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Winning Hearts and Minds: The 1st Casualty Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
Extract
In the early 1970s, a number of Vietnam veterans sought publication for a collection of veterans' creative writing which they felt could make an important contribution to a political understanding of the war in Indochina. However, efforts to find a commercial publisher for their anthology met with no success. Their conviction that this literature both deserved and could find a substantial audience led these writers to establish their own independent publisher for the literature of Vietnam veterans, the 1st [sic] Casualty Press. In 1972, the Press published an anthology of veterans' poetry, Winning Hearts and Minds (or WHAM as it is often called), edited by Larry Rottmann, Jan Barry and Basil T. Paquet; it was followed a year later by Free Fire Zone, an anthology of short stories edited by Rottmann, Paquet and Wayne Karlin. As their epigraph, both volumes were given the quotation: “In war, truth is the first casualty.”
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982
References
1 Unless otherwise stated, information and documents cited about the 1st Casualty Press are taken from its archives at the Wilbur Cross Library of the University of Connecticut at Storrs; the archives include the working manuscripts of the three volumes, the published and unpublished manuscripts of the contributors, contributors' correspondence, and miscellaneous business records, correspondence, advertising material and newspaper articles and reviews of the Press. I would like to thank R. H. Schimmelpfeng, the Director of Special Collections, for giving me access to this material, and also Basil T. Paquet for his generous response to my questions about the 1st Casualty. I acknowledge the financial assistance of the University of London Central Research Fund.
2 Winning Hearts and Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans (Brooklyn: 1st Casualty Press; New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972)Google Scholar.
3 Free Fire Zone: Short Stories by Vietnam Veterans (Coventry, Conn.: 1st Casualty Press; New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973)Google Scholar.
4 The quotation is attributed to Aeschylus by the Press; The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations ascribes it to Senator Hiram Johnson, 1917.
5 1st Casualty Press, Letters to contributors, 12 June 1972, 6 July 1972 and 20 August 1972.
6 Tim O'Brien is a contributor to the 1st Casualty's unpublished Postmortem; his work includes the novel, Going After Cacciato (New York: Delacorte, 1978)Google Scholar.
7 Lifton, Robert Jay, Home From the War: Vietnam Veterans (London: Wildwood, 1974), p. 67Google Scholar.
8 O'Brien, Tim, If I Die in a Combat Zone (1973; rpt. New York: Laurel-Dell, 1979), p. 31Google Scholar.
9 “Biographical Information,” a 1st Casualty press release.
10 For an account of VVAW activities and views, see Kerry, John and Vvaw, , The New Soldier, eds. Thorne, David and Butler, George (New York: Macmillan; New York: Collier, 1971)Google Scholar.
11 “1st Casualty Press,” in The Publish-It-Yourself Handbook, ed. Henderson, Bill, 2nd ed. (1973; New York: Harper & Row, 1980), p. 221Google Scholar.
12 For a full account, see Smith, Julian, Looking Away: Hollywood and Vietnam (New York: Scribner's, 1975)Google Scholar.
13 As The New Soldier: see note 9.
14 Smith, Steven, American Boys (New York: Putnam's, 1975)Google Scholar; Hasford, Gustave, The Short-Timers (New York: Harper & Row, 1979)Google Scholar; Naparsteck, M. J., War Song (New York: Leisure Books, 1980)Google Scholar.
15 Several contributors report this reaction from publishers: for example, Barney Currer, Letter to 1st Casualty, 24 November 1972.
16 Interview with Eric P. Swenson of W. W. Norton & Co., 13 November 1980.
17 Asa Baber, , The Land of the Million Elephants (New York: Morrow, 1970)Google Scholar; Davis, George, Corning Home (New York: Random, 1972)Google Scholar; Pelfrey, William, The Big V (New York: Liveright, 1972)Google Scholar.
18 “ 1st Casualty Press,” p. 220.
19 “All Soldiers are Prisoners of War: a Prospectus for a Book by Vietnam Veterans.”
20 There is no copy of the original manuscript in the archives; this description is taken from the prospectus.
21 Mervyn W. Adams, Letter to Rottmann, 13 January 1971; Daphne A. Ehrlich, Letter to Rottmann, 2 November 1970; and Bill Whitehead, Letter to Rottman, 25 June 1971, respectively.
22 “ 1st Casualty Press,” p. 221.
23 Letter to WHAM's editors, 27 January 1971.
24 Dan Georgakas, Letter to WHAM's editors, 19 April 1971.
25 For example, articles in Midwest, 11 June 1972, and the New York Daily News, 3 June 1972.
26 Interview with Paquet, 30 August 1980.
27 Rottmann, Letter to VVAW, Chicago, 15 March 1973.
28 Interview with Paquet; when the Press disbanded there were doubts about the use of some of its funds.
29 Rottmann, in a letter to VVAW, Chicago, 15 March 1973, mentions the accusation and defends the Press.
30 Barry, Letter to Gary Staiger, 2 May 1972.
31 Barry, Letter to editor of Midwest, 14 August 1972.
32 1st Casualty Press, Letters to contributors, 6 July 1972, and 15 January 1973.
33 Interview with Paquet.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Its publications include Demilitarized Zones: Veterans after Vietnam, eds. Barry, Jan and Ehrhart, W. D. (Montclair, N.J.: East River Anthology, 1976)Google Scholar.