Examining the Myths of the Vietnam War
OPERATIONS ORDER

I. SITUATION

The Kerry Presidential Campaign has brought renewed attention to the Vietnam War and re-opened, in a national spotlight, a debate which has been fairly quiet for several decades. This forum is being offered as an opportunity to give voice to those of us who feel that the history of our war is being mis-portrayed by a culture that prefers to victimize the veteran rather than acknowledge that the culture itself was in the wrong. This forum will take place in Boston from Jul 26-29 at Simmons College at 300 The Fenway. It will consist of 17 sessions, including three evening sessions, details of which can be reached through the Execution section of this OPORD. The selection of the date and city is due to the large number of media personnel that will be in Boston for the Democratic Convention which promises to be an otherwise ordinary event.

It is expected that hotel space and car rentals in Boston will be very difficult to obtain. We suggested that the willingness of veterans in the Boston area to host a few of their fellows from their specific unit would go a long way to resolving such problems. We also hope that the units themselves will help to validate their members’ credentials. (Non-original copies of DD-214’s are not acceptable as the primary documentation.) TO RESERVE ROOMS OR SEATING, CLICK HERE.

This project is being put together on a short time frame, with little or no budget for speakers or transportation and lodging for same.. We hope that everyone will pitch in to do more than their fair share. If someone wishes to contribute to or sponsor a particular attendee, we encourage direct contacts. We do not have the administrative facilities to handle those contributions ourselves.

We would like to collect all the papers, videotape the proceedings and put the entire event in an on-line archive so it can be shared with those who were unable to attend and to be accessible to the media and students. We also hope to have either a live audio or video internet feed covering the dates of our project. Technophiles are invited to help out, and donations of computers, portable loudspeakers, and anything else would be appreciated and returned (though we hope you will be there to operate them. We also need web-cams, and perhaps a bank of cell-phones/land line with free air time. The web-cams probably cannot be returned but the cell-phones will be. People are needed to operate these items as well.

The event will take place in the Simmons College auditorium C-103. Badges will be issued to all attendees. Over flow will be directed to breakout rooms served by closed circuit TV. To some extent these breakout rooms could be mini-unit reunions. Evening sessions are planned. In the late evenings, we expect to show documentaries and we may run oral history sessions through-out the night. To keep something in front of the internet feed, we need audio or video extracts from documentaries in digital form, 15 minutes in length, to run during breaks.

We need all the help we can get. Grab a chunk of it and dig in.

Steve Sherman
713-683-9076
sherman1@flash.net

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