In a scathing four-page letter in June to U.S. Smokeless Tobacco - the Connecticut company that sent Marines products after the invasion of Iraq - two congressmen compared the company's donation to the U.S. tobacco industry's "long and disgraceful history" of giving away products to troops."Your actions recall tobacco companies' distribution of free cigarettes to soldiers during World War II, which caused hundreds of thousands of servicemen to become addicted and die of tobacco-related illnesses," wrote Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and Bill Janklow, the former South Dakota representative recently jailed for a traffic-related manslaughter conviction.
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco officials defended the gift, saying the intent was to "provide product to current adult consumers who were unable to purchase the product."
Other tobacco manufacturers such as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. say they have abandoned efforts to give away cigarettes to soldiers. "We are not sending cigarettes to troops in Iraq or elsewhere nor are we currently investigating that option," said Carole S. Crosslin, an R.J. Reynolds spokeswoman.