You begin begin with,
" Somewhere in the late- 1960’s a totally false, entirely made-up narrative began to crop up in the United States. ,
and then go on to describe the factual truth of soldier shaming, that you say in the beginning was totally false.
I remember the days when I was reluctant to be seen in my military haircut stateside as it led to being hassled by hippies and ignored by girls.
Would never go off base in uniform.
What’re you sayin’ Dave ?
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He is saying : the narrative was false, and then describes what the narrative is. (Many people have no idea how badly vets were treated during and after Nam, imagining they got the same treatment today’s vets enjoy.) He must state the nature of the narrative (true/false) and describe the detail of that narrative to allow others to understand what he is writing. There is no contradiction.
The narrative was that the United States had no business fighting the war in Vietnam, and the American soldiers fighting it were an instrument of U.S. imperialism.