Replies

Letters Home / Opinion / Letters

Published: Nov 12, 2004
Modified: Nov 12, 2004 7:48 AM

Hostility to the troops

Regarding the Nov. 10 Point of View article "When Vietnam vets came home" by John Llewellyn of Wake Forest University:
While Llewellyn, a "certified expert" on urban legends, is entitled to his point of view, I feel his research methods and conclusions are flawed. My own experience, and that of many acquaintances, would indicate that the number of soldiers returning from Vietnam who experienced "unfriendly" encounters and actual vilification far exceeded the 3 percent he cited.

In October 1967, while en route home in uniform from my first of two combat tours in Vietnam, I was approached by two young men in the San Francisco airport who called me an [expletive] baby killer as they walked by.

After my initial shock, this "fit and trained, combat hardened" soldier decided that any small satisfaction that I might get from continuing the encounter was not worth the delay in being reunited with my family.

Therefore, there were no pictures, arrest reports, trial records or coroner's reports to document the incident. That does not mean that it never happened.

My personal experience and that of far too many of my fellow service members would indicate that the incidents we experienced should not be trivialized by the term urban legend.

I agree with Llewellyn that policy disagreements should not result in personal vendettas. I don't agree that one should attempt to rewrite history by introducing the term urban legend to disguise that personal vendetta.

Howard S. Paris, Ed. D

Col., U.S. Army (Ret.)

Goldsboro

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/story/1821407p-8130906c.html

Thanks for posting this. I see that the N & O has in the past 2 days required an e-mail and password to see the entire site. Trust me, this was never required in the past.

I am a subscriber to the N & O (unfortunately) and I still can't access the website. I did see this letter to the editor this am and hadn't figured out a way to avoid the inevitable spam yet.

I've decided that I will sign up for a dummy e-mail account so I can access the online version in the future.

MKM