Posted on 11/10/2004 3:35:05 PM PST by mykdsmom
WINSTON-SALEM -- Last week voters went to the polls to select a vision for the future. Now Americans must find a way forward together. This week, as we honor service and sacrifice on Veterans Day, an image from this political season must be put to rest.
The presidential campaign featured the resurgence of a myth from the early 1990s. That myth is that soldiers returning from Vietnam were spit upon by citizens or war protesters. That claim has been used to turn honest differences of opinion about the war into toxic indictments.
As a scholar of urban legends I am usually involved with accounts of vanishing hitchhikers and involuntary kidney donors. These stories are folklore that harmlessly reveals the public imagination. However, accounts of citizens spitting on returning soldiers -- any nation's soldiers -- are not harmless stories. These tales evoke an emotional firestorm.
I have studied urban legends for nearly 20 years and have been certified as an expert on the subject in the federal courts. Nonetheless, it dawned on me only recently that the spitting story was a rumor that has grown into an urban legend. I never wanted to believe the story but I was afraid to investigate it for fear that it could be true.
Why could I not identify this fiction sooner? The power of the story and the passion of its advocates offer a powerful alchemy of guilt and fear -- emotions not associated with clearheadedness.
Labeling the spitting story an urban legend does not mean that something of this sort did not happen to someone somewhere. You cannot prove the negative -- that something never happened. However, most accounts of spitting emerged in the mid-1980s only after a newspaper columnist asked his readers who were Vietnam vets if they had been spit upon after the war (an odd and leading question to ask a decade after the war's end). The framing of the question seemed to beg for an affirmative answer.
• • •
In 1998 sociologist and Vietnam veteran Jerry Lembcke published "The Spitting Image: Myth, Media and the Legacy of Viet Nam." He recounts a study of 495 news stories on returning veterans published from 1965 to 1971. That study shows only a handful (32) of instances were presented as in any way antagonistic to the soldiers. There were no instances of spitting on soldiers; what spitting was reported was done by citizens expressing displeasure with protesters.
Opinion polls of the time show no animosity between soldiers and opponents of the war. Only 3 percent of returning soldiers recounted any unfriendly experiences upon their return.
So records from that era offer no support for the spitting stories. Lembcke's research does show that similar spitting rumors arose in Germany after World War I and in France after its Indochina war. One of the persistent markers of urban legends is the re-emergence of certain themes across time and space.
There is also a common-sense method for debunking this urban legend. One frequent test is the story's plausibility: how likely is it that the incident could have happened as described? Do we really believe that a "dirty hippie" would spit upon a fit and trained soldier? If such a confrontation had occurred, would that combat-hardened soldier have just ignored the insult? Would there not be pictures, arrest reports, a trial record or a coroner's report after such an event? Years of research have produced no such records.
Lembcke underscores the enduring significance of the spitting story for this Veterans Day. He observes that as a society we are what we remember. The meaning of Vietnam and any other war is not static but is created through the stories we tell one another. To reinforce the principle that policy disagreements are not personal vendettas we must put this story to rest.
Our first step forward is to recognize that we are not a society that disrespects the sacrifices of our servicemembers. We should ignore anyone who tries to tell us otherwise. Whatever our aspirations for America, those hopes must begin with a clear awareness of who we are not.
(John Llewellyn is an associate professor of communication at Wake Forest University.)
What a creep and a liar.
This asshole is chock full of shit!
We (USMC) didn't have too much trouble in the comunities just outside of base but the larger cities were a different story. There was a time that we were advised NOT to wear our uniforms when going on liberty. That was about impossible because as E-1's and E-2's ALL you had were your uniforms.
When you returned from being in-country, there were groups that met you at the airport. Many were kids but there were plenty of adults taking part. I had trouble both at San Francisco and LA. They certainly DID spit on you, throw fake blood and Ketchup on you, get in your face, scream insults and call you all sorts of names.
I personally did not get the feces or urine treatment, but I knew many who did. I had a few take a poke at me, but that was a huge mistake.
We tired of this crap and on many occasions we took to knocking the crap out of them. If you were caught, you stood a mast and might have pulled some extra duty or a work detail as punishment.
I served 1965- 1969.
Semper Fi! Lets carry on the Campaign the Swiftvets and Others began and show Real America that Our Heros Serve Our Country and Each of Us Everyday and we will not any longer condone the accusations and actions of those that attempt to belittle Our Heros and Our Country. An Urbans Legend Expert!?? Areo fritto, not deserving of Our time and thoughts!!
The hell y'all will be, Tonk. You got a lot of people on your side, more than before, and we're ready to fight!
I'd say you exhibited unusual self restraint Greg, I would have knocked the bitch out.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Bravo..Only those who were there and received or witnessed abuse can educate the professor.
when you call him, tell the doc that it's a little too late for this blather.
He looks to be about Vietnam-service age. I suspect he's not simply incompetently mistaken but lying through his teeth.
Damn, I despise these people.
Liars.
so I guess he was with ALL VIETNAM VETS 24/365 when they returned?? idiot moron.....another of the Liberal Losers here in our North Carolina universities....
unless he can ABSOLUTELY PROVE NONE were spit on, how can anyone take his silly article serious.....
"He looks to be about Vietnam-service age. I suspect he's not simply incompetently mistaken but lying through his teeth."
...or he's one of the cretins that did the spitting and shit throwing.
Excellent letter.
YES, post the reply, IF you get on,
which I doubt, because these people are cowards.
1 - What an ass. Thanks for posting this.
Iwonder if he would stand still while I demonstrate on him, how I was spit on in the early 1970's after returning from Vietnam?
Oh Boy!
INCOMING!
This could end up being one of the most inflammatory threads in FReeper history.
This guy really wrote this stuff?
fyi: John O'Niell on Hannity and Combs tonight.
The callers that I heard were pretty similar to what all of you have posted on this thread. Most were outraged and almost all gave personal examples of being spit on themselves, thus exposing the "Dr." for the a$$hole that he is. I was only a child during the Vietnam war but even I remember hearing about the abuse that our soldiers endured.
I would personally like to thank all of you that served in the military at any time. THANK YOU for protecting the freedom of my family and all of the families in the US. We owe you a HUGE debt of gratitude for what you have sacrificed.
MKM
http://www.justontheotherside.com/index.php?p=166
10/22/2004
The Right to Free Spit?
Anti-war Protester Spits on Marine Congressional Candidate
On Thursday night, an antiwar protestor in Milwaukee spit on a returned Iraqi war veteran, Marine Major Jerry Boyle. Boyle is a Republican candidate for Congress in Milwaukee. Boyle served in Operation Iraqi freedom and was posted to Baghdad shortly after the invasion. Although he is an underdog in the race, he has shown up for every campaign forum, where he’s won high marks for his civility and willing to face hostile audiences…
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