Still Marching On : Westmoreland Now Waging Fight for Veterans’ Dignity

Retired Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland marched on Orange County Friday.

In the face of such obstacles as record heat, striking teachers and no-show guests, the general shook hands, talked tough and planted the flag. He posed for pictures, scrawled a few autographs and offered opinions. He ate birthday cake--he turns 74 today --and had lunch, twice.

And throughout it all, the General, as he is known, was in command.

After leading U.S. forces in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968, serving as Army chief of staff until 1972 and even taking on CBS in a $120-million libel suit (which he dropped in 1985), Orange County was a walk.

The territory was friendly and secure. There were no ambushes, no protests, no mention of anything unseemly.

‘No Comparison’

One student at Anaheim High School, however, did mumble something about a parallel between the Vietnam War and U.S. involvement in Nicaragua.

“I get sick and tired every time anybody suggests that this is another Vietnam, another Vietnam,” Westmoreland bellowed into the microphone at the high school assembly. “I call it the Vietnam psychosis. There is no comparison between Vietnam and Nicaragua.”

That, it seemed, was that--until Westmoreland added a little something more for emphasis.

“We will use military force, hopefully, anytime that it is in the interest of our country to use those forces!”

That got cheers and a standing ovation from the students, students dressed in everything from midriff tops and spandex pants to sloppy T-shirts and jeans. One of the latter, a long-haired teen-age boy, went up to greet Westmoreland after the presentation.

“Are you a boy or a girl?” the general intoned as he shook his hand.

Earlier, Westmoreland told a select group of students from Santa Ana High School--they had been bused to Rancho Santiago College to avoid any awkward moments with teachers who staged a partial sickout Thursday--not to “cheat, lie or steal” and that they should “aspire to be a positive influence, not a punk, not a troublemaker.”

It was the same message Westmoreland delivered in Anaheim and had no doubt delivered to thousands of enlisted men during his nearly 40-year military career.

And although the students had to be briefed beforehand on just who Westmoreland is--the Vietnam conflict was before their time--they were nonetheless impressed. Some were even spellbound.

‘Made Me Think’

“I was just too stunned to ask a question,” said Anaheim High sophomore Ed Moran, 15, at the end of the assembly where the heroic deeds of Medal of Honor winners Roy Benavidez and Rudy Hernandez, both Vietnam veterans, were also extolled.

“It made me think a lot,” Ed said about the program. “It made me think about what our freedom is worth.”

In Santa Ana, even honor student James Garcia, 17, who conceded that he had rehearsed the pointed questions he fired at Westmoreland about the Iran-Contra affair, the Strategic Defense Initiative and the nation’s military build-up, said he was glad to have met Westmoreland.

“I think he was earnest in his answers,” James said, pausing as he collected his thoughts. “I think, perhaps, they were a bit pat, if that is the proper word. But I appreciate his coming here to be with us.”

That was good enough for Westmoreland. He said he was pleased with questions like James’, which, he said, showed that the youth was thinking and open to new ideas.

“There’s nothing like repetition,” Westmoreland said later as he marched from the Anaheim assembly to his waiting motorcade. “There are certain truths in life . . . . I think it is quite appropriate what I am saying. It’s based on 74 years’ experience, less 10 as an infant.”

And so it went. Throughout the day, in meeting with high school and college students, teachers, county and city leaders and members of the Republican Party, Westmoreland repeated his message.

He reminded everyone that ours is a nation of immigrants, that with rights come duties, that discipline is sacred and that we all would do well to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

It is a message that he will no doubt give again today, when his wife, Kitsy, will join him as he meets with more students, more community leaders and more friends and admirers for a $100-a- plate birthday banquet at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim. Proceeds from the event will

Retired in 1972

Since retiring from the Army in 1972, Westmoreland has made it his business, sometimes his crusade, to restore what he believes to be the justly earned dignity of the American Vietnam veteran.

He has often left his South Carolina home to travel around the country to speak on veterans issues or simply to show the colors during a veterans parade. And lately, he said, he thinks his message has been timely.

“I would venture to say that the vast majority of Americans believe as I do,” he said. “It’s the minority dissenters that you people in the media give attention to. The offbeat is news. Whenever people do what they are supposed to do, that’s not news.”

Westmoreland has never felt comfortable with the press, and after CBS charged in a 1982 documentary that he withheld information on enemy troop strengths from the public and from President Lyndon B. Johnson, he sued for libel. But Westmoreland dropped the $120-million suit in February, 1985, after declaring that his good name had been recaptured during the four-month trial. CBS, however, contended that damaging testimony had convinced Westmoreland that he could not win the suit.

Commenting Friday on the many ribbons that adorned the left side of his olive-green uniform, Westmoreland quipped, “The only campaign that’s not represented is my battle with CBS.”

Regarded With Awe

But there were no TV cameras to capture Westmoreland’s visit to Orange County, mostly an invitation-only affair arranged by a veteran wounded near the Cambodian border during the Tet offensive. Westmoreland, organizer Armando Valenzuela remembered, pinned a Purple Heart on him as he lay in his hospital bed and told him that he was going to make it.

“I was dying, and he told me I was going to be OK,” Valenzuela said, “and I started getting better and better.”

And it was that awe of Westmoreland that was everywhere Friday.

At the Asian Garden Mall in the heart of Little Saigon in Westminster, the mostly Vietnamese shoppers and store owners crowded around him, eager to shake his hand.

Westmoreland smiled and asked questions, moving with the aplomb of a practiced politician. (He did run for governor of his native South Carolina in 1974 but was soundly defeated.)

He admired the ducks hanging in the window of a Vietnamese barbecue, then remarked casually that Peking duck is “the ultimate in cuisine.”

That was all his hosts needed to hear. They promptly ran upstairs to tell the chefs at the Asian Palace restaurant to change the luncheon menu. The general and his entourage would be having Peking duck.