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

[John W.]

Anyone with a more than passing interest in this subject might enjoy 
reading the book "Home to War" by my friend Gerald "Gerry" Nicosia, who 
interviewed Joe Miller and John Kerry, among many others, for the book.

John Wason



At 02:48 PM 6/21/2006, Robert Naiman wrote:

>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