Lessons of war

After more than 8 years of active duty in the Marine Corps, veteran returns home to fight for peace

Ana Maria Trujillo | The New Mexican

11/10/2007 -

Kenneth Mayers was 17 years old when he was awarded a NROTC scholarship to Princeton University. He graduated and got his degree in electrical engineering. When he turned 21 in June of 1958, he received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

There was something of a military tradition in his family. His father was a Marine and his brother was in the Army.

He followed in their footsteps. His first career was as a career Marine Corps officer. He was on active duty from 1958 to 1966.

During his 81/2 years of active duty, he got an education — but he said it wasn't the kind of education the Marines had hoped he
would get.

Deciding to leave

"I became increasingly educated about the role of the United States in the world and increasingly distressed by that role," Mayers said. "It wasn't what we had been taught in grade school."

Mayers said he "really thought (the United States) were the good guys" when he joined the Marine Corps, but after active duty, he concluded nobody was the good guy.

He said the Marine Corps itself was very good to him and he had "nothing but good deals," but events he witnessed led him to become disillusioned with the government.

"My grief was not with the Marine Corps, but with the way it was being used," Mayers said. "The Marine Corps paid my way through college, the Marine Corps showed me the world, the Marine Corps sent me to Chinese language school for a year — the Marine Corps was very good to me."

He said what distressed him the most was our country's track record of oppressing people and lying about it. He said there are lots of "long stories" to illustrate his point, but the story that he frequently cites as the "most dramatic" was the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which became the basis for American escalation in Vietnam War.

Mayers was serving in a strategic intelligence unit on communications intelligence missions in the Gulf of Tonkin in the summer of 1964. Mayers said the United States was sending ships close to the shore to get North Vietnam to turn on their radar so they could "fingerprint" the radar, an act that allowed the U.S. to see North Vietnam's defensive activities.

President Johnson's story was that U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin were attacked by North Vietnamese forces. Mayers said they never did fire on any of the U.S. ships.

"I was quite sure that the president's report to the nation was, at least, a great exaggeration," Mayers said.

The result of Johnson's report was the buildup of American forces in Vietnam. The Vietnam War was responsible for more than 58,000 U.S. soldier deaths.

Two years later, in November 1966, Mayers resigned his commission; in January of 1967, he enrolled in graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley in "hopes of figuring out how we got so screwed up." He earned his doctorate in political science and said he was still baffled.

"I went from being a career Marine Corps officer one day to being a radical Berkeley student and antiwar activist the next," Mayers said.

Peace is the way to go

When Mayers was living in Vermont 22 years ago, he was involved in a peace movement called Beyond War.

He met up with a retired Marine Corps colonel, John Bar, who was also involved in the Beyond War movement. Bar, who was president of Veterans for Peace at the time, ordered him to sign up for the national organization. He did and found it lined up with all his ideals.

"John said to me, 'You're a Marine, aren't you?' And I said, 'Yes, sir,' and he said, 'You will join Veterans for Peace,' " Mayers said with a laugh. "He said, 'You will enjoy it.' "

When he fulfilled his dream of moving to Santa Fe in 1999, he started thinking about founding a new chapter of the organization. Initially he found it difficult to find the 10 veterans needed.

In 2002, when the world realized that the United States was planning to invade Iraq, veterans started to come out in support.

"It started to become clear in the summer of 2002 that unless we did something powerful, we were going to go to war in Iraq," Mayers said. "At that point, it became much easier to round up veterans to join."

The Joan Duffy Chapter of Veterans for Peace was officially founded in July 2002.

The chapter's first public event was a lecture at the Forum of Santa Fe on Veteran's Day 2002. Before the event started, there were only 15 members of the chapter; after it was over, there were 50. Today, there are 192 members on the roster of the chapter.

The chapter has held an average of one public event per month including lectures, movies and trips to schools for the Full Disclosure Recruiting program.

"Our mission is to heal the wounds of previous wars, minimize the suffering of current wars and help prevent future wars," Mayers said. "Our two short-term goals are to end the Iraq war and prevent an Iran war; and a long-term goal is to abolish wars as an instrument in foreign policy."

The national Veterans for Peace was founded in 1985. Mayers describes the organization as a "tent" that houses everybody from fiscal conservatives but social liberals, to radical pacifists.

"The organization itself is not a pacifist organization," Mayers said. "The majority of members of Veterans for Peace would quickly take up arms to defend America from an attack, but we strongly oppose the use of war by America as an instrument of foreign policy."

In order to join the Joan Duffy Chapter of Veterans for Peace, veterans must first join the national chapter. They can do so by visiting www.veteransforpeace.org.

A day to honor peace, not war

Nov. 11 was initially dedicated to “the cause of world peace” — specifically the end of World War I. Then called Armistice Day, it was established in the United States as part of an act “making the 11th day of November in each year a legal holiday.” It was approved on May 13, 1938. On June 1, 1954, an amendment was added to take out the word “armistice” and replace it with “veterans” to honor veterans of all wars and world peace.

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084 or atrujillo@sfnewmexican.com.