CASE OF THE FORT HOOD.
THRER
By Dick Roberts
For the past two weeks, attention in “the “world press, has “been drawn away from the U.S. bombings and slaughter in Vietnam onto the question of what would happen if Hanoi decided to. try U.S. Pilots who have been captured in that country. “pony
The Johnson administration has attempted to usé’ this question to stir up prowar support among the American people while making threats of a major. "retaliatory". escalation of the war. if the trial takes place. The.so-called doves in the U.S. government have found: in the question a means of diverting attention from their own. ‘failure to slow the war down in. any way whatsoever. “eth
Most importantly, the worldwide publicity given to the eee sible Hanoi trials, has obscured a trial that is actually taking place in the United States, and is the most significant new, development in the antiwar movement in this. country. This is the.. trial. of three GI's:who have refused to gO. to Vietnam. .
The three are Pfc. James’ Johnson, a 20- year-old Negro, Pvt. David Samas, a 20-year-old white of Lithuanian and Italian parenthood, and Pvt. Dennis Mora, a.Puerto.Rican aged 25. Johnson, Samas and Mora were arrested. on. July 7. just. one-half. hour before they were scheduled to speak at a public mee ting in New York. City to explain. their. position. ._ :
They were taken -- two of them in handcuffs -- to Fort Dix, New Jersey, and held under tight restrictions for a week. When they were ordered to go to Vietnam, they refused;. and now they are being held in the stockade at. Fort. Dix, awaiting court-martial.
Johnson, Mora and Samas| originally had announced their intentions on June 30, at a New York. press conference, while they were on the 30-day leave preceding ‘their shipment to Vietnam. "We have decided to take a stand against this war," they stated in a Joint press release, "which we consider immoral, illegal and unjust...
"We have been in the army. long enough to know that we are not ‘the only GI's who feel as we do. Large numbers of men in the service either do not understand this war or are against it....We | know that Negroes. and Puerto Ricans are being drafted and end up in the worst of the fighting, all out of proportion to their numbers in the population; and we have. first. hand knowledge that these are the ones who have been deprived of decent education and jobs at home.
"We have made our decision. We will not be a part of. this unjust, immoral. and illegal war. We want no part of a war of extermination. We oppose the criminal waste of American lives and resources. We refuse to go to Vietnam! !!!"
The case of the "Fort Hood Three" -~- which they are called because the three GI's had been stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, for basic training -- has received widespread support from antiwar committees throughout the country. These committees are doing everything possible to get the facts about the case into the hands of other soldiers.
This activity includes leafleting bases and towns near bases, and bus terminals -- a place where you can be certain of meeting a steady flow of soldiers on their way to and from nearby bases.
The meeting at which the three GI's were scheduled to speak prior to their arrests was sponsored by the New York Fifth Avente Peace Parade Committee, the organization which sponsored the two “massive antiwar protests in New York, October 16 and March 26. This was the committee which the GI's first turned to when they werelooking for help from the peace movement.
Although | the GI's couldn't be present at the necting, it was held anyway, andthe wives and other relations of the GI's presented their speeches instead. Pvt. Samas' wife, Marlene Samas, read the speech which he had written. In part of it, Samas described the police harassment which his parents had been subjected to:
"The Modesto city police visited my parents in California - Saying they had been sent by some ‘higher authorities,'...." Samas wrote. "It didn't prove hard for the police to persuade my parents into believing I was being used as a tool of the Communists. They were told that I was in serious trouble and that the only way for them to help was to reveal my address to the police..."
When Samas talked to his parents, he wrote, "they told me what the police had said to them. Although they have absolutely no authority the Modesto city police had offered me a deal. They had told my father that if I would retract my statement and withdraw completely from the civil action now in progress that I would receive a discharge from the army and no serious repercussions would result. In their concern for me my parents believed this fantastic story."
Samas concluded his speech: "The GI should be reached somehow. He doesn't want to fight. He has no reasons to risk his life. Yet he doesn't realize that the peace movement is dedicated to his safety. Give the GI something to believe in and he will fight for that belief. Let them know in Vietnam that you want them home, let them know that you are concerned about their lives also. Tell them you want them to live, not die. Bring our men home in Vietnam!
"The three of us here, James, Dennis, and I came to the movement for help and we received help. We asked for support in our stand and we received that support. We asked for money for the case and have gotten some. ~The legal aspects of our case are numerous and
complex, “bit: we. cannot depend. alone upon our: legal stand. The war ‘ni Vietnam:.canmot be stepped just by legal action. The war can only bee ‘Stopped. with the” sympathy. “of: the public.
“In, the end’ we depend entirely upon the public. We - have placed ourselves.in the hands of the people of the United States, — and all our hopes lie with them. We risk our futures and maybe our lives on the hopes of the American public. We need your help."
On Saturday; July 9, two days after the arrest, several hundred antiwar activists went to Fort Dix to distribute a leaflet containing the facts of the case. Two hours before they arrived, the _ army closed: off the town to GI's, attempted to herd as many of them ‘as possible back to the base, and to | Prevent. any soldiers from | get ting the leaflet. a oo
In the base, it was later learned from GI's themselves, -the army attempted to indoctrinate the soldiers that A.J.Muste, co- ° chairman of the Fort Hood Three Defense Committee, was a "well known Communist.". July 11 Muste dispatched .a- telegram | to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, reading in part: _
"We have evidence that Fort Dix personnel have been briefed in a manner which would discredit the Defense Committee and the peace groups which are giving moral support to the young men under detention and personnel have been told that the undersigned [A.J. . Muste] was deprived of his clerical Standing because he was a 'Communist.' This is completely false.
"We request the opportunity to correct any erroneous information the. military personnel may have been given. ae "We repeat our conviction that young men in the armed services are entitled to engage freely in discussion about issues related to the Vietnam War with fellow personnel. .
"Citizens are likewise entitled to communicate the truth about the war to servicemen and the peace movement is determined to exercise that right." - ~The last two.sentences of that telegram seem to be the key to: the: work of the antiwar committees in the Fort Hood Three case. Leaflets, simply. printing » the facts about the. case, have been given to soldiers at various terminals, and these have led to lively conversations about the nature of: the war and the case. In some instances soldiers have taken bundles of leaflets back to their bases.
The Fort Hood Three Defense Committee has urged national and international support to this work. While the three soldiers themselves are restricted from.receiving letters, they may receive telegrams, and the Fort Hood Three. Committee has issued the following directions in this regard:
"Send. telegrams of. support.to the three men themselves. They are under tremendous pressure and the antiwar movement must let them know it is backing them up. Telegrams should be addressed individually to Pfc. James Johnson, 51581277, Bldg. 6769, Fort Dix, N.J. or Pvt. Dennis Mora, 51581308, Bldg. 6769 5 Fort Dix, N.J., or Pvt. David | Samas, 56408577 Bide. » 6769, Fort Dix, N.dJ." ~