"'Cause I know that's the *popular* version of what went on there"
I thanked him for his service and he said "Thank You".
I wish we could round up all of the people still alive who protested that and, um, treat them to a party.
When I returned, it was suggested that I wear civilian clothes and I did.
The returning Vietnam war vets were treated on poorly by the dope smokin’, LSD takin’, drug rapin’ hippies who wanted to make someone else feel lower than themselves.
Why are ICE treated badly now?
The high-level political left always needs a target to keep their activists focused.
The Vietnam War Veterans were treated badly by scumbag antiwar democrats like John Kerry and the like. The democrats treated Vets the same way democrats are treating ICE, and the police, and our National Guard right now. They have not changed since then, except they are growing more vicious today. FOAD EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO SUPPORTS ANY DEMOCRAT.
When I returned in April 1971 my family and friends greeted & embraced me, that’s all I cared about.
The war was NEVER unwinnable in the theater of operations. It was unwinnable in the White House. Nixon very nearly won it with the Christmas bombings of 1972 but ended the campaign a week too soon because winning was not the goal then, just getting POWs back was all they wanted. One more week of unrestricted bombings and South Vietnam today would rival South Korea.
My dad and uncle mentioned what happened when they came home with the crowds at the airport yell ‘baby killers’ and spat. The VFW was no where around and when some vets approached them, the VFW didn’t want anything to do with them so they form their own group - Vietnam Veterans Of America - now dad says he’s approached by VFW guys wanting him to join; I will not relate here what he told them but basically “where were you when we came home asking for help?”
When I came home from overseas during the war(Germany) I had a layover in Philth-a-delphia. I had my uniform on and was heckled and spit at. Nothing landed on me, but it was very unpleasant. I went into the restroom and changed into civies for the next flight.
We actually won all of the battles but the cowards in DC sold out our military and the "rules" where we could not cross certain lines were absolutely stupid.
Vietnam was a repeat of Korea, they bring in the chinks, but we can't cross a mythical line to kill them.
If we wanted to win in Korea, we'd have told the chinese, get the hell out or we will nuke your major cities.
North korea could never have stopped us without the chinese and the self imposed idiot rules.
Thank in part John f’n Kerry for that.
Years ago I thnked a VietNam vet for hsis ervice to the country and told him what I thought of those who treated the returning service members so horribly.
He had tears in his eyes when I left.
I was of draft age during the Vietnam War. My name was in the hat but never called up.
I didn’t then nor now believe that we should have been involved. Especially since it was obvious even to a teenager that there was no will to actually “win”.
I held no grudges against anyone who went voluntarily or otherwise. I can’t say the same for the politicians and military suppliers who drove that policy.
So many lives wasted or ruined for nothing. Including many classmates and close friends.
DallasBiff, thank you for this post.
Anything we can do to recognize Vietnam Veterans and their sacrifices will help us inch closer to a true and complete healing.
The general summation is that Vietnam was a huge mistake and was exacerbated by a political class that refused to provide the support needed for a victory.
In my service, it seemed we rarely lost a battle. But, we lost the ‘war’ due to gutless politicians who wanted to micromanage the strategies of the battle field.
The fact was that, in prior military actions, the troops often traveled back to civilization with the very peers they’d served with and via modes of travel that took days and weeks. This provided a manner of decompression that was not accorded returning Vietnam veterans. Vietnam veterans often rotated into and out of theater alone or with one or two others, with whom they may have NO history. Vietnam veterans often found themselves in a firefight one day, with all the attendant stress and fog of war; and, then, the next day they could be back in a civilized setting. No decompression. No way to wind down from the battlefield.
Socially and Politically, there was no ‘welcome home’ because it was nationally accepted the ‘war’ was wrong; and, it worsened as the political winds blew worse and worse.
The Left we’re doing then as they do now. They at vicious, hateful and hypocritical from day one. You only had to watch and listen.
Because of the way the older people running the media, Hollywood, education, and the culture portrayed them, they were looked down on.
The Seattle airport had a large hidden room with bunks so that we GIs could get away from the public and relax.
That media hostility continued for many years, a Vietnam vet was always the psycho killer in TV dramas and movies, and the news show like 60 minutes would run fake stories about the supposed groups of broken vets living in the Hawaiian jungles, or the forests of the North West, along with the poignant photos of the camo wearing vets at the wall years later, some of which were again, fake, along with fake veteran street beggars still wearing their old uniforms that should have worn out 15 years before.
Read the book “Stolen Valor” to see many of the mentions above, revealed as fakes.
My favorite words for Congress critters of that VN era age;”Where were you in 67’, and what have you done for those boys?
Why would anyone think that cowards and draft dodgers would treat returning heroes differently? Hollywood and the media focused on Vn vets, depicting them as druggies and war criminals. Of course. Hollywood is entirely made up of draft dodgers. It made them feel better to degrade those who served. In my year on gunboats I saw not one atrocity. If any happened the perps kept it quiet because they would have ended up at Portsmouth Naval Prison.