Vietnam vets and their role this election

[DougieZero]

They are making quickie documentaries, some former POW's are getting ready to launch an anti-Kerry website. The books, the TV/radio show appearances...

I always thought (according to my father) that those vets came back at least somewhat anti-war and they hoped a future generation wouldn't go through the same thing.

They hate Kerry because he was anti-war? He narc'ed on atrocities? I don't understand... Do Vietnam vets miss the war?

[demnan]

1. There is no homogeneous group

called Vietnam Vets. You will find them across all spectrum's politically and socially.

I like to tell a story about my brother when he came back from Vietnam. My father was right-wing and said some very resentful things about Jane Fonda. My brother just said, "Well she was doing what she could to help us, which is more than anybody else did".

My father couldn't say another word because it was the truth.

[kikiek]

2. Kerry didn't narc on atrocities and he wasn't against the troops

by being anti war. He was against the senseless war,he repeated what other vets told him about atrocities. It is of course a distraction and a distortion of facts. Some are angry at him but if the truth be known they would realize he fought for bringing the troops home and ending the war. He also fought to try to get adequate health care including mental health coverage for those returing. Obviously those who fought him only fought themselves. My father was a vet also. He never tried to use his experiences at war to force his beliefs on others. I think any single group doing this is wrong. They are manipulating people's emotions during a war to further their own political beliefs. Of course they don't speak for all vets anyways they just act like they do.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. Vietnam vets are among the most active and enthusiastic Kerry supporters

here in western Montana. At least in my volunteer groups. Including several who voted for Bush in 2000.

[kikiek]

4. Good news They know who is backing them.

This administration is going to screw the vets again. How many times does it have to occur before they figure out who really respects their service? How ironic. Kerry was fighting to bring home the POW's too.

[Mr. McD]

5. I can only speak for myself

But this Viet Nam veteran will be voting for Kerry.

[Tansy_Gold]

6. It's not a simple issue

Many vets came home from Vietnam expecting to be treated the way their dads and grandfathers were after WW2. But Vietnam wasn't a crushing victory like WW2 and they weren't hailed as returning heroes. That was one point.

Another point was that they came home to a country divided, not only pro- and anti-war, but pro- and anti-vets. A lot of the so-called "hippies" who allegedly spit on the vets and called them baby-killers were themselves young people who were afraid, confused, appalled -- but most of all they were young and impressionable.

Third point, many of them truly had witnessed and/or committed atrocities. It happens in war. Maybe it didn't happen so much in Europe in WW2 -- other than by the Nazis -- but I doubt there were no atrocities committed at all. The problem with Vietnam was that it was such an entirely different theatre and the "enemy" wasn't always what he/she/it was expected to be. We know -- from My Lai, from the Toledo Blade report, from countless confessions of Vietnam vets themselves -- that there WERE atrocities. John Kerry's 1971 testimony to congress and on the Dick Cavett show has proven far more accurate and truthful than John O'Neill's.

But, having witnessed these things that they believed were contrary to what Americans do in war, they felt guilty and they felt betrayed. They weren't able to admit their country -- the country they believed they were fighting for -- had betrayed them, so it must have been someone else. A human. A scapegoat. And they would rather point to the scapegoat and say "HE LIED" than admit what they themselves had done.

Then again, there are many many many Vietnam era vets who served honorably and admirably, who were pro-war and anti-war. As someone upthread said, this isn't a monolithic bloc of people. But many of them are very passionate about it, and as they are reaching their retirement age, as their war wounds are sending them to the VA after many years, they are seeing this as their election.

I expect emotions to run high. I HOPE issues will be resolved.

[oasis]

7. Anti-Kerry vets should sit this one out, lest they suffer another defeat.

[Irishladdie]

8. Every Vet I know is voting for Kerry...

Its laughable that vet's would back * over Kerry.
Lets be realistic, he has screwed vets and military personnel, they're running all these ads trying to regain the votes they know they have already lost because of * stupidity.

[kentuck]

9. Your father was right...

All the vets that returned were not gung-ho for the war in Viet Nam. what john Kerry did after he returned was more courageous than what he did over there. He challenged fucking Nixon and the war machine that were killing our young people by the thousands in a war that should not have been fought. Our lives were meaningless to them. Now, we have Ollie North and the Swift Boat vets and others that are in some kind of idealstic ideological fantasy world pretending it was some type of honorable venture and John Kerry was the "dishonorable " person in all of it. It is they htat are dishonorable assholes for still standing up for the policies of Nixon and their military butchers. Screw them! :mad: