I remember how horrified, truly horrified elderly people that I knew were when protestors during the Vietnam War were burning flags. My own father really thought they should have been tried for treason and shot. I was a teenager and I really believed the protestors would get in serious trouble for disrespecting the flag the way they did, I was amazed they weren’t.
i was 10 and my brother was in Nam, Dad bought a tv just to keep up with the war news. i remember the day he ripped the tv out of the wall and carried it outside and threw it into the back of his truck - it exploded. my sisters and i were shocked by our mild mannered sweet ww2 vet dad doing something like that (we had never had tv before that) ...years later i realizied what he had seen - the flag burning commmie basterds protesting in DC. what a heart ache for a father with a son in the war.