Vietnam Q

[kcdusk]

I was after an answer, or opinions on a question that struck me the other day. I understand the public didnt want the USA to get involved in the vietnam war. I understand it was unpopular, that there was a draft to get servicemen etc.

I understand the public not being happy with the government for getting involved. But why were returned servicemen so badly treated? After all, they were drafted, sent over against their will to fight an unpopular war, then when they returned they were ignored and treated badly, almost like it was their fault.

I dont understand why the public took out their frustrations on the fighting men. Was it just a continuation of a sorry affair? Was it misguided? Or was there more to it?

[raketenjagdpanzer]

This is a sticky subject, but My Lai and area bombing, mining the Ho Chi Minh trail and so on created a very very bad image.

Also, the way the war was run from a tactical standpoint contributed to it...men would have boots back on the ground in the US as little as 36 hours after being in intense jungle combat against a determined enemy. The image of the traumatized, disaffected soldier became a common touchstone for those opposed to the war. Units weren't brought home as cohesive wholes, camaraderie broke down.

The most prominent images from the opposition during the war were captured US pilots. You can't draft a man and then put him in the cockpit: those guys were all volunteers. I think there was some transferal of peoples' anger from these volunteers to ALL troops in Vietnam. What certainly didn't help (in their minds) was that despite the fear of the draft and so on, the majority of the military in Vietnam was a volunteer force: guys willingly signed up, and a lot of them re-upped and stayed in country with their units tour after tour.

So because of those things I think the perception became "ALL of the military volunteered to go and kill, so they're all basically murderers."

[95th Rifleman]

An ex of mine was Californian and her Dad was a retired Marine who did two tours in Vietnam.

Big black dude, taller than me and scary as hell with an m1911 on his book case. I sometimes wondered if I'd survive dating his daughter

He told me a few stories about fighting for a country that wouldn't let him eat in a resturant that served white people, he had very bad experiences when he came back from both tours.

To my alien, British mind, America struck me as a passionate, emotional nation that took things to extremes at times. In WW2 and Korea the Americans where the good guys in clear cut, black and white conflicts. The meda portrayed Americans as te bad guys and the American people took it out on the lads coming back home.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman

To my alien, British mind, America struck me as a passionate, emotional nation that took things to extremes at times. The meda portrayed Americans as te bad guys and the American people took it out on the lads coming back home.

Passion is a double-edge sword, to be certain. I can't say what it was like to be an American in the Vietnam era. I can say, however, that a lot of things changed from WW2 to Vietnam. The results were not always agreeable. The stupendous wealth we brought to the battlefield was not always matched by wisdom. We put a lot of arty downrange on targets that no one could see. It's hard to imagine that this wouldn't yield some poor results. We used a lot of draftees to do a job that requires the touch of a veteran volunteer. Folks who grew up on WW2 movies were shocked to discover through TV that women and children die in war. Vietnam might not have been such a shock to the US had WW2 not been fought. Conversely, I know I would not enjoy such support as I do without the Vietnam vets receiving such poor treatment. I still feel badly about it, though none of it is my fault.

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by kcdusk

I dont understand why the public took out their frustrations on the fighting men. Was it just a continuation of a sorry affair? Was it misguided? Or was there more to it?

Some of it was political, some of it was ignorance, some of it was mean-spirited snobbery. I'm sure there were other possibilities. (Statement of no personal knowledge: I'm way too young to have been a participant; my dad was in the Army, but Stateside and mostly out of uniform 1964-1970.) I think a chunk of it had to be that protesters couldn't reach "The Man," but they could take it out on individual service members when they found them.