I have wanted to write this story since the assaults on John Kerry and his discussion of the Phoenix Program during the 2004 Presidential campaign. I thought about it when I read articles on torture and the failure of our legal system in Guantanamo in 2005 and again last year when I learned that veterans of our present war who dare to demonstrate against further involvement in Iraq are denied their benefits. But finally this year’s Sunday, October 14th  NY Times front page article entitled “At an Army School for Officers, Blunt Talk About Iraq Strategy“ has spurred me to action.

It seems that at Fort Leavenworth elite army officers are debating their obligation to define and execute orders which may be illegal, immoral or unethical. Almost 40 years ago years ago, on February 20, 1969, a spokesman for the army issued a statement that the intelligence school at Fort Holabird, Maryland was not teaching “principles in violation of the Geneva Convention.” He was forced to make this statement because two young lieutenants were suing the army on just this charge. One of them, Michael Cohn, was my brother. 

Mike was in law school in 1967 but dropped out because of dental problems during exams. He received his draft notice shortly thereafter, and being a college graduate, decided to enlist instead and was admitted to Officers’ Candidate School (OCS) after basic training. My mother had tried to convince him not to go to the army, wanted to get him out on medical grounds because of his allergies and weak lungs, offered to sneak him into Canada. But my father and grandfather were veterans of the two great wars; a picture of my father in uniform stood on the piano. If you were a good citizen, you served your country.

In OCS Mike met Frank Reitemeyer, another twenty-two year old. Frank had dropped out of the Catholic seminary and wanted to teach while going to night school. The draft board said he’d had enough education so he enlisted. They had a good time in OCS although there was a fatalistic feel to what awaited them all upon graduation. They were being trained in practical escape and evasion, to be forward observers in the ground war. Eleven of the company of 200+ men were not assigned to Viet Nam at the end of the program, and among the eleven were both Cohn and Reitemeyer.

They were both assigned to Air Missile defense, not artillery work at all but rather the old watch on Russia. Frank was stationed in Cincinnati and Mike in Pittsburgh. Frank actually reported to Michael and for almost a year. As second lieutenants their jobs consisted of abstract planning in poorly lit rooms with radar screens and lots of paperwork. But in early November 1968 they received orders to report to Fort Holabird in Baltimore. This fort no longer exists, it is now an industrial park.

At Holabird they began training in the Phoenix Program along with about sixty other soldiers. The Program had originated with the CIA and had just been opened up to the army, remaining under army control for two to three years. Operation Phoenix was aimed less against the enemy’s fighting forces than against political enemies and Viet Cong sympathizers. The objective was to capture, torture and murder.

Mike and Frank felt they were asked to do things they considered Anti-American. Among the atrocities there would be a  “kill-quota” of fifty people a month. It was stated that extreme torture methods, such as popping out eyes, would be necessary. Heads would be placed in front of dead men’s houses as a warning to others. Frank remembers one guy jumping up during training and yelling,” This is Gestapo!” as they learned what their responsibilities in torture and interrogation would entail. No one else seemed to be balking. The army’s training included bracing them for what could happen because the actions were illegal. It was implied during instructions that if we were to lose the war, they could be tried as war criminals. They were made aware that in the event of capture they could be prosecuted according to the Nuremberg Trials and the Geneva Convention.

By December Mike and Frank had heard enough to file for Conscientious Objector status.  At that time there was an actual army form for soldiers to do so. During the Viet Nam war there were clear guidelines for claiming CO status. Now the young reservists that don’t want to go to Iraq are pushed right into prison.

Cohn and Reitemeyer visited the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors run by Philadelphia Quakers for advice on filing the forms--taking the first step. They did not want to disobey orders, they were officers and had taken an oath, yet they felt pushed into a corner. If they had been ordered to Viet Nam as artillery officers they would have gone and served, but instead found themselves part of a nightmarish situation. They applied for Conscientious Objector status and after much interviewing by officers, chaplains and psychiatrists, both were turned down. They were notified that “It has been determined that your objection is based upon personal moral code, not religion.” Later that year, another Phoenix trainee, Lt. Russell Long, followed their lead and filed for CO status based on his beliefs as a Taoist; his plea was accepted. It seems the army believed itself capable of separating moral code from Judeo-Christian faith but had no mechanism in place to do so for Taoism. Cohn and Reitemeyer were forced to go on to the next step.

The Quakers had given them the name of a young ACLU lawyer in Baltimore named Bill Zinman. He was immediately receptive and took their case for almost no money.

They were reassigned duty in the Finance office and reported daily. They remained living in the apartment they had originally rented. For the most part they were treated well even in this strange antagonistic position. Nobody overtly threatened them although they were certain they were being followed. They were afraid and kept to themselves. There was a meeting with superiors in which they were offered assignments in Europe in return for dropping the case. In February 1969 they went to court. The newspapers were covering the case closely in Baltimore. On Long Island and in New Jersey, where the boys originated, the local papers picked up the story. Our families received threatening and vicious phone calls. The Baltimore Evening Sun printed details of the testimony about torture.

Federal Judge Kaufman of the 4th Circuit Court presided over the February hearing which lasted four days. The army was represented by a civilian lawyer. In July the Judge found against the army. The army then had thirty days to file for an extension; they did so on the 28th day.

The army filed a second thirty day appeal but after the fifty-ninth day they let the decision rest. There was a lot of publicity. The story was picked up by the US News and World Report, the Village Voice, appeared in a German magazine and on Canadian TV.

On October 31st the Judge officially found in their favor. They went to Zinman’s office once again and received Habeas Corpus to let them go. They were honorably discharged. The Finance office was held open until they were done with all the paperwork. On Halloween night 1969 my brother came home.

Bill Zinman wanted them to promote their story and go more public, do interview tours etc., but both men declined. Frank moved far upstate to live on a farm. He has had a conventional and peaceful 40 years, happily married, financially secure and with grandchildren. For the past few years he has been an active Quaker. My brother had a harder time getting back into the mainstream. He went back to school to study Comparative Religion and Anthropology, had two failed marriages with no children, taught anthropology on Navy ships, worked as a probation officer, crisis counselor and did trainings in anger management. To me he seemed always unsettled, something always riding on his back. My mother wonders if he had a nervous breakdown. Certainly we never saw a light-hearted, playful Michael again, nor the one who would have been the successful lawyer.

The past five years, however, since the failure of his second marriage and the ensuing depression, he found a way to serve his community in a healing way. About ten years ago he had removed himself to a tiny town on the Washington coast. Half of the 200 inhabitants are members of the Shoalwater Tribe. Always a lover of books, he participated in starting a reservation library. The bulk of his time, however, apart from simple living with a dog and wood stove, and teaching the occasional sociology class at the community college, was spent working as a hospice volunteer. He spent many an hour sitting by people in pain and fear, offering comfort in his deep voice. He mixed his Judaism more and more with Buddhism and was meditating. He lived on very little money.
Mike died suddenly this April. Frank has given me the details of this story.

Sometimes I feel the army experience ruined his life, made it harder by shaking him up so much. He had told my parents he was incapable of doing what they asked of him; if he did he would have never slept again. Other times, such as when I went out to Washington for the memorial the Hospice Volunteers held on his birthday, I am proud of the individual he became, with his priorities so different from material gain and selfish pursuit. I like to think that the disillusionment and struggle made him understand his humanity at a deep and satisfying level and he was finally able to demonstrate that in the most compassionate way possible--sitting with the dying rather than being an instrument of death.