President Ronald Reagan speaks to Vietnam vets in the White House Rose Garden during the ceremony inaugurating the VVLP on Nov. 11, 1981. Volunteer boards were active in 41 states from that date through 1984.
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In the early 1980s, Vietnam veterans nationwide formed effective programs designed to find jobs in the private sector and tackle the media's stereotyping.
By Susan Katz Keating
When Tom Pauken returned home from Vietnam in 1969, the young Army officer and his fellow soldiers encountered a shocking scene at the San Francisco airport.
"People were carrying signs rooting for Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Cong," Pauken recalls. "They were calling us baby killers."
Over the years, the maltreatment of Vietnam veterans worsened. American society created a negative myth about the vets, portraying them as dangerous psychotics or guilt-ridden victims. "The myth was so wrong that it was almost unfathomable," Pauken says. "But people believed it."
Vietnam veterans fought against the myth --not with protest signs or sit-ins nor marches on Washington, but with their own respectable personas. They proved by example that Vietnam veterans not only were successful individuals but also were caring and responsible "big brothers" who actively helped their disadvantaged brethren.
The vets accomplished this, in large part, through the short-lived but far-reaching Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program, otherwise known as VVLP.
VVLP was administered through the Reagan-era ACTION agency, a federal umbrella organization that fostered volunteer service groups. Designed to exist only for 36 months, VVLP lasted from 1981 through 1984. It started with a scant $6.1 million in federal funds, to be parceled out among 47 "franchise" operations in 41 states.
During its short life as a government-initiated program, VVLP reached tens of thousands of individual veterans, either placing them in jobs or offering guidance on employment issues.
"The program made a direct and lasting impact on people," says William Jayne, a Marine who was wounded in the 1968 siege of Khe Sanh, and who became VVLP national deputy director. "It served an extremely valuable purpose."
Pauken first dreamed up the program in 1979, in response to what can only be termed an enlightening experience at a Veterans Day reception in Dallas. "This was an event to honor Vietnam veterans," Pauken says. "When I got there, I recognized a lot of the other guests."
They included prominent community leaders: businessmen, attorneys and politicians. Their presence came as a surprise to Pauken: "I knew who these guys were, but I had no idea they also were Vietnam veterans."
Perhaps, Pauken thought, these talented and successful men would be willing to serve both as role models and as mentors in a radical new project. As Pauken envisioned it, the project would work to dissolve negative misconceptions about Vietnam veterans, and would offer a leg-up to those who needed help finding work in a vet-phobic job market.
Pauken's idea eventually materialized into VVLP.
Born on Veterans Day
On Veterans Day 1981, President Ronald Reagan held a Rose Garden ceremony and officially started the program with stirring words:
"I hope that every American will follow the example of the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program volunteers and reach out individually to extend a helping hand to our fine Vietnam veterans. Recognition and appreciation for what they went through is long overdue."
Pauken--who by then was running the ACTION agency in Washington, D.C.--saw his idea take on a life of its own.
The first step was for the national VVLP staff to recruit state coordinators and volunteers who would run the individual VVLP organizations. At first, the prospect seemed daunting.
"A lot of people said we wouldn't be able to get anyone interested in helping," says John Fales, a Vietnam veteran who was Pauken's assistant at ACTION and now serves as president of the Blinded American Veterans Foundation (his wounds cost him his sight). "But the veterans wanted to be a part of this. They wanted to help find other veterans who would also take part. They came out of the woodwork."
"We had an amazing response," echoes VFW Commander-in-Chief John Furgess, who helped start a VVLP in Nashville, Tenn. "VVLP was a short-term, cost-effective, volunteer program with realistic and limited goals. The veterans who stepped forward were outstanding individuals."
VVLP leadership included Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.); Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.); former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge; and novelist and former Navy secretary James Webb.
Some who did not actually join the program nevertheless made a significant contribution. Gen. William Westmoreland, for example, appeared at fundraisers on behalf of VVLP. He also donated speakers' fees to the organization.
Each newly formed VVLP was tasked with finding additional volunteers.
"We had the names of people in my state who were Vietnam veterans," says author Rick Eilert, who ran a VVLP in Chicago. "We went to them and asked for their help. We went to doctors and attorneys and asked for pro bono work."
Jobs Aplenty
Next on the agenda was to drum up jobs for potential clients.
"We used our personal networks to find out where the jobs were," Eilert says. "It was all-consuming. Our volunteers put in up to 30 hours per week trying to get jobs for guys who were underemployed." And they were extremely successful, accounting for thousands of jobs over four years. Besides being responsible for a state employment act, the Chicago VVLP pushed through Agent Orange legislation in Illinois and was instrumental in making possible Chicago's welcome home parade and Vietnam veterans memorial.
Eilert, who underwent 37 operations in 13 years and wrote about his hospital experiences in For Self and Country, emphasized the key to the program's success. "We accomplished so much because each individual involved was enthusiastic and selfless--no egos got in the way. We did some good work, and then everyone melted back into their lives."
VVLP job programs were both creative and effective.
The Kentucky VVLP started a billboard campaign to encourage employers to hire Vietnam veterans. The eye-catching billboards eventually sprang up around the country, and were featured in a front page article in the Wall Street Journal.
The Idaho VVLP helped one of its clients obtain a small-business loan in order to open a muffler shop. The San Diego VVLP persuaded a helicopter construction company to hire more than 90 Vietnam veterans over the course of about a year's time. The Houston VVLP developed informative job-hunting and resource guides that were picked up by programs in other states.
"It was very much a hands-on type of operation," Jayne says. "Volunteers and VVLP groups worked right there at the grass-roots level."
The most fundamental element was, of course, to work with the veterans themselves, matching men with jobs.
"The jobs were vitally important," Eilert says, "for a whole lot of reasons."
Among those reasons were public image--and self image.
Image Enhancement
In 1982, the public perception of a Vietnam vet was Sylvester Stallone's film character Rambo, a mentally disturbed and thoroughly fictionalized ex-soldier.
"It was a horrible stereotype," says artist George Skypeck, who was a VVLP national adviser. "But it took hold."
Jayne adds: "The stereotype was all over the media. You would see news reports that were headlined: 'Vietnam Veteran Robs Bank.' Or, 'Vietnam Veteran Kills Woman.' "
The stereotype filtered down into the self-images of some veterans.
"It was a challenge to get some of the guys to stop feeling like they were part of the stereotype," Eilert says. "We found that a good way to counteract that was to help them get jobs. If they could be productive and start paying taxes again and supporting themselves and their families, they could see that they were a part of what they had fought for."
VVLP members knew that much more must be done, though, to counteract that negative stereotype.
Again, the individual franchises took the creative approach.
New Mexico's VVLP sponsored a "Profiles in Courage" award for Vietnam veterans who overcame adversity to succeed in civilian life. The Kentucky VVLP held an art show highlighting combat art from the Marine Corps art collection.
The Houston VVLP developed education kits and fact sheets for high school students, and sent Vietnam veterans into the schools to talk to classes.
Houston director Stan Horton remembers: "Besides our Job Seekers Guide and Directory of Veterans Services and Resources, we published an educational kit called Myths versus Realities: A Teaching Guide to the Vietnam War and its Veterans. (Rich Kolb, now editor-in-chief of VFW magazine, was the voluntary chairman of the Houston VVLP.)
"This was the most effective tool in our arsenal in turning the media around in its reporting on Vietnam vets. It was even read into the Congressional Record by Arkansas Rep. John P. Hammerschmidt in October 1982. We knew we had finally cracked the code when Time ran a story about Vietnam vets and cited the statistics we had compiled."
Elsewhere, VVLP volunteers directly contacted journalists and suggested stories that showcased Vietnam vets in a positive light. The Arkansas VVLP produced television public service ads that spoke well of Vietnam veterans. The Southern California VVLP enlisted actor Robert Stack for a similar ad. All across the country, VVLPs hosted banquets, seminars and workshops designed to teach business leaders the truth about Vietnam vets.
And what, exactly, was that truth?
"That the overwhelming majority of Vietnam veterans were well-integrated, successful men who were proud to have served their country," Pauken says.
Various VVLPs placed greater emphasis on different causes. The North Carolina VVLP, for instance, made sure that state honored its Vietnam War dead with a memorial. Some cities, especially St. Louis, established close working relationships with local Vet Centers. Regaining self-respect was the first step in achieving one's footing, and these centers helped pave the path.
As Bill Elmore, executive director of the St. Louis VVLP during the 1980s, once put it: "The real key, the whole background, the essence of the national VVLP is self-help."
Legacy Lives on in Pittsburgh
In addition to Seattle, the Pittsburgh organization, which only recently changed its name to the Veterans Leadership Program, continues.
"We provide essentially the same types of services provided in the early days," says the group's former executive director, Ron Zola. "Now, though, we concentrate on social services to veterans from all eras." Zola, a Vietnam veteran who started out as a VVLP client after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, says the group devotes much of its efforts to helping vets find jobs.
One of those veterans is Kevin Bunton, who called the Pittsburgh group late last year from Iraq to set up an appointment. "They've been extremely helpful," says Bunton, an Army officer who now is making the transition from active duty back to life in the Reserve. "They are working with me to develop interviewing skills and networking skills. They're a great group of people and a great organization."
That sentiment also applies to the original VVLP.
The group helped veterans in two ways, says writer James Webb. "First, the program was able to focus on positive achievement at a time when most of the media coverage was extremely negative." In addition, Webb says, VVLP provided a valuable social network, allowing Vietnam veterans to meet and communicate with one another.
Sen. Chuck Hagel said he agrees: "The Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program was a valuable resource for those who returned home from the Vietnam War. It provided veterans with important guidance and support and helped channel them into productive and positive endeavors."
Ed Timperlake, once the national director of VVLP, said, "I don't know if history will show we were a success or not, but I felt a sense of satisfaction. I think the people who were in it were really in it for the right reason--the heart."
But perhaps the program's most spectacular achievement is something that cannot be weighed nor measured.
"The most important accomplishment was what the program did for our image," Fales says. "It changed the public face of Vietnam veterans from that of baby killers and drug addicts to the real portrait of the veterans who came home, and in spite of all the controversy and negative treatment, went on to live their lives productively."
Susan Katz Keating is a free-lance writer based in Virginia and a frequent contributor to VFW.
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