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The Winter Soldier Investigation was a meeting of American Vietnam War veterans as well as civilians at which information was given alleging atrocities against the civilian popualtion of Vietnam by U.S. troops.

The meeting took place in Detroit, Michigan, on January 31-February 2, 1971 as an activity of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and was presented as an assembly of 109 Vietnam War Veterans and 16 civilians which alleged specific war crimes by the United States in Vietnam during the years of 1963-1970. The soldiers' testimony often overlaps, alleging a pattern of atrocities against the Vietnamese people. According to Stolen Valor author Burkett, the investigation has been thoroughly discredited, while the VVAW maintains the validity of all accounts and participants except Al Hubbard. Hundreds of known violations were prosecuted by the military, however, none of those testifying specifically at this event are known to have been prosecuted.

Jane Fonda helped raise funds for the event, and organizers included Dick Gregory, Phil Ochs, Graham Nash, David Crosby, and Donald Sutherland.

Future Senator John Kerry, then a decorated lieutenant in the Naval Reserve (inactive status), would shortly thereafter testify before the American Congress to the general conclusions gathered in Detroit. Prior to Winter Soldier, Kerry interviewed some of the participants to familiarize himself with their complaints. They were officially interviewed during the three day hearing in Detroit by moderator Al Hubbard, while Kerry observed.

Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon entered the Winter Soldier transcripts into the Congressional Record and asked the commandant of the Marine Corps for an investigation of the Marines that testified. Investigators were unable to confirm or refute the claimed atrocities, but identified one organizer (Al Hubbard) as never being in combat. Guenter Lewy in America in Vietnam says "The results of this investigation, carried out by the Naval Investigative Service are interesting and revealing ... Many of the veterans, although assured that they would not be questioned about atrocities they might have committed personally, refused to be interviewed. One of the active members of the VVAW told investigators that the leadership had directed the entire membership not to cooperate with military authorities."

Testimony Troubles the Nation

The February 2, 1971, Detroit Free Press interviewed two other soldiers in James Weber's unit who confirmed his statements about a white phosphorous artillery attack on a village, and had photos of a nearby large arms cache uncovered in the village. The Pentagon confirmed that Weber and one of the other soldiers were Vietnam veterans.

Phony Vietnam veterans alleged in books

Guenter Lewy's 1978 book America in Vietnam (pages 316-317) and B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley's Stolen Valor (Verity Press, Inc., Dallas, Texas)(pages 113, 131-137) contain similar information about alleged flaws in Lane's book. Neither book, however, refutes any of the testimony given during the Winter Soldier Investigation.

• Lawyer and leftist activist Mark Lane was one of the organizers of Winter Soldier. In 1970, Lane had published a book called Conversations With Americans purporting to be interviews with Vietnam veterans about war crimes, containing Vietnam tales of atrocities. Reporter Neil Sheehan showed some interviewed in Lane's book had never served in Vietnam and others had not been in the situations they described. Lane admitted he did not check military records, as confirmation of details was not relevant. Lane later confirmed these militarty records.
  • The following are often falsely listed as being participants in Winter Soldier, but were actually in Lane's book instead. This confusion is probably due to Stolen Valor having an explanation of Lane's history within the section on Winter Soldier.
    • Chuck Onan, stock room clerk in Beaufort, S.C.
    • Michael Schneider, deserted in Europe and deserted again in the USA.
    • Terry Whitmore, was in an unpopulated area of Vietnam.
    • Garry Gianninoto, medical corpsman at battalion headquarters.
  • VVAW leader and Winter Soldier co-organizer Al Hubbard lied about being an officer, and sustaining war injuries - but he never testified at Winter Soldier .

According to the investigative work of Burkett, Lewy and others, that there were many imposters, liars, and plain nutjobs who infiltrated the ranks of the anti-war movement, and, in some cases, testified to war crimes and atrocities that never occurred in order to get attention, sympathy, and, in one documented case, medals and honors. It is also true, as noted by author Gerald Nicosia in his authoritative history of the Vietnam Veterans Movement “Home to War”, that those discredited voices were never key witnesses in either the Winter Soldier Investigation or in subsequent war crimes investigations such as the congressional Dellums Hearings of 1971.

Also from that same chapter in Guenter Lewy's book America in Vietnam (page 309): "The conflict in Vietnam was a guerilla war without fronts, and this created a setting especially conducive to atrocities. Aggressive behavior is often the result of frustration and anxiety, and the American servicemen in Vietnam experienced both of these states of mind in abundance ... Gradually the entire Vietnamese population became an object of fear and hatred. As a marine lieutenant told an American doctor: "You walk through the fucking bush for three days and nights without sleep. Watch your men, your buddies, your goddamn kids get booby trapped. Blown apart. Get thrown six feet in the air by a trap laid by an old lady and come down with no legs." Eventually you conclude, he said, that the only thing to do is 'kill them all.'"

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 our participation in the Vietnam conflict.

External links

• World On Fire Columnist Rick Freedman on Winter Soldier
• VVAW Archives The truth behind "Stolen Valor"
• Baltimore Sun Article Vietnam Vets Stand by Kerry Today
• Winter Soldier Investigation Sixties project archive
• Wintersoldier.com - partisan examination
  • FBI VVAW file during Winter Soldier (18 megabyte PDF file)

Books

• Nicosia, Gerald (2002). Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement. CA: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0609809067
• Burkett, B. G. & Whitley, Glenna (1998). Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History. Dallas: Verity Press Inc. ISBN 096670360X.
• Lewy, Guenter (1978). America in Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195023919. ISBN 0195027329 pbk.