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Viet Vet Dis Myth - Birth of an Urban Legend
Elisee Reclus — (archived)

There were a few other reservists and many Vietnam vets where I went to college on the GI Bill, and opposition to the war was now pretty universal on campus, especially among them. A lot had changed since I was away. I had missed the pivotal year of 1968, when the Sixties finally arrived in my home state. My own opinions about the conflict were changing; it now seemed fairly clear that we were in a war of attrition and that our South Vietnamese allies were not as ready to die as were our adversaries from the North. Perhaps what really swayed me against the conflict was not so much the opinions of my classmates as the strident meanness of the sunshine patriots. I never claimed to be a hero; I never fired a shot at the enemy and was never under fire myself during my brief stay in the war zone, but I resented having my courage and patriotism questioned by people who had never been there. I found myself arguing both sides of the issue, and even during my period of uncertainty and debate about our involvement, my anti-war friends, and even strangers of that opinion, never insulted me for my views; not even on my shore leave (in uniform) to visit my friend Roger at Columbia University in New York. I was never called a baby-killer, and I never knew anyone who was called a baby-killer, or anyone who knew someone who was called a baby-killer. To this day I have never met someone my age who actually experienced that kind of treatment. In fact, most of the verbal abuse (not to mention downright threats of physical violence) were directed against the "hippies" by the hard-hat crowd. I saw plenty of that. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I suspect that the alleged insults leveled against servicemen and veterans by opponents of the war were mostly lies perpetrated by the war's supporters.

Today, it is common currency that "America's troops were spit on" when they came back from Viet Nam, but I was there, and I didn't see it. It just didn't happen that way. I can't claim that it never happened to anyone, anywhere, of course, all I can say is it never happened to me.

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