Why did so many people hate the Vietnam Veterans?

Question

When I think about the Iraq War which I personally support (I plan to enlist with my boyfriend when we both graduate this June in the Army) I think of what my grandparents say about the Vietnam War. First my grandparents have an uneasy relationship with each other all because of their respective Vietnam experiences. My mother's parents both met while actively demonstrating against the Vietnam War. They tell me tantalizing bits and pieces of their life style but never want to tell the whole story. For example they believed in free love and acid and some other stuff like that. When I try to ask them more they shut up and change the subject. Free love I believe is sex outside of marriage(they are married) They hated the Vietnam Veterans and my other grandfather is one who saw heavy combat. He still gets PTSD symptoms even today. Once over Thanksgiving they got into an argument and called my other grandfather a baby killer. Hell broke loose. He started to cry and had to go home.

Answer 1

The 1960's was the worst most hedonistic time in the Nation's history. The whole decade was "do what's good for me and screw everyone else." If the WW2 generation was our greatest the baby boomers of the sixties was our worst.
They hated Vietnam only when the draft deferment was ended and rich kids had to go to Vietnam like the poor white and black kids from working class places like New Jersey and Mississippi.
It is interesting to note that the free love generation make up many of the Republican leadership. Seems even they repudiate the sixties. Fortunately, there were many good soldiers that went and fought well and honored their country in a lost cause. Let's remember them and let the hippies and yippies fade into oblivion.

Answer 2

The Vietnam War, to my knowledge was the first war that went on and on and on, and civilians just started to resent the whole damn war. Don't forget as well, that Vietnam was the first televised war...so we were seeing some pretty horrific things on TV that we may have glamourized before. We had seen it all for way too long, and so when military personnel started coming home we were just too weary of the whole war to be supportive of them...sad and wrong but true. There was also some opposition to what was going on there, and many civilians got this confused with the soldiers themselves...when really the only thing a soldier is allowed to do...is exactly what he/she is told. So nothing about how the war turned out, was ever any soldier's fault. They followed orders from someone else. You aren't really paid to think for yourself in the military. In fact, most times in a military operation, nobody really gives a damn what you think because your position as infantry or whatever is such a small piece of the big picture, that you couldn't possibly see it from where you are...so giving your opinion or standing up for your own individuality in the military can actually do more harm than good. And of course, civilians just didn't get it.

Our next war in the Persian Gulf...was very different, and for the first time, the American public was able to keep the people involved, separate from the deeds they did. So there was a lot more support for military troops, regardless of how you felt about the war. And when someone came home, we were just damn glad about it...because they were in one piece. Vets from all wars started to get a lot more respect after that. Another thing about this war too, was that it was short, and by the time it was over, the country was still riding the wave of patriotism that kicks off every war.

Now we are back in the Middle East and there is a lot of difference of opinion about whether that is a good thing...and even though it is starting to drag on and on, it is pretty much common knowledge that supporting your troops as persons, is very important, both while they are there, and when they come home.

We also know more about the long lasting affects of combat. Whereas before we might have regarded a disabled vet as a hopeless cripple, and not understand how they couldn't just forget their experiences instead of going crazy with them...now we recognize that vets are still people, and that it's no surprise that they need a little help when they get home, that they deserve such help without feeling ashamed, and that they are much more productive citizens in the future, and less of a social liability, if we do support and help them.

Answer 3

Don't listen to your teacher about Vietnam vets being violent. He has been spending too much time listening to the drivel peddled by his professors in university and the rumors heard from people who don't know the first thing they are talking about. Go and interview that 80-year old man and thank him for serving his nation. Then do some research on the three Indochinese Refugee Resettlement Camps we operated in 1975 at Camp Pendleton, Fort Chafee and an Air Base in Florida. Most of the military personnel who assisted those Vietnamese into starting new lives in America were Vietnam veterans!

Answer 4

I feel so sorry for the Vietnam Vets who were only doing their jobs. They were drafted and did a great job. No other war was like the Vietnam War, even the WWII Vets can't believe the horrors of Vietnam when they heard the stories from these Vets.. America, especially the women turned their backs on the Vietnam Vets and should be ashamed of themselves., I'll never understand why and how you could ignore these brave men who were fighting for YOU!!! What a horrible thing America did, it's like they tried and pretty much did wiped out a generation of young American boys.So sad.

Answer 5

As a disabled career Veteran (US Navy and US Army) I first must say Good for you! You will enlist and you will be part of a brother/sisterhood that is unique amongst those on this planet.

Whatever your parents were in the 60's is part of what is Americana. Part of the American culture and now part of our history. But I beleive that in those days people confused the war with the soldier. To them it was one and the same. What they failed to see was that the people who were sent to fight that war, answered a call to duty and for that they should be honored. Instead they rediculed them and hated them for it.

Today, however, we should not feel sorry for the Vietnam Vets; we should understand them and open our hearts to them; to any combat vet of any war for that matter. Some scars are not visible and run deep.

The Military Industrial Complex; didn't plan that war well; there were no lines, no clear objectives to win and if there had been, and if the war had ended sooner it may have been different. Also it was the first time the war went right to your living room via TV. Finally the war was being fought by draftees. These brave people didn't have a choice; but they answered the call to Duty. In the eyes of some; this was viewed as a weakness. How wrong they were.

It should be understood that we need a well trained and well equipted Military for our protection as a soverign country.

Today we have matured as a country and realize that the soldier does what the soldier is ordered to do. That the war is a political device. But we honor the soldier because we know that he is just doing his duty.

Having said this; I do not support this war in Iraq; never have; even at the onset. The war should have been fought in Afghanistan; and all our resources should have been focused there. Iraq was the stupidest thing Mr. Bush could have ever invloved us in. Iraq now is a breeding ground for Terrorists. When Saddam was there he hated terrorists. For better or worse we invaded a soverign country for no real reason. And I mean no real reason.

If we were on a crusade to liberate a country we should have gone to more deserving countries where there has been genocide going on; like Sierra Leone or any one of those African countries where there is whole sale murder going on. (Even to this day; yet nothing is done; no oil there)

Which brings me to the point that the soldier does his or her duty in spite of the politics and for that there is a greater glory unto them.

I salute you; and wish you well in your endevours in the military.

God Bless you and God Speed Home!

And if you ever get a chance to read Shakesphere; read Henry the 8th; St. Crispins day Speach in whole, the Battle of Agincourt; here is a passage of it (forgive me for paraphasing):

"If you have no stomach for the fight, leave now.

Give this man his money to speed his departure.
For we do not wish to die in this mans company.

Whoever lives past today and comes home safely will rouse himself every year on this day, show his neighbors his scars, and tell them embellished stories of his great feats of battle.

These stories he will teach his sons and from today until the end of the world we shall be remembered.

We few;

We happy few,

We band of brothers;

For whoever has shed his blood with me in battle shall always be my brother.

And those men afraid to go will think themselves lesser men as they hear of how we fought and died together."

Lets learn from our history so that our mistakes are not repeated; Knowledge is POWER...

Answer 6

Quite honestly I believe a lot of the hatred was about guilt, you see we went where no one wanted to go whether we wanted to or not I might add.
And we went the babes in the woods so to speak but came back ready to take garbage from no one because we learnt the hard way we had to stand up for ourselves the major ESO at the time wouldn't thankfully that has changed somewhat.

Australia lost its innocence in that era when our own leader lied in parliament as to the reason we had to go he "Menzies" said we were asked to go when parliamentary records show he offered us up to go.

Proof available under the Freedom Of Information act I have my questions about Iraq I mean we put the sod in power in the first place the same as we did with Mugabee "owned up to by Malcom Fraser" 3 nights ago on TV I sometimes wonder why politicians can't mind their own business when it is always ADF personnel that have to carry the can. years later down the track the true cost of war is not 4billion today we have spent. Yes 4 billion Australia has spent so far the true cost will be borne by the ADF personnel in years 2 come when the indifference of the DVA and politicians comes home to roost. When the ADF personnel need support in one form or another.

This is why Vietnam Veterans are so vocal in support of todays troops we do not want others to feel what we did, and we have to stand up for them now.
David

Answer 7

Luckily, the majority of Americans didn't hate the Vietnam Vets -- but enough of them did, and vocally enough, that it made major news. Considering what the vets went through, this is a shame.

However, your question was WHY the people who hated the Vietnam vets did so? The answerer above me gave the most famous example. I'll provide you with a link. Generally, some vets got so caught up in the war, so motivated by fear and by the belief in our absolute rightness, that they (some, a minority) began to kill women and children, to rape innocent women, to behave in almost inhuman ways.

For those vets, it was the war that turned them in the first place. But you can see how idealists like hippies might've been as horrified as a vegetarian being told about what goes on in a slaughterhouse. Their mistake was blaming the soldiers and not the administrators who sent them into that foolish war in the first place.

Answer 8

Ignorance and stupidity. They blame the soldiers for the actions of their political leaders. They have idealistic views of the world that don't often match up with real life. There is no problem with being anti-war, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but everyone needs to understand that wars are started by politicians, not soldiers. The military fights whoever the government tells them to.
By treating veterans like this and defiling memorials in their protests, they are insulting the very people that have given, and continue to defend, their right to voice their opinion without fear of recourse.

Answer 9

One thing could be the acid they did. It was people they them that got the US to pull out that were the baby killers.

Understatement can be a terrifying thing. Susie Hem was five years old when Pol Pot and his murderous Khmer Rouge swept into Phnom Penh in early 1975. Rudeness? More than 1.5 million killed. Torture on a massive scale. Anyone with glasses condemned as an intellectual, taken out and hacked to death.

This is the blood on their hands.

It will happen again If we pull out of Iraq. Iam sad to say this will only make the old hippies jump with joy.

Answer 10

I don't hate them. I feel sorry for them. It seems people only get credit in War if they die...at least they are called heroes. If it happens to come back (alive) from a War, without a member or with psychological traumas, nobody seems to care even the govern responsible for their tragedy. I saw that movie made with Tom Cruise called "Born on 4th of July" (I think this is the name of the movie) I got a good idea about Vietnam Veterans. I don't hate them, I only feel sorry for them.