There are still millions alive today who lived it, both as soldiers, or as protesters. Three weeks later I was in college. Murray Polner, No Victory Parades: The Return of the Vietnam Veteran, Meanwhile, an imported case was registered in Khanh Hoa province, central Vietnam. Rather, the anti-war Left saw in veterans a natural ally, and the relationship between anti-war forces and most veterans was defined by mutual support. Was the homecoming of Vietnam veterans pocked marked with unwelcome reception, and were Vietnam veterans spit upon when they arrived back in the states? The actions of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which Lembcke was a member of, are well noted for making claims against soldiers serving in Viet Nam, claims I might add, that could not be documented or supported when investigated by Naval Intelligence, at the request of Congress in 1971, despite those making them being offered immunity for any prosecution of having taken part in them. Landmark Cases ; Newsmakers Sundays on ... returning from the Vietnam War and looked at the accuracy of accounts of Vietnam Veterans being “spat upon” by anti-war activists. Apparently, both you and Mr. Lembcke chose to ignore those inconvenient truths. I have heard a lot of stories from people with relatives and grandfathers who were veterans that allege that they were spat upon, treated badly or were held in contempt by the public when they have gotten back. Sociologist Jerry Lembcke of Holy Cross [claims]: “Stories of spat-upon Vietnam veterans are bogus.” Contrary to Lembcke’s claims, I quite easily found many accounts published in the 1967-1972 period claiming spitting on servicemen. It is only 50 years in the past. Yet no one I personally know was spat upon, denounced as a “baby killer” and viciously taunted by mobs of war protesters as is so often told by vets who claim to “distinctly remember” such abuse. There are many reports of veterans being verbally abused or even spat upon as they disembarked at the airport. It's built on the image of veterans being double-crossed by their government or by people on the home front, and a prime example is the myth of returning vets being spat upon by anti-war protesters. By STEPHEN PHILIONJ erry Lembcke is the author of The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam, He teaches Sociology at Holy Cross University.In this interview he details research that indicates that Vietnam veterans were not spat upon, and the myth that they were emerged some years later. Many 1967-72 Spitting Incidents Are Documented in the Press. But a simple search on Google will return numerous "documented" stories of Vietnam veterans being spit upon when they returned from war. The stories besmirch the reputation of the anti-war movement and help construct an alibi … Currently, the patient is being quarantined at Hanoi’s Hospital of Tropical Diseases for observation and treatment. Lembcke: I was in Vietnam in 1969 and got involved in Vietnam Veterans Against the War once I returned and yet there were things in that film that I had not known about at the time. I wanted to start a new life. Lembcke … On the one hand there was a lot in the news in the papers about the vets antiwar movement at the time, which I know now just from researching it. Veterans were uncomfortable wearing their uniform in public due fear of such abusive attacks. "To be spat on" can very well mean they were treated poorly in general, which is well documented (and still often the case with veterans of other conflicts in both the US and other countries). As documented at length in “The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam,” the idea that vast numbers, if any, Vietnam veterans were spat upon is preposterous. Stories of spat-upon Vietnam veterans are bogus. 2. Shafer cited a 1998 book by Jerry Lembcke, himself a Vietnam veteran, in which Lembcke was unable to document reports of spat-upon vets. Source: Wikimedia Commons U.S. Marines in Operation Allen Brook. There were students who were opposed to the war, but afraid to speak out because of what they had heard about the antiwar movement and veterans during the Vietnam War era. In historical terms, it is still too “fresh.” Too close to us. Maybe it happened; it just didn’t happen to me or anyone I served with. Vietnam veteran, antiwar activist and sociologist Jerry Lembcke began researching the stories of spat-upon veterans when they were spreading like wildfire during the buildup to the first Gulf war. That was not the case after Vietnam. 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