There's no disputing there were hot spots, even some dangerous ones, around America when veterans returned home from Vietnam. But the image that it was all across America or near all across is a false and misleading one. I had two brothers who served in Vietnam. One brother, infantry, served two tours of duty and intelligence. Upon returning to American soil, their units were advised to change into civilian clothing before exiting the plane, but I don't recall either of them claiming to have been attacked or spat upon.
Some people who make such claims are purposely misleading and misinforming. Not everyone got attacked or was spat upon. And some today who make such claims aren't being truthful.
As family of individuals who had served or was serving in Vietnam, we were sometimes cautioned to be careful who we discussed the fact we had someone serving or who had served in Vietnam. I can recall in the '70s losing the friendship of a co-worker from New York I considered a close friend when she found out I had brothers who served in Vietnam. She was admiring a piece of jewelry I was wearing when I mistakenly said my brother had sent it to me while serving in Vietnam. I didn't get the chance to explain he was actually in Hawaii on leave from Vietnam with his wife (yes, even in war with long deployments there were breaks from the war zone back then) when he saw the piece of jewelry in a store in Hawaii and purchased it. She told me I should take the jewelry and throw it in the trash and angrily stomped off. After that she avoided me for a while, but later came back to apologize. But the friendship was never the same and it eventually dissolved. Outside our communities, where everyone knew one another, we basically didn't talk about family members who were serving or had served.
Also, there were community homecoming celebrations, just not like the ticker tape parades after World War II ended. Personally, I believe it had just as much to do with the fact there was never an official ending to the Vietnam conflict and the fact it was never declared a war as much as or even more so than its unpopularity. There was no celebration when veterans of the Korean Conflict returned home either. I don't believe that conflict ever officially ended either.
If all this present and at times misinformation coming out about Vietnam is to quell or make any present or future protesting unpopular, then it actually does a disservice to those who served and why.
My brothers were faced more with the still racial hostilities upon returning home more so than with angry protesters protesting the Vietnam occupation.
Brenda Washington
Sister of two Vietnam veteran brothers + five other brothers who served during or around that period
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Ms. Washington doesn’t understand the experience of Vietnam veterans.
While I was not able to attend the event Saturday event raising money for our wounded veterans, I read your report of General Boykins’s remarks and then Ms. Washington’s response.
As a Vietnam veteran, I respectfully suggest that Ms. Washington doesn’t know the physiological trauma that the Vietnam vets went through following the war by the treatment they received. General Boykin described a homecoming that was typical of many coming home in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I guess that I was lucky in that regard because in my two deployments our unit flew into a “small town airport” in the middle of the night. There were only family members to receive us. I was ever so thankful to fall in to the arms of my loving wife those returns.
It was what happened after that return home that tore so many men apart. We had stepped off a plane from the recent battlefield, having seen buddies ripped apart by enemy fire, experienced the terror of mortar and rocket attacks, we had fought heroically and valiantly for our foxhole mate. But, back home we were at best ignored, at worst called the worse of the worse - and this went on for 30 years. We built our own memorial on the Mall, where we go and unashamedly cry for our buddies whose names are on the wall. This spring I took my 12-year-old twin grandsons to Washington and took then to our Memorial. I looked up the location on the wall of one of the name of one my close college friends, LT Rodney Chastant, USMC, a Marine pilot shot down in supporting ground troops. I have eight classmates names on that wall. As I once again ran my fingers over Rod’s name, as I have on many visits to the Wall, my grandsons looked up and asked, “Why are you crying Big Daddy?” I will still take me a long time to ever explain to them my deepest feelings.
Ms. Washington, you just don’t understand. General Boykin was right in everything he said. We owe a huge debt to our service men and women and we, Vietnam Vets, have collectively vowed to never again let our veterans be treated like we were when we came home from a nation’s war.
Noah H. Long, Jr.
RADM, USNR (ret)