The Other Casualty Of War

The 1960's was a crazy time in America. The Vietnam war was probably the most notable because of the problems and troubles in this country.

The Vietnam war was a "political" war, in my opinion. Many of the decisions relating to bombing missions, targets and such were made by politicians in Washington DC. The generals often had their hands tied because of this. All these decisions were made only to remain "politically correct" and to maintain their image with the voters.

When we, the Vietnam vets, returned home. We were looked upon as drug induced baby killers. An "accusing finger" pointed at the returning vet, as if the war and it's outcome were their fault. The news media always portrayed the Vietnam vet in a bad way. For example: A news report would say something like this..."Today, John Doe a former Vietnam veteran, shot and killed a gas station attendant in an attempted robbery..." But, if the story was different, such as, "Today, John Doe broke down a door and rescued the elderly tenants of a burning building..." No mention of him being a Vietnam veteran.

Hollywood did very much the same thing. Movies like John Rambo only confirmed in peoples minds that the Vietnam vet was a nut case. After all John Rambo stole a M-60 machine gun and shot up an entire town and killed a lot of people in the intrum. Other movies, such as Apocalypse Now, showed how crazy they thought we were. Michael Fox and Sean Penn starred in a movie called Casualty Of War. That only showed how crazy were we and that we were also rapists.

Some friends that were at home when we went off to Vietnam, got involved with some of the anti-war protest groups that were protesting the war. Many vets that returned were accused of murdering woman and children by the anti-war protesters.

I have many more thoughts about this time era, however, I do not feel I am an expert on this subject. I merely express how I felt back then, when I returned home and how I feel now.
I am always willing to listen to others opinions, as long as they are not sarcasm, or more accusations.

Please feel free to post your thoughts here. The only thing I will edit out will be profanity. Everything else will be posted.