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This is Who We Were: In The 1970s

1971: Vietnam Veteran

After two tours of duty in Vietnam, James Delucca joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War to protest war crimes resulting from American policies and to assist Vietnam vets in gaining benefits.

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Life at Home

James Delucca was conceived in a 1,200-square-foot home 30 miles north of Philadelphia, in a moment of enthusiasm shortly after World War II ended.
The first-born son of a World War II veteran, James was often told how blessed he was to have clothes on his back and food on the table.
His father worked as a warehouse manager for a company that manufactured air conditioner systems; James's mother was an elementary school teacher.
The family was very patriotic and felt it was their duty to display an American flag on their front doorstep every day.
When the forecast called for rain, James's father would make him take down and properly fold the flag with him.
He was taught never to let the flag touch the ground or to show disrespect for the people who fought for the freedoms that they enjoyed.
James was consumed with playing war with his friends, who pretended to be American heroes fighting against the evil Germans or the Japanese devils.
All the while, James's father stayed on alert, positive that soon a nuclear attack would end the world as he knew it.
He even worked with the neighbors to build a bomb shelter stocked with canned goods and water, just to be safe.
The economy was growing rapidly in postwar America, with people buying automobiles, televisions and, of course, air conditioning systems.
The gross national product grew from 200 million in 1940 to over 500 million by 1960, giving rise to an expanding middle class in America.
As James got older, his father often said, “There is no greater honor than to die for your country.”

Vietnam vet James Delucca was a vocal anti-war protester.

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James also learned about Communism and the devastating effect it could have if it spread throughout the world.
His Catholic priest told the congregation it was a good thing to kill Communists.
James wanted to be a hero like his father.
In 1965, with high school winding down and the Vietnam War escalating, James enlisted in the army.
Many of his friends did not believe that the United States belonged in the war, especially in a country no one could find on a map.
James's father lectured him about weak, unpatriotic people; when America called, his father said, a patriot responded.
James responded with two tours of duty in the jungles of Vietnam.

James was an infantry soldier.

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Life at Work

During his first tour, James Delucca was an infantry soldier.
War was wet, bewildering, exciting, and depressing.
Within weeks of arrival, he participated in a night-patrol firefight that haunted his dreams for months.
Almost a third of the men in his unit had been killed or wounded within the first six months.
James witnessed ambushes, torture and death until he was almost numb to its reality.
There was no time to be a patriot; in Vietnam it was either fight or die.
He could never explain why he signed up for a second tour; maybe fighting was all he knew.
The second time he was in-country, sleeping was impossible, especially when it rained.
By late 1967, the fighting grew more intense, the strategy of fighting more inexplicable, dissatisfaction with the war more pronounced.
One day, he said out loud, “This is pointless.”
At that moment, he was ready to see the end of a war that turned kids into killers.
James was shot twice in his left leg in March of 1968.
He almost bled to death because both bullets hit his upper thigh.
He was moved to a military hospital and sent back to the states after recovering from his injury.
When he returned, he saw that there was almost as much conflict in the states as there had been in Vietnam; thousands of middle class Americans were demonstrating against the war he had been fighting.
However, his father was still a proud patriot.

In Vietnam, it was either fight or die.

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Protesting the war became a full-time job for James.

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Feeling nothing like the person who had left his family and friends after high school, James moved to New York City.
He applied for and received a job with a furniture store in uptown Manhattan and became an assistant manager after only eight months.
As he looked for a way to become involved in the peace movement, he saw anti-war demonstrators passing his store one day carrying a banner that read “Vietnam Veterans Against the War.”
James was intrigued.
Over the next couple of months he followed the progress of these veterans from a distance as they participated in debates and attracted coverage in The New York Times.
People were actually listening to what they had to say.
Intrigued by their message, James officially joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in October of 1969 and was immediately asked to help active-duty soldiers understand their alternatives to war.
But when he participated in his first full-scale demonstration behind the banner of VVAW, he was able to give full-throated expression to his frustration.
James finally felt like he was part of something he could believe in.
In September 1970, he was one of the first vets to sign up for a march that retraced the trip of George Washington's Revolutionary rag-tag army to reach Valley Forge.
Dramatically enough, the march was called RAW for Rapid American Withdrawal.
The purpose was to give Americans a feel for the types of conditions that their soldiers were experiencing.
The Rapid American Withdrawal march had the potential to teach people—even his father—the absolute horrors of the war in Vietnam.
For weeks James and other veterans posted flyers all over New York City designed to shock: “Help Us To End This War Before They Turn Your Son Into A Butcher!”
The march was directed at middle America; the VVAW wanted President Nixon's “silent majority” to experience the war.
In all, 150 veterans joined Operation RAW for the 86-mile march from Morristown, New Jersey, to Valley Forge State Park.
Finally, veterans who had served in the jungles of Vietnam could expose the horrible conditions there as well as the war crimes.
On the day of the march, all of the veterans dressed in army fatigue and those who received purple hearts wrapped a red-stained gauze armband around one of their arms.
They all carried toy M16 rifles.
Most had long hair, beards and a look of determination; James thought them a fearsome group.
During the march the veterans acted out a number of powerful scenes, assisted by professional actors, who often portrayed captured Viet Cong soldiers or terrified civilians.

Many Vietnam veterans sought to expose war crimes as a way to help end the war.
Whenever the march arrived at a town, the vets chained the terrified actors together as Vietnam hostages and screamed and pushed the actors to the ground.
Protesting the war became a full time job for James.
The marchers then fired their toy weapons at fleeing civilian actors or simulated the torture interrogation of a suspected Viet Cong prisoner.
No ears were cut off during the brutal questioning, but they came close, James observed.
At times, the veterans mixed the past and present so powerfully that the actors were truly terrified; Americans witnessing the guerilla theater were horrified and confused by what they saw.
The press was mystified by the display of street theater.
Some felt that these demonstrations were idiotic and pointless; others claimed they demonstrated how bad the conditions in Vietnam really were.
Hundreds of people followed the march with cameras documenting the entire event; 1,500 greeted the VVAW when they reached Valley Forge Park.
No matter how the public felt about the protest, James knew the VVAW was being heard and making a strong national impact.
James then quit his job to help organize the Winter Soldier Investigation in 1971.
His father was scandalized and told James he would not be welcome at the annual Thanksgiving gathering.
The Winter Soldiers Investigation intended to gather testimonies of war crimes that were taking place as a result of American war policies.
It was time to lay the blame for atrocities at the feet of those who made policy, not the soldiers who carried them out.

Anti-war propaganda.

Life in the Community: New York City

Vietnam Veterans Against the War was founded by six Vietnam war veterans after they marched together with over 400,000 other protesters in the April 15, 1967 Spring Mobilization to End the War anti-war demonstration.
After talking to members of the Veterans for Peace group at that march, the veterans discovered there was no organization representing Vietnam veterans.
Their purpose was to give voice to the growing opposition among returning servicemen to the decade-long war in Indochina.
VVAW also took up the struggle for the rights and needs of veterans.
In 1970, they started the first discussion groups to deal with traumatic after-effects of war.
They were instrumental in exposing the harmful health effects of exposure to chemical defoliants such as Agent Orange.
They also exposed the neglect of many disabled vets in VA hospitals and helped draft legislation to improve educational benefits and create job programs.

Anti-war veterans acted out powerful scenes, assisted by actors portraying captured Viet Cong soldiers or terrified civilians.

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Vietnam War Timeline

1950 The United States sent the first shipload of arms aid to pro-French Vietnam. 1954 The Viet Minh overran the French fortress at Dien Bien Phu. 1955 The first U.S. advisers to South Vietnam were sent to train the South Vietnamese Army. 1956 President Dwight Eisenhower said the French were “involved in a hopelessly losing war in Indochina.” 1961 President John Kennedy ordered 100 “special forces” troops to South Vietnam. 1962 President Kennedy ordered a build-up of American troops in Thailand to counter Communist attacks in Laos. 1963 South Vietnamese President Diem and his brother were assassinated outside of Saigon. 1964 The U.S. military contingent in Vietnam increased by 5,000 to total 21,000.
U.S. Navy destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy were reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin resolution affirming “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States.”
The U.S. declined an offer of secret peace talks with North Vietnam. 1965 A guerilla assault against the military barracks at Pleiku left eight Americans dead; President Johnson ordered a retaliatory air strike against North Vietnam known as Operation Rolling Thunder.
Alice Herz set herself on fire in Detroit shortly after President Johnson announced major troop increases and the bombing of North Vietnam. Hanoi restated a peace proposal. Quaker Norman Morrison set himself on fire and died outside Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's Pentagon office. Congress appropriated $2.4 billion for the Vietnam war effort. 1966 The U.S. dropped 600,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam. Bombing began around Haiphong and Hanoi, North Vietnam. 1967 Nguyen Van Thieu was elected president of South Vietnam. Congressman “Tip” O'Neill broke publicly with President Johnson and opposed continuation of the Vietnam War. 1968 The Communists launched the Tet Offensive, including attacks on nearly all 44 of the capitals of South Vietnam's provinces.
The My Lai Massacre occurred in Quang Ngai province. President Johnson announced he would not seek re-election and ordered a bombing halt. Draftees accounted for 38 percent of all American troops in Vietnam; over 12 percent of the draftees were college graduates. 1969 Expanded peace talks opened in Paris with representatives of the U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the National Liberation Front (NLF).
President Richard Nixon proposed an “8-point Peace Plan.”
President Nixon talked of a “Vietnamization” program to prepare the South Vietnamese to take over the U.S. combat role. An estimated one million
Americans across the United States participated in anti-war demonstrations, protest rallies and peace vigils.
President Nixon said he planned the withdrawal of all U.S. troops on a secret timetable. Congress gave the president the authority to institute the “draft lottery” system aimed at inducting 19-year-olds.
Chief U.S. negotiator Henry Cabot Lodge and his deputy resigned, expressing pessimism concerning the course of the negotiations. President Nixon announced the reduction of another 50,000 troops by mid-April 1970. A presidential commission recommended the institution of an all-volunteer army and elimination of the draft. 1970 News of increased U.S. involvement in Laos and Cambodia surfaced. President Nixon announced the withdrawal of another 150,000 troops over the next 12 months to lower troop strength to 284,000.
President Nixon issued an Executive Order that ended all occupational deferments and most paternity deferments.
U.S. forces invaded Cambodia, causing widespread war protests.
Four Kent State college students were shot to death by Ohio National Guardsmen during an anti-war protest, spawning protests nationwide. A peaceful anti-war rally held in Washington, DC, was attended by about 80,000 people including 10 members of Congress. The McGovern-Hatfield Amendment, providing for the withdrawal of all American troops by December 31, 1971, was defeated by the Senate.
President Nixon signed a bill repealing the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The army began a campaign to intercept and confiscate personal mail containing anti-war material sent to soldiers in Vietnam. A two-year extension of the draft passed the Congress; 48 percent of manpower for the army were draftees or “draft motivated.”
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, numbering 2,300, came to Washington, DC, to participate in Dewey Canyon III, “a military incursion into the country of Congress”; many threw away their military medals and ribbons at the foot of the statue of Chief Justice John Marshall.
Ten days of protests by a group calling themselves the “Mayday Tribe” included attempted work stoppages at several federal offices in Washington, DC. Approximately 10,000 anti-war protestors were arrested in Washington, DC. The Pentagon Papers were published.
U.S. troop levels dropped to 156,800. The U.S. heavily bombed military installations in North Vietnam.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

"1971: Vietnam Veteran." This is Who We Were: In The 1970s,Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GH1970_0006.

APA 7th

1971: Vietnam Veteran. This is Who We Were: In The 1970s,Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GH1970_0006.

CMOS 17th