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"Did the group other discuss violence or try to do things? I will have to research the Gainesville 8.

The mainstream spin is that VVAW was a very level-headed group and nobody took this plot seriously blah blah blah."

The VVAW went on to take over the Statue Of Liberty (twice). They issued demands--such as having their agit-prop broadcast over Armed Forces Radio and appear in Stars & Stripes. They took over the Betsy Ross house. Camil wanted to demolish it. Camil wanted to knock William Penn off of the City Hall building.

And, as you mention, Camil and the VVAW planned and tried to carry out the real disruption of the GOP convention. They were stopped before they could carry out their plans--which resulted in the trial of the Gainesville 8. They got off, but they were almost certainly guilty.

IRC, in the last four months of 1971, something like 500 of the VVAW members were arrested. (They only numbered about 1200.) These were for the most part thugs who were using their war protesting as an excuse to act out against the world.

Camil, for instance, was in trouble with the law before he went into the Marines. (He enlisted to avoide being sent to jail.) And he had many scrapes when he got back from VN. He was busted for cocaine--and even shot by a fed--he claims.