John Rowan | |
---|---|
Born | September 18, 1945 Queens, New York City, U.S. |
Education | Queen's College Hunter College |
Occupation | Civic leader |
John Rowan (born September 18, 1945) is an American Vietnam War veteran and the sixth national president of the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA).
Rowan was born on September 18, 1945, in Queens, New York City. [1] He was educated at the Brooklyn Technical High School, and he attended Baruch College but did not graduate. [1] Instead, he learned Indonesian at the Defense Language Institute and Vietnamese in Washington, D.C., before serving in the Vietnam War. [1]
In 1967, [1] in the midst of the Vietnam War, Rowan joined the U.S. Air Force Security Service as a linguist. [2] He "flew in planes over North Vietnam with a team listening in on the enemy's communications and translating them into English to guide or warn American pilots." [1]
After the war, Rowan attended Queen's College, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science. [2] [3] He attended graduate school at Hunter College, where he earned a master's degree in Urban Affairs. [2] [3]
Rowan spent his career in the public sector. He was an investigator for the New York City Comptroller's Office until 2002. [1]
Rowan became a member of the Council of Vietnam Veterans, later known as the Vietnam Veterans of America, in 1978. [1] [3] He was a founding member of its chapter in Queens, New York in 1981. [1] From 1995 to 2005, he was the president of the VVA's New York State Council from 1995 to 2005. [1] Since 2005, he has served as its sixth national president. [1] He has raised awareness about the high rate of PTSD among Vietnam War veterans. [4] He has also worked with the Vietnamese Veterans Association to find missing U.S. veterans of the war who died on Vietnamese soil. [1]
Rowan serves on the advisory board of the New York City Department of Veterans' Affairs, where he represents Queens. [3]
With his wife Mariann, Rowan resides in Middle Village, New York. [2]
Agent Orange is a herbicide and defoliant chemical, one of the "tactical use" Rainbow Herbicides. It is widely known for its use by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. It is a mixture of equal parts of two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. In addition to its damaging environmental effects, traces of dioxin found in the mixture have caused major health problems for many individuals who were exposed, and their offspring.
The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand, and other anti-communist allies. The war, considered a Cold War-era proxy war by some, lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973, and included the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, which ended with all three countries becoming communist states in 1975.
Hồ Chí Minh, born Nguyễn Sinh Cung, also known as Nguyễn Tất Thành, Nguyễn Ái Quốc, Bác Hồ, Người cha dân tộc or simply Bác, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 to 1955 and President from 1945 until his death in 1969. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist, he served as Chairman and First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam. He was born in Nghệ An province, in Central Vietnam.
Albert Peter Dewey was an American Office of Strategic Services operative shot to death in a case of mistaken identity by Communist aligned Viet Minh troops on September 26, 1945. Dewey was the first American fatality in French Indochina, killed during the 1945 Vietnamese uprising.
William Childs Westmoreland was a United States Army general, most notably commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1968 to 1972.
Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. (VVA) is a national non-profit corporation founded in 1978 in the United States that is committed to serving the needs of all veterans. It is funded without any contribution from any branch of government. VVA is the only such organization chartered by the United States Congress and dedicated to Vietnam veterans and their families. The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code. Its founding principle is, "Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another."
Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. was an American politician and military officer who served as a U.S. Senator representing Alabama from 1981 to 1987. He was the first Republican since the 1960s to win a Senate seat in Alabama. Denton was previously United States Navy Rear Admiral and Naval Aviator taken captive during the Vietnam War.
The Glassboro Summit Conference, usually just called the Glassboro Summit, was the 23–25 June 1967 meeting of the heads of government of the United States and the Soviet Union—President Lyndon B. Johnson and Premier Alexei Kosygin, respectively—for the purpose of discussing Soviet Union–United States relations in Glassboro, New Jersey. During the Arab–Israeli Six-Day War diplomatic contact and cooperation increased, leading some to hope for an improvement in the two countries' relations. Some even hoped for joint cooperation on the Vietnam War. Although Johnson and Kosygin failed to reach agreement on anything important, the generally amicable atmosphere of the summit was referred to as the "Spirit of Glassboro" and is seen to have improved Soviet–US relations.
Robert O. Muller is an American peace advocate.
Robert James Nicholson is an attorney, real estate developer, and a former Republican National Committee chairman. He was the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs from January 26, 2005, until October 1, 2007.
Charles P. Stone, was a career United States Army officer during the middle of the 20th century. After serving in World War II, in 1968 Major General Stone commanded the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam, leading his division to success during the Tet offensive.
Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War began with demonstrations in 1964 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social movement over the ensuing several years. This movement informed and helped shape the vigorous and polarizing debate, primarily in the United States, during the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s on how to end the war.
Leslie Howard "Les" Gelb was a correspondent and columnist for The New York Times, a senior Defense and State Department official, and later the President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) is an American tax-exempt non-profit organization and corporation founded in 1967 to oppose the United States policy and participation in the Vietnam War. VVAW says it is a national veterans' organization that campaigns for peace, justice, and the rights of all United States military veterans. It publishes a twice-yearly newsletter, The Veteran; this was earlier published more frequently as 1st Casualty (1971–1972) and then as Winter Soldier (1973–1975).
Jan Craig Scruggs is a United States Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War, and later founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which built the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Scruggs was the President of the foundation until 2015, when he retired.
Marc Leepson is an American journalist, historian, and author.
Wayne Karlin is an American author, editor, and teacher. His books include A Wolf by the Ears, Wandering Souls, Marble Mountain,War Movies: Journeys to Vietnam, The Wished-For Country, Prisoners, Rumors and Stones, Crossover, Lost Armies, The Extras, and Us.
William "Bill" Albracht was an Army captain in the Vietnam War. He is a recipient of three Silver Stars, and is the author of Abandoned in Hell: The Fight for Vietnam's Firebase Kate.
Phillip N. Butler was the eighth-longest-held U.S. prisoner of war (POW) held in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Butler, a Navy pilot, who was forced to eject after a mid-air explosion on April 20, 1965 and served as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam until his release as part of Operation Homecoming in 1973. Butler was one of the four POW's credited with establishing the tap code. The code enabled the prisoners to communicate with each other.