IOWA WOMEN'S ACHIVES - Peg Mullen Papers

IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES

IOWA CITY, IOWA

PEG MULLEN (1917- )

PAPERS, 1968-1996

(bulk 1970s)

5.5 linear feet

ACQUISITION: The papers (donor no. 139) were donated by Peg Mullen in 1993 and subsequent years.

ACCESS: The papers are open for research.

AUDIOVISUAL: Four audiocassettes shelved in audiovisual collection [AC103, AC220-221, AC340] and one videocassette shelved in videocassette collectuin [V44].

COPYRIGHT: Copyright has been transferred to the University of Iowa.

PHOTOGRAPHS: In box 1.

PROCESSED BY: Natalie S. Brody and Robert J. Jett, 1993 and subsequent years.

Biography

Margaret (Peg) Mullen was born on June 11, 1917, in Pocahontas, Iowa, the daughter of Clair and Josephine Wolfe Goodyear. She graduated from the Sacred Heart High School and was employed as a secretary in the Department of Labor from 1937 to 1944. In November 1941 she married Oscar Eugene (Gene) Mullen of Waterloo. During World War II he served in the Army in Des Moines, Iowa; Springfield, Missouri; and Fort Logan, Colorado. After his discharge, the Mullens moved to the 120-acre family farm near La Porte City, Iowa. From 1955 to 1961 Peg Mullen commuted to Waterloo to work in an advertising agency. In addition to working the farm, Gene Mullen was employed as a quality control supervisor at the John Deere Tractor Works in Waterloo. Peg Mullen participated actively in community affairs, including the church youth group and 4-H, and in politics as a Democratic delegate to county and state conventions.

The Mullens had four children: Michael (born September 11, 1944), Patricia (born May 8, 1948), Mary Margaret (born August 5, 1950), and John Kevin (born February 11, 1952). Michael Mullen graduated from Don Bosco High School in Gilbertville in 1963 and in 1967 from Rockhurst College, a Jesuit school in Kansas City, Missouri, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry. He was awarded a fellowship for graduate study in chemistry at the University of Missouri and studied there for one year. In September 1968 he was drafted into the Army. He did his basic training at Camp Polk, Louisiana, and attended accelerated Non-Commissioned Officers (N.C.O.) training at Fort Benning, Georgia. In September 1969 he was sent to Vietnam and served with the 198th Light Infantry Americal division near Chu Lai. He was killed February 18, 1970, by shrapnel discharged by United States artillery, so-called "friendly fire."

Peg Mullen had opposed the Vietnam War before her son was drafted, but after his death she became an exceptionally vocal critic of the war. She became widely known for her unrelenting determination to learn from the Pentagon the exact circumstances surrounding her son's death and for her intense involvement in the protest movement.

With their son's military gratuity, the Mullens paid for two ads in The Des Moines Register. The first ran on April 12, 1970 with 714 crosses representing those Iowans reported killed in Vietnam. Another ran on April 26, with 719 crosses. Non-battle casualties, like their son's, were not included in the daily reports, a Pentagon policy the Mullens widely criticized. Each ad exhorted Iowans to express publicly their opposition to the war: "How many more lives do you wish to sacrifice because of your silence?" Peg Mullen soon became a national figure. She received thousands of letters of support from throughout the country; gave interviews for radio, television, and newspapers; counseled families; travelled to Washington to protest the war and spoke frequently at anti-war rallies. She worked tirelessly against the war in Vietnam. The Mullens were one of the families featured in a film, "And Another Family for Peace." In 1972 Mullen served as a McGovern delegate to the Democratic National Convention. In that same year she was nominated Iowa Mother of the Year.

The story of her attempts to obtain the facts from the Pentagon about Michael's death attracted the interest of C.D.B. Bryan, who was encouraged by the editor of The New Yorker to write about it for the magazine. Bryan first visited the Mullens in La Porte City in 1971. Five years later a three-part series appeared in The New Yorker (March 1, 8, and 15, 1976). What had begun as a warm relationship between Bryan and the Mullens gradually deteriorated as it became apparent to the Mullens that Bryan accepted the Pentagon's version of Michael's death even though they did not. The New Yorker series was expanded and published as Friendly Fire (Putnam, 1976). In 1979 the book was adapted for television, starring Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty. The show received six Emmy awards.

After both the publication of the book and the television production, Mullen received waves of mail, telephone calls, and requests for interviews. She continued to respond to them and to speak out forcefully about her protest activities. In 1976 Gene Mullen suffered a massive heart attack and received a medical retirement from John Deere. Later that year the Mullens moved to Brownsville, Texas, where Peg Mullen continues to live. Gene Mullen died in July 1986.

In the book, Unfriendly Fire: A Mother's Memoir (1995), Peg Mullen recalls her activities in the years following Michael's death. Many of the letters she received in response to his death, to Friendly Fire, and to her anti-war activities are reprinted in this volume.

Scope and Content Note

The Peg Mullen papers measure 5.5 linear feet and date from 1968 to 1996. The bulk of the collection is devoted to correspondence and newspaper clippings from the 1970s and will be of special interest to researchers concerned with the movement to oppose the war in Vietnam. The papers are arranged in five series: Biographical information, Correspondence, Friendly Fire, Vietnam War resource files, and Unfriendly Fire: A Mother's Memoir.

The Biographical information series (1970-1996) includes clippings, articles, and interviews with Mullen, beginning in the 1970s at the height of her anti-war activities and continuing through 1992. Newspaper articles about Michael Mullen and the circumstances of his death in Vietnam are included in this series. A history of the Mullen family, "Six Generations in Black Hawk County, 1852-1996," written by Peg Mullen, completes the series.

The Correspondence series (1968-1996) includes letters primarily from the 1970s and especially from the periods immediately following Michael Mullen's death in 1970, the publication of Friendly Fire in 1976, and the television adaptation of the book in 1979. The correspondence includes contacts with the White House, the Pentagon, political leaders in the United States House of Representatives and Senate (especially Harold Hughes, Democrat-Iowa), and letters from hundreds of Americans expressing compassion for the Mullens and support for their anti-war activities. Correspondence with the Pentagon focuses on the Mullens' quest to determine the cause of their son's death. Carbon copies of many of the outgoing letters are included with the responses. (Many additional letters from this period can be found in the series, Unfriendly Fire: A Mother's Memoir.)

The Friendly Fire series includes the portions of Friendly Fire by C.D.B. Bryan which first appeared in The New Yorker magazine March 1, 8, and 15, 1976; and correspondence from 1971 to 1979 between Mullen and Bryan. Also in this series are a typescript of the book, published by G.P. Putnam, New York, 1976; Fay Kanin's script for the television adaptation; the film, Friendly Fire, and a bound notebook of articles concerning popular response and television critics' views.

The Vietnam War resource files (1970-1978) include anti-war correspondence, draft resistance material, petitions and other printed materials, newspaper clippings, reports, speeches, and memoranda gathered by Mullen during the 1970s. Among the printed material is a "Vietnam Information Packet" which was compiled by members of Milestones, an independent high school newspaper. Mullen belonged to many organizations active in protesting the war. In this series is information from six of these groups: American Friends Service Committee, Another Mother for Peace, Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace (BEM), Common Cause, SANE, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Other causes Mullen supported include National Strike for Peace, the abolition of the draft, and Amendment 609 (to end funds for United States operations in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam and withdraw from Vietnam by June 30, 1971).

The Unfriendly Fire: A Mother's Memoir series (1970-1996) includes four drafts of the manuscript. Also included is correspondence dating from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s that Mullen used while writing the memoir. Part of the correspondence is organized topically, the remainder chronologically. The newspaper clippings include reports of the Vietnam War, especially casualty notices. Materials relating to the publication and response to the book complete the series.

Copies of the hardcover and paperback versions of Friendly Fire and a hardcover copy of Unfriendly Fire: A Mother's Memoir are shelved in the printed works collection.

Related Collections

An interview with Peg Mullen and Karen Mason for WSUI radio, February 18, 1994 [shelved with audiocassette collection: AC103]

Two interviews with Peg Mullen for WSUI radio: August 1990 (9:45 minutes) [AC220] and November 1994 (9:47 minutes) [AC221]

Box no. Description

Box 1
Biographical information, 1970-1996
Interviews
      Audiocassettes [shelved in audiocassette collection]
      WSUI radio
      August 1990 [AC220]
      February 1994 [AC103]
      November 1994 [AC221]
      WMT radio: November 14, 1970 [AC340]
Peg Mullen
Michael Mullen
Scrapbook and newspaper clippings
"Six Generations in Black Hawk County, 1852-1996," by Peg Mullen
      [shelved in box 12]
Photographs

Correspondence
1968-1969
January 14-March 19, 1970
March 20-31, 1970
April 1-18, 1970
April 20-30, 1970

Box 2
May 1-10, 1970
May 11-19, 1970
May 20-30, 1970
June 1970
July 1970
August 1970
September-October 1970

Box 3
November-December 1970
Undated, 1970
January-March 1971
April-May 1971
June-December 1971
1972
1973
1974-1975
January-May 1976
June-December 1976
1977
1978
1977
1978

Box 4
January-February 1979
April 5-23, 1979
April 24-30, 1979
May 1979
June-December 1979
1980
1981-1984
1985-1992
Mount Pleasant, Iowa, high school project, 1996
Undated (2 folders)

Friendly Fire
Correspondence with C.D.B. Bryan, 1971-1979
The New Yorker series (March 1, 8, 15, 1976)

Box 5
Book: Friendly Fire (Putnam, 1976)
      Manuscript
      Newspaper clippings
      Friendly Fire (Bantam Book, 1977, paperback)
        [shelved in the printed works collection]
Film (1979, 2 hours) [shelved in videocassette collection V44]
      Newspaper clippings
      Reviews

Box 6
Script

Vietnam War resource files
Antiwar correspondence [copies], 1970-1979 (scattered) and undated
Draft resistance
Petitions
      University of Iowa, May 1970
      Amendment 609
      Miscellaneous, 1970 and undated
Printed material
      Brochures and flyers
      "Vietnam Information Packet" assembled by the members of Milestones
      "Newspaper clippings (1 folder)
      Iowa
      General
      Obituaries
      National
      General
      Compilation of Washington Post editorials:
      "Those Who Served: Vietnam Veterans--An Extraordinary
      Washington Post Editorial
      Series--1977-1978," The Washington Post
      News releases, 1971
      Reports
      "Background Material For Vietnam Veterans' Week, May 28
        (Memorial Day) to June 3 [1979]" United States Congress Of
      Mayors.
      "Compassionate Reassignment And Deferments From Oversea
      Shipments"
      U.S. Army AGO 20119A
      Congressional Record, May 1, 1970-May 19, 1971 (scattered)
      Dateline, Washington D.C.; A Report To Iowa,
      June 1971-January 1972
      "Discharge Of Enlisted Personnel On Account Of
      Dependency Or Hardship." U.S. Army 20119A
      "Military Spending/Cambodia Voting Record January-May 7, 1970"
      Friends
      Committee On National Legislation

Box 7
      Public Information Series. Bureau of Public Affairs, April 12 - March 9,       1971
      "A Report On Vietnam War Memorial Legislation.",
      Doug Westphall, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Vietnam
      Veterans Chapel, May 11, 1978
      Washington Report, March 1971
      Speeches, 1970-1971 and undated
      War protest organizations
      American Friends Service Committee
      Another Mother for Peace
      Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace (BEM)
      Common Causes
      Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
      National Strike for Peace
Box 8
Unfriendly Fire: A Mother's Memoir
Manuscripts, 1994-1995
      #l
      #2

Box 9
      #3
      #4
Correspondence
      Topical
      Investigation, 1970-1982
      Marines, 1970-1971, 1991
      And Another Family for Peace, 1970-1972, 1976, 1979

Box 10
      Private Ed Hall, 1970-1972 (2 folders)
      Americal, 1970-1992
      Letters at Michael's death, 1970-1971
      Amnesty, 1973-1976, 1991
      Chronological
      1970 (6 folders)

Box 11
      1971
      1976
      1977-1978
      1979 (3 folders)
      1980-1990
      1991-1994 and undated
Newspaper clippings
      1970s
      1990-1991

Box 12
Publication
      Permission letters, 1994
      Publishers' corrrespondence, 1984, 1992-1994
Response
      Readers' correspondence, 1995
      Reviews and publicity, 1995
      Drama, "Peg Mullen Takes a Stand," Lydia and Rita Robertson, 1996

Biographical information, 1970-1996 (cont.)
"Six Generations in Black Hawk County, 1852-1996," by Peg Mullen