did soldiers really get spit at when they came home from vietnam, or is this the usual conservative b.s.?

Question

maybe it happened once in a while, but far more likely to get spit at were the patriotic americans who opposed that illegal war and stuck their necks out demonstrating against it. Of course, you can't compare getting shot at in vietnam with getting beaten up by riot police in chicago, and those soldiers were very brave and not appreciated, but that's not the fault of the people who were demonstrating to bring them home. So quit with the lies about how badly vets were treated when they came home. it's simply not true.

Answer 1

It did happen because the sentiments against the war were so strong and some antiwar people did act like fools. The anger should have been directed at the evil ones who had sent them there. Remember that unlike Iraq, most of these vets were draftees who had no choice but to go.

The ones who treated Viet Nam vets the worst, however, were those in succeeding governments. They had been promised lifelong health care, but this was abandoned. Few got help for the psychological wounds or the alcoholism or the drug dependencies they brought back. One in every four or five of the homeless you see is a Viet Nam vet.

Yes, some angry people did spit on vets, but not as badly as their own government.

Answer 2

I wasn't born at the time, however, I can tell you that I wouldn't have spit on anyone. I have a lot of respect for those who dealt with a most impossible situation, and did so quite admirably. The Vietnam Conflict was something that I do not feel as though we should have been a part of, and though the many soldiers who bravely fought were not doing so to protect the United States and the people within it necessarily, they were doing so to safeguard something more important. This was the pride, freedom, and honor found in democracy and all that we stand for. These soldiers came to the U.S., traumatized, many coming back, but still without a home, or at least a feeling of one. Though there are many survivors who managed to live through the ordeal, I am sure that they would hardly consider themselves to be living, which is why I think we could have at least recognized who was to blame, and who deserved to be degraded and ridiculed. I am embarrassed for, and appalled by those who did that to those young men, and I am sorry for the abuse your father has suffered. I can only imagine the anguish he must have felt, and I hope he knows that I can, along with many, appreciate what he has done for us, and the world.

Answer 3

I am a Vet. Gulf War, and Iraqi War.
My dad, and four of my uncles, Vietnam Vets.
My uncle on mom's side, Vietnam Vet
My Grandfather was at Pearl Harbor, also a Korean War Vet.
My Grandmother WWII Nurse-Vet
My Step Father Vietnam Vet

Of all of these, my uncles and father do/did not want to talk about "coming home". My dad disliked coming home after his first tour so much, he re enlisted to go back and volunteered for Western Pacific dutie stations until he retired. In that time he visited the "States" for his brother's funeral, and a family reunion in the span of 18 years. Now is that sad or what?

He didn't want to come back but was still serving his country.

If anyone needs to quit lying about anything it is people like you and the media who try and spread dissent against the very people who defend your right to even have, and speak your opinion.

Answer 4

Being spit at was the least of the problems the Vietnam vets had to deal with when they got home.
The very people who should have stood by their side were the ones spitting on the soldiers for doing their jobs.

Answer 5

You have to be, without a doubt, one of the dumbest people who ever wrote a question on this site. So now you're apologising for the imbeciles who were so caught up in the anti-war movement back then that they did everything dispicable they could think of doing to insult the brave men and women who served in Viet Nam. Tell you what Tinkerbell, I hope you find yourself in exactly the same situation one day so you can get the real "Returning from Viet Nam" experience that a lot of us got. I happened to experience it first-hand and it wasn't a lie. Your statements about that sort of behavior not being the fault of the people demobstrating and reports of the abuse being untrue is almost as stupid as you are. Even Hanoi Jane admits the truth. Go to hell.

Answer 6

I know it was true. I was a teenager in the 60's. My husband was a soldier in Viet Nam. When he got off the plane in the US, yes they spit at him!! They also called him "baby killer". I know they didn't approve of the war, but the soldiers should not be the ones they direct their anger towards. My husband is now a disabled vet, and still has hurt feelings about the way he and others were treated by civilians, as well as our government. No parades as they did for other veteran soldiers of previous wars, etc. They didn't even call it a war, they called it " Viet Nam Conflict"!

Answer 7

Usual conservative b.s.?? Let me tell you something...Not only were the Viet Nam Vets spit on, and called baby killers, some of our boys were given bags of dog sh*t in appreciation for their serving their country. It was/is the fault of the people who demonstrated to bring them home. Those people were scared, scared of being drafted and having to fight. Viet Nam was a real horror story. Our boys, yes boys, some only 18, came back to the U.S. with heroin addictions, or opium, or alcohol. NOONE debriefed them, like they are doing to our boys in Iraq today. Some of these Vets to THIS DAY, have major problems. Ever hear of Agent Orange? It has messed alot of the Vets from Viet Nam up badly, yet the Veterans Administration, and our own president (who didn't even fight over there because he was scared and ran) are denying them their rights and benefits to medical care. Now, we are in another f**ked up war, and still the rights and benefits due to these people are being taken away from them. I personally know some Vets from Viet Nam, and I do pay attention to them due to the fact that some of them are still "living" over there in their minds. Talk about a mind f**k! My dad would walk around at night with a machete in his hand looking for Charlie in the wire, inside the house!! We would have to lock our bedroom doors because he could have killed us in the state of mind he was in. So lies? You want to see some real lies? Then listen to or see Bush. But never disrespect a Vet, from any time served. The Vet is there serving his country and in part you.

Answer 8

Sad to say but yes. The people were very disrespectful against our soldiers back then. What they should have done was spit at the government for sending them over there in the first place. Those soldiers were only there because the govenment sent them there. Many didn't want to go.

Answer 9

I am afraid it IS TRUE! Many vets were treated very badly when they came home because many stupid Americans blamed them for going to war. These poor guys had no choice. Either go to Viet Nam or to Canada or prison. What a lousy choice. But why take it out on the ex-soldiers?

Answer 10

Soldiers returning home to America were scorned by many; including their own families.

Thousands of young American "boys" were quickly trained and sent to Vietnam, encountering a vicious, dedicated army determined to annihilate every human being who opposed them.

Eighteen-year old American boys, just graduated from high school, 21-year old young men, whose college years were interrupted, 26 and 30-year old men with wives and children, were called upon to go to Vietnam, a country they knew nothing about, but were willing to fight for because the American government said "it's the right thing to do".

These young men fought the "good fight", and many of them came home, not only physically wounded, but mentally wounded. We cannot imagine the physical and mental horrors these young men experienced; yet, when they returned to America, Americans were not jubilant as they were when the troops from WWI, WWII, or the Korean Conflict returned. America, as a whole, gave little or no respect for veterans of Vietnam.

The U.S. Government, and many Americans, continue to denigrate the issues of Vietnam and fail to recognize the valor and sacrifices made by those young men who "put their lives on the line". Shame on those who, even today, deny the horror of Vietnam.