Disrespect for Vietnam vets is fact, not fiction

There are stories of Vietnam veterans coming home, pretty much ignored by the general public. There are other stories of them being spit on or beaten. The truth is, both. It depended on when they came home and where they came home to.

Disrespect for Vietnam vets is fact, not fiction
Article by: BOB FEIST
June 26, 2012

Spitting stories, while true, aren't the point. But denial of what we suffered dishonors us again. Counterpoint

I am a combat-disabled Army veteran who served in Vietnam in 1968-69. I was infantry, in the field, fighting the most misunderstood and unpopular war in American history.

I've studied the history, and I've lived it.

And David Sirota is wrong about the history and policies of that war and about the treatment of returning military men and women ("The myth of the spat-upon war veteran," June 8).

Contrary to protesters' claims, then and now, the Vietnam War did not begin without good reasons. It was a direct result of the 1945 Yalta Conference, where Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill agreed to abandon the Vietnamese (who had helped defeat the Japanese in World War II) and give all of Indo-China back to the French. Despite U.S. economic support and military advisers, the French lost the ensuing Vietnamese independence struggle and withdrew from all of Indo-China. Vietnam ended up divided.

In the era when the North Vietnamese invaded the South, the world was facing Russian colonialism, the spread of communism, nuclear arms, the Cuban missile crisis and other threats to world peace. We fought to "contain" communist aggression and adopted the "domino theory," believing that if one country in a region fell, the rest would.

Although the history of the past 50 years is complex, it's fair to observe that the spread of communism has been contained.

We need to remember that it was the South Vietnamese government that lost their war, not the much-maligned American soldier. American service members did not suffer defeat, even though most of us felt defeated. Policy and politics out of Washington had failed, not the military.
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I interviewed Sammy Davis and he told the story of what happened to him when he came home. He was beaten among other things, after his actions as a Pfc. saved lives and he earned the Medal of Honor. After being beaten, Sammy turned around and joined the National Guards.

At the Orlando Nam Knights fundraiser for Homes For Our Troops, Vietnam Veteran and Medal of Honor hero Sammy Davis talked to me about what it was like coming home after all he'd been through. It is a story few have heard before. As Sammy put it, it is one of the reasons no other veteran will ever come home treated like that again.