Remembering Viet Nam with Brian Willson

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Interview with Viet Nam veteran and anti-war activist Brian Willson

Desiree Hellegers interviews S. Brian Willson, peace activist and veteran of the American War in Viet Nam, author of the book Blood on the Tracks: the Life and Times of S. Brian Willson, and the focus of a new documentary, Paying the Price for Peace that debuts in Portland on July 3 at 7 pm, at the Clinton St. Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., Portland, OR 97202." 

Hellegers offered the following correction to the interview: In this interview, I inadvertently used the word "accident" to describe the 1987 incident in which a train crew accelerated as they approached veteran peace activists, striking Willson and severing his legs. As one press report subsequently acknowledged, "'The engineer, conductor and supervisor of the Concord Naval Weapons Station train that ran over pacifist S. Brian Willson Sept. 1, 1987, told investigators that they were under orders not to stop outside the base where demonstrators were expected to stand on the tracks'" (qted in Willson, 122).  As Willson writes in his book, "The train crew chose to follow illegal orders, and for that I condemn them. But I also have empathy for them. They are living the way I used to live; they were brainwashed as I was into believing they are protecting the American Way of Life by running us over. They later sued me for traumatic stress. I'm sure they do have post-traumatic stress syndrome, but I am not the cause. The cause of their stress, and mine is a system that runs roughshod over individuals even while demanding our dumbed-down obedience to authority."
     "When the U.S. government offered a cash settlement [to Willson] ...several years later, it was a de facto acknowledgment that the Navy train crew and their superiors intended not to stop the train. By not stopping, the Navy's civilian crew was in fact simply following orders" (Willson, 122).

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