Library - Reading Room
Supporting Materials for Sir! No Sir!
Editorial
We are veterans of the Vietnam war. From our experience we know the Administration has lied to us and other Americans. Our being there had nothing to do with helping the Vietnamese people. Instead, we were there to keep in power a group of corrupt generals in Saigon who are hated and feared by most Vietnamese. In fact, any OX in the Nam knows the SVN government is so phony it wouldn't last a day without outside support-us!
There was not a goddamn good reason on earth for our being there. In other words, we agree with Gen. David Shoup, Marine Corps Commandant under President Kennedy, who says; I don't think the whole of Southeast Asia, as related to the present and future safety and freedom of the people of this country, is worth the life or limb of a single American.
We are bitter about our own experiences there-especially about our friends who didn't make it back from this lousy, worthless war. In other words, our basic opinion is that we ought to get the Hell out of there now before and more GIs die so the U.S. Government can play world cop.
VIETNAM GI, therefore, is an attempt to give stateside GIs the truth about the war. Moreover, as every Gl in the Nam knows what it's like trying to get any "news" out of STARS & STRIPES, we want to supply some uncensored news. Third, it seems like everyone has been heard from on the war except for the main group which hasbeen and still is fighting in it-the enlisted men. So we want to give servicemen and Vietnam vets a chance to express their views.
We have been asked by servicemen, especially sailors, if the name of the paper, VIETNAM GI, means that it's a rag for Army guys alone. No, we want it to be an all-service paper which reports the experiences and views of Marines, Navy, and Air Force guys, too. Its name is mostly a result of the fact that the present group of Vietnam vets associated with the paper is somewhat overloaded with Army guys. We hope to have a more balanced group in the near future.
So yes, we definitely want to hear from you guys in the other services, too.
Vietnam GI, January 1968