Before there were Vietnam Vets, there were just outlaw bikers.
Outlaws used to be non-club or non-affiliated individual bikers. I’ve been one for something over half a century. As with gummints, churches, fraternities, and old folks homes there are dirt bags occasionally in every group. Dangerous and at least un-courteous to try to over generalize bunches. One might be grateful to see a biker show up after having a highway breakdown, for example. One of my old memories is the time I gave a bike ride to an old timer who had a locked-up game leg. It was hard for him to get into a car with the stiff leg. He thanked me after we got over the mountain especially for not hooking his right, stiff, leg on a guard rail.
“Before there were Vietnam Vets, there were just outlaw bikers”
The Hells Angels were begun by WWII vets for the most part
Many of whom were WWII and Korea vets. Bike clubs took off after WWII. Guys who had a lot of back pay plus cheap military surplus bikes made it easy to start a club. Then, as now there are a certain percentage that were into violence and drugs. The rest just wanna ride.
CC