I then read a review of the book that said his methodology was flawed, because he used the Internet. The writer's thesis was that those stories didn't start being told until 10 years after Viet Nam was over. The reviewer pointed out that in his opinion, the Internet wasn't a complete source because a lot of information and anecdotes from that era have not been put on the Internet, and that he's seen that problem in research before.
I Googled "Viet Nam spit veteran" and didn't find much (I didn't spend much time, honestly), so I don't know who's right and who's wrong. Not taking sides, just issuing a caveat about the nature and quality of the information we get today.
Most of the time, those of us who were victims never talked about it. Besides, who would care.
I remember walking through Atlanta Hartsfield airport in my class A’s and a stew from Delta stopped me and asked if I would “hold this” she then proceeded to take the gum out of her mouth and deposit same in my hand. She and her companion thought it outrageously funny. Too bad for her a senior Delta captain was standing nearby and saw the incident. He was retired Air Force and walked up to the stew, got her name and reported her behavior to a Delta manager. It was the only time in the military that I didn’t fly military standby from Atlanta to Detroit. It was also the LAST time I ever took a Delta flight. It’s been almost 40 years since that incident happened and I haven’t set foot on a Delta flight since.
There were a lot of things like this done to troops in transit. Ask anyone at Fort Knox what the prevailing attitude of the Louisville residents were to the troops or those who were stationed at Benning about how much “love” was showered on them by the towns people of Columbus, GA.
Most of the time the only ones who “cared” about the GI’s were the local blood banks (you could pick up an extra 7 bucks a pint) or the used car lots that sold crap cars at inflated prices.
Most of the guys I knew that travelled changed out of their class A’s as soon as they cleard post. Unfortunately the “sidewalls” almost always gave them away.
Don’t think that because there isn’t an internet study, that these things didn’t happen. Ask ANY veteran of that era, I’m sure they all have a story or two about how the public treated them.
Well I can tell you for certain that writer is wrong about the stories starting ten years after Vietnam. Those accounts started during the Vietnam war while we still had our military fighting and dying there.
From 71 to about 75 I had a coworker who was an Army veteran and had done a tour in Nam, when we’d hear of those incidents we’d both come unglued.
I’ve read some of the propaganga that it never happened and I believe it’s bunk.
Speaking of that, I was talking to a retired AF Chief one time and he told me a little story about coming back from Vietnam. He said when his flight landed back in the US there were protesters waiting in line at the airport jawing and spitting at the troops. He told me that there was this huge Marine in front of him and one of the female peaceniks spit in his direction. The old chief said without missing a beat the Marine revved back and decked the stupid broad.