For most of us, this weekend’s release of the latest superhero film, “Captain America: Winter Soldier” will be simply another night of fun entertainment at the theater. But Winter Soldier means much more than a cool sounding name for a fictional comic book character. There is a long legacy behind the name Winter Soldier that is much deeper in meaning. There is pain and suffering in that name. There is sacrifice, honor and healing behind those words.
To understand the real meaning of the name Winter Soldier we begin in 1776 with The American Crisis, a collection of articles written by Thomas Paine during the American Revolutionary War. Paine is best known for his extremely popular and successful pamphlet Common Sense, which argued for Independence from England.
“These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
Then, to know where the term Winter Soldier was coined, we must fast forward one hundred ninety-five years to the Viet Nam War era and listen in on John Kerry, testifying as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, in front of the same body he would one day join, the U.S. Senate.
“We call this investigation the 'Winter Soldier Investigation.' The term 'Winter Soldier' is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriot and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough. We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.”
January 31 – February 2, 1971, Vietnam Veterans Against the War held theWinter Soldier Investigationswhere returning soldiers testified to war crimes and atrocities by the U.S. Armed Forces and their allies in Vietnam. VVAW challenged the morality and conduct of the war by talking about the horrors of war and exposing the connections between military official policies and war crimes in Vietnam. One hundred and nine veterans and sixteen civilians including contractors, medical personnel and academics testified about war crimes they had committed or witnessed. This was a historic moment, when U.S. veterans stood up to hold themselves and the government accountable.
But the story does not end there. Now we follow the journey of the Winter Soldier to March 13 – 16, 2008 in Silver Springs Maryland. Over two hundred veterans and active duty service members as well as civilian Iraqis and Afghans followed in the footsteps of the 1971 hearings to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. They talked about the war crimes they witnessed and participated in.
As reported byDemocracy Now, “Over the weekend, war veterans spoke of free-fire zones, the shootings and beatings of innocent civilians, racism at the highest levels of the military, sexual harassment and assault within the military, and the torturing of prisoners.”
So you see, there are real winter soldiers. They are men and women who love their country, but are not willing to love blindly. They are service members and veterans who come back and risk everything to tell the ground truth about the horrors of war and advocate for a new direction. They are patriots who are willing to hold themselves accountable, tell their nation when it is wrong and struggle with it to make it right. Today’s winter soldiers are members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (in its different incarnations), Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace. They are service members, veterans and non-veterans alike who will not stand idly by and allow innocent people to be killed in their names. They are citizens of the world who know that life and the health of the planet is more important than profit, and that war is obsolete and will study it no more.
When you go see “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” have fun in the make believe world of Hollywood superheroes and sheroes. But also take time to watch the “Winter Soldier Investigations” from 1971 and 2008 to know the real winter soldiers.
http://www.wintersoldierfilm.com/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuLsYPgAcKmljni829sdjDqgAgm6vKZMb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucY7JOfg6G4