Having just written a book about VVAW ("The Turning: A
History of Vietnam Veterans Against the War," New York
University Press, 1999; sorry, gotta plug it!), I can
respond to Michael Wright about William Lemmer's
whereabouts.
Not long ago, I interviewed Don Donner (no relation
to Frank), who was quite close to Lemmer, even after
Lemmer ratted. Donner was the head of the Arkansas
VVAW for a while in the early seventies. For
several years, he kept loose tabs on Lemmer's
whereabouts. Lemmer became, of all things, a
cartoonist (!), whose work was acutally quite funny
and appeared repeatedly on the CNN Web site (CNN
AllPloitics). He was also an editorial cartoonist
for the Washington Business Journal and an
illustrator for the Henry M. Jackson foundation.
Sadly, he died in August 6, 1996, at the age of 46
(I'm not sure what he died of). I say sadly not
because I miss him, but because I think he could've
provided lots of valuable information about FBI
dirty tricks and the VVAW (that is, had he been willing
to discuss it, which he probably wouldn't have).
He's a compelling character. If I sound sympathetic
toward him, I guess it's because after studying him
for so long I no longer really hate him like I used to,
but I now regard him as another victim of America's
vile war in Indochina.
Andrew Hunt
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Andrew Hunt *
* Department of History *
* University of Waterloo *
* Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 *
* (519) 888-4567, ex. 2767 *
* fax: (519) 746-2658 *
* aehunt@watarts.uwaterloo.ca *
* http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~aehunt *
* *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Andrew Hunt *
* Department of History *
* University of Waterloo *
* Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 *
* (519) 888-4567, ex. 2767 *
* fax: (519) 746-2658 *
* aehunt@watarts.uwaterloo.ca *
* http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~aehunt *
* *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *