Soldier co-organizer Al Hubbard had lied about being an officer. William Overend had met him and he had been introduced as being a former Air Force captain. Overend later learned Hubbard was only an E-5 Staff Sergeant. Hubbard did not testify at Winter Soldier.
Fritz Efaw, a Chapter Representative of VVAW, explains: "The claims that the WSI hearings contained falsified testimony from men who were not veterans is an old one, and it's definitely false. The testimony was startling even at the time it took place: startling to the general public, startling to the military and the Nixon administration, and startling to those who participated because each of them knew a piece of the story, but the hearings brought a great many of them together for the first time and provided a venue in which they could be heard for the first time. It's hardly surprising that those on the other side would set out almost immediately to discredit them."
The three days of testimony was presented by unit:
In the evenings, and in between panels, the veterans held talks on such subjects as "What We Are Doing to Vietnam," "What We Are Doing to Ourselves," violations of international law (including outlawed weapons), POW's, racism in the military, and press censorship. There was also a special panel of psychiatrists, several of whom had served in Vietnam, discussing the impact of the war on American society. The first public testimony about the potential toxicity of Agent Orange was given by Dr. Bert Pfeiffer of the University of Montana. Midway through the hearings, the organizers insisted that no one make statements on behalf of the Vietnam veterans except for vets. It was presumed by reporters that this was to separate the participation of veterans from that of people like Mark Lane.
In an opening statement at the beginning of the three day hearing, William Crandall stated:
As riveting as the atrocities testimony was, some of the insights given by veterans into the clandestine workings of American foreign policy -- illuminating, for the first time, what would come to be known in future investigations as the secret or "shadow government" of the United States -- had even greater national impact. Perhaps the most startling news to come out of Winter Soldier was the revelation of the U.S. invasion of Laos in February, 1969 -- code-named Operation Dewey Canyon I.
Five veterans described their role in the invasion, claiming that an entire regiment of the Third Marines had penetrated several miles into that neutral nation, conducting combat maneuvers along Highway 922 and beyond, and "suffering dozens of casualties in fierce fighting." They further charged that the U.S. military had refused to medevac out (evacuate by air) the wounded and dead, to prevent press discovery. Their expose made front-page headlines in Detroit and Chicago, and a follow-up investigation by the Detroit Free Press uncovered other veterans throughout the country who testified to having taken part in the operation. The testimony was explosive because the Pentagon had issued a blanket denial only days before, declaring: "We have never had ground troops in Laos." Indeed, during the event a Marine Corps spokesman said "We can say of a certainty that no platoons or any large number of marines ever crossed the border."
The revelation of Operation Dewey Canyon was followed for days and months by other news stories in which American military personnel testified to systematic fighting in Laos. In late 1972, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Boston Globe ran credible stories asserting that the United States had regularly transported combat troops into Laos over a sixteen-month period that extended to the very end of 1971. The witnesses were helicopter pilots from the 101st Airborne who had participated in the top-secret program code-named Prarie Fire coordinated by Command and Control North in Da Nang. Although the missions, consisting usually of mercenaries commanded by Army Special Forces, were primarily intended to gather intelligence, these troops had been involved in combat and several had been killed. Such missions were in violation of the Cooper-Church amendment, passed in 1970, which prohibited the use of American ground troops in Cambodia and Laos. But even before Cooper-Church was passed, it would have been a violation of international law for the United States to launch combat troops against a neutral nation. And even as these missions were occurring, the Pentagon was issuing statements denying that American combat forces were operating in Laos, and asserting that all Special Forces had already been withdrawn from Vietnam.
One of the points brought out at Winter Soldier, and verified in subsequent news stories, was that servicemen participating in these illegal missions into neutral countries were often required to sign papers in which they promised never to tell the true location and nature of their activities. When they went out on the missions, they wore uniforms stripped of all American insignia and personal identification tags, and if caught in Laos they were under no circumstances to reveal their true identity; but even if they did, the United States would not acknowledge them as its soldiers. On certain missions the Americans even dressed in North Vietnamese Army uniforms and carried the Russian weapons commonly used by the NVA.
On Monday, April 5, 1971, Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon made the following address on the Senate Floor:
As noted by author Gerald Nicosia in his history of the Vietnam veterans movement Home to War,
While no one involved with the Winter Soldier Investigation, and subsequent Senate hearings, ever accused "all" servicemen of misconduct - it was obvious the problem had grown beyond "isolated incident" status. The problem was perceived by the participants as epidemic, and was seen as ignored and even condoned by leaders at all levels in the military and government. Winter Soldier was the culmination of efforts to finally bring national attention to this situation, and to expedite the end of America's participation in the Vietnam conflict.
Mainstream media all but ignored the Winter Soldier Investigation. The East Coast papers refused to cover the hearings, other than a New York Times story a week later. The local field reporter for the New York Times explained that he found nothing newsworthy to report because "this stuff happens in all wars." There were a small number of articles sympathetic to the veterans in the underground press. Pacifica Radio, with major channels on both coasts, devoted to a pacifist, left-wing perspective on current events, gave them excellent coverage. The CBS television crew that showed up were themselves deeply impressed, but only three minutes made it to the nightly news on the first night. The veterans still showed inexperience when handling the press that did show up, but overall the Winter Soldier event was very well organized for such a large-scale event.
The Detroit Free Press printed several stories about the event, including comments from the military. This included confirmation by the Pentagon that participants investigated by reporters were Vietnam veterans as well as a denial of large scale activity in Laos.
The words of the participants have been permanently recorded in the Congressional Record. Portions of the testimony, as well as some photos of the event, appear in a book produced by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and John Kerry entitled The New Soldier.
In addition, film footage of the event, as well as some pre-event and post-event footage, and commentary can be found in Winter Soldier: A film / Winterfilm Collective in association with Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Winterfilm, Inc., 1972.
Despite significant fundraising efforts by supporters of the VVAW, the cost of the Winter Soldier event financially bankrupted the organization. Organizers of the event hoped to recoup some of their expenditures through the above mentioned book, film and recording deals. At the event, Jane Fonda was saying that copies would be available for $300.
The U.S. participation in the Vietnam conflict was the source of much deeply divided sentiment among Americans. The Winter Soldier Investigation produced a conglomerate of testimony resulting in the implication and indictment of American leadership in criminal conduct, and thereby further drove a wedge between proponents and opponents of the war. Many people viewed the Winter Soldier procedings with a critical eye, and questions have been raised about the testimony given at the Winter Soldier Investigation. Details in the testimonies have been questioned, as have the identities of participants, since the first day of the three day investigation. It has been claimed that participants were frauds; that they were told to not cooperate with later investigators; that their testimonies were inaccurate or just plain fabricated. For more than thirty years since the WSI, individuals and organizations have sought to discredit or at least minimize the painful revelations brought forth at that event. To date, no records of fraudulent participants or fraudulent testimony have been produced.
In August 2004, Steve Pitkin stated in a sworn affidavit that " John Kerry and other leaders of that event pressured me to testify about American war crimes, despite my repeated statements that I could not honestly do so. One event leader strongly implied that I would not be provided transportation back to my home in Baltimore, Maryland, if I failed to comply. Kerry and other leaders of the event instructed me to publicly state that I had witnessed incidents of rape, brutality, atrocities and racism, knowing that such statements would necessarily be untrue." Pitkin did give testimony, but not about war crimes or atrocities. Pitkin is shown in the Winter Soldier film, as well as the Going Upriver film. Pitkin has subsequently admitted his recollections were flawed, and has re-issued an affidavit now reflecting a different date of discharge from the Army, different people travelling with him to the Winter Soldier event, and different circumstances under which he joined the VVAW. Pitkin was not among the summary of scheduled participants which was given to the press at the start of the event. Pitkin testified during the third panel of the third day; the section reserved for any remaining veterans that wanted to speak, but were not scheduled. Veterans speaking during this panel were instructed to be brief, as there were several volunteers yet very little time remaining.
Kerry's former brother-in-law, David Thorne, attended the Winter Soldier investigation. When interviewed about Pitkin's recent statements, Thorne flatly denied Pitkin's charges. "Kerry never forced anyone to testify to war crimes in any way. Kerry went to Winter Soldier to listen to what they had to say and to investigate for himself," Thorne said. Scott Camil, another participant at WSI, filed a separate affidavit directly refuting several allegations made by Pitkin.
On September 23, 2004, another veteran recalls: I testified at the Winter Soldier investigation in 1971. I told the truth and to my knowledge not a single statement has ever proven to be false. I have heard a lot of false claims that the people at winter soldier were not veterans. If so many people were frauds at the Winter Soldier Investigation, why hasn't someone released the names of the vets who falsely testified? Wouldn't this be front page news? Maybe one or two frauds slipped through but I doubt it. The truth of the matter is no one was allowed to testify at the Winter Soldier Investigation unless they had DD214 military separation papers. For years I tried to tell everyone who was willing to listen, about the official and defacto policies of our government that were against the Geneva Convention. They were in fact war crimes. I testified before Congress, before the U.N. Human rights Commission, at the Winter Soldier Investigation, at public hearings, at the Philadelphia Naval Base Criminal Investigation Department, and at the Pentagon. We spoke out against the POLICIES of our government, that were in violation of US law as well as International law. We never spoke out against our fellow soldiers. After all they were our friends, family members and neighbors. I went to the Naval Criminal Investigation Division and told them if they were interested in pursuing those responsible for the policies that resulted in war crimes, I would give them a sworn statement including pictures of war crimes that I personally took. They said they would get back to me but they never did. No one has ever challenged my statements, nor has anyone ever proven that I have made any untruthful statements. From my experiences as an infantry veteran, I was deeply concerned about my fellow soldiers in Vietnam being killed, or coming home severly injured. I wanted the war to come to an end, so that the destuction and madness in Vietnam would also come to an end. I lost many friends in Vietnam. Some were fellow soldiers and others were friends that I grew up with and knew from an early age. Earlier this year (2/ 2004), I returned to Vietnam and visited the old basecamps and battlefields from my year in Vietnam 35 years ago. It was reassuring and very healing, to experience the peace, that is the reality of today's Vietnam. Almost no one in Vietnam talks about the "American War." To them it is ancient history. It is certainly sad to see so many of the old wounds being reopened and the old debates argued once again. In 1971, the members of VVAW were looking for a way to help put an end to the war, and bring peace to this country, as well as Vietnam. The members of VVAW that I knew were good people, with good hearts, that were trying to do the right thing. I have no regrets about working for peace. I still know many VVAW members today. All of them are very proud of their efforts in working for peace. It's time to put the Vietnam debate behind us. It's time to debate the current issues of today. And, let the chips fall where they may.
Hoa Binh
John Beitzel, Vietnam Veteran
4/21 Infantry, 11th Bde, Americal Division. 1/ 1969 - 1/ 1970
Member - VVAW 9/ 1970 - 9/1971
Winter Soldier - Jan/Feb- 1971
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