DEDICATION The Military Law Task Force dedicates this website to William G. Smith. |
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We hardly need to say that Bill was one of the great figures in draft and military law; that his work was brilliant and that he developed important legal strategies that changed the state of selective service, military, and veterans law. Because of Bill, many young men did not die or kill in Vietnam. Because of him, many men and women were protected from the personal devastation that the military often causes its members. Because of his recent work, many veterans receive care, benefits and respect the government would otherwise have denied them. Bill taught a multitude of attorneys and military counselors through his writing and lectures. And in the process, he helped them to understand the underlying issues of imperialism, class and discrimination inherent in the military. He taught decency and respect for clients. Bill exemplified law in the
service of the people. He exemplified Che's reminder that a true
revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love. This article originally appeared in the National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles Chapter Dinner Journal in 1986. William G. Smith was the Honoree, Master of Ceremonies was Leonard Weinglass and Guest Speaker was Alexander Cockburn. Bill Smith is a political activist and skilled lawyer within the best tradition of the National Lawyers Guild. He joined the Guild immediately after becoming a lawyer in 1964, at a time when Guild membership was at an all time low as a result of the intimidation of the McCarthy era. He recruited himself into the Guild because he wanted to be part of a progressive lawyers' organization which was active in the important issues and struggles of the day. Bill's first Guild meeting was an organizational meeting to obtain lawyers for the Mississippi Summer project of 1964. As a young deputy public defender, Bill took his summer vacation in 1964 by journeying to Mississippi to participate in one of the most important activities in the Guild's long history, He met with George Crockett, now a Michigan congressman, at the Summer Project headquarters in Jackson, Mississippi, and was assigned to duties in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and later in a rural area of northeast Mississippi. While representing individuals who had been subpoenaed to appear before a County Grand Jury in Hattiesburg, and participating as a legal observer in voter registration efforts in the Mississippi panhandle, Bill came to know and appreciate the courageous efforts of the organizers, sharecroppers, and potential voters and all of the other oppressed people of the area who were fighting the accumulated injustices of three centuries of white supremacist rule. Bill was to return to Mississippi on two more occasions: once to organize a lawsuit to desegregate the County Hospital in Greenwood, Mississippi, and once to participate in the challenge to the election of the Mississippi delegation to Congress in the 1964 elections. It was while he was on his first trip to Mississippi in the summer of 1964 that an event occurred that was to have a profound effect on Bill's career for the next 20 years. While sitting in a Summer Project office one evening in early August 1964, Bill watched Lyndon Johnson's infamous "Gulf of Tonkin" speech, in which LBJ blatantly lied about an alleged attack by North Vietnamese PT boats against the American fleet off the coast of Vietnam. It was this speech that led to the massive buildup in Vietnam by the American forces, and led simultaneously to Bill's life long career of fighting legal battles against the military buildup in the United States and foreign intervention abroad. Bill's first political struggle within the Lawyers Guild occurred at the Guild's National Convention in San Francisco, California, when the organization took on the question of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Bill supported a "radical" resolution that would have had the Guild call for complete and unconditional withdrawal from all of Indochina. At that time, the majority of the Guild backed a competing resolution that called for a negotiated settlement of the dispute. Over the next few years, the Guild gradually came to adopt the minority position favored by Bill. It took the nation ten years and incalculable casualties in Indochina before the "radical" position became a national consensus. Bill's anti-war work came to fruition in the struggle against the draft in the 1960s. He worked in two areas: on the one hand, he organized lawyers to provide legal representation for draft resisters, and on the other, he organized and trained lay draft counselors into a far-reaching network of highly skilled individuals who provided draft counseling advice to thousands of young men throughout the United States. In early 1967, Bill initiated the National lawyers Guild Selective Service Law Panel of Los Angeles. The panel met every three weeks from 1967 to 1973. Eventually, over 100 lawyers participated in the work of the panel, as did many of the local lay draft counselors and movement people. Bill wrote and published a newsletter that was sent to lawyers throughout the United States. Seeking to reach non-lawyers as well, Bill and Lee Solomon jointly published Counterdraft, a publication that quickly came to have over 3,000 subscribers nationwide. In Counterdraft, Bill successfully translated the abstract language of federal statues, regulations and case law into terms that could be understood by everyone. Through this publication, it was possible to convey information concerning innovative draft counseling techniques to hundreds of draft counselors throughout the United States. The success of the Selective Service Law Panel of Los Angeles did not go unnoticed by federal officials. Several years after the Panel ceased operating, the Guild brought a lawsuit on behalf of the national NLG organization against the FBI for 40 years of harassment. Because of his extensive involvement in anti-war activities, Bill was made one of the 30 nominal plaintiffs in that lawsuit. Through this device, the Guild obtained massive discovery against the federal government, and the extent of government harassment against the Selective Service Law Panel became crystal clear. In over 3,000 pages of documents released by the government as a result of the discovery motions filed by the Guild, it was revealed that an FBI informant had been in attendance at each meeting of the Panel, breaching the attorney-client relationship between the attorneys who attended the meetings to discuss their cases, and their respective clients. Notwithstanding the illegal activities of the government informers, the Panel became recognized as the outstanding Selective Service Law Panel in the United States, and efforts were made to secure recognition and direct appointments from the federal judiciary in Los Angeles for the defense lawyers representing indigent clients. Again, the FBI intervened, as documents uncovered in the Guild's lawsuit show that the FBI, in conjunction with members of the local US Attorney's office, improperly influenced the Chief Federal District Court judge in Los Angeles not to appoint members of the Panel to represent indigent defendants in Selective Service cases because of the "political direction" of many lawyers on the Panel. Under Bill's leadership, lawyers who participated in the Panel agreed to handle cases of indigent defendants without fee, and the Panel continued to operate as the main legal bulwark against the attacks against draft resisters during the Vietnam War. Bill was also active in assisting young men who elected to expatriate themselves from the United States rather than to fight in an unconscionable war in Indochina. Through an extensive network in Canada and Sweden, he was able to reach hundreds of young men who had fled to those countries and provide legal assistance to them from thousands of miles away. Bill received a grant from the National Council of Churches in 1974-1975 to represent all men who had been indicted in states west of the Mississippi River for draft resistance, but who were living abroad or in a fugitive status. While hundreds of such men waited in the comparative safety of their foreign havens, Bill successfully negotiated the dismissal of hundreds of outstanding criminal indictments by the technique of examining the individual files and presenting an analysis of the legal errors that had been made by the government in the processing the cases. When Presidents Ford and Carter unveiled their amnesty plans for military deserters and draft resisters between 1975 and 1978, Bill was in the forefront of providing legal assistance to young men returning from exile or surfacing from long periods of underground living in the United States. Bill's anti-war activities took on a new dimension after the Vietnam War ended, and he became involved in military counseling and defending men and women who were under attack for various offenses under military law. In 1976-1977, he was one of the lead counsel in the so-called "Camp Pendleton 14" case. This case involved the effort of the Marine Corps, notorious for its support of the Klu Klux Klan, to railroad 14 young black Marines into long sentences in military prisons for their fight against the KKK at Camp Pendleton, California. This legal struggle involved the services of some of the best legal talent of the NLG in Southern California, and Bill was one of the organizers of the legal defense team in that landmark case. In January 1980, President Carter revealed a plan to bring back draft registration in the United States, and Bill was again in the forefront of efforts to resist the new militarization of American society. The Selective Service Law Panel was reactivated once again, and hundreds of lawyers and draft counselors crammed themselves into meeting halls to obtain training under the new draft registration regulations from Bill and other participants in the Panel. Bill organized a nationwide network of counselors, and lawyers who were alert to any indictments of draft resisters, and through his efforts Guild lawyers were assigned to represent many of the first individuals who were indicted for failing to register under the new registration law. Under Bill's leadership, a defense team was organized to defend David Wayte, the first draft resister to be indicted in Los Angeles for failing to register for the draft. This case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court and became the landmark case on "selective prosecution" in the U.S. Although the Supreme Court eventually ruled against Wayte, the legal and political efforts that went into that struggle turned the tide against government efforts to jail thousands of draft resisters, and the government was forced to change its tactics to enforce the draft registration program. Today, only a handful of several hundred thousand draft resisters have been prosecuted, and many attribute this lack of activity to the efforts of the defense team in the David Wayte case. For a five year period, Bill was national chairperson of the Committee Against Registration and the Draft (C.A.R.D.), and he again published a newsletter for lay draft counselors that reached hundreds of subscribers throughout the U.S. Today, Bill continues to be one of the leading experts in military law in the United States. His legal struggle take him to military bases throughout the U.S. and wherever U.S. military bases exist abroad. He is always at the forefront of anti-military legal activities, and he is the first person to be called whenever a legal problem develops for people in the military service who are struggle against military intervention in wars of national liberation. Bill is also active in representing the victims of the Vietnam War -- the veterans who returned home with medical and psychological scars from the conflict. Operating under a grant from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Bill is representing indigent veterans in claims for compensation and pension benefits against the Veteran Administration, and seeking to expose the neglect and hostility these men and women now face from the government they once thought they were "defending. We honor tonight a lawyer who has always placed political and moral struggles above personal gain, and who embodies the finest traditions of the National lawyers Guild as it is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary in service to the struggle for a just and humane society for all of our citizens. Gary Blasi wrote the following eulogy for Bill Smith's Memorial Service: My name is Gary Blasi, As most of you know, Bill Smith was not a religious man. Nor am I. Have been asked to help preside over this service. I was a friend, for nearly 30 years. My only hope of getting through this is to read it. I hope you will bear with me. True to iconoclastic self, Bill wanted a fun, upbeat, celebratory service. He will get that in a few weeks. But not today. Today, in the presence of Bill's family and a few close friends, we will tell the truth as best we can about this extraordinary man. I propose to say a few words about Bill's life and my own memories of him, than then to ask those of you who wish to speak your own thoughts about Bill. When we are done here, we will be driving to the graveside for few more words. Bill was born in the depths of the depression in 1933. His father died when Bill was six years old. His mother moved the family from Oregon to San Bernardino. It was not an easy California life. The family subsisted on welfare, when there was very little welfare to be had. Bill went on to high school in San Bernardino. He separately wanted to play football, but was not going to make the team. He decided that if he went to the smaller local catholic school, he could make the team there. But that cost money, and money was something Bill's mom did not have. So, Bill lied about his age and joined the National guard, in order to get a stipend so he could pay for catholic school and play football. That was a good move, in ways Bill might not have intended. The teachers at the catholic high school recognized Bill's enormous intellect and began to encourage him to raise his sights. He enrolled at UCLA. He supported himself by working as a house boy for a rich family in the Palisades. There he learned to love classical music and how to arrange multiple forks and plates. At UCLA, Bill also joined ROTC on campus -- as we were all required to do. Bill chose the Air Force, and the Air Force chose Bill to be the commander. He also got married and began a family at what now seems a very young age. Following UCLA, Bill joined the Air force. Both his military career and his family were growing. In short order, he was a Captain in the Air force, a world-travelling navigator, and the proud father of three daughters, Diane, Carin and Rhonda. The pride in his daughters lasted forever. The air Force career came to an end when Bill decided he wanted to become a lawyer. Bill attended the USC law school, going to school at nights and working during the day as an accountant for Union Oil Company. When he got his law degree, Bill shocked Union Oil Company when he told them he did not long to be a rich corporate lawyer. Bill took a job as a public defender. From his very first legal job to his last, Bill was a fierce advocate for the underdog. When the Civil Rights movement cam along in 1964, Bill answered the call for justice and set out for Mississippi. There, he met some other radical lawyers from los Angeles. They offered him a job. Before long, Bill was a partner at the legendary law firm of Margolis, McTernan, Smith, Scope and Epstein. As the struggle for civil rights continued, the Vietnam War was expanding at a ferocious rate. Unable to feed the war machine with volunteers, the government began drafting hundreds of thousands of young men for a war few supported. With a handful of others, Bill virtually invented draft law. The aim was to cut off the supply of cannon fodder for the U.S. military in Vietnam, and to fight the injustice that saw the sons of the rich safely ensconced at Yale, while ghetto kids were sent off to die in the rice paddies. Not only did Bill invent the legal strategies that worked, he also set about to organize and train other lawyers. He published a national newsletter, Counterdraft, that spread the word about how to stop the draft. During this work, Bill encountered another terrific lawyer working against the draft in Philadelphia. Bill and Carol Krauthamer courted one another. In 1967, at the height of the anti-war work, Carol Krauthamer became Carol Krauthamer Smith and a lifelong romance was born. When Bill thought he couldn't represent enough poor kids at the Marolis firm, he left the relative security and plush offices on Wilshire Boulevard for a storefront community law office in Echo Park that Carol had helped found. That is where I met him. Before very long, Bill was the senior partner in the not-so-legendary firm of Smith, Honig, Blasi, Yavenditti and Smith. My most vivid memories of the time are of Bill in the drab, windowless office at the back of the Echo Park Community Law Office, with two enormous piles of files and an old Selectric typewriter in front of him. For probably a hundred hours each week, Bill picked up a file from the pile on the left, performed a few hours of brilliant legal research, typed out a perfect brief or appeal on the non-correcting Selectric typewriter, and put the file on the pile on the right. Even when the office flooded and there was some danger of being electrocuted by the Selectric, Bill pounded on, elegant phrase after elegant phrase. Bill worked like lives depended on it. They did. As the result of Bill's work, thousands of people my age did not die in Vietnam, or come home crippled in body or mind, or participate in the atrocities there. Later, Bill was selected by the National Council of Churches to implement a national legal strategy leading to the dismissal of the indictments of young men of conscience who left the country rather than fight and kill in Vietnam. As a result of his work, hundreds of young men were able to return to their families and their lives. Bill's hostility to the war was matched only by his compassion for the military personnel who returned home, blood and broken. Just as Bill had been the leading draft lawyer in the country, he soon became the leading veteran's lawyer, fighting against bogus bad discharges and for disability benefits for the war's returning vets. He co-founded the National Organization of Veteran's Advocates. He litigated important issues before the appellate courts. When the federal court system was reorganized to have military and veteran's cases heard in a new appellate court, in the first volume of the Court's decisions, about half of them were Bill's cases. Probably more important to his thousands of clients over the years were the individual legal miracles Bill was often able to work for them. If Bell had put that mind to work as a tax lawyer for Union Oil, he would have been one of the richest lawyers in Los Angeles. Instead, he put his mind to work for those in most need of the help, against the most powerful adversaries in the U.S. government. And when he figured something out, rather than conceive a way to turn it to more fees for himself, Bill set about to publicize his strategies far and wide. What mattered to Bill was the work, and what it meant for people. As a result of Bill's work, he received numerous honors and awards: the Clarence Darrow award from the ACLU, other awards from the national and local National Lawyer's Guild organizations and the National Organization of Veteran's Advocates. You would never have learned any of this from Bill. Despite his awesome talent, he was one of the most self-effacing people I ever met. To talk to Bill, there was only one really great lawyer in the family. Her name was Carol. And over the years I never encountered Bill, at work or a party or an event, when he had much to say about his work or accomplishments. But he always had something to say about some new great thing one of his daughters had done. He took enormous pride in both the worldly accomplishments of Diane, Carin and Rhonda and their growth into decent, caring human beings. And most recently, he took enormous joy and pride in his grandchildren, Yana and Joey. You can see that joy in the pictures of Bill and Yana on the mantle. Bill never lost his innocent, playful nature, even in the worst of times. A part of Bill was never more than three years old. Despite his many accomplishments and status as a famous lawyer, despite his skepticism and cynicism about many things, Bill was in many ways an innocent. By that I mean Bill was never jaded about life, or people, or the universe. He was awestruck by three year olds. He was awestruck by nature and science. He dearly loved the natural world. He sometimes took cases just so he could visit a nearby national park. With characteristic intensity, he determined to visit all the national parks. He did that. He loved to travel and the people he met on his travels. In the Air Force, on a trip to Thailand, he once intentionally fouled up some instruments on the plane so he could spend some more time in Bangkok. A navigator, he loved navigating by the stars. More recently, he combined his love of travel, of nature, of science with his love of Carol. They traveled to see solar eclipses. To the jungles of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. To Patagonia and the Andes. He never lost a sense of wonder. His heart was down here, but his head was always in the stars. The more science he read, the more wonderful it all became. He quoted the scientist Richard Dawkins about the statistical odds against life, and how lucky we are all to be here. Bill felt lucky. This was life well lived. Bill was a passionate man. He was passionate about justice. He was an honest radical, who worked to rip out injustice by its roots. He was passionate about his socialism and dreams of a better life, in this country and around the world. He was passionate about music. He had a special passion about nature. And sought it out to the ends of the earth. He was passionate about his family. He was passionate about Carol. He lived his passions. He was true to his dreams. He was also sometimes rigid, and pigheaded and wrong. But over the years you forget what he was wrong about. My son Jeremy is a senior at Berkeley. When he was three years old, we asked Jeremy what he wanted to be when he grew up. We figured basketball player or fireman, the usual thing. But without hesitation, Jeremy answered: "I want to be draft lawyer, like Bill Smith." We asked him why he wanted to be a draft lawyer like Bill Smith. He said, "Because he helps people, he's nice, and he's funny." That was a pretty good short description of Bill, one I will always carry with me.
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