"What is it like for a returning veteran to write under the aegis of the military, where language necessarily serves a far different purpose than it does for the poet? Jan Barry...a poet and decorated Vietnam veteran, tells of his experience...
'To find the space I needed to write more critically, I resigned from West Point... When I submitted my resignation, a kindly colonel called me into his office... "You can stay in the Army and write official histories," the colonel said enthusiastically. He could not conceive of the critical perspective I had acquired in Vietnam, in which official statements were often wildly unrelated to the facts in the field.'"
--From "Poetry and the Pentagon: Unholy Alliance?" by Eleanor Wilner, Poetry Magazine, Oct. 2004
"Jan Barry, a co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the protest group that [Sen. John] Kerry joined and used as a stage for his activism, said that when it came to discussion about the conflict, tempers still flared--even among friends. 'I'm still mystified why our generation still cannot have a civil conversation about that period of time,' said the 61-year-old journalist. 'But we can't.'"
--Quoted in "The Race to the White House; Refighting Vietnam in Battleground States," by John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 25, 2004