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No one ever yelled, spit or discriminated against me when I came back. This whole treatment issue I think was mostly a myth and an invention of Hollywood anti war films. I don’t doubt some vets may have been treated poorly but I think they were in the minority.
I've heard the same thing, all it took was some young radical waiting at the San Francisco airport for some veteran to walk past him and then he gets spat upon or verbally abused (assuming such a thing ever happened, of which I'm not aware that it ever did), and somehow this happened to every Vietnam veteran.
Newsflash: It didn't. It is simply another zombie myth that never died.
The ONLY real d-bags were the beatnik anti war and even they tread cautiously and the yards at the Westboro Baptist Church. I’m sure there were a few anti soldier types here and there, but soldiers n the Iraq/Afghanistan war were treated way better. At least by the general public. They still got F&$#@D by the VA. And continue to do so.
I have a lot of friends who are and were military. One flat out refuses to step foot in a VA hospital.
No one ever yelled, spit or discriminated against me when I came back. This whole treatment issue I think was mostly a myth and an invention of Hollywood anti war films. I don’t doubt some vets may have been treated poorly but I think they were in the minority.
I received a generous Vietnam War bonus check from the state I lived in at the time. The federal government paid thousands of dollars to send me through university where I obtained a BA degree. I got a decent well paying job in the insurance industry.
Good for you. I got spit on and Illinois gave me a hundred bucks...……...
I think it was the My Lai Massacre that turned our hearts against the Vietnam vets. Obviously, not all soldiers participated in the massacre, but the coverage of it painted American soldiers pretty badly.
I am always appalled that there hardly ever is any mention of the atrocities by the NVA and viet cong. most people think the worst thing they did was let Jane fonda sit on an anti-aircraft gun...……….
I've heard the same thing, all it took was some young radical waiting at the San Francisco airport for some veteran to walk past him and then he gets spat upon or verbally abused (assuming such a thing ever happened, of which I'm not aware that it ever did), and somehow this happened to every Vietnam veteran.
Newsflash: It didn't. It is simply another zombie myth that never died.
It is said that every nation's military stands ready to fight its previous war. This is meant to underscore that reactive stances tend to be shaped around recent experience. Similarly, the public learns from previous wars, and there was a reckoning through the social consciousness some years after Vietnam about the experience of those who served, along with a determination to treat future veterans better. Social behavior in general, pertaining to veterans of the major conflicts of the following generation (Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq Redux), have tended to follow that pattern.
Also...
The first Iraq war was a 'nice and clean' one, from the American public's perspective. The ratio of American dead was something like 1 per every half million Americans, the rationale for the war was easily articulated, and the conflict was short. It was easy to bring the public along for that ride. The strict control of the media during that conflict also helped avoid inconvenient information being reported.
Afghanistan was accepted simply on the basis of the easily-explainable fact that the organization (and especially, the prime mover) behind 9/11 was there.
Iraq II: Mesopotamian Boogaloo was a completely different story. Only a few dead-enders still cling to the 'vast stockpiles of WMD' nonsense anymore (and assorted explanations like "They were moved to Syria!"). However, to the public's credit, they've figured out that blame should be directed only at those responsible for the conflict or those bad actors among the troops, as opposed to blaming everyone.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Times were different. I mean, there's also that a lot of Iraq war vets were pretty open about not wanting to be part of the war they were forced into. The country was much angrier with the president than the soldiers.
The internet and far more TV consumption was a factor too. The American citizen was much more informed about operation "kill brown people for oil" than they were about operation "kill south-Asian people because dumb".
Even as unpopular and controversial as Iraq/Afghanistan wars were, they were clearly treated FAR better than those in Vietnam. Vietnam vets being spit at, yelled and screamed at, discriminated against, just treated like dog crap....even though ironically enough most Vietnam vets were drafted and didn't have a CHOICE whether they wanted to go or not. Yet very little if any of the same kind of crap happened to vets of Iraq/Afghanistan even as unpopular as they were and they weren't even drafted.
During the Vietnam era were people back then just that freaking stupid compared to people today?
I disagree with your description as Iraq/AF as unpopular and controversial. We've had troops over there for years and years and no one seems to care at all. It was barely controversial to begin with.
Even as unpopular and controversial as Iraq/Afghanistan wars were, they were clearly treated FAR better than those in Vietnam. Vietnam vets being spit at, yelled and screamed at, discriminated against, just treated like dog crap....even though ironically enough most Vietnam vets were drafted and didn't have a CHOICE whether they wanted to go or not. Yet very little if any of the same kind of crap happened to vets of Iraq/Afghanistan even as unpopular as they were and they weren't even drafted.
During the Vietnam era were people back then just that freaking stupid compared to people today?
They were called baby killers. Today people focus on the ones sending the troops into war, rather than the soldier who is doing their jobs, of the government's making.
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