"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...
Mike Marron wrote:

Stephen Harding wrote:

Korean vets were largely forgotten about, but Vietnam vets
were "baby killers", to be shunned.

Such crap. When Dad came back from SEA, he rarely if ever
talked about it, but he was never ever shunned. On the contrary,
friends, relatives, even my junior and high school teachers were
always wanting to pick his brains about his experiences in 'Nam.
And when he was invited to discuss the war and show off his Kodak
slides of his wonderful, uhh, "humanitarian" work helping to [ahem]
"civilize" the local "natives" (via his camouflaged, napalm-laden
Skyraider) it was like the old phrase, "When EF Hutton talks..."

Not crap at all. Here's the context of what I wrote with some
emphasis aids to help you properly understand.

I might add that the treatment of _at least some_ of these Vietnam
vets by their peers (the *important* people in their lives) was
_not always_ as favorable as it ought to have been, especially in
comparison with WWII. Korean vets were largely forgotten about,
but Vietnam vets were "baby killers", to be shunned.

I personally know some people who were rudely treated by females
at dances and parties when their Vietnam vet status was learned.
In the area I live, just having a military style haircut during
the late 60's - early 70's could provoke wry smiles of quiet
ridicule from ones young aged peers.

The stories of returning vets being spit on by fellow 20 year olds
in the airport are probably over blown, but unless you lived in a
small town in midwest during that period, or at least not in a well
entrenched liberal area, a Vietnam vet could have it socially rough,
and might want to just keep his mouth shut about the experience.

While he was not spit at, my brother always recalled his return to the
states. He had flown into one of the West coast airports and went into one
of the airport bars to grab a drink. Sat down at a table, and the couple
(youngish) sitting at the next table took in his khaki uniform, gave him a
nasty look, and got up and relocated to a table further away while muttering
insults. Kind of surprised him. But the bartender saw what had happened,
came out and walked over to his table and asked him if he had just gotten
back from Vietnam. Larry said yeah, he had, wondering what *this guy* was
going to have to say about it. The bartender told him (in a loud enough
voice for the couple to hear), "Welcome back, your drinks are on the house,
and don't pay any attention to how *some* people act around here", or words
to that effect. So in one short period of time he experienced both extremes
of treatment.

Brooks


Glad your Dad had no problems.


SMH