AH Challenge: Prevent the negative backlash against American servicemen

This challenge is to prevent the frankly noxious backlash against AMerican Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and AIrmen that pervaded the U.S> after Vietnam.

This backlash came not just from the stereotyped "Liberal left" but also from many conservatives and many businesses would not hire a veteran of VIetnam because they subscribed to the erronious "Crazy VIetnam vet" myth.

SO how do we prevent that?
 
Make the Vietnam Veterans Against The War stronger?

One of the bigwigs in that organization wrote a book called The Spitting Image in which he attempted to claim there was NOT widespread disdain for returning Vietnam veterans.

However, his research methodology wasn't that good (he used only published news reports when many incidents would go unreported) and on an Amazon.com review of his own book, he said that he wasn't trying to claim there was NO disrespect of returning vets, only that it was being politicized.

On one hand, you had the parts of the antiwar movement that chanted "hey hey LBJ how many kids did you kill today" that was empathetic for the soldiers, but you also had the people who called soldiers "robots" and "baby killers."

If the first part of the movement cracks down on the second for making the rest look bad, you might have less hostility.
 
Make the Vietnam Veterans Against The War stronger?

One of the bigwigs in that organization wrote a book called The Spitting Image in which he attempted to claim there was NOT widespread disdain for returning Vietnam veterans.

However, his research methodology wasn't that good (he used only published news reports when many incidents would go unreported) and on an Amazon.com review of his own book, he said that he wasn't trying to claim there was NO disrespect of returning vets, only that it was being politicized.

On one hand, you had the parts of the antiwar movement that chanted "hey hey LBJ how many kids did you kill today" that was empathetic for the soldiers, but you also had the people who called soldiers "robots" and "baby killers."

If the first part of the movement cracks down on the second for making the rest look bad, you might have less hostility.
I can see the group who think of the Troops as "Those poor kids" Really cracking down on the people who think of the troops as "Mindless baby killers" for and I quote

"Doing real damage to our efforts to end this war, by making people see US as an unAmerican hostile faction."
 
Prior to the mid eighties most of the accounts of returning solders being mistreated were at the hands of VFW types who bought into the idea that the Vietnam war was winnable. That the war was lost due to the moral failure on the part of the servicemen. It was the script writers for the movie "Rambo" that created the mythology of servicemen being spit on.
 
Prior to the mid eighties most of the accounts of returning solders being mistreated were at the hands of VFW types who bought into the idea that the Vietnam war was winnable. That the war was lost due to the moral failure on the part of the servicemen. It was the script writers for the movie "Rambo" that created the mythology of servicemen being spit on.

It was most certainly not a myth invented by a Hollywood script writer – they were the experiences of my father and many of his friends after returning from Vietnam. The treatment of vets was horrible both directly (called names and being spit upon) and indirectly (pure discrimination by peers at work).

I also have the previlage of working with a number of veterans charities and believe me, the Vietnam vets I talk to all have the same stories about their experiences coming home after the war. These guys are not looking for sympathy, just honorable men who did their duty and then spent the next thirty years trying to hide that fact from society at large because they truly believed it would cost them their job.
 
Prior to the mid eighties most of the accounts of returning solders being mistreated were at the hands of VFW types who bought into the idea that the Vietnam war was winnable. That the war was lost due to the moral failure on the part of the servicemen. It was the script writers for the movie "Rambo" that created the mythology of servicemen being spit on.

That's actually wrong. Someone who wanted to rebut "The Spitting Image" actually went and compile incidents of hippie misbehavior.
 
This challenge is to prevent the frankly noxious backlash against AMerican Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and AIrmen that pervaded the U.S> after Vietnam.

This backlash came not just from the stereotyped "Liberal left" but also from many conservatives and many businesses would not hire a veteran of VIetnam because they subscribed to the erronious "Crazy VIetnam vet" myth.

SO how do we prevent that?

to be fair, the backlash lasted only couple of years, and went completely away by 1979, when everything in the world went to hell for the USA (Afghanistan and Iran, mostly), and people realized that soldiers were needed to keep an unfriendly world at bay. The worst part of the backlash wasn't so much actions against the soldiers as it was the depiction of them on television. There was a (thankfully) short lived trend where every bad guy was a crazed Vietnam vet who scragged his officer during the war, came home, and turned to psychotic-induced crime because he couldn't cope. A few years later though, it turned all around, and there were series like Magnum PI, where the main character was a vet who handled life pretty well.
 
More veterans and soldiers against the war, but also pushing progressive changes of politics specially after those events? Maybe some IN THE ARMY direct opposition, like refusal to go to Vietnam and such (peacefull or not started by them at least..) disobediance? That could help a lot to change the image.


Like in in an other 'world' and situation, the portugese army was backing (or many) the Carnation revolution... A stronger 'army guys left'?
 
to be fair, the backlash lasted only couple of years, and went completely away by 1979, when everything in the world went to hell for the USA (Afghanistan and Iran, mostly), and people realized that soldiers were needed to keep an unfriendly world at bay. The worst part of the backlash wasn't so much actions against the soldiers as it was the depiction of them on television. There was a (thankfully) short lived trend where every bad guy was a crazed Vietnam vet who scragged his officer during the war, came home, and turned to psychotic-induced crime because he couldn't cope. A few years later though, it turned all around, and there were series like Magnum PI, where the main character was a vet who handled life pretty well.

I'll disagree that it went away by '79. Many of us in the service well into the 80s had to put up with an anti-military attitude whenever we were off base. It even showed up in the lack of appropriations for any 'support the troops' type improvements. The 'Aspin' years of blaming troops for all the ills of the procurement system to expose's on 60 minutes that spliced interviews together to make it look like F-15 crew chiefs (Air Force)were criticizing design decisions of F-18s (Navy). Not being able to take my children to a pediatrician when I was on leave because none of the doctors in the area would accept CHAMPUS reimbursement. There were restaurants where we knew GI's were not welcome (The haircut alone gave you away), and I'm not talking about rough biker bars. I'm talking about nice places where you might want to go out for an anniversary dinner with your wife and friends. And you definitely did NOT wear your uniform when traveling!

Even some American Legion and VFWs were anti Vietnam era troops ('it wasn't a real war' or 'We don't accept people who lost their war') Until they started needing members when the WWII generation began passing away vets who served in the 1975-1984 era were not eligible for full membership in the AL.

It was starting to turn some by the time I got out in 1985 but years of 2% raises and 15+% inflation had done me in As one car salesman told me 'When 2 married E-5s cannot qualify for a GMAC loan on a Cavalier (One of the lower priced Chevrolets) It's time to stop trying to sell cars near an Air Force base' Turns out GMAC did not consider a military enlistment as 'steady employment' that year because the Defense Budget was not approved on schedule and it looked like we would not be paid on time. That was also the year when we were told that the only payday that is guarranteed to a GI is the one on your discharge date. All other payments are 'at the convenience of the Government and could be postponed or canceled with no notice or reason.' And failure to be paid was not an excuse to not show up for work.
 
Maybe a good idea would be to prevent stuff like the My Lai Massacre, or the US military actually punishing the people involved to the full extend of the law?

The attempted cover-up of the massacre certainly gave people reason to be suspicious of the military, and question if the "innocent" people who came back were really innocent. They had already been shown once that the military couldn't be trusted. It might not completely prevent a backlash, but it should certainly reduce it.

Alternatively, more cooperation between the anti-war protestors and the common soldier, a united front against the politicians and top brass who started a war that should have never happened. Instead of there being a huge backlash against the in large part powerless veterans, the backlash could instead be against the politicians who were so blinded by ideology that they chose death and destruction over listening to the other side.
 
If it sounds like I'm bitter I'm not. I had 9 good years, finished my BS and an MBA and then got an MS in Computer Science on the GI Bill (I was lucky I was one of the last ones eligible under the old GI bill, another thing they took away during that era). I went to two good tech schools also. But I am at least 10 years behind my peers towards retirement because we could not afford to put anything away during those years (and were not eligible for the new fangled IRAs because as Military we were covered by 'a qualified retirement plan' even though if we got out short of 20 years we got nothing)

And I'm glad troops these days get the respect they do but I don't think that happened until the days of Desert Shield
 
More veterans and soldiers against the war, but also pushing progressive changes of politics specially after those events? Maybe some IN THE ARMY direct opposition, like refusal to go to Vietnam and such (peacefull or not started by them at least..) disobediance? That could help a lot to change the image.


Like in in an other 'world' and situation, the portugese army was backing (or many) the Carnation revolution... A stronger 'army guys left'?

There was a documentary called Sir, No Sir! about military opposition to the Vietnam War, so it did exist.

However, the analogy to Portugal breaks down because Portugal was a fascist-ish dictatorship. A military coup is far more defensible in those circumstances than in the U.S. in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
 
Australia's Vietnam experience was a bit different because a lot of people rotated in and out of Vietnam as a full unit, certainly the army battalions and SAS sqns did. What's more we used the HMAS Sydney as a troop transport for these btns, so these btns had a 10-15 day voyage to decompress as a unit on their way home. Several of these btns also paraded through their home base city upon their return, which got the local dignitaries out even if the people weren't cheering.

I wonder to what extent the US trickle replacement had an effect on US servicemen, and if unit rotation would have helped? It wouldn't have generated public support for the war after Tet, but could have helped the servicemen cope with their return a bit better.
 

Hyperion

Banned
Extend the length of tours for draftees, but reduce the number of people to be drafted as well. Instead of using someone for one tour, sending them stateside for a year or so and then ditching them, send them back for a second tour after a year to 18 months back stateside.

Some E-1 nobody that had no experience might be a lot more capable going back a year or so down the road as an E-3 or E-4, and maybe have some additional training as well.

Have someone shoot the Lieutenant that did the My Lai Massacre before said massacre takes place.
 
There was a documentary called Sir, No Sir! about military opposition to the Vietnam War, so it did exist.

However, the analogy to Portugal breaks down because Portugal was a fascist-ish dictatorship. A military coup is far more defensible in those circumstances than in the U.S. in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Yeah, but it was a minority opinion, it seems. If there was more way open opposition to this mess, it would have helped their image.

I know, and I said so - different 'worlds'. Different situations.
 
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