Various Authors
Letters
Dear Friends,
I read your paper today for the first time and I dig it to the max.
I’ve been around army posts for 6-1/2 years and just recently my eyes were opened to what the vast “green machine” is really like.
I don’t believe we had any business getting involved in Vietnam.
We went in as advisers! Like always. We wound up fighting their war.
The Vietnamese women didn’t want their sons dying for the Americans.
That’s a hell of a way to repay people for their lives and money.
Sure we want to keep “them” from our own shores.
But, how can we help people that don’t want to help their selves!
If we fed all the hungry and underprivileged people at home we wouldn’t have the time, nor the money to help those abroad.
I don’t think we should withdraw now. Too many Americans would have died in vain.
We should go all the way, finish it, and get the hell out.
The only good thing Nam has done is turn a lot of squares into good heads with that outstanding grass.
C.L. Godsey, Army Wife
Oak Grove, Ky.
Sirs:
Will you please cancel the subscription of your newspaper to Ray.
We, his parents, consider this newspaper undesirable and detrimental to a sound and wholesome character development.
Ray is only sixteen years old and we have every right both morally and legally to protect him from such obscene and immoral propaganda.
We deeply regret that you see fit to prey upon the minds and morals of the youth of the greatest nation on earth.
We wish you a speedy FAILURE. We will do all in our power to protect our Son from you and your kind.
Morally Steadfast,
Joseph and Nell
Editors’ Note: Far fucking out. If any young brother or sister gets cancelled out by their parents they can receive the rest of their subscription by coming into our office and picking up each issue.
People,
I am on the brink of desertion at the moment. I not only feel I’m being treated unjustly, but now that I see what is going on over here I just may refuse to function for the Army.
So much money is wasted. So many human lives are wasted, and for what? Do the American people really think we are accomplishing something? If they do, they’re full of shit!
Also I don’t recall being able to vote on draft laws, and I sure didn’t vote for a war. The war is a lot different when you are back home watching it on television, as if it were a baseball game, at the same time listening to the politicians’ lies.
I ask you this, do you really think the people of South Vietnam really want us over here? I say no!
Ah, the bombing halt! Every minute they fiddle around in Paris and when South Vietnam won’t even attend the talks, Americans, young Americans, are being killed, and for what?
And then there are the relatives, who receive a “plastic bag” with the remains of a body, along with it are useless medals and ceremonious papers and the big fat lie that he died to prevent Communism!
And, one of the main reasons is because of the common, everyday, ignorant American! Because they get pushed around by the politicians who I have to admit are very good talkers. Hitler was a good talker too! But there are people who want to change this, who want to educate the people as to what is really happening and are doing something about it.
I’m going to try, too. I don’t know exactly what, but I can do something and I’m going to do it. God helps me do the right thing!
Goodbye,
Rex
Vietnam
To and For us all:
Most of us have walked the same road. The solidarity of the Civil Rights struggle in the South gave us hope of eventual justice. But came the beatings and the killings and these hopes evaporated into stone walls around us.
We went underground and discovered more shit than we had believed. We cried in frustration and gave birth to the nonviolent “hippie” (which was only a manifestation of impotency).
Madison Ave. soon moved in and smashed their heads with neon. But we dried our eyes and stalked along the wall looking for a way over it.
No! lets tear is down instead!! Revolution! The cry that soon spread even to suburban high schools; and began to shake the walls of Universities everywhere.
But the guns of the “right” have us again sighted, just as we must expect. What now? We must hurry and accomplish before the trigger is pulled! Die as men!
Music is not revolution. Smoking dope is not a political act. A meaningful death is the last and only act of an aware mind. We must follow the “Phoenix.”
“Be resolute, fear no sacrifice and surmount every difficulty to win Victory.”
—Mao Tse Tung
M. Bosset
Dear 5th Estate,
On the cover of the March 6 Detroit “Free” Press I saw a picture of three chicks with mustaches. I almost puked. That is the most absurd thing I’ve ever seen.
Facial hair on women is an unnatural thing, but the phony fashion world tries to make a buck off some suckers. When are those assholes gonna find out where it’s at?
Some of us chose to liberate ourselves from the “Haircut every three weeks” bag, so they call us effeminate.
Some chicks couldn’t dig wearing a curtain around their ass so they wore slacks and they called them masculine.
So now look what they do—sew a caterpillar on three broads’ lips and put it on the front page. Will they please get off my back?
Bobby Baker
P.S. If there are any chicks out there who have natural mustaches I’d be glad to make love to them.
Dear People,
You know you’re what’s happening! I’d lose my mind over here in the Nam if I couldn’t get in touch with reality via the 5th Estate.
Last week as I was reading the lifer-rag, “Stars and Stripes,” I came across a story that is hard to believe.
According to the article, a Pvt. Nearey Sood was sentenced to fifteen years hard labor for having the balls to participate in a sitdown strike to protest the murder of Richard Bunch at the Presidio Calif. stockade.
I am in disbelief! As a student of law I fail to see the justice.
As a GI I am ashamed of the army in which I serve.
As a human being I am dismayed at the power we have given Big Brother and the brain police and especially the armed forces.
All power to the people!
Peace,
Pvt. Michael Wacker
Vietnam
To the Editor:
In behalf of the men of Vietnam, I write the following letter; in behalf of these men could you please print it?
The Honorable James M. Hanley
Washington, D.C.
forwarded letter:
Dear Sir:
I am twenty six years old and have spent almost a full year in Vietnam. Today I went to the PX to buy a bottle of Mogen David Wine, and found out that I have to be of the rank of Staff Sergeant E-6 or above to purchase any alcoholic beverage with an alcohol content over 3.2 percent.
I am old enough to die for my country, to vote, and to be held responsible for my actions in the courts of the land. Why, then, can the post commander say that I am not old enough to drink hard liquor?
The people of the United States are wondering why marijuana is becoming such a great problem in Vietnam. What does the world expect of us when we can only relieve our tensions by drinking 3.2 beer?
Sp/4 Peter M. Rosen
HHC 36th Signal Battalion
APO San Francisco, Ca. 96491
Dear Fifth Estate People,
Just a little note to tell you William Blake is alive and well in Oregon.
Blake College is a very small Summerhillian higher education place whose director Ray Peat is thinking and doing the best things there are in Reichian bio-social evolutionary theory, phenomenology and all that.
Those interested in a special summer session should write Ray soon at 200 N. Jefferson, Eugene, Oregon or call (503) 345–4598.
There is also a communal experimental farm project going on in nearby Crow, Oregon.
Vitamin B Saves,
Albert Michael Weber
Brothers,
InfoShop News, read the thing about kids getting the 5th Estate confiscated at Southfield High.
That’s been happening at Ferndale since last September. If they catch you with one they send you to the office with a violation slip.
I don’t know what they do with the slips, but they sure have a hell of a lot of them.
I was wondering if you people heard about the anti-black walkouts at Ferndale. If it keeps going the way it is now something’s bound to bust.
These honky boys think it’s something to be proud of, being racist.
The blacks are pressing for a black history course, but without more support they won’t get it.
Peace
Alex Learmonth
Ferndale
To the Editor:
My friends and I really enjoy your paper here in Vietnam.
It’s not often that you get a chance to read a paper as refreshing as yours over here.
Keep up the good work. We thank you.
The People of the Weapons Shop
Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Vietnam
[Web archive note: for more info about anti-war activism in Vietnam and stateside, see Fifth Estate’s Vietnam Resource Page.]
People,
In the March 20, 1969 issue of Fifth Estate Hank Malone reviewed Iceberg Slim’s book “Pimp.” If you read it and learned something, read “Trick Baby” by the same author and learn more.
Peace,
Missy
Headman,
In reading “Revolutionary Letter No. 7” (FE, Feb. 20) I am faced with a bizarre puzzlement.
Though I profess no universals, I understand Buddha nature to include the preservation of life. It seems strange to have defended violence with the very dharma which denies it.
“... Be not so quick to take away, Frodo, what you cannot give...”
Barry Nobles
To the Editor:
I am somewhat upset, in fact pissed off, you might say at the Fifth Estate, for a general lack of attention paid to the Miami Pop Festival this past January.
It was one of the best scenes ever, anywhere, with some 75,000 beautiful people in attendance, the best available talent from every aspect of the Music Industry, and was well-coordinated from beginning to end!
It was attended and reported on by both WABX-FM and WKNR-FM, who bore the necessary expense to cover this event.
I urge your paper’s support of events such as this and I hope I will be able to attend all events such as this, and look forward to seeing you there next year.
Larry Benjamin Promotion Manager
Epic Records