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Winter Soldier Hearings

This March, dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars gathered in Maryland to offer first hand accounts of war. Veterans gave heartfelt accounts of what they had seen, what they had been told to do, and what they had done. KPFK and Pacifica Radio aired these hearings live on the air and in general were well-covered in the alternative and independent media. But, shockingly the mainstream media completely ignored it. When soldiers testified in front of the Congressional Progressive Caucus in mid-May, the corporate media once more ignored it, even though the hearings happened at the same time that Congress was debating another round of funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. International media from the BBC, to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation covered it. The US-based media watch dog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, FAIR, retorted, “Given the common media rhetoric of ‘supporting the troops’, to ignore these same troops when they speak out about the horrors of the war is unconscionable.” The Winter Soldier hearings were organized by a group called Iraq Veterans Against the War. Last week, the Northwest Winter Soldier hearing took place in Seattle at the local town hall. IVAW is calling on a complete withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq immediately, a point that no presidential candidate from a major party has yet made. IVAW also wants better care for injured veterans and reparations for Iraqis.

The Winter Soldier Hearings have historic precedence. In 1971, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, organized hearings where soldiers publicly described the atrocities they committed in Vietnam. One of these soldiers was a man by the name of John Kerry, who went on to become a US Senator and Presidential candidate. The 1971 Winter Soldier hearings, also covered only by Pacifica Radio, and ignored by the mainstream media, sparked congressional investigations into the claims made by the veterans. The term Winter Soldier is a spin on the opening of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1776: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

1968: Revolution Rewind

When history records the most tumultuous years of the last century, 1968 will most likely top that list. In that one year alone, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the civil rights struggle was at its height, the Poor People’s March for economic justice took place, and Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. The Black Panther Party was declared by J. Edgar Hoover as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States,” and Panther leader Huey P. Newton stood trial for murder in a highly politicized case. Militant student activism was at fever pitch and Columbia University students shut down their school in opposition to the Vietnam war and racial segregation. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and Nixon was eventually elected. The Vietnam War was escalating with the Tet Offensive, and hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians were massacred in the village of My Lai. Opposition to the war began ramping up at home, marked by the demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the arrest of 8 of the protesters including Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden, and Bobby Seale. 1968 also witnessed the birth of second wave feminism with a major protest against the Miss America pageant. Internationally, hundreds of students were killed ahead of the summer Olympics in Mexico City, where black American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in solidarity with the killed students while the Star Spangled Banner played. Students went on strike in Paris, France, leading to the downfall of the De Gaulle government. In 1968, students also rose up in Poland and Germany and, on the other side of the globe, Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party took power in Iraq in a US-supported coup.

It was a tumultuous year indeed. And it has been immortalized in a 4 CD set issued by the Pacifica Radio Archives called “1968: Revolution Rewind.”