I’m not a veteran but I was around back in the seventies. And my recollection doesn’t match yours. I can certainly recall plenty of hostility being directed at the soldiers who fought in Vietnam.
Does it just re-validate who the Injuns were this go around?
What exactly do you feel the American responsibility is to locate missing Vietnamese people who are presumably somewhere in Vietnam?
“In Vietnam” in the sense the fertilizer they inadvertantly became is in Vietnam.
That was different, they had a use for those!
My Dad, his next brother and my Grandfather on my mother’s side all served in Vietnam, with my Dad doing two tours. Elucidator, I am sure that there were many enlightened types in the anti-war movement that acted like you say, that is, with respect towards the soldiers themselves because they realized where the blame really belonged (government), but I can assure you that from talking to them and others that served there that there was most certainly an anti-soldier component of the protests, and it wasn’t a small number of people either.
That’s why Martin Hyde said what he did in his post…a lot of our soldiers that were sent over to fight in that ridiculous waste of time, lives and money were shunned, spat upon and cursed by the very people they supposedly represented.
In this regard I think Martin is correct: the Vietnam war movies that came out in the 1980’s and 1990’s certainly helped the general public “get inside the head” of the common Vietnam vet/soldier and get at least a quasi-realistic taste of what fighting in that war was really like, which engendered a lot of sympathy amongst the general public. Coincide that with an uptick in the quality and care from organizations like the VA during that time and I think Martin has a point about the respect quotient for Vietnam vets increasing during that time (and remaining through today).
Did you actually see any? Or did somebody tell you? And does it make sense, given the number of people involved, that we would hate our drafted friends and relations? Myself, a couple of cousins (one drafted, one volunteer) and about half a dozen friends of varying closeness. And that was nothing special.
Oh, Christ Jesus, not that again!
I think a lot of the rumors were civilian only.
As a PFC in the early 70’s, I wore a copper MIA bracelet - until a light Colonel in my class looked at it and said “Oh him, he’s dead”.
Were you personally at every protest? Or did somebody tell you about them?
I’m not arguing about your personal experience but for the overall situation, I’m guessing both of us are relying on mostly second-hand information.
I know Jerry Lempcke says that nobody ever spit on a soldier. But a lot of soldiers have said they were spit on.
I also have never seen the hostility toward soldiers that is alleged. That doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. But at anti-war rallies there were soldiers and former soldiers participating and they were treated as VIPs. There was hostility to the military in general, and soldiers who were hostile to anti-war activists would probably receive hostility in return. But to this day veterans of that war will claim they were ‘spit on’ when they returned home, even though no verifiable incident has ever been uncovered. I can understand that they felt that the country figuratively spit on them when they came home, which IMHO we did. But the claims of hostility directed at particular soldiers seem to be highly overstated.
A lot of this probably was due to POWs refusing repatriation and electing to remain in China. It was bizarre to imagine it was voluntary and this led to the idea that they were being brainwashed, The Manchurian Candidate, etc.
Choose to believe whatever you want. I am not repeating a meme. My relations that served were or are all intelligent, well-educated officers in our nation’s military. My Dad and all my uncles are West Point educated. My Dad would not make this up. In fact, he doesn’t really like to talk about anything specific from that time at all. None of them do. It wasn’t just the war elucidator. Many were not treated well in the aftermath upon their return to the US.
Not treated well by who though? By the government and society in general yes. But the idea of hostility directed at individual members of the military (short of the top decision making positions) is still suspect.
Think about it. Put on your rationalist thinking cap, then one you use when you are likely to confront a truth you ain’t gonna like.
How? It was always airports, wasn’t it? So, squads of lefties team up to hang around airports, waiting for a likely suspect? Gotta be guys in uniform, right? How many times would that happen before one of them got the living shit kicked out of him?
Where did you hear, which news outlet featured the story? Because somehow, some miraculous way, all those stories vanished, no longer in the archives. Or show me one.
What, didn’t make the news, ignored? “Filthy anti-war hippy gets torn a new asshole at local airport after spitting on returning vet!” Why, because the liberal media loved us so much, is that why an exhaustive Nexis search will get you diddly-squat?
Lots of people changed their minds over the years and owned up to some pretty heinous shit, William Ayers and Bernadette Dorne, just for a couple. How come nobody confessed to taking part in so widespread a phenomenon?
Not only did no one I knew do such a thing, nobody I knew ever suggested it, nobody would fucking dare! Returning vets were the best thing ever happened to us! Nothing so thoroughly shattered the great wall of lies that was Viet Nam than they did. Repeat, just in case you missed it: returning vets were the best thing that ever happened to the anti-war movement. Hands down, bar none.
The story makes no sense, but if you want to insist on believing it, so be it. But do me one favor, next time you repeat it here, bring evidence. Good luck with that.
Thanks, I usually prefer to put on the one with the truth-destroying death ray. 
Dissonance
Did you do any follow up? Like Googling Pickett?
He says he beat the shit out of the guy. And wasn’t arrested? The guy wasn’t arrested? A story like that, didn’t make the news?
This is not a question about the words being said. I can point you to veterans now who will claim they were ‘spit on’, even though they’ve admitted to me no such thing happened. It is a repititive chant among Vietnam vets. I think it expresses their feeling of being figuratively spit on by the US government and society who wanted to sweep the whole matter under the rug and forget about it.
Which is a disgrace, no question about it. But an entirely different subject.