Jan Barry Crumb), a West Point dropout who had served in the war as a radio specialist in an Army unit of a fixed-wing supply aircraft.

[7] On June 1, 1967, six veterans met in Jan Barry's apartment to found a new anti-war organization,[7] "at a time when the mainstream media was wholeheartedly...promoting the war.

[10] Other early members included David Braum, John Talbot, Art Blank, Steve Greene, Frank "Rocky" Rocks,[3] and Stan Scholl.

[11] According to Barry, it "shook up [Secretary of Defense] McNamara, who had the signers investigated by the FBI," it "was read into the Congressional Record," and it "spawned similar ads in newspapers across the country," as well as attracting new VVAW members.

[11] The 1967 advertisement declared:We believe that the conflict in which the United States is engaged in Vietnam is wrong, unjustifiable and contrary to the principles on which this country was founded.

Membership passed 8,500 by January 1971, and thousands more flocked to the organization after Playboy Magazine donated a full-page VVAW ad in its February edition.

At the pinnacle of VVAW's success in 1972, membership rolls listed almost 25,000 card carriers, or fewer than 1 percent of all eligible Vietnam era veterans.

... By emphasizing the low percentage of Vietnam veterans who paid dues to VVAW, opponents have sought to dismiss the significance and impact of the organization.

-Text on pamphlet passed out by VVAW marchers to residents of Solebury, Pennsylvania[25] During the Labor Day weekend of September 4–7, 1970, Operation RAW ("Rapid American Withdrawal") took place.

The march was designed to dramatize a Vietnam-type search and destroy mission as they passed through various towns including Bernardsville, Far Hills, Lamington and Whitehouse Station.

[26] Upon entering each town along the march, the group made sweeps, took and interrogated prisoners, seized property and cleared homes with the aid of previously planted "guerrilla theater" actors portraying civilians.

A partial list of sponsors included United States Senators George McGovern and Edmund Muskie, Rep. John Conyers and Paul O'Dwyer.

James Bevel, Jane Fonda, Mark Lane, Donald Sutherland and Vietnam Vets Joe Kennedy and John Kerry.

The event was boycotted by much of the mainstream media, although the Detroit Free Press covered it daily; its journalists began their own investigations to follow the testimony.

[33] Funds were raised by several celebrity peace activists; actress Jane Fonda gained more than $10,000 in donations for this cause from 54 college campuses.

This peaceful anti-war protest organized by VVAW was named after two short military invasions of Laos by US and South Vietnamese forces.

Some of you saw right away the evil of what was going on; others of us one by one, adding and re-adding the balance sheet of what was happening and what could possibly be accomplished finally saw that no goal could be so laudable, or defense so necessary, as to justify what we have visited upon the people of Indochina.

McCloskey and fellow Representatives Bella Abzug, Don Edwards, Shirley Chisholm, Edmund Muskie and Ogden Reid addressed the large crowd and expressed support.

Other veterans, still angry at the insult to the Gold Star Mothers when they were refused entry to Arlington National Cemetery the previous day, marched back to the front gate.

Veterans performed guerrilla theater on the Capitol steps, re-enacting combat scenes and search and destroy missions from Vietnam.

John Kerry, as VVAW spokesman, testified against the war for two hours in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before a packed room.

Veterans staged a candlelight march around the White House, while carrying a huge American flag upside down in the historic international signal of distress.

The service included time for individual prayers or public confession, and many veterans took the floor to recount things they had done or seen for which they felt guilt or anger.

Simultaneous protests took place at other sites across the country, such as the historic Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia (for 45 minutes) and Travis Air Force Base in California (for 12 hours).

[8] Performers included Phil Ochs,[56] Joan Baez,[57] Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Paul Simon, Patti Smith,[58] Richie Havens, Harry Belafonte and Peter Yarrow.

[59] During a four-day series of meetings in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 12–15, 1971, Scott Camil, a radical VVAW southern coordinator, proposed assassinating the most conservative members of United States Congress, and other powerful opponents of the antiwar movement.

In 1973, after months of heated debate, the VVAW changed its name to VVAW/WSO (Winter Soldier Organization), and opened its membership to non-veterans to increase its base.

[63] This reached its peak in 1975, when the RU-controlled national office voted to remove members, expel chapters and place the organization into ideological uniformity.

VVAW members also worked to gain veterans' treatment and benefits for major Vietnam-related health conditions, namely, post-traumatic stress disorder and the effects of exposure to Agent Orange.

In 1990 the American Legion and VVA joined the cause of Vietnam veterans, filing suit against the government for having failed to conduct the study ordered by Congress in 1979.