THEIR PLANS for an "active defense" would have called for at least six weeks of testimony from "hundreds of witnesses." Perdue and Camil wanted to discuss the role of the government as a conspiracy that relied on paid agent-provacateurs, the parts of their case which overlapped with the Watergate scandals, and the military's inadequacy in dealing with debilitating Post-Vietnam Syndrome (PVS).

Perdue condemned the government's use of agent-provacateurs in creating conspiracy cases. He said, "the government wanted to use these tactics against all movement organizations but chose the VVAW as the final Guinea pigs.

"Agent-provacateurs almost have to be psychologically abnormal to develop close and confidential relationships with people for one or two years and then go and testify against them for a salary," Perdue said.

"Most of these agents cooperate with the government for easy money and to live a secret-agent lifestyle," he said. "They live comfortably and end up with new cars, nice homes and lots of nice clothes without having to work. But they can't be very happy. Some openly told us that they were out to get even with us as if the trial was a personal vendetta."

Perdue charged that the VVAW frame-up was another part of a comprehensive attack on liberals and radicals of which Watergate was only another fragment.

He said several intimate friends of Watergate defendant Bernard Barker tried to sell the VVAW weapons "of any kind" for cash or dope: "They were trying to set us up to buy weapons so they could make the conspiracy case fit. They didn't have any other concrete evidence against us."

The Florida VVAW know that a former CIA agent was paid $1000 a week to "infiltrate, disrupt and discredit the VVAW," Perdue added. He said that there are a lot of suspicious bits and pieces that the group had not yet put together--car break-ins, missing mail and lots of tapped phones.

The "active defense" would have brought the controversial Post-Vietnam Syndrome to the attention of many more Americans than those who know about it through personal experience.

Perdue explained that many Vietnam veterans experienced traumatic changes in their attitudes toward themselves and other people when they realized that they were not fighting for democracy as had soldiers in World War II. PVS manifests itself when veterans are unable to relate these new attitudes to families and friends who in turn fail to comprehend the sense of futility the soldiers have experienced.

The military and society at large also have failed to recognize, understand and treat these problems, Perdue said, so PVS often leads to depression and other psychological crises.

BUT THE Gainesville Eight collectively decided not to employ an active defense. "Many of the defendants were too scared to fight the government because the laws all seemed geared to the government's said," Perdue said.

Nevertheless, the Gainesville Eight were found innocent after their defense had brought only a single witness to the stand. The explosives expert had told the court that "someone would be better off using kitchen matches" than the home-made bomb Camil allegedly had prepared to blow up a police station.

"We talked to six or seven of the Jury members right after the trial," Perdue said, "and they told us that they could see right through the case. They knew it was a political trial and they picked up the contradictions in the testimony of the witnesses."

Perdue said the defendants believed that all but five of the government witnesses lied under oath and were paid to do so.

"The VVAW was probably more paranoid than the government about what was going to happen at the Miami Beach conventions," Perdue said. He described two incidents that frightened him: