Yet when they returned home, many Vietnam veterans were greeted with vitriol and disrespect. who wants to support people like that? From revcom.us | Original Article. For years I had been hearing stories that when American troops returned home from Vietnam, they were spat upon by anti-war protesters. By the late 1960s, troops in Vietnam were battling authorities over hair length, and the right to wear love-bead necklaces and draw peace symbols on their helmets. Many, like my husband, returned from Vietnam on "chartered" flights like Paper Tiger, and landed in LAX and SF. He accused our Vietnam veterans of the oft-repeated atrocities. In some instances, antiwar protesters reportedly spit on returning veterans and called them baby-killers. The baby killers are the neo-cons in the Pentagon, the White House and the computer peckers at the AEI and PNAC. The stories were usually very specific. My Dad was one some one tell me why when returned home no one cheered I mean in Vietnam they used kids, babies and women as … Now our vets. Soldiers were NOT welcomed home with happiness. Why were Vietnam Veterans called Baby Killers and given Agent Orange then never given their money for it and made homeless or just gave up? The popular media called it "America’s costliest and longest war" (1965 to 1975). Why is that ? by watt is a racist June 23, 2004. Thirty three veterans gave interviews on various topics relating to Vietnam including: basic training, the trip to Vietnam, being in the field, helicopter and aircraft stories, support groups, the Vietnamese, and their general thoughts on the war and the country. During the 80's when everything "Vietnam" was popular, movies, books, tv shows, that the "they called me a baby killer and spit on me" thing became popular. 19 18. The epithet, "baby killers", was often used by anti-war activists against U.S. soldiers, largely as a result of the My Lai Massacre. And of course, the real cases of American war atrocities like the MyLai Massacre, only helped to insure that more and more people back in the states believed that all veterans were baby killers. bumper stickers. In contrast, US civilians are now more supportive of the Iraq veterans. “We were called baby killers … Vietnam veterans were treated horribly and were spat at and called … A derogatory term used to identify Vietnam-era veterans returning from the war in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Vietnam veterans. Veterans returning from Vietnam were met with an institutional response marked by indifference. After 54 years I still wake up some nights with a sweaty pillow. called the "remasculinization" of America after Vietnam. That's the phrase returning veterans from Vietnam had to hear, including [former senator] Max Cleland, when they came home, when they were spit on in airports. Many were called “baby killers,” spit at and looked at as criminals. A soldier, fresh from Vietnam duty, wearing his uniform, gets off the plane at an American airport, where he is spat upon by "hippies." "I remember being spat on and called 'baby killer'", he says, adding in an understated manner: "It was a little bit irritating." "In the late 1960s, we were required to go to shore in uniform - that was mandatory,” he said. ... the watt called all irishmen baby killers but because he was a OUSA rep no action was taken against his bigoted, racist views. Soldiers that came home from the Vietnam War were called baby killers and were often spat on. In the 1980s, however, the Americans most saddled with blame for abusing Vietnam veterans were the antiwar activists of the previous era. In the Vietnam war, there were more than 58,000 deaths and more than 300,000 wounded as well as more than 700,000 veterans who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Vietnam veterans were called baby killers when they returned home. why don't people spit on the iraqi freedom soldiers and call them the baby killers that they are? About 17,000 soldiers remain unaccounted for today and remain listed as missing in action. I am writing to revcom.us/Revolution because this is the one place that consistently stands with the people of the world against all forms of oppression and for a radically different and far better world. HEDGECOCK: He [Kerry] was the one who coined the phrase "baby killers." No one saw or was a party to such attacks, yet everyone “knows” it happened. Although Vietnam soldiers had been called "baby killers" since at least 1966, My Lai and the Haeberle photographs further solidified the stereotype of drug-addled soldiers who killed babies. The entire country was forced to re-think what it means to be a ... People stopped calling Vietnam vets "baby killers" and started applying The idea that returning veterans were spit on and called baby-killers appears to be primarily an urban legend. Vietnam was an unpopular war where 58,200-plus combat soldiers were killed and more than 300,000 were wounded. It was spread in entertainment and of course guys looking for attention, LYING about it happening. By a Vietnam war veteran. Another topic covered was“Back in the World.” The following Contrary to the authors point that returning soldiers didn't go through commercial airports like LAX and SF, they certainly did. The war was slow to take action against PTSD and to provide veterans with the help they needed because of the public's general disapproval of the entire war. Once Republicans point out the brutality and insensitivity that Democrats have toward the pre-born, they would win easily. we all know that the soldiers in vietnam killed kids, but they are doing that in iraq right now, like with the slaughter of that 14 year old girls family, they set them on fire then they raped and killed her. 1 2 3 The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam is a 1998 book by Vietnam veteran and sociology professor Jerry Lembcke. These stories added to the soldiers' resentment of the antiwar movement. In News Corp’s and Nine’s digital archives, the first mention of “baby killers” in relation to Vietnam veterans doesn’t appear until 1997. are called warriors. It is not only veterans who were said to have suffered a crisis of masculinity as a result of failing in Vietnam. That the returning Vietnam veterans were “spat on and called baby killers” has now reached the level of gospel truth, most distressingly among those who were themselves part of the very movement being vilified by those claims. We were rejected by the very people we were fighting for. Naval officers were hardly treated better than their comrades in the army, as Mr Vierveyzer found out when she went ashore. I remember this stuff, when they were called "baby killers." In my opinion, that's all Republicans need. Although such incidents were rare, the stories were often repeated among U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. None of the other issues matter if you aren't alive. For Vietnam vet Johnny Strouth, he said when he came home from the war, his homecoming was not celebrated. If it's not an urban legend -- if it really was a common occurrence -- then there should be contemporary news accounts of such incidents. 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