About a week after I returned to my unit at Fort Bragg after participating in the Moratorium March in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Nov. 24, 1969, I was handed a note by the First Sergeant. It read: “Hallmark – Needs to report to the 15th MI BN at 1300 HRS 24 Nov 69 to Mr. Bishop (65613 or 66418). Something about CI Investigation. Important! If he can’t make it he should call the above number.”
I’m not relying on memory here, shortly after my interview with the special agent, I copied the note I was handed as well as a list of questions that I was asked by the agent, and I wrote a one-page, single-spaced memo about the interview as I had been advised to do by Lt. Blaine Janin, a JAG defense attorney, who I had served as clerk-typist for a short time until they took me away from that job because they recognized that I was meeting too many other war resisters in that position and growing the ranks of G.I.’s United Against the War.
Here is my memo on the meeting, edited for clarity:
On Monday, Nov. 24, 1969, I was given a message by the First Sergeant of my unit, HQ Company, CONTIC, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This message informed me to report to a man who later identified himself as Ernest A. Bishop, Special Agent for the 111th Military Intelligence Detachment.
I met Mr. Bishop that afternoon at 1:00 P.M. He told me that he had been instructed by “higher authorities” to question me. He said that he was going to read Article 31 of the UCMJ to me and that I had a right to have legal counsel if I wished. I suggested that we meet an hour later in the office of CONTIC Legal Officer, 2nd Lt. Thomas Stitt.
At Lt. Stitt’s office, Bishop read me Article 31 of the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) and told me he had been instructed by the Strategic Intelligence Command to question me about my activities as a member of GI’s United Against the War in Viet Nam.
At this point Bishop left the room and I conferred with Lt. Stitt who advised me that I did not have to answer any questions or make a statement unless I wished to do so.
When Bishop returned, I told him that I was reluctant to answer questions without being able to study and consider them carefully, especially considering the fact that the government might decide to use my statements against me in a court martial. Bishop then handed me a list of questions, which he said he had prepared himself, hand-written on a legal pad. I asked and received permission to make notes from these questions. Omitting a few preliminary identifying questions, such as: What is your name, rank and service number, Inclosure #2 is a list of those questions as reconstructed from my notes.
Bishop looked at my notes and asked me if I wished to answer the questions and make a sworn statement. I told him I would think about it overnight and made arrangements to see him the next morning.
At 8:00 A.M. the next day, November 25, 1969, I again met with Special Agent Bishop and told him that I did not wish to make a statement. I did sign a crossed-out sworn statement form stating that I refused to make a statement, that I knew my rights and had been represented by legal counsel.
The above statement is true to the best of my knowledge. (Signed by me.)
Here are some of the questions that Agent Bishop asked me with my answers as I would answer today in parentheses:
· How did you become associated with GIUAWVN? (I met a conscientious objector, Dave O’Brien, who was drafted but refused all duty through my job with Lt. Janin. He told me about GI’s United.)
· Do you support all the views of GIUAWVN? What have you done to promote GIU? (Yes, GI’s United seeks to end the war in Vietnam and to convince as many soldiers as possible to oppose the war as much as possible. I promote GI’s United by helping to publish and distribute our newspaper, Bragg Briefs, which is published in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the U.S., and by talking to soldiers on and off base.)
· How often do you attend meetings? What topics are discussed? (I attend scheduled meetings once a month and editorial meetings of Bragg Briefs as often as needed. Members meet informally regularly at Quaker House and in my home in Fayetteville.)
· What methods are used to promote the views and aims of GIUAWVN to civilians and military personnel? (We publish & distribute Bragg Briefs, plan and organize parades through downtown Fayetteville, invite celebrities who oppose the war to come to Fayetteville to speak to soldiers, and we travel to universities in North Carolina to talk about why we oppose the war.)
· Do any of these methods involve force or violence? (None whatsoever. GI’s United is a peace organization and we believe in the methods of Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
· Have you ever distributed literature or propagandized for anti-war or anti-Viet Nam organizations? What is your view of the Viet Nam War? (I oppose the war in Vietnam as a hideous criminal act of violence by our nation against the people of Vietnam. Yes, as I’ve indicated above, I have often distributed Bragg Briefs and other anti-war literature to soldiers and civilians both on base at Ft. Bragg and in Fayetteville and other cities.)
· What U.S. policies, foreign and domestic, do you agree or disagree with? (I totally disagree with the U.S. policy of invading nations that have not threatened our nation. I do not agree with the so-called “Domino Theory.” I agree with our Constitution, with U.S. membership in the United Nations and with those in our government who want to resolve international disagreements by means of diplomacy rather than warfare.)
· What do you think of the present government and which of its policies should be changed? (Our government should end the war in Vietnam and withdraw its troops immediately.)
It’s worth noting that nothing negative happened to me as a result of my participation in GI’s United Against the War and taking part in the Moratorium March. We found out later that the commanding general of Fort Bragg (possibly acting on direction from the Pentagon) issued orders to watch our activities closely but not to interfere or arrest us unless we were preparing to do something violent. In fact, the only violence was done by hate-filled individuals who opposed our stance against the war. They burned down the Quaker House in Fayetteville, where our group often met, a few months after I got out of the Army and returned home to Texas.
While I was part of the group, we did have one infiltrator/provocateur, who apparently was hired by MI, the FBI, or some other agency. I recall one Gi’s United meeting when this guy kept trying to get us to adopt his plan to blow up the Washington Monument. At first I thought the guy was just loaded, but after discussing it later with my buddy Dave Wachter and others, it was clear that he was serious and really trying to get us to buy into his plan so the authorities could squelch our group. But, of course, none of us was interested in violence of any kind and that guy eventually just disappeared.
We held one big parade through Fayetteville, NC, while I was there that drew about 600 folks marching against the war in a town whose major industry was the war machine of Fort Bragg. Many death threats were phoned and mailed anonymously to Quaker House before the march. Just outside the town on the interstate highway was a big billboard that proclaimed: “Welcome to Klan Kountry”. I believe that a large number of "lifers" -- NCO's for whom the Army was a career, especially those who were from the South, were members of the Ku Klux Klan and presented the strongest threat to our activities.
The Quaker House was burned down in the spring of 1970, I believe. But it was replaced and there is still a Quaker Peace House in that city.
(Next: Another story from my tour in Vietnam. Almost shot by another American soldier.)
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