Revisiting the Vietnam War--and the Liberal response.

[ieoeja]

23. Why do you guys never bitch about the way WW-II vets treated you?

I was too young for the Vietnam War, but old enough to remember it. And what we mostly saw were WW-II vets metaphorically spitting on guys coming back from Vietnam. Not on the TV. But in real life. Korean vets had a smaller version of that greeting, but not to the extent that Vietnam vets did.

My hometown American Legion Post had a lot of Korean vets as members who made sure the Vietnam vets were welcomed. The three nearest Posts told Vietnam vets they were not welcome. For decades after my hometown Post made out like a bandit as they had membership from all four towns while the others kept dwindling as the WW-II guys died off. It wasn't until the state of permanent war following Kuwait that those other posts started to recover.

Not long ago I was talking about this with a Vietnam vet from one of those neighboring towns. He now denies that ever happened. But I knew the guy when it was happening.

People often remember being mistreated by people they don't like when it did not happen, while forgetting being mistreated by people they do like.