[Peace-discuss] Letter: Attacks on vets came from government

[Robert Naiman]

Letter: Attacks on vets came from government
The News-Gazette
Wednesday June 21, 2006

Here is my experience on the "spat-upon" veteran.

I returned to the United States from my Vietnam service in 1966, landing at
Travis Air Force base. Then, on to San Francisco airport for my trip home to
Chicago. I wore my uniform, with ribbons, the whole time and was never
attacked in any way. The next two years were spent at a helicopter training
squadron in Florida.

During this time, I never heard any reports, firsthand or otherwise, of any
spitting on returning veterans. There were no news reports of anything like
that. There were no reports of angry, spat-upon combat veterans beating up
the folks who spat on them. Wouldn't you expect returning combat veterans to
defend themselves against such actions? I would.

Following my discharge in 1968, I went to work for a major newspaper in
Chicago. Over the next four years we never received any reports of veterans
being attacked and spit upon. This sort of story would receive major press
coverage, don't you think? Why are there no such reports?

So, who attacked returning veterans? For starters, it was the government by
cutting veterans' benefits. We in Vietnam Veterans Against the War had to
fight during and after the war to maintain and expand veterans' benefits.
Then, there were those in the government who attacked us because we were
organizing veterans and active duty GIs to oppose the war and demand that
our brothers and sisters be brought home immediately. These government
attacks are certainly part of the public record and have a basis where the
myth of the spat-upon veteran does not.

JOSEPH T. MILLER
Urbana

-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org